So now I'm thinking about that house on Buffalo Street. We must have moved there in '69 or '70 and it was such a different experience living "in town"! I think Chris and I were released from school to help with the move. We were hardly ever early released from school. I must have been in 8th grade.
I think this was a great house for us. As you entered the front door the stairs led up to 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a pretty good sized storage closet. There was a nice big open area in the center upstairs and we could have done alot with that, if we'd thought of it! It would have been great for a playstation or maybe a foosball table. If I recollect, there was quite a bit of evidence of hand made drawers, closet doors etc. Anyone else remember it that way? The bedrooms were a good size and so was the bathroom. Kathy and I shared a room that had a pretty cool storage area. I don't really remember much about the other two rooms up there. The bathroom was a decent size as well. Great space for kids.
Nice big living room and dining area downstairs with the master bedroom off the dining room--I remember it always being very cool in Mom and Dad's room. I understood it was Mom's sleeping preference -- do I remember correctly? These days I wonder why that big old space was mostly unused. I remember Mom sitting on the couch in the living room reading the paper but I don't recall much else going on in there too often.
The kitchen was very neat. Weren't there some funky cabinets or some such kind of between the counter space and the normal cupboard space? Under cabinet lighting, maybe? Pink? Sink in the corner (no window) in that corner. There was a divider with counter space and cabinets overhead. The picnic table was our normal dinner table.
From the kitchen into the hallway where the big old sink was (where we would wash hair etc) and the washer/dryer. There was a small bathroom there. Right there near the kitchen but in that hall I think was the phone with a very long cord. I remember one time Mom was on the phone making appointments for us when someone (I think it was Judy) got hurt and she just dropped the phone mid sentence and ran.
Down the hall was a small room on the left that was the den. This is where Dad ironed (I still remember the smell and the beer bottle with the sprinkle cap) and their chairs were facing the TV. Smallest space in the house for the "family room"--odd I think.
The garage was attached at that end of the house and there was a standing freezer out there. I thought that was really cool (pardon the pun). Out the back end of the garage was a fenced in yard where we kept the dog run. Yard full of poop all the time. I think I recall stairs to the basement from this garage but I don't really have a clear memory of a basement in this house.
There was another building at the end of the driveway that wasn't ours somehow. I remember it like a multi car garage and some band practicing in there. Just adjacent was the dairy (Seegert's maybe) and there was a lot behind where we'd play soemtimes. It was cool to just walk over to the dairy for milk.
At the bottom of Buffalo Street was a market I loved to go to for treats when I had any money. Just beyond the market was the foot bridge which took you down into town. Up the hill was the school bus stop, but I remember walking to school many times. I liked that walk even though I think it was kind of far to the high school.
It was a great location for all of us since we were older. I liked sitting on the front steps to watch the world go by. I remember sitting there a good long time just before we moved because I knew I'd really miss Silver Creek.
In some ways I still miss it. More than 30 years later and I still miss the vineyards and orchards and having Lake Erie nearby. It was so much flatter and even though I appreciate the varied landscape closer to central NY, whenever I visit western NY I realize how much I miss it for its physical geography.
I think this was a great house for us. As you entered the front door the stairs led up to 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a pretty good sized storage closet. There was a nice big open area in the center upstairs and we could have done alot with that, if we'd thought of it! It would have been great for a playstation or maybe a foosball table. If I recollect, there was quite a bit of evidence of hand made drawers, closet doors etc. Anyone else remember it that way? The bedrooms were a good size and so was the bathroom. Kathy and I shared a room that had a pretty cool storage area. I don't really remember much about the other two rooms up there. The bathroom was a decent size as well. Great space for kids.
Nice big living room and dining area downstairs with the master bedroom off the dining room--I remember it always being very cool in Mom and Dad's room. I understood it was Mom's sleeping preference -- do I remember correctly? These days I wonder why that big old space was mostly unused. I remember Mom sitting on the couch in the living room reading the paper but I don't recall much else going on in there too often.
The kitchen was very neat. Weren't there some funky cabinets or some such kind of between the counter space and the normal cupboard space? Under cabinet lighting, maybe? Pink? Sink in the corner (no window) in that corner. There was a divider with counter space and cabinets overhead. The picnic table was our normal dinner table.
From the kitchen into the hallway where the big old sink was (where we would wash hair etc) and the washer/dryer. There was a small bathroom there. Right there near the kitchen but in that hall I think was the phone with a very long cord. I remember one time Mom was on the phone making appointments for us when someone (I think it was Judy) got hurt and she just dropped the phone mid sentence and ran.
Down the hall was a small room on the left that was the den. This is where Dad ironed (I still remember the smell and the beer bottle with the sprinkle cap) and their chairs were facing the TV. Smallest space in the house for the "family room"--odd I think.
