pappy's Community Blog

During the first half of the 20th century, no illness inspired more fear and panic than polio. Sometimes called infantile paralysis, polio struck the US every summer and fall. In 1952 more than 21,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported.

I can remember in my lower grades how we dreaded this disease. A good friend of mine, a Freddie S. , contacted this and never knew what happened to him. The scary part was being confined to the dreaded Iron Lung. It was about the size and weight of a small car, and was a sealed chamber with an electrically driven bellows that regulated breathing. People with polio were encased in this monster for months, years and sometimes life.

One year my mom would not let me go to the swimming pool for fear that I might contact polio. An article in a 1955 PTA newsletter states: Six PTA members were asked to assist with duties during the Norwich polio clinic Friday morning at the Norwich High School. They were: Mrs. H. Markle, Mrs. C. Metzgar, Mrs. J. Pozefsky, Mrs. L. Knudson, Mrs. D. Wright and Mrs. B Dales. 376 First and second graders were inoculated.

When the Salk vaccine came out, we couldn't get to the Drs. fast enough. Thank God this monster was finally defeated.

 

It was a nice fall day, Oct. 15th, 1954. There was talk of a hurricane south of us but most folks didn't seem too concerned. A hurricane was what Cuba and Florida had to endure, not us folks up north. The night before, the TV stations tried to explain with their paper signs and cutouts of felt suns, rain and clouds which they stuck on a board. There was no Dopplar and radar to warn people back then.

Anyway, as the day wore on, the wind really started to pick up and now this storm had a name. "Hazel"  As night approached, it really got windy and objects were starting to fly around. Being young and stupid, a bunch of us kids decided to drive around and see the damage. After a while, we parked on West Main St. next to Chapman Turner Bldg. Now the rain and wind was getting dangerous. Maybe we had better go home. As I headed up West Hill, a tree feel across the road, but I could just get around it and proceeded to go home.

The next day, things were a mess. As I drove downtown, I noticed a large part of the Chapman Turner Bldg. was missing part of its roof or chimney. I was told to go up to Baker's Garage at 46 West Main St. and look at the car out back. What I saw was enough to turn my stomach. The part of Turner Bldg. that fell, had landed on this car and instantly killed two people. The car was flatened and the site was not pretty. I then weht down West Main to see the place where the bldg. fell. My God, it was right where we had parked earier.

I found out later that Hazel went as far north as Ottawa Canada and caused 95 deaths and $281 million dollars in damage to the USA. We had received gust up to 90 mph.

In the 40's and 50's Norwich was big on parades. There was parades on the fourth of July, the Chenango county fair, Memorial Day, etc. Usually these parades would start somewhere around West Main St. school. They would proceed around by the Court house, come out on North Broad and either go down South Broad or down East Main St.

My Uncle Don always had a solution to having one of the best seats to watch the proceedings. He would take his Ford pickup downtown early in the day, before the parade would start, and park it along the parade route. Then, my Aunt would pick him up with her car and take him back on the hill.

Later that day, about an hour before the parade started, we would all load up in my Aunt's car and head downtown to watch the goings on. We would then park the car wherever we could and walk down to the pickup and sit in the back to watch. This day my uncle had parked on North Broad almost up by Pringles Cigar Store. Anyway, we all piled in the back of his 53 pickup, opened up some folding chairs and some pop and beers. There we sat. We noticed people walking by and kinda looking at us funny. Oh well, they are just probably jealous that we have such good seats. We sat that talking and laughing and drinking until, a nice older man came over and told us that the parade was going straight down West Main and East Main Streets. It wasn't coming anywhere near us.  Up until I lost my uncle Don 3 years ago, this was always a subject that was brought up time and time again and always got a good laugh.

Okay, some of you old timers, I need help remembering where this was located. My Grandfather had a piece of land there with a little tar paper camp built on site. I can remember the lake  was full of stumps and very hard to navagate. It was great perch and bullhead fishing and can remember many cookouts with pans of fresh caught fish.

I can recall that the camp sat quite a ways back in off a muddy dirt road. We had to open a gate to get to the camp. We had a loft with a ladder to reach a large bed. Once in a while we would make it an over night trip. Of course the old outhouse was a large part of the camp.

I thought I might take a trip down there this summer, but cannot remember how to get there. Any help appreciated.  Pappy

 

 

As the title states, working there was a lot of fun. When the theater use to have ushers I was just old enough to work there. Some of the benefits we use to receive where a few free passes that we could give to our friends and girlfriends. We could also have all the free popcorn we wanted as long as we use the same bag over and over again.

Did you know that there was(are) dressing rooms out behind the big screen? I can remember on some Sat. mornings that they would have vauldaville (sp) acts, such as magic acts, comedy acts, juggling, etc.  There are also seats that lead up to the box seats on both sides of the theater, if they are still there.

We use to stand behind the screen and watch the people. They could not see us, but we could see them. I enjoyed spending time in the projection room. Boy, was it hot there. The cameras used carbon rods needed for enough lite to show the movies. They had to be exhausted through chimney pipes to the outside.

I remember during the picture "the Ten Commandments"  we were told not to seat anyone during the crusafixtion scene. We had to close the curtains and not let anyone be seated. Gosh, how times have changed.......

As I had mentioned in one of the forums, my wife and I were given a wonderful trip to the Caribbean. My great kids gave us this trip for our 50th anniversary last year. We could not take it last year, as my wife was on Chemo and did not feel the best.  Anyway, we went this year for 3 days and visited Nassau and CoCo Cay. The weather was beautiful. Let me give you an idea of what goes on shipboard if you ever take one of these trips.

