People, places conjured up through old memories

First graders seated around a table at A.D. Stowell elementary school, from left, Ray McCullough, Jim Hammock, Jimmy Latta, Bob Green and Darrell Skinner. Photo contributed by Jim Hammock.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Jim Hammock, born on the day before Halloween, 1949, has been a resident of Booker Street on Hannibal’s South Side for much of his life. Among his vast collection of memories is the day he started first grade

at A.D. Stowell Elementary School in the mid 1950s.

“I didn’t want to go,” he admits.

He is the son of Elmer Curtis and Lillian Hammock, who long made their home at 1720 Booker St.

Urging her son on, Lillian told him, “Come on Jim.” Because she didn’t drive, and because he was reluctant, she walked her youngest son down the long series of hills to the school, which was located in the valley along Fulton Avenue. “I finally got into the school,” he said.

It was much later that he realized the sacrifice his mother made in order to get him to school that day. After he went inside the building, she had to retrace her steps back up to the top of the hill, to their house at the hill’s summit, Booker street.

Except for time served in the military and around the time of his marriage in 1968, he has always called Booker Street his home.

His fondest childhood memories revolve around this neighborhood, the school, and the nearby playground.

He has a photo of a few of his first-grade classmates, Jimmy Latta, Ray McCullough, Bobby Green and Darrell Skinner.

Throughout the six years he spent at Stowell School, the playground - across Fulton Avenue from the school -  was key to recreation.

“I remember a big tall metal slide, it would be hot when you slid down it. There were swing sets, monkey bars, and there was a green marble box; the kids would play marbles in that box. I remember doing that.

“There were basketball courts; they had a baseball field; softball and hardball, and they played football on there sometimes.”

Once the new Stowell School opened in 2007, play was rerouted to a new playground. Today, the old playground is owned by the Southside Baptist Church. The playground equipment is gone, and the alley which once led onto the playground now has a gate across it.

“They keep it nice and clean; you just don’t see anybody on the old playground anymore,” he said.

Miss Louise Kohler, a long time teacher at Stowell, lived next door to the playground, in a little white house.

Jim Hammock remembers his teachers. “I had Miss (Emma L. ) Pridgeon, Miss (Louise) Kohler, Miss (Faye) Rash, Miss (Doris M.) Loveless, Miss Schweitzer, I think, and in sixth grade I had Miss (Luetta R.) York. I had three brothers; Miss York remembered teaching them in her class.”

“When I went to the junior high, I didn’t like it. I couldn’t hardly adjust, but I made it through all three grades. It was stricter. Now it is worse; they have policemen there every day.

“I had two uncles and a cousin who worked for the schools; my Uncle Frank - the one that moved to Wyoming, taught welding at Hannibal High School. Joe Hoffman also taught welding; and my (maternal) cousin, Wesley McGowan, taught metal shop. He was Mildred McGowan’s son.”

Back in the day

There was always a lot of talk about Burns grocery store at 614 Fulton. “Kids would get their lunch: cooked maid rites and hot dogs and French fries. Kids would spend their 25 cents on hamburgers and hot dogs.

“On down the street, growing up there was always talk about Owens drug store. People would drink cherry cokes and ice cream. Next door to Owens was the fire department.

“On up Union was the HyKlas grocery store. Up from that was Booth’s dairy store. We used to run around those grocery stores after school; after playing on the play ground we’d end up at one of those stores.

Up the hill

The property where his grandparents first settled originally consisted of about six acres, but it has been divided between family members during the years.

There is now about an acre of land in front of his house, and three acres behind the house. Two sons own parcels of the land, and James Bryan Hammock owns the house that Jim’s father built next door, at 1720 Booker.

“Down the street lived Kent Harrison and Sandy Harrison. More up aways was Christy Schulten; she lived in one of those houses, and Bob Parker. Faye and Connie Gardner lived there. Mike Freiling, Vicki Herl, she was in our class. Harry Rhodes. The Gundlings lived on our side of the road, Don and John. Terry Oltman was one year young than me; Kenny Wilson, he was two or three years older than I am. One of my brothers ran around with him.

“Mike Becktold, I ran away with him a lot.

“Dana Riney lived where the Harrisons did, on Union Street, before Harrisons moved there.

“On down the hill on Union, Terrey Hubb lived there. He had a sister. 

“Howie Feaster, John Johnson, he was a year or two older than I am. There was another boy about a year older than me, Gary Hall.

“Danny Woodson, Mary Lou Till, David and Ruth Mayes, Gale Perkins, Terry Vaughn, Sidney Brownell, Jimmy Latta.

“Larry Dryden, I knew him all the way from first grade to high school. I remember running around with Larry, meeting his mom and dad.

“Bob Sinclair, he was a Southsider.”

“Sometimes I look back on those days and I can remember all the people who lived in these houses; I’ve been in all those houses … there are different people living there now.”

Jim and Wilma Hammock. Wilma died March 31, 2026. Jim lives in the house his grandparents purchased circa 1930, now numbered 1700 Booker. It has gone through many expansions and remodels through the years of family ownership. Photo contributed by Jim Hammock.

Elmer Curtis Hammock, (father of Jim Hammock) at center, between his father and mother, Joseph Walter and Bessie Beulah Hammock, circa 1946 or 1947. Photo contributed by Jim Hammock.

Hammock cousins assembled at their grandparents house in the early 1950s. This is a side view of the house at 1700 Booker, when the house belonged to Joseph Walter and Bessie Beulah Ferguson Hammock. Their grandson and his wife, Jim and Wilma Hammock, purchased this house in 1977, and though Wilma died earlier this year, Jim still makes his home here. He is the third generation to live in this house. Photo contributed by Jim Hammock.