Bringing history to the community...

Curt Nestark brought a variety of historical objects to the Lions Club meeting. There was a story behind each object.

The Grand Island Lions Club asked the Grand Island Historical Society for a presentation on local history at its November meeting, which was held on Wednesday, November 12th. At the October Board of Trustees meeting, it was decided that Curt Nestark, our fearless president, would do the presentation and that I would be the assistant. The assistant's job is mainly to carry boxes, unpack boxes, set up the display and, later on, repack the boxes, and carry all materials back to Curt's truck. Notice that I said "truck." That is for Curt's benefit because, at various times, I misspoke and referred to Curt's vehicle as a lowly "car." I am not to say "CAR," when I mean "TRUCK." Because I have three sisters and no brothers, Curt and I decided that, while I was growing up, I missed on the most entertaining part of life... a big brother. Hence, Curt became my "adopted" big brother. And, I must say, he has truly acted his role. So have I. People tell us that we really do act like brother and sister.

But I digress. Back to the Lions Club. No. Not the tigers or the bears. Just Lions. The Lions Club is well known for helping blind people get things that they need, such as canes and eye glasses. They also provide a number of other services for persons with disabilities, including getting large print books for the library and helping people who are financially challenged with eye exams, eyeglasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and other mobility aids. Their biggest project is the annual Special Kids day picnic, which is held during the summer at the Buffalo Launch Club in Grand Island. Several hundred kids and their teachers and aides come, and the kids have a great time on land and on boats. The volunteers have fun watching the kids having fun. I know that because, last year, I was one of the volunteers, and it was fun.

The meeting was held at McMahon's Family Restaurant. This is an historical building because it used to house a place called the "Clown House." Alas, I have no memory of the Clown House but I would have liked to have gone to a house that was full of clowns.

The program that Curt decided to present was to display a bunch of items that were common about one hundred years ago but are now no longer used too often. Then he asked the Lions to identify the objects. Notice that I capitalized Lions. That is because they are members of the Lions Club and not wild animals that tend to roar a lot. 

Curt and I arrived at  McMahon's Family Restaurant at about six o'clock. 

This was my first visit to McMahon's. The interior of the restaurant was quite interesting. It is decorated in something that resembled a 1950s diner. Pretty much, every inch of the restaurant is filled with all sorts of memorabilia. I was glad that I brought a bear to add to the show. It was quite an impressive display of toys and other stuff.

Apparently, 101 Dalmations spawned the creation of quite a few figurines and toys.

Next to the cash register.

Painting on the wall. Notice the cliff and the big drop to the water. I'm not sure where this is located as there are no cliffs in Grand Island.

Curt enjoys a good laugh before the start of the festivities. 

Welcoming the Lions to the meeting.

Lion Annette shows off a bottle of wine that was raffled off during the course of the meeting.

Another view of the walls, with loads of memorabilia and paintings.

Before Curt's presentation, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with the Lions. While we indulged in our dessert, the meeting started with Curt's presentation.

Curt gave a brief history of Grand Island and of the Grand Island Historical Society. He said that the Town of Grand Island was incorporated in 1852. In the nineteenth century, big businesses on Grand Island included ice harvesting and logging. 

Lewis F. Allen, for whom Allen Street and Allentown in the City of Buffalo were named, was somehow involved with the Whitehaven Settlement in Grand Island. He also owned a farm on the southern tip of Grand Island, called "Allenton Farms." The Whitehaven Settlement was where a massive logging operation was held. There were ten to twelve steam sawmills, staffed by "gangs of men," Curt said.

At the time, clear cutting was seen as acceptable, even if the trees being removed in massive number were trees that grew slowly and could not be easily replaced. Today, we call that "deforestation" and we understand that is a very bad idea. But, back in the nineteenth century, the white oak that covered Grand Island was seen as a resource to be used, rather than as a treasure to be maintained. Grand Island originally had 17,000 acres of white oak. Sixteen thousand acres were logged off, and the trees were turned into mastheads for ships.

The Grand Island Historical Society was founded in 1962 to protect River Lea from being torn down, as were most of the houses that were on land that was taken over by the state. That land became Beaver Island State Park.

Below are some of the objects that Curt brought to the meeting.

This object is a bed warmer. People in the 19th century did not have central heating in their houses so their beds got cold. The only room that was heated in the winter was the kitchen because that was where the stove was located. Other rooms became cold. With this object, people could feel warm in bed. Of course, there are other ways to feel warm in bed, which was probably why the birth rates in the nineteenth century remained consistently high. Unfortunately, the infant mortality rates were also high. Hence the need to have lots of children (to work on the farm). 

