KCRag Forum

staubio wrote: By the way, if any of you can point me to other interesting staircases or closed intact roads for this series, that'd be awesome. I'm headed for the stairs along Cliff Drive next.

DeadendLafayette wrote: Stabio:
Did actually climb any of those longer staircases? A video with some atmospheric music would be cool- those are some mysterious looking structures what with the jungle over growing them. More, please.

PumpkinStalker wrote: Agreed, love the idea.  And I love atmospheric music as well, who could do something like this?  Cyclops!

PumpkinStalker wrote: I thought about Ramsey, love his stuff but he's more of a people person, blogger type video than what I was imagining.  A bit too high energy maybe?

LenexatoKCMO wrote: So what you are saying is Staubs just needs to work on his dialog - ham it up a bit.   :lol:  Cinematic masterpiece in the making!

blackbird wrote: There are several small but abandoned staircases on Pennsylvania between 12th and 13th.  Both sides of the road.  The ones on the east side are taller than on the west side of the street, but they all lead up to empty lots.  They're actually pretty interesting for itty bitty ones.

grovester wrote: what a waste.  kck would have an unmistakable allure if those things had survived.

mlind wrote: Back in the dark ages, when I was growing up, we used to ice skate on Big Eleven.  We read the Kansas City Kansan daily, waiting for the announcement that it had frozen hard enough.  We always went at night and there would be a fire in a barrel to warm us up.  It was always something to look forward to.

DeadendLafayette wrote: The Pitch did an article called "Postcards from State Avenue". They interviewed a gentleman named Milton Cole who had some interesting recallections about Big 11, and KCK in general.
I wish they would have asked him more.

http://www.pitch.com/2005-09-01/news/po ... e-avenue/4

mlind wrote: Interesting interview, but I'm puzzled by his saying that "the lake is at the center of the city's black community and has been since Cole moved to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1939."  I lived in KCK until 1965 and never saw any blacks in that area and, believe me, I would have noticed and heard people talking about it since there was de facto segregation at the time. 

There was a black girl (one of the very, very few) who sat behind me in most of my 'smart kids track' classes at Wyandotte HS in 1959-60.  We walked together from class to class.  I didn't think anything about it at the time, but I must have stood by doing this.  She transferred to Sumner (the black HS) the next year to be with her friends.

It's also interesting about his moving to Parkwood in 1960.  It's off Quindaro and across the street from a large park.  My grandmother lived in the Quindaro area and sold her house to a black family around that same time.  The neighbors were quite upset, but my father (her son) said that's the way the neighborhood was going.  She moved to an apartment on the 'other' (as he says) side of 18th where they were no blacks either, so I'm not sure what's he talking about.

My mother, her sisters, and an aunt had a black woman who cleaned for all of them.  She owned a house on S.4th St and it was damaged in the 1951 flood that he mentions.  The Red Cross was difficult about helping her and my father had to go and straighten them out.  He was really angry and said he'd never give them another dime.

It was a very different time.

DeadendLafayette wrote: Yeah, his description of the boundries between the black and white neighborhoods doesn't quite match up with my (foggy) recollections either.Got any idea where those Parkwood guard shacks were?

aknowledgeableperson wrote: Parents moved the family from 10th and Lafayette back in 1957.  There were a few black families around at the time and went to school with some at the school at 11th and Waverly.