During
my annual search of the Internet for Dad's first church, I came across the
beautiful photography of Karl
R. Josker. I urge anyone with an interest in Buffalo to visit his
pages - churches,
schools, steam
locomotives, lighthouses,
Crystal Beach plus a moving
pictorial
tribute to his wife of 36 years.
After
I mentioned my memory as a three-year-old of Mother hanging laundry on
a flat tarpaper roof while I watched the orphanage children playing
below, Mr. Josker went out and photographed our old house at 521
Northampton. The photos seen above arrived in my Inbox the next day! Thank you,
Karl.
School
66 is now the North Park Academy. We had separate boys and girls
entrances in the rear facing the playground, on the right and left. A big thrill was a huge barrel of
apples inside the doorway as we exited one day. One apple to each child - a
wonderful treat in those post-war days.
Also for 8 cents, we could
stay after school and watch movies in the auditorium - once it was . I always sat in
the balcony. I also remember a production of the Mikado with live actors! And signs pointing to the basement where in the evenings
English was taught as a second language to the many German immigrants in the
late 1940s.
We
gave our fifth grade teacher Mrs. Bowker a fruit roll when she took maternity
leave - each child brought a single piece of fruit wrapped in tin foil or
wax paper. On signal, we rolled all the fruit up the aisle to her
desk, which was on a raised platform in those days in the European
style. I always wondered what she did with all that bruised
fruit!
Such wonderful teachers - Miss Ruth and Miss Joliet (K), Mrs.
Miller (1), Mrs. Eldges (2), Mrs. Rudin (3) (who sent me to the office for
daring to whisper to another student!) and so many more.
Mother
walked me to kindergarten the first few days in 1945 - from then on I was on my
own at four years old, with the instructions to look both ways when crossing
and don't talk to strangers, especially if they are in a car offering you
candy or a ride. The next year, when I was five, it was my
responsibility to walk all the "younger" children in the
neighborhood the four and a half blocks to School 66. How things have
changed.