People in the nineteenth century were very frugal. According to Curt, "Nothing was wasted. Everything was used." The object above is called hair art. When women brushed their hair, they took the hair out of their brushes and placed the hair into a hair holder. Curt brought one of those to show. When the women had enough hair, they made wreaths with their hair. It is not an art form that is practiced anymore. 

This object is called a "tussy mussy." It is used to hold fragrant flowers. Back in the nineteenth century, people did not bathe regularly nor did they do their laundry very often. Neither activity was easy to accomplish. Taking a bath involved setting up a large bathtub in the kitchen, which, as I previously mentioned, was the warmest room in the house. Water had to be brought in as there was no indoor plumbing. The water had to be heated and then poured into the tub. The whole family bathed in the same bath water. The order for the bath was not oldest to youngest, as I had previously thought. The dirtiest person generally went first. The cleanest washed in all of that dirty bath water. Um. Yuck. I am grateful for a nice clean shower!!!! As for the laundry, it was all done by hand and that was a lot of work. 

So... people who don't bathe often or do their laundry tend to smell bad. They put the fragrant flowers in their tussy mussy and carried the flowers with them. The flowers were supposed to cover up the body odor.

 A closer view of the ornate design of the tussy mussy.

This is a silent butler. It is used to clean up crumbs after a dinner party or to clean out ashtrays. 

Other objects that Curt displayed included a stereo opticon, a salt keeper, a holder for tiny pieces of soap (because nothing went to waste), a rug beater, a cherry pitter, a hat holder, and an egg scale.

After our display, the Lions went on with their business meeting. I cleared away the displays and the maps, and we left the Lions to their own devices.

It was a good evening, and the Lions expressed fascination with the objects, as well as with stories about local history.

Grand Island is demolished and other tales of Buffalo radio history

Steve Cichon, who used to work in radio, enjoys sharing stories of Buffalo's radio history with the Grand Island Historical Society.

A bear as radio announcer.

In 1938, many people were set in a panic by the radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds. Even though it had been advertised prior to broadcasting and people were told that it was fiction, people were panicked by this story, My mother said that she had listened to the program and that, because of the advertising that occurred prior to the event, she knew that the story was fictitious.
This was considered a textbook case of mass hysteria.
 In 1968, Buffalonians were startled by the tale of aliens from Mars invading Grand Island when WKBW did its presentation of Orson Welles' masterpiece. It was quite a tale, seemingly centered on Grand Island. It actually sounds believable, even though the tale of a large meteor smashing onto East River Road sounds someone extreme and hard to believe.
"Buffalo wigged out," said Steve Cichon, who gave a presentation on the History of Buffalo Radio at the November 6th meeting of the Grand Island Historical Society. People were told that the story was a "dramatization."
Fortunately, Grand Island survived the explosions and fires after the direct strike by a meteor.
Whew!
Oh wait! There was a hydrogen bomb intensity explosion on Mars!
Wow. Someone suggested that there were no people on Mars to detonate a hydrogen bomb.
Yes, I am listening to the production as I write this tale. There is a YouTube version of the radio program.
While I am listening to this tale, let's tune into some other tales that Steve shared...
Back to the attack on Grand Island. The traffic is "really congested." Governor Nelson Rockefeller is prepared to mobilize the National Guard to protect Grand Island.
Back to the history of radio in Buffalo. WGR was the first Buffalo radio station. It came on the air in 1922 with live music. On WBEN, which came on the air in 1930, one of the big radio personalities was Carl Cook, who played the piano for many years, from the 1930s until the first decade of the 21st century. He retired before 2010 and he passed away at the age of 102.
Uh oh. Back to the program. Several houses on Whitehaven Road have been leveled, and several people have become "badly crippled" as a result of the disaster.
OK. Other radio personalities of the past. Well. WGR had its own orchestra.
Here are some interesting tidbits:
John F. Kennedy visited Buffalo at least three time. The first time was in the late 1950s. The second time was in 1960, and his last visit to Buffalo was in 1962.
Another visitor to Buffalo was from Bob Hope. He "
When Irv Weinstein first started announcing the news, he was scheduled for 7:20 p.m.That seems like an odd hour and it would never happen now.
Between 1948 and 1972, there was a Santa Show daily on Channel 4. The program was 15 minutes in length and it ran from just after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve. "It was a bunch of guys having fun," Steve said.
There was a radio program called "Meet the Millers." It featured Bill and Mildred battling it out.
Stan Jasinski of WKBW was the polka king of Buffalo.
One time, John Otto, who was the voice of the night, asked Dan Nevereth, the rock and roll disk jockey, "What are you going to do when the rock no longer rolls?"
Apparently, that never happened.
Uh oh, 46 persons on Grand Island have been wiped out. Aliens have landed on Grand Island! Explosions! Smoke! Craters!  Hmm, and there is a flying saucer.People are getting trampled by the huge machine.
Could the National Guard be placing mines on the bridges?
Well, that's the end of my retelling the tale. I won't reveal the end, and I suggest that you click onto Grand Island is destructed in the War of the Worlds.

