One of the more interesting parts of each year comes in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. For the lack of a better name, let’s call this particular part of the year &uot;between the holidays.&uot;

It’s a time to enjoy the now-opened presents and toys, go to parties and family gatherings, and hopefully stay within the diet plan while coping with the leftovers and other seasonal goodies. It’s a time for school students and their teachers to enjoy a well-deserved vacation. And it’s a time to revive memories of Christmas past and anticipate the start of a new year on the calendar.

Did I use the term revive memories in the last paragraph? Okay, let’s use this theme to give an idea what life was like in Albert Lea between the holidays back in 1952.

In that year the city’s major department stores included Skinner Chamberlain (&uot;Where Thrifty Thousands Shop&uot;), Mier Wolf and Sons, J. C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Sears Roebuck and Wallaces. These and other local stores provided plenty of opportunities to find bargains at the after-Christmas sales.

For vacation time recreation 50 years ago there were several outdoor ice skating rinks and sledding slopes. For indoor fun there was a roller skating rink, bowling alley, and the YMCA on North Newton Avenue.

Back in 1952 Albert Lea had two theaters. The New Broadway advertised it had &uot;An Amazing New Look&uot; with &uot;Staggered Seats for Perfect Vision&uot; and &uot;Specially Designed Acoustics.&uot; Their featured film between the holidays was MGM’s &uot;The Prisoner of Zenda,&uot; plus a color cartoon and the latest world and national newsreel. At the nearby Rivoli Theater was a double feature: &uot;I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.,&uot; and &uot;Two Guys and a Gal.&uot;

There was another indoor activity which was rather popular five decades ago. This was dancing. Music back then in this part of the nation was divided into two general categories. One was &uot;old time,&uot; based on mostly polkas and waltzes from Germany, Bohemia and Scandinavia. The other was &uot;new time,&uot; or what could be termed as more modern popular American music.

In the Dec. 28, 1952, issue of the Tribune was an ad for the Monterey Ballroom, located south of Owatonna. Their music groups between the holidays and into the first week of 1953 would be the Jolly Lumberjacks, &uot;Chic&uot; Racek’s Orchestra, and Harold Picha and his Bohemians from New Prague, all old-time bands. Another ad on the same page said the Terp Ballroom over in Austin would feature Jules Herman and later Henry Charles, both new-time groups,

providing holiday music.

The radio dial wasn’t as crowded with broadcasting stations in the 1950s.

And television was a real problem here in Freeborn County. This area then was really on the edge of the ledge for those few folks who had television sets in 1952 to hopefully receive just two stations.

To help emphasize this, the Stephenson Music Co., 135 E. William St., has an ad in the Tribune’s Dec. 30, 1952, issue. It said, &uot;Both Minneapolis stations (WCCO and KSTP) will be in full power of 100,000 watts … Television has been good but it will get much better when the new increase in power goes into effect Jan. 4.&uot;

The Stephenson firm at that time was the city’s exclusive dealer for RCA Victor and Motorola television sets, plus the Clipper brand of roof-mounted antennas.

There was another aspect of life five decades ago which really dominated the news. The nation was involved in a war on the Korean Peninsula. For members of the armed forces in this far away part of Asia, between the holidays became a time of coping with the enemy and some very brutal weather conditions.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all our fine Tribune readers!

Tribune feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.