Main Street, Elkhart, KS
As I was reviewing images from my archives I came across this image from 2004 taken while on a family trip back to my hometown. It is where I and my brother and sister were born, Elkhart, Kansas, in the southwest corner of the state. The population is actually a bit larger today than it was when we lived there in the mid-50s (we moved in 1962). In ‘52 the population was about 1,500 and seems to have peeked in 1990 at a whopping 2,300. Today the numbers stand at bout 1,800 people.
This is where I spent the first 10 years of my life, and I have a cousin who still lives just outside of town. Main Street is pretty much as I remember it, though likely all of the store fronts have changed. There was one drug store and the little movie theater (last building on the right—white stucco with arched windows) which was shuttered in 1980 and, as I’ve learned, was remodeled and reopened around 2016. The corner building on the left was Neva’s Cafe where our mother worked as a waitress in the months prior to our move.
A notable absence for me is Dolly’s Variety store, likewise long closed down; Dolly was, or at least seemed, quite elderly when we lived there. Dolly’s is where we would buy our penny candy or sometimes spend a nickel for “Nik L Nip” the little wax “bottles” filled with colored surgery liquid, which I see online now for $1.75. It’s where we bought the essentials of childhood like water guns, sling shots, marbles, balloons and other treasures for passing the time.
Okay, enough nostalgia, though the trip back and the photos from the trip do bring some fond memories. I chose to convert the image to a warm sepia with a little graininess and some bright highlights, hoping to capture a timeless aura. My hope was to convey a feeling of emptiness, leaning towards something of the bleak feeling that can be felt in many small towns across America as populations decline, businesses close and many of the younger generations move on. But I wanted the brighter whites in the current store front signage, the sidewalks and in the freshly painted crosswalk, even the lightness of the clouds to counter the bleakness, and give a hint to the life and activity that still goes on in Elkhart, Kansas.