Election day madness and mishaps

At last.

The election is over.

No more robocalls.

No more ads.

No more election slingers that go straight from the mailbox to the recycle bin.

Whew.

After sixteen hours at the polls, this election inspector is worn out. But it's been quite a day. 

At the end, it felt like sleepwalking. In fact, my memories are already starting to fade...I was in a building with two election districts. Altogether, we should have had eight election inspectors: four for each district. Instead, we had five altogether. And, oddly enough, we ended up with four Democrats and one Republican. Mack, our sole Republican inspector, said that, at eight o'clock last night, he was called and asked if he had any Republican friends who would like to work at the polls. 

Well, wasn't that bizarre? Grand Island has more Republicans than Democrats. And, to make it even more odd, one of our inspectors reported that her daughters had been called in to work at one of the other districts. Then, last night, she was told that she wasn't needed. She is a registered Republican.
We were definitely short handed. But that wasn't as bad as one district in Buffalo.
It had one election inspector.
The poor single election inspector couldn't even open the polls. The requirement is for two election inspectors to open the polls. The preferred choice is one Democrat and one Republican.
That election district never opened.
I don't know where the inspector went.

Go figure.

What else happened?

We were super busy all day.

That meant strange times for meals.

I had lunch at ten o'clock in the morning and dinner at 2:30 p.m.

All sorts of goofy things happened.

I found a campaign slinger at a "privacy booth." No campaigning in the polling place. The slinger was placed in the appropriate receptacle.

People seemed confused. One man came in to vote. He showed me his voter registration card. It said that he was registered to vote in Buffalo. I suggested that he go there. He said that he thought that he could just go anywhere to vote. 

Um. No.

There were a few who needed to be directed to other districts in Grand Island. But only one Buffalo guy.

The voting machine for district two jammed. It seemed to have the voting machine equivalent of indigestion. It stayed out of commission for quite some time. The voters had to put their ballots into the emergency bin. They seemed confused. They wanted to know if their ballots were going to count. Well, yes. After the machine is fixed.

Apparently, people get used to things being done in a certain way. Move anything around and they get confused. The sign in tables were not in the expected places. The district two table was in the space that district eleven usually occupies and vice versa. People got confused by that.

People were asking for the "I voted" stickers but we didn't have any of those.

We used to have a "kids voting" project, which was good because the kids got their parents to vote, but no more "kids voting." I don't know what happened to that.

We love our town supervisor, Mary Cooke! She brings us baked goods! The cookies that she brought were scrumptious!

The propositions were confusing.

It was good to see friends and neighbors.

And now it's all over.

Until next year.

Monday musings

Ginger Bear II enjoys frolicking amidst the leaves.

The bigger the leaves, the better.

Time for a nap, if only I weren't in danger of blowing away, says Ginger Bear II.

Musing number one

Today I went to Jean and Paul's house to rake their leaves. What a crazy adventure that was! As usual, I put on my headphones that are attached to my digital walkman, and I started listening to the local classical music radio station (WNED-FM). At 11 o'clock, I enjoy listening to "Exploring Music" with Bill McGlaughlan. Every week, there is a different theme. This week's theme is titled "Don't Shoot the Piano Player." It's all about piano music, from the invention of the piano to current day music. I got to hear something played on the instrument that was the immediate forerunner of the piano. It was called the "pianoforte." That means "soft loud."
Well, now we have the piano. Piano means soft but you can play the piano fairly loud, thanks to the pedals.  I also read that the immediate forerunner of the piano was the "fortepiano," and that our current piano is actually a "pianoforte."
Clear as mud, right?
Well, anyway, I was listening to people playing the piano, being accompanied by a variety of instruments. I was also raking the leaves. As I raked, the wind became stronger. I started thinking of the movie, "Inherit the Wind," even though the movie, made in 1960, which featured Spencer Tracey and Frederic March, was about the Scopes monkey trial, not windy wind. I continued to rake. The truck came to collect the recyclables.  It is fun to watch because it has an automated object that picks up the totes and empties the recyclables into the truck. To me, that is a great form of entertainment. 

