You probably would be pressed to recall how many hotels Hays had back in 1950 and their locations. Remember, I'm talking about hotels, not motels.

If you said four, give yourself an A-plus.

The classiest of the bunch was the Lamer Hotel at 12th and Main. In fact, it was considered the best of the lot between Topeka and Denver on U.S. 40. Noted entertainers of the day booked themselves in at the Lamer. Which brings up the story about a Hays lady who called the radio station (KAYS, the only one at the time) and asked if they would give her the room number Bing Crosby was staying in at the Lamer.

They told her they were unaware that he was in town. "Well he certainly is," she said, "because he just finished singing a song at your station and I'm sure he'd be staying at the Lamer."

So it goes. Tales of the famous were many, but not always verified.

The Lamer Hotel's elevator had an operator. You would get in the elevator, tell the young man the floor you wanted, he would manually select it and the elevator would respond. Nowadays you're that person. The Lamer had a restaurant, a jewelry store, and pinball machines on the street level.

Visitors to Hays for functions at the university, for weddings or conventions, booked themselves in at that "tall hotel." If those walls could only talk.

In the block just south of the Lamer, stood the Mulroy Hotel. The Brunswick Hotel was at 701 Main, while the Cody Hotel took up space at 218 W. Ninth.

And probably the Cody was the hotel you were unable to come up with to complete the four.

But it was the six-story Lamer Hotel that stood tall in the downtown area, and still does, but as Emprise Bank.

Hotels still had the edge back then, while motels were just getting their foot in the door.

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Remember when car trunks were a sure ticket to the movies? Just think back to those carefree days of the late '40s and early '50s when we tooled around the Hays community on those hot, muggy nights with the windows rolled down, the radio entertaining, the car again loaded with bodies while we were killing time awaiting the sun to go down so we could visit our favorite after-dark place.

Oh yes, there was a cover charge. But if you played the game the way it was intended to be played, not everybody got stuck with paying the entry fee. It wasn't much by today's standards, but back then we would pool our money and that would usually get two or three of us into this popular hangout and the others would go in with us unnoticed.

That's where the trunk came into play. That's where we put the "excess baggage" before we entered the Hays Drive-In Theater out east on what is generally referred today as old Highway 40.

We never got caught doing this, as some of our friends had, but it came close one evening when two of the guys stuffed in the trunk got into a fight and we were sure the ticket seller heard them. Maybe he did and thought to himself, "Serves 'em right!"

Can you imagine five, sometimes six, teenage boys, sweaty, stuffed in a car watching a movie in 100-degree temperatures? In addition to a concession stand, drive-in theaters should also have provided shower rooms.

* * *

Please allow me a few words about a truly great Hays lady who left us this past week. Her name is Lois Lee Myerly, whose ties to Fort Hays State University are legend. She was always high in praise of the university she truly loved and served so well for so many years. Her name was as familiar in the university community as were the names of the university's three presidents she served. You never saw Lois Lee without a smile. She was so caring, so dedicated, so willing to step in and help when the need warranted. Words of encouragement were a given.

I feel especially blessed for having Lois Lee as a nearly lifelong friend. It was always a fun time to be in her company to swap stories or match wits. I now join the rest of her many friends who will no longer benefit from her presence. A great lady will be greatly missed. And sympathy to my sister-in-law Donna Jean Dreiling, Lois Lee's sister, and her two nieces and two nephews -- Jan and Kathy, and Mark and Curt whom she dearly loved and whom they referred to so affectionately as "Aunt Kee."

Tom Dreiling, Goodland, is a retired northwest Kansas journalist. He writes for The Hays Daily News and the Goodland Star-News. tad1@st-tel.net