ex-Buffalo

Revisiting Dr. Bennett

2009-09-01T08:24:00.002-05:00

Guest blogger Julie writes about visiting Dr. Bennett. He is now allowing people to read before their examinations.

Going to Dr. Bennett's office meant getting up early, early. He didn't take appointments - getting in to see him for your eye appointment was always first come, first served. The sky was still dim and the streets were empty when my Mom, younger sister and I drove to his office down Linwood Avenue into the heart of downtown Buffalo. In spite of how early we arrived, we'd have to park far down the street, because other people always got there first. We walked down the block toward his office, stopping frequently so my sister and I could fill our pockets with the mahogany horse chestnuts we found on the sidewalk. We climbed the steps to the old Victorian mansion where he lived and kept his office and passed through the front door in the the large parlor that served as his waiting room. I'd pick a clear spot in the corner and plop down on the floor so I could open my tote bag and spread out my books, papers and crayons all around me. No matter how early we came, there was guarenteed to be a long wait.

When my name was finally called, I'd always jump right up, even if I was lost in a book, because I loved Dr. Bennett. You'd step through the door into the former dining room of the house and there he would be, squatting on a rolling piano stool, smoking a cigarette and twinkling away at you like mad. He would chain smoke, wheeze and cough his way through every appointment, rolling around the room on his stool because he was too portly and too breathless to walk around. But he was just at eye level for a child. He always paid close and careful attention to everything I said and looked me right in the eye when he smiled.

After a few years of clucking over my increasing near-sightedness, he turned to my mother and told her that I just HAD to be made to set my books aside and go outside and play. She threw up her hands and said it was impossible to get me out of doors. So he turned to me, leaned forward with both hands on his knees, and said to me, "Do you like wildflowers?"

"Yes," I replied, perplexed at this nonsequitor.

"Then I want you to start identifying wildflowers. Make it your hobby," he ordered.

"OK," I said, obediently. My mother bought me a field guide to wildflowers. I went outside and started memorizing wildflowers. Last weekend I found red Bee Balm, yellow Butter and Eggs and blue Lobelias.