The wind was catching the leaves as I raked them into the garbage cans. As the wind grew stronger, more and more of the leaves were escaping from me. Just as I filled the fourth garbage can, a gust of wind struck and the large recycle tote was knocked to its side.
It was time to stop the pointless activity of raking leaves, only to have them picked up by the wind to swirl in the air.
I will go back next week for more leaf raking.

Election day (musing number two)

is tomorrow. If you are in the United States, please remember to vote. I will be voting mainly for "minor party" candidates because I am very irritated by the negative campaigning that the Democrats and the Republicans have been involved in. The negative campaigning has come in the form of television advertising, glossy cards in the mailbox, and robo calls (always made at dinnertime). I could ignore the television advertising by pressing the "mute" button on my remote control. The robo calls, on the other hand, feel like an assault. It seems that political candidates are exempt from the do not call lists's requirements. My mom is on the do not call list but these calls keep coming. Sometimes, calls from opposing candidates come within seconds of each other.

The constant bashing of candidates against each other, in my opinion, crosses the line from strong campaigning to personal attacks. To me, it comes across as unnecessarily mean and even as bullying. 

Not all bullies are children.

Adults are supposed to know better.

I have absolutely no reason to vote for bullies.

I don't want to elect mean people to public office.

Enough said.

Musing number three: Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill is awesome. She perseveres despite insurmountable odds against her. At the age of nineteen, she has terminal brain cancer. A freshman at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, Lauren has been given weeks to live. Her dream was to play with the basketball team and score points, despite her infirmities. And she did so. She persevered and she scored points on the basketball court. She said that she did not want to let her teammates down.

For sure, she did not.

She says that she is playing in more games.

That is perseverance.

And that is awesome.

Random writing prompt and the start of a book... maybe?

Will Sweet Suzie Bear write a book, too? She appears to enjoy books and libraries very much.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. That looks like just a random bunch of letters, right? Kind of funny looking? Well, that's what I thought until a few years ago, when I signed up to participate in this activity. And failed. I didn't have the attention span for it. Didn't have the attention span for what??? Translate that odd looking bunch of letters???

National Novel Writing Month!!!!

National Novel Writing Month??? Shouldn't that be National Novel Writing Year??

No. Month. In other words, write a novel in one month... 30,000 words written in the space of thirty days. Yep. Thirty. Why couldn't National Novel Writing Month be set in a month that has thirty-one days??? Who knows? Oh well, at least it's not set for...

FEBRUARY!!!!! (only twenty-eight days, but cold and icky and there is nothing to do but write or drink hot cocoa or write while drinking hot cocoa or hibernate or something like that...)

On writing a book when the author has a short attention span

Well, anyway, I love to read fiction but I don't know if I can actually write 30,000 words worth of fiction. But I think that I will experiment with the concept of creative nonfiction that may be a little embellished to the point where I can actually call it fiction and can turn it into a novel.

I'll start with a title...
or two...
working titles...

Alice Navigates the World
(that's because I can't really carry off "Alice Circumnavigates the World," seeing that I've never been in Tahiti or China or Turkey or any of a number of places)
An Idiot Turned Loose on the World
(hmmm, not sure who'd want to read about the adventures of an idiot, but...)
Unheard Voices (that was Kathy Kelly's suggestion)

Let's see how the prompt works!

 Here goes. I am going to write for fifteen minutes with first six words of my story having been produced by a random first line generator. The goal is to prevent me from staring at a blank computer screen helplessly while I wonder what the heck I intended to say.

These are the words:

It was just for one night...

All right. Here goes. Time to set a timer for fifteen minutes. 

It was just for one night but I didn't know that. I was sitting on a steel shelf in a tiny cage. The shadows from the bars danced haphazardly on the floor. I watched them and stared out of the cell, at the dark corridor. It felt as if the cell was slowly shrinking in size. I watched the walls, waiting for them to close in on me but knowing that it was just my imagination playing tricks on me.

The events of the previous few days conspired to get me to this place where time seemed irrelevant. Time passed at a different speed in this closed-off world, hence the irrelevancy of time. It was late, and I heard nothing. No one was shouting or singing. I didn't even hear snores. But still, I just sat on top of the harder than rocks bed and I stared at my orange outfit and I felt the dis-ease of the claustrophobic and remembered the day when I got stuck in the elevator.