First you go through all the customs and stuff, find your room, and go to eat. Ok, we are on our way. We go through the safety drill, as required and then we go eat. We run around the ship trying to find what is where. This monster has 12 floors and we are on the 11th. We check out the shops and it's time to eat. Next, we take in a great show, with singers and dancers, stop in the Casino for a few minutes, and go eat. Back to our room and watch the sun go down from our balcony and call room service for more food.

Next day we visit some shops in Nassau and of course we eat. Back on ship just in time for dinner. That night they have a big party on upper pool deck, with of course, a huge buffet.  As you have probably figured out by now, you had better plan on gaining many pounds on a cruise. Food available 24 hours a day. Also, wonderful drinks starting $5.95 and up. I had one beer at $4.50.  But you know what? Try to do this at least once in your life. It was an amazing experience......

When my family first moved into the old house on the hill, indoor plumbing was still not installed, so we used the outhouse located about halfway between the road and barn. My grandparents lived with us for a while amd Grandpa always have goats. Two females, Josie and Rags, and one Billy named Bachalor Button. Old Bach was a miserable, ugly and down right pain in the rear.

I was scared to death of him because he loved to butt people and it hurt. He would butt so hard he would knock the side of the barn off and get out. The old outhouse was my safe house. I would get off the school bus and look around to see if Bach had gotten out. Sure enough, here he comes with fire in his eyes. I could not make it to the house, but I could reach the outhouse just in time. I would yell my head off until my Grandpa came out and put the demon back in the barn. He was the only one that wasn't afraid of Bach. As I look back on this, I bet I would still be afraid of that dumb goat, only now there would be no safe outhouse to hid in.

I spent a couple years on Gold St. one house up from RR tracks. I think I was about 10 or 11 years old. I loved to watch the different engines roll slowly by and engineers always had a smile and a wave to us gawking kids. We did a lot of playing on and around the tracks. It was a great time to crawl on the parked cars. Boxcars, coal cars and tankers. We would follow tracks up to Bordens Milk Plant because they always had lots of cars at their plant. One thing I could never figure out was two or three times a year there would be a dead horse along the tracks. Next day they would be gone, but it remains one of those mysteries we could never solve. Going south on the tracks, we would come to the viaduct on Mitchell St. Anyone remember this overpass? It was quite steep going up and flat on top and steep going down. You could stand on top and when a train went by you could run over to other side. It was a great way to get covered with soot.

I never got down to the roundhouse and warehouse. However, I use to take the train to Utica to visit my Dad. The toilets amazed me as the waste went right on the tracks. Can you imagine this happening today?  Something about the old RR was fasinating to us kids. I guess it is a wonder none of us ever got hurt........

Gosh, we have driven up and down the Broad Streets and cannot find a place to park. Oh wait, there is one on the park across from the old Eagle Hotel. Grandma wants to go to the Fair Store so I will stop at Pringles Cigar Store and get some new comics. After meeting up again, we cross the street to the J.C.Penney catalog store. I tell Grandma I would like to stop at Dean Phipps and check out some fishing stuff.

It's about time for lunch, so we stop at the Norwich Grill for a drink and sandwich. We still have a few stops to make. Sonne Bros., W.T. Grant,  M.H. Fishman,Wilcox and Littlefair, McNeils, Nash and Spencers and Winan's Men Shop.

This will take most of the day and we cannot carry one more thing. Gram calls Smith Taxi to take us back on the hill How beautiful Norwich looked with its lights and decorations and hundreds of people on the streets. Ah, yes. It was a great time.

Well, we have taken back enough bottles to pay our way into Smalleys theater. It will cost us 14 cents for a great double feature. The main show is "Frontier Pony Express" starring Roy Rogers and the second show is an Abbott and Costello movie Called Africa Screams. If we wanted we could sit through a second showing, but the popcorn and candy was pretty well gone by then. I can remember coming out of the theater and being blinded by the sunlight. On the way home we would discuss what we had just seen and tried to imitate the actors. Ah yes, good times...simple times.....

I always looked forward to our trip to downtown Norwich and the best part of the trip was using the elevator in the Chapman bldg.  There was always a nice man who would inquire "what floor please" as there were four floors. I would enter the elevator and the operator would close a gate and then pull on some cables, and up we would go. He would not let you off until he had lined up the floor with the car exactly even. I can not remember what floor had what, but I only went for the ride anyway. This was a big deal for a little country boy like me.

It's a beautiful November day and we are going shopping downtown. Must  call Smiths Taxi and spend 50 cents to get downtown from West Hill.

First stop will be the Imperial Tea Room for my favorite Mexican Sundae. Maybe I'll luck out and have a cherry coke too.

Of to Grants, my favorite store, and go down the stairs to their toy room. Oh my gosh, they got just what I want. A set of Roy Rogers cap guns. Beautiful chrome with pearl handles. What a Birthday this is. I will wear these proudly until they are completely worn out. 

Maybe we will go shopping again soon and visit some other stores.

Back in the late 40's and early 50's, I had the pleasure of growing up on West Hill. Does anyone remember when most of the Hill was Crandalls? As you round the sharp corner, going up the Hill, was Evan's farm on the left. We use to get eggs and milk from Mr. Evans. Judge Hill lived on the right.

The next house up was Claude Crandall, a great uncle. Next to him, Clifford, a cousin. The next place belonged  to a family named Crumb. Next house was Leonard, an uncle. The next house belonged to a person named Henderson. All I can remember was that he had a big German Shepard that scared the heck out of me.

The next place was a my Great Aunt whose married name was Murph. Next in line was Kenneth, a great uncle. Next was our place, my mom was a Crandall. Next, my grandparents, Harold..Oh, by the way, most of these homes were built by my relatives, as they were all masons.

And last, my uncles house Don. My cousin Dick also had a house at top of the hill.

As you can tell, I like to reminisce about the times gone by.