Dr. Arthur L. Bennett

2009-08-31T06:13:00.001-05:00

A number of men and women who lived in Buffalo have influenced my life by their example, although they didn’t know it at the time. One such person was Dr. Arthur L. Bennett.
A long time ago, Dr. Bennett was my ophthalmologist. Mother thought him the best eye doctor in Buffalo. One day, I must have been about seven or eight, she told me that the next morning, we would go to see Dr. Bennett to have our eyes examined. It was a long trip from the Fruit Belt to his office on Linwood Avenue, and as Dr. Bennett did not accept appointments but worked on a first-come basis, we had to start when it was still dark outside. We always hoped to be first in the waiting room in the doctor’s home but almost never were. When Mother and I went through the heavy front door, the front parlor (the waiting room) was dimly lighted. In those days, Dr. Bennett did not allow patients to read while they waited for fear of eyestrain; the eyes he examined must be rested. A secretary sat at a central desk with a shaded lamp and took names. With nothing to do, I wondered about the woman. How did she ever get up early enough to receive the patients? Why didn’t she talk to us? Did she have any little girls? Nor were the other patients forthcoming; immersed in whatever they were thinking, they sat in various poses and barely spoke to their companions. A child has a hard time sitting perfectly still; because I was inclined toward hyperactivity, it was torture.
Mother told me to listen for the sound of a door shutting somewhere in the big, silent house; that meant the great man was coming at last. I heard it and so did the secretary; she called the first name on her list. Finally I made it into his large examining room. It had probably been a dining room or second parlor when someone else lived there. I found him sitting at his desk in the only source of real light in the room, which highlighted his presence and drew me directly to his side. Two other things about the room remain in my memory: the mysterious, impressive, sometimes shrouded ophthalmological instruments scattered about the room, and a pair of closed doors that I thought must lead to the rest of the house.
As I took my place in the patient’s chair close to Dr. Bennett, I saw a white-haired man of average height with a round, protruding stomach. He wore pince-nez spectacles with a neck cord; the lenses, I remember, were sparkling clean. He dressed carefully, no jacket, but the whitest of white shirts, a tie even I could tell was of rich quality, and fine trousers. I remember him—although it might be a false memory—wearing suspenders. His shoes gleamed with polish. Even as a child, I was impressed by his impeccable appearance. He dressed as if each eye examination was AN IMPORTANTEVENT for himself as well as the patient. Smoking a cigarette while he worked gave him a further sophistication in my untutored eyes.
I was in awe of Dr. Bennett and thus was shy. I dreaded to say much because I feared I would bother him. My mother had drilled into my head that I mustn’t bother adults—especially superior people like Dr. Bennett. Although he maintained a correct professional reserve for the time, he was kind to children and young people, and his interest in my eyes and eagerness to find out how they were working made me the center of his attention. Wonderful. Sometimes he would answer questions if I could get up the nerve to ask them. One time I brought up his strange glasses, and he explained what they were, pronouncing the name with French gusto, which delighted my ear and increased my admiration for him. He spoke another language! (If anyone cares, “pince-nez” sounds like “pass neigh.”) Once I told him some years later that I was going to dances now and did he think it would it be all right if I took off my glasses for the occasion? He caught my teenage angst over having to wear glasses, and smiling said, “Yes, but be sure to wear them at all other times.” I, of course, obeyed.
His method was to examine my eyes and after each step, make meticulous notes in what was probably the Palmer style of handwriting, with lovely loops and twirls. One day, I watched him lean forward as he drew my right eye in his book because, he mentioned when he saw my interest, my eye had a small black dot. It was clear to me even as a child how important those written observations were to him, and when I got older, I figured out that his painstaking notes were a way to catch and hold the truth. Dr. Bennett was to make a meticulous record of my vision and its changes over the course of more than twenty years.
After my mother’s examination was over, we went down the front steps and started walking toward Main Street. We’d hop a bus and go downtown for lunch and a movie. I felt all was right in my world (as limited as it was.) I’d just been examined by the best eye doctor in Buffalo, and I was in his expert hands in case anything bad happened to my eyes. He knew everything.

Ten Days in Buffalo

2009-06-07T14:34:00.003-05:00

The greatest joy in Buffalo for me was seeing old friends I left behind when I moved to Virginia. The ten days were filled with whoops of laughter and everyone talking so much that they interrupted everyone else, and much of "Do you remember that teacher we had in high school" and "You look the same" and "Tell me about your children."

The good news was that I saw evidence everywhere that a dedicated group of Buffalo supporters are working hard to get tourists to go there. In my motel room, for instance, there was a very well done brochure listing all of the attractions, and as I read them over, I found some that I didn't know about.

Go, Buffalo!

New Ariel Theater

2009-04-18T10:16:00.003-05:00

I lived in the Fruit Belt section of the East Side. My narrow street ran between North and High streets. All I had to do was walk one block down my street to High and turn right to find the excitement and fun and fantasy I badly needed after a tough week at Public School 48. The New Ariel theater was there where we kids could go to see all the new movies. Saturdays were the best times. We saw two full length movies, a newsreel, a Mickey Mouse, as we called the animated features, a new episode of an ongoing serial, and coming attractions. We liked to walk up and down the aisle for no good reason but to see and be seen by every other kid in the place. You can imagine the age we all were.

By this time in the history of the Fruit Belt, the theater wasn't being kept up. Plainly it had started out as a rather nice place to go. There was decorative molding overhead and bland classical heads were stationed high up on the walls to give it some Renaissance class. During a particularly boring movie, I liked to look up at my favorite: stuck in the lips of the face was a cigarette that a lazy management never took out. I always wondered who put it there. The underside of the wooden seats was thick with wads of gum. You didn't dare put your hand under there. And as the long afternoon rolled on, your bottom started to hurt from the unyielding wood. You had to be careful to find a seat where the floor wasn't sticky and so you gingerly tested the floor in front of the seat with a light touch of your shoe before you finally sat down. And the smell of burned popcorn and the fetid air coming out of the restrooms as kids kept opening and closing the door throughout the long afternoon was pretty bad.