I was going up only one flight of stairs. I didn't really need to get on an elevator. My friend, the editor in chief of the alternative newspaper in Buffalo, had raced into an elevator and said that we could do an elevator race. I could get into one elevator and he could get into another elevator, and we could see who would win the contest. He got into the elevator that I thought looked the least likely to crash land. I got into the elevator that looked as if it were doomed. I wondered if anyone ever used these freight elevators but I didn't ask Joe, the editor in chief who preferred to race in elevators than to run up a flight of stairs. Many years later, Joe would have a lot of trouble with a heart condition. On the day of the elevator race, Joe was in fine form.

With great trepidation, I got into the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor. I felt a little stupid about traveling one flight of stairs in a little box. The walls were a grimy shade of green, and the paint was peeling. The doors closed, and I was enclosed in a box.

It... is... not... a... tomb... It... is... not... a ... tomb...

A grinding sound came from someplace that I could not see, and the elevator stopped between floors. I frantically pressed buttons, trying to make the elevator move. The only thing that looked as if it were moving were the walls that were slowly closing in on me. Just like the movies. What the heck? This can't happen in real life? Do I want to find out?

I screamed at the top of my lungs.

HELP!!! HELP!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

No one could hear me. I screamed again. Then I saw the RED BUTTON. It is the RED BUTTON that is used only for emergencies. Well, this was an emergency. I was trapped in an elevator and I would probably become a dessicated skeleton before anyone noticed that the elevator had gone out of service.

HELP!

After what seemed like a century, the elevator started moving again. Well, it was probably about five minutes, but it felt like a century.

I was freed from the terrifying elevator. I was determined never to ride on that elevator again.

The next day, Joe said, "Want to take an elevator ride?"

"No, that is OK," I responded. "I'll take the stairs."

Fifteen minutes have expired...

and, hey, this works... I will continue writing the tale. So... is it fiction, nonfiction, or a combination of the two? I'll call it a combination of the two and loosely a "novel" for the sake of NaNoWriMo.

So... how about you...

it's not too late to sign up for NaNoWriMo.

Just go to the nanowrimo website and sign up. And, you too, can write a novel!!!

Happy birthday to the Grand Island Memorial Library

Today, the Grand Island Memorial Library celebrated its 25th anniversary at its current location. The anniversary was celebrated with a performance by Charlie of Charlie and Checkers and with cake and apple cider. It was a fun time on a cold, damp day. The audience, which was comprised mostly of children under the age of ten, was few in number, probably because of the unappealing weather and the fact that today was the day after Halloween. For what the audience lacked in numbers, they made up for in enthusiasm and energy.

Charlie is one of two brothers who perform at a variety of functions. Charlie seems to be his "stage name." He is actually Danny, a senior at SUNY at Buffalo and a volunteer firefighter and certified emergency medical technician. His brother Joey could not come to this performance so we had Charlie without Checkers. Joey is a high school senior and a member of the fire department in their community.

They call their performances a "comedy magic act."
Charlie was energetic and he exuded enthusiasm. Below are pictures of Charlie in action.

It's time for some fun!

I'd like to introduce you to my rabbit (which was not pulled from a hat).

What could be in this envelope? Something? Nothing?

Abby is ready with her magic wand as Charlie looks for something to come out of the bag...

But, alas, the bag is empty...

The audience is captivated by Charlie's antics.

Wow, what is that?

A crew of assistants is ready to help Charlie with his next magical act.

Whatever could this be?

Looking for things in a bag...

What could possibly be in this bag?

Oooh, a colorful flag! But what more colors could we add to it?

Maybe pink and purple and turquoise and...

OK, enough already! Too many colors! 

Here is my magic coloring book... but the pages are blank and there are no colors! I need help to get the colors back on the pages! Abracadabra! And, lo and behold, with everyone's help, the color pictures came back to the page.

Summer accepts the special basketball challenge.

After a trivia game, Brianna becomes Charlie's assistant. Her job is to hold the magic wand.

The magic wand magically grew bigger.

The wand magic continues.

Something is wrong here.

The wands get bigger and bigger...

Enormous mega wand...

The wand bears an odd resemblance to an eraser...

Charlie is afraid of bees so he has a giant bee swatter to get the multitude of bees that seem to follow him everywhere!

After putting down the wand and getting away from the bees, it was time for some juggling... but Charlie couldn't help but dance and juggle at the same time! And... he discovered that he was dancing with a bee! Charlie has another wand that gets spots. He tried blowing on it but that didn't work. He tried rubbing it with his mother's favorite silk but that didn't work. The silk got spots on it, too. Everyone had to blow on the wand and, before long, there were no more spots.

After the 45 minute show was over, Charlie told the audience that they were fantastic and did a great job. And, because the performance was at the library, he reminded the audience that there is a really great children's section at the Grand Island Memorial Library and that everyone should visit that section, where treasures can be found any time the library is open.