Ledger-Dispatch

- By Gwen Johnson, Ledger Dispatch = contributor=20

Robert and Marilyn Seratte enjoy a = cherry Coke at=20 Colburns Drug Store in 1952.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

Fiddletown's one-room schoolhouse = closed in 1955.=20 The building is currently being restored by the Fiddletown = Preservation=20 Society.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

Albert Miller shows a clipping from the = Amador=20 Ledger Dispatch featuring his baseball team - Plymouth's Little = League=20 team, which was coached by Plymouth Elementary School principal = Robert=20 Degrania.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch
Editor's note: This is = the second in a=20 five-part series highlighting Amador County cities in the = 1950s.

Back=20 in the 1950s when Johnny Cash was just starting his career and Roy = Rogers was=20 wishing everyone "Happy Trails," folks in Plymouth and Fiddletown were = listening=20 to Modesto-based country singer Chester Smith, watching cattle drives = pass=20 through town and getting ready for the county fair.

Marilyn = Seratte grew=20 up on Main Street Plymouth. "The whole Main Street is not much different = (than=20 it is today)," Serrate said. The stores may not all be in operation, but = the=20 buildings themselves still stand.

The structure that is now the = big=20 yellow Incahoots BBQ and Pizza building was Roos General Store where = Serrate=20 would buy all her jeans and shoes. Across from Roos was a warehouse that = sheared=20 sheep and had trucks backed up for miles to enter, and packed to the = hilt when=20 they left with big bags of wool.

Colburn's Drug Store would = offer young=20 couples like Seratte and her future husband Robert a romantic = 1950s-style soda.=20 City Hall held country-western dances on Saturday night. There was no = alcohol=20 served at the City Hall dances, but when the dancers would take a break, = they'd=20 go to either the Sportsman's Bar or the Pastime Club to grab a cold one. =

The families would attend Free Movie Night in the park on = Thursday=20 evenings. "We would grab our lawn chairs and our popcorn and our soda = and watch=20 the big screen," remembered Seratte's neighbor, Albert Miller, who was a = young=20 boy at the time. "I'd have my Little League uniform on and we'd all go = down=20 there and think we were pretty important."

All year long, = families would=20 look forward to the county fair. Seratte went every year, her favorite = feature=20 being the carnival rides. "One year though, I was about 16, I got so = sick on the=20 Octopus," she recalled. "That was the end of my carnival = rides."

Miller=20 remembers the fair's vegetable contests that were located in a big tin = building=20 with a sawdust floor. "Everyone had gardens," Miller said, despite the = water=20 shortages that occurred each summer.

"The constable would drive = around=20 with his PA system and announce there was to be no more outdoor = watering," he=20 said. The ditch that was used as the city's water supply would go dry, = leaving=20 Plymouth without a reliable source of water.

Six miles up = Fiddletown=20 Road, Nancy Germolis was busy raising her five daughters in the quiet = foothills=20 hamlet of Fiddletown. Nancy came to Amador County in 1945 as a young = bride from=20 Louisville, Ky. when she married a U.S. soldier named Chris Germolis, = who had=20 been serving in World War II and stationed at Fort Knox. When the war = ended,=20 Chris and Nancy exchanged vows and headed back to his family's cattle = ranch out=20 west.

Their first child, Margaret, or Peggy as everyone called = her, was=20 one of the last students, and the third generation of Germolises, to = receive an=20 education at the one-room Fiddletown schoolhouse located on American = Flat Road=20 across from the Fiddletown cemetery. According to the Fiddletown = Preservation=20 Society, the original building was built in 1862 and served children in = first=20 through eighth grades until 1955 when the school was closed and students = were=20 bused to Plymouth. Peggy's tenure lasted from 1952 until 1955.=20

Throughout the 1950s, Nancy watched her children play up and = down in the=20 road. "Very seldom would they have to get out of the way for passing = vehicles,"=20 the matriarch remembered. There were two main streets in town: Main = Street - now=20 called Fiddletown Road, and Back Street, which is known today as Jibboom = Street.=20

The highlight of the year, though, was the cattle drive where = hundreds=20 of cows would prance through town.

"We'd gather up all our family = and=20 friends and when we heard the cling clang clackety clack of the = cowbells,=20 everybody would run out of the house and watch the cows," Nancy said. = "As soon=20 as the first snow began to fly, the cows would come back."

In an=20 oral-history interview with historian Elaine Zorbas in 2003, Clarence = Randall,=20 who passed away in December 2006, recalled his memories of being one of=20 Fiddletown's merchants.

Randall's father, Nathan, bought the old = Schallhorn blacksmith and wagon shop, turning it into the Wagon Wheel = Cafe which=20 operated until 1968. Randall himself ran a gas station next to the = Schallhorn=20 building, a machine shop in the middle of town and the general store = with some=20 help from his mother and brother.

"It was terrible really = because we did=20 not have any delivery into Fiddletown - nothing," Randall told Zorbas. = His daily=20 routine included driving to Plymouth to stock up on bread, milk, soda = and beer.=20 Once a week he'd drive into Sacramento with either his father or brother = to pick=20 up wholesale, canned goods.

Country-western dances were held in = the=20 community hall, which was also a roller skating rink operated by = Fiddletown=20 Stables owner Ray Fine, and the saloon across the street satiated the = thirst of=20 many a wayward traveler.

Today, the Schallhorn building and = general=20 store are private residences while the saloon serves as an art gallery = and=20 church on the weekends. The schoolhouse is currently being restored by = the=20 Fiddletown Preservation Society, and the Fiddletown Community Center = continues=20 holding events at the town hall, including the Fiddletown Flea the = second=20 Saturday in June and the Fiddlers' Jam the third Saturday in September.=20

Plymouth hosts the Amador County Fair this year July 30 through = Aug. 2.=20

Next week: A look at Ione in the 1950s.