But it was our place to wallow in the unreal once a week, to see those familiar huge faces up on the screen and be thrilled to our toes with exciting stories. It was our "Airhole" as we affectionately called it. And when we finally got out of the theater and walked home, we were dazed with what we had seen and experienced vicariously, and found it hard to accept the reality of our own kitchens and our mothers saying, "Dinner is almost ready."

Inside Fosdick Masten Park High School

2009-03-07T06:11:00.007-06:00

At first I was scared to be a freshman at FMPHS. Only 13, small, and nearsighted, I'd heard the rumor that on the first day, upperclassmen grabbed new freshmen and did terrible things to them like painting their faces with lipstick. The outside of the school didn't worry me because it was so familiar that I hardly saw it. I'd walked past it four times daily for nine years going to and from school # 48 on Edna Street. Besides, I had enough to think about with the snow, the ice, and the abject cold which necessitated wearing wool, funny-smelling-when-they-got-wet snowpants during the cold months. (We kids hated wearing them.) I didn't know anything about the huge building's Beaux Arts Italian Renaissance style, egg and dart molding, glazed terra cotta walls, or the swag on the tower. What worried me was the mysterious INSIDE of FMHS. I braved it through the first few weeks and began to look around me as the classes changed and I trudged the daily route on the three floors: to my beloved band room, to the dark, scary, claustrophobic locker room, to the auditorium for assembly, to the cafeteria in the basement, to the gym, and to many kinds and sizes of classrooms, always keeping a death grip on my notebooks and books for fear I'd drop them. There were mysterious rooms on the third floor we kids talked about but they were never open. The inner courtyards we could see out the tall hall windows looked interesting to explore but no one was allowed out there. I for one longed to see the inside of the faculty room. What did the teachers do in there? I doubted it was fun. A number of my teachers were impossibly old. One was so feeble that her legs were taped up with thick elastic bandages from ankle to knee and her diction was strange--German, I think. Gradually the vast interior became fun to move around in. What became most important to me about the inside of the building were the friends I made there (and still have), the band led by its excellent conductor and teacher Carroll Geiger, and the English class in which I learned to appreciate literature and found I was good at analysis, and in which, one day after class, my beloved teacher Dorothy Pierman counseled me never to teach in high school. I learned also what the concept of "excellence" meant. FMPHS was a place where hard work and good grades (the real thing, not inflated) were encourged and appreciated. I also learned there to distinguish between which teachers were good (in my case teaching me well with a love for the subject) and poor (those who had no facility or enthuiasm for teaching and were biding their time until they could retire). And more. Inside that most beautiful building, I formed habits of thinking and learning and striving to master subject matter which have lasted me all my life. It's not too much to say that the inside of the school and what happened there caused me to lead a life of teaching and writing.

I haven't touched on the building's fascinating background in this entry. At one time the original burned. (I attended the second FMPHS). For more, you might want to go to this fine website: http://www.buffaloah.com/a/north/186/hist/1bldg/1bldg.html

-Marilyn Fisher

Buffalo Bills found in Austin, TX

2008-12-05T15:53:00.004-06:00

No matter where you go, you find references to Buffalo. Our latest find is in a hamburger joint in downtown Austin Texas, where we were surprised to find a Buffalo head with a Buffalo Bills cap on top, and some classic Buffalo Bills bumper stickers.

No small effort here - there is definitely a Buffalo Bills fan behind this.

Huts Hamburgers opened in Austin TX in 1939. It's not a tourist joint; this is a beloved fixture in Austin and one of 5 or 10 restaurants you have to know if you are an Austinite. Others include Dirty's, where the grease is so think it literally flows down your arm (which may explain why the place nearly burned up a few years ago), and Hoffbrau Steaks, where until just recently the sole meat choices on the menu were "small" and "large" - steak that is. But only Huts has a link to Buffalo.