The garage was attached at that end of the house and there was a standing freezer out there. I thought that was really cool (pardon the pun). Out the back end of the garage was a fenced in yard where we kept the dog run. Yard full of poop all the time. I think I recall stairs to the basement from this garage but I don't really have a clear memory of a basement in this house.
There was another building at the end of the driveway that wasn't ours somehow. I remember it like a multi car garage and some band practicing in there. Just adjacent was the dairy (Seegert's maybe) and there was a lot behind where we'd play soemtimes. It was cool to just walk over to the dairy for milk.
At the bottom of Buffalo Street was a market I loved to go to for treats when I had any money. Just beyond the market was the foot bridge which took you down into town. Up the hill was the school bus stop, but I remember walking to school many times. I liked that walk even though I think it was kind of far to the high school.
It was a great location for all of us since we were older. I liked sitting on the front steps to watch the world go by. I remember sitting there a good long time just before we moved because I knew I'd really miss Silver Creek.
In some ways I still miss it. More than 30 years later and I still miss the vineyards and orchards and having Lake Erie nearby. It was so much flatter and even though I appreciate the varied landscape closer to central NY, whenever I visit western NY I realize how much I miss it for its physical geography.
3 comments:
Buffalo Street... I remember thinking that the den was the smallest room in the house, and that's where we spent our"family" time.
The kitchen was unique because it had the oven built into the wall and the stovetop separate, I'd never seen that before. Nor had I ever seen a refridgerator built into the walls, like cupboards. They were definately pink, and had three doors. Very different, and probably very modern for that time. We had a second fridge in the hallway where the slop sink was. There was also a big cork board in that hallway where we had to sign out so mom and dad would know where we were. Mom would also leave a list of chores on that corkboard for when we got home from school. (peeling a pot full of potatoes was my least favorite job, now I love it).
The upstairs... Mary Jane, Judy and I shared the front bedroom. There was plenty of room in there as I recall. There may have even been two closets! The large hall where all the bedrooms and bath went off also had the attic stairs in the center with a pull down rope and they would unfold, quite fancy.
The basement, I remember as being very large. There was room for dad's shop, there was also a separate room where canned jars could be stored. There were shelves, I think Mom called it the root cellar. Then there was another area, where we stored things. The cellar was really nice, by today's standards.
In the poop filled back yard, which was all chain link fenced, I remember a gate that led out to the neighbor's back yard. They lived on Elm Street(?) and had a pool.
I remember dad had beautiful roses in the side garden along the driveway. The front porch was small, but a good place to watch the world go by. There was a chestnut tree in the front yard. We used to collect the nuts in their prickly casings as they fell from the tree and use them over at the dairy for "wars". We'd pick teams and throw them at each other. I remember getting hit pretty hard in the forehead and Chris combing my bangs over the lump, so Mom and Dad wouldn't get mad.
Now that I think of it, that house was really big and nice. I remember after we moved to Walton, thinking how much smaller the Bruce Street house was.
The small store at the bottom of Buffalo Street was Wrights Grocery, didn't Chris work there for a while? I remember walking on the foot brigde to school too, but I went to the elementary school, not nearly as far as the high school. I remember looking over the edge of the foot bridge and loosing the lens out of my already broken glasses. I think Kathy and I (maybe MJ) looking for a LONG time for that lens. I did not want to go home without it! We found it, thankfully.
I remember that Dad wasn't home much when we moved to Buffalo St. He was working in Ellicotville and only came home on the weekends. Must have been hard for Mom...
That's what I remember.
Didn't we sled on that bridge???
How about the Howards, next door from the back yard? Jolly, Rolly, Ollie, Holly??? Anyone remember them?
I remember playing baseball in that back field and Patty Anne bashing me in the head with the bat (I was supposed to be running for her and got a bit too close) Patty Anne playing baseball???
What about Foits? (am not sure I spelled that correctly). I remember it was a big deal going out as a family to dinner. Dad showing me how to skip rocks from outside. Pat and I went back down there when we visited out there years ago.
I also remember the church being beautiful, but do not remember specifics.
I remember the Howards. How could you forget them? Their middle names rhymed too (Jolly Gee, Holly Dee, Ollie Bee, Rollie Lee, and Polly Vee). They were also Jehovah Witnesses, as I recall.
It does seem strange to think of Patty Anne playing baseball... or basketball, or football... I don't remember her TOUCHING a ball!
I think the restaurant you are referring to was Foyts, but I never could spell. I LOVED the fish fry. I don't think I've had better, except in Gloucester. It was a huge deal to go there, and I had forgotten Dad teaching us to skip rocks, but now I remember. Thanks for the memory!
The Catholic Church was big. Dark wooden pews. The school was attached, and the place where the nuns stayed. There was a big dining hall where the boy scouts served their Mother's Day breakfast. I recall from the home movies that we walked from that hall to the church (outside) when we were going for our first communion. The church itself was stone on the outside, big wooden doors. It sat on a corner on the main street(RT 5 or 20) down near the fire station.
Good to remember.
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