Don't you just love that street light!
Welcome to pre-awning Main Street Bluffton, circa 1962. The overheads came later in the 1960s.
From right to left, that’s Waltermire’s “department” store, Hauenstein’s bakery south of the alley, Greding Hardware, Bixel optometrist, Nationwide Insurance, Bluffton News and at the corner of Main and Church is Reistman’s women’s clothing store.
Check out the street lights. Quite honestly, we are glad they’ve been replaced. If only you could see the sidewalks, you’d wish they were replaced.
Vehicles parked on both sides of Main are Detroit-made V-8 gas guzzlers, drinking leaded gasoline.
By the appearance of Main Street, the alley north of the Presbyterian Church is open to traffic – check out the tracks in the street.
If you think this photo shows the “good old days,” just remember that Bluffton did not yet have dial telephones. Television options were channel 35, Lima; channel 11, Toledo; and channel 13, Toledo. Some programs were even in living color. FM radio was a future dream – it existed, but all the action was on the AM dial.
If memory serves me correctly I stayed with my grandmother. Adella Oyer. for a week or two in the summer of 1961. I was born in Bluffton and have been back to visit many times. That is the downtown scene that I remember plus the old car shows and the carnival coming to main street. Thanks gramma for filling my pockets with coins for the Rocket Ride! Joe Oyer