We've heard a rumor that one of the current owners was originally from Buffalo, but we've been unable to confirm this. While he displays a lot of football memorabilia, the Buffalo examples are the most prominent.

These bumper stickers are on the opposite wall from the Buffalo head. While the lower one looks familiar - variants of it are found to this day, the first one stumped me. I would guess from the faded appearance and non-blue and red colors that it dates back to the sixties.

So here we are: be it in restaurants, on business trips, or just running into people walking down the street wearing a Buffalo t-shirt - there are always references to Buffalo to be found and they are always expressed with enthusiasm. That says a lot about the continuing spirit of the city.

-Jeff Fisher

No matter where you go... there's Buffalo

2008-08-14T09:12:00.006-05:00

Given the enormous size of Buffalo many years ago it should be no surprise that no matter where you go, you run into references to Buffalo or Buffalo natives.

One of my hobbies is reading military history. Just this week I came across two Buffalo stories:

1) An article about Wild Bill Donovan - World War 2 OSS spymaster and the only American to receive the nation's 4 highest awards - and originally from Buffalo. (ex-)Buffalonians will certainly be familiar with the Donovan state office building downtown (soon to be demolished).

Class of 1903 at Niagara University, marriage in 1914 to Ruth Rumsey - a member of a wealthy and prominent Buffalo family, and U.S. District Attorney for Western District of New York in 1922.

Reference: page 15: http://www.osssociety.org/pdfs/oss_winter_08.pdf

2) Another was an article in the local paper about a man who died this past week in a car crash. Wallace Jay Giesler (1925-2008), was a native of Buffalo and a World War 2 veteran (Army Air Corps). He also served for 32 years in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Obituary: http://www.legacy.com/statesman/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=115587987

-Jeff Fisher

Buffalo Fights Selfish Lending Institutions

2008-03-28T08:31:00.000-05:00

I wonder if anyone has been following the exemplary action of Buffalo against selfish companies who sold people properties and then foreclosed on them, leaving the houses to slowly decay and provide havens for criminals. I’ve been reading about Buffalo’s heroism nationwide.

In a March 1 article, Jonathan Epstein of the Buffalo News writes that the city is suing twenty-eight mortgage lenders and local banks M&T and Alden State Bank. Most of the lenders are out-of-state servicers with familiar names we’ve all heard: Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York. Not surprisingly, the Big Boys of banking didn’t want to talk to Epstein.
Of the move to make lenders take responsibility for their allowing their houses to deteriorate, Corporation Counsel Alisa A. Lukasiewicz says, “It’s our first strike in a wave that would obviously focus on more.”

Epstein tells us that Buffalo officials set the number of vacant properties at around 10,000. Each of these costs untold thousands because of the city’s burden from them: demolishing the dilapidated properties, responding to crime and fire problems, losing tax income, and watching the surrounding property values go down.

Want to read more, including a list of foreclosed properties and the lenders, and the lawsuit itself? Go to http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/288634.html.

-Marilyn M. Fisher

From The Glory That Was Buffalo department

2008-01-21T09:09:00.000-06:00

The glory isn't always glorious, but it certainly might be fun, like a mechanical bank manufactured in Buffalo I read about today.

Buffalo's Shepard Hardware Company was famous for its delightful mechanical banks. One of the most delightful recently sold for $1673 at the Heritage Auction. It's a Jonah and the Whale bank designed by Peter Adams about 1890. Jonah is a captive in a boat, held by a red-robed man with long white hair who looks suspiciously like God. The deity is trying to throw poor Jonah into the jaws of a whale. Put a coin on top of Jonah's head, press the lever, and God thrusts Jonah forward. Fortunately only the coin slides into the smacking jaws of the whale. God pulls Jonah back from the brink. That is, until someone else puts a coin on his head. Is there a lesson here?

-Marilyn M. Fisher

Chicken Wings

2007-09-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

I followed the "best wings" contest this summer http://www.buffalowing.com/ with great interest. It brought back a lot of memories.

I don't know anymore where the best wings are in Buffalo since I've only eaten wings there exactly twice in the last 19 years: once at the Anchor bar on a business tip in '92 and once during our big trip to Buffalo last May.

But I do remember that Sals in Lancaster had the best wings back in my days in Buffalo. Plump, fat, juicy, and nuclear hot. And very consistent.

When I was at Marine Midland Bank (1983-89), we often went out to lunch as a group to have wings. Once at the Rathskeller on Elmwood (one of my favorite places - is it still there?) in 1984 we had about a dozen people for lunch when one of our new-hires, a nice young lady, decided to brave the hottest wings they had to prove her mettle. Those not only left her crying, they also left her frightened because they were so hot and she couldn't figure out how to make the pain go away!

My own secret method to eating wings was swirling Coke Classic to dissolved the sauce. Call me a wimp, but with both an ulcer and acid reflux, I shouldn't have been eating those anyway. But I did, and I loved them. Those were the days...

The wing situation is pretty bad outside of Buffalo. As a general rule of thumb, if they are referred to on the menu as "Buffalo Wings", they aren't any good. I remain convinced that you can't find great wings anywhere but in Buffalo. You can also say the same thing about roast beef on weck, and probably about pizza as well.

-Jeff Fisher

My Old Fruit Belt Home and What Happened to It

2007-09-11T08:22:00.002-05:00

I couldn’t speak but only stare when we drove to the Fruit Belt street between North and High where I had lived for twenty-one years, that enclave originally made up of German immigrants, who kept their houses spotless and nourished their gardens with the horse droppings of the horse-drawn vehicles that regularly traversed the narrow streets with overhanging Dutch Elms. What had been a street of well-kept homes is now decimated. Here and there on both sides of the road, houses have been demolished and empty lots yawn. Probably the most impressive two family house on the street with two spacious flats, the Hammer House, is simply gone. I kept looking at the space. Down the block, on the corner of High Street, there had been a real tenement building of the type you can still see in thirties movies, with fascinating (to a child) vertical rows of porches built across the back. I had been warned never to set foot in it. Dangerous in there, my mother warned. Gone.The houses of my friends Danny, Betty, and Harry were gone. The house where a family thought to be of Gypsy stock was gone. But more devastating than any of this was my old house, which is somehow still standing.

My father worked a long way away at Sealtest Ice Cream downtown on Elm Street. He walked back and forth every day, to and from work, in every type of weather known to Buffalonians. After a long day on his feet, he didn’t stop to rest when he came home but shoveled snow or cut the grass. Then he’d come in and listen to a program of music from Canada, where he’d been born, while my mother made dinner. He and my mother had prudently built a three car garage in the yard during the Depression and rented out two spaces for extra money. In the space all the way to the left, our space, my father hung a swing for me, which retracted into the ceiling by ropes when we needed to put our car in. Cool! My mother had saved and saved to remodel the little house she’d been given for a wedding present by her father. The house was well taken care of by my parents.

My childhood home, from which I walked to my elementary school and high school, has been badly used. The porch on the front, where I used to sit for hours reading, is still there but looks small and mean. The driveway is mostly gone. The garage which my father took such good care of is gone. I don’t like to think of what the inside of the house must look like, where my mother happily made a much larger kitchen and a longer living room where I could finally have a piano. She told the carpenter just how she wanted a new bedroom for me with a built-in dressing table, and had him build another new bedroom upstairs for my sister.

I wish my old house had been torn down before I saw it again.

-Marilyn M. Fisher

Buffalo: Is it Hopeless?

2007-09-09T13:32:00.001-05:00

In May my family and I went back to Buffalo. For a long time we had worked out carefully what we would see via car because with everyone’s varying schedules, we would only have three intensive days and an evening. Everyone wanted to see the houses we had lived in, the schools we all attended, and the places we used to go for fun. But just as important, we wanted to see how Buffalo had changed since we all left. One of our party had always lived in Texas and for her, the trip was a pleasure.

For me, it was bittersweet.

Looking at the hundreds of pictures we took, I realize again how isolated the city of Buffalo is by its many shabby streets or empty ones where buildings have been torn down but none have gone up; its falling-down buildings that no one will demolish, the Diocesan Educational Campus is an example, its waterfront of great grain elevators and factories, now useless for any purpose, that raise memories of Buffalo’s dynamic past; its ugly high expressway downtown that looks rickety and unstable. The exodus of Buffalonians to the suburbs in the fifties resulted in communities like Williamsville, Town of Tonawanda, Clarence and others that are desirable places to live. The minute we crossed the line between the city proper and outlying communities, we saw a difference. It seems as if those who rule Buffalo have given up, have contented themselves with a demolition here, a facelift of an old building there, an attitude that says, “We’ll never have enough money to fix everything, there’s nothing we can do.”

And yet. Many beautiful houses and churches remain. Buffalo used to be the city where aspiring architects wanted commissions because of Buffalo’s prestige, artists like Frank Lloyd Wright (represented so richly by five houses), Louis Sullivan, HH Richardson and others. The city has a shameful record of destruction. To be fair, many cities like Buffalo merrily tore down old buildings before the value of saving architectural gems was recognized. Wright’s groundbreaking Larkin Administration Building was demolished in 1950 by a short-sighted Common Council. I remember seeing that building from afar and excitedly asking my parents, “What is that?” You could not help but be struck by its unusual design, so different from the common buildings my eyes were used to. But a hopeful sign is the renovation of the Darwin D. Martin House Complex on Jewett and Summit. The tour we took showed that a desire to restore great buildings to their original design and resourcefulness in raising the money to do so can accomplish miracles.

More coming.

--Marilyn M. Fisher

Found: one ex-Buffalo

2007-08-19T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm always looking for news about Buffalo, and especially ex-Buffalonians like ourselves:

What are people thinking about their former home town?
Has anybody else gone back to visit like we did... and what did they make of what they saw?

My Google search turned up one interesting "ex-Buffalo" this morning on this site: http://flickr.com/photos/eismcsquare/44029137/

Seems that a Water Buffalo didn't notice the croc that lives in this watering hole... and paid the ultimate price. His horns are all that is left of this "ex-Buffalo".

-Jeff Fisher

Discovery Channel Urban Explorer

2007-07-08T08:08:00.001-05:00

Thanks to FixBuffalo, I've finally gotten to see part of the Discovery Channel Urban Explorer show on Buffalo from 2005. This segment explores the Transfiguration Church (which I have never seen), The Anchor Bar (which I have certainly seen and eaten at many times!), and the enormous grain elevator complex known as "Concrete Central". I've seen this from a distance, but of course never from the inside. The video goes inside and up on top... and then it's the end of the video. Arghhh!

Of all the videos I'm looking for, this one is at the top of the list. Where can I beg, borrow, or (download) a complete copy of the full 1-hour show?

Here's the video from YouTube:

Note, the YouTube video is gigantic and slow to load, so here is a link to it from eSnips:

Concrete Central - additional reading:

Underground.org - http://www.undercity.org/photos/Buffalo_ConcreteCentral/index.htm
Karl B. Josker gallery: http://www.pbase.com/kjosker/image/40223979
Buffalo History Works: http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/photograph/others/pic35.htm
Buffalo Exploration: http://www.buffaloexploration.com/cc/index.htm

If you haven't seen Fix Buffalo Today, you are missing a great site that would be of interest to both current and ex-residents of the city or the area:

Site: http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

-Jeff Fisher

A small world...

2007-06-05T11:21:00.000-05:00

Here I am sitting in a business meeting in Washington DC - when I found that two other people in the room are also connected to Buffalo and still visit family there. One has a wife from Tonawanda, the other is from North Buffalo - the Jewett/Amherst area. He has even visited the Rick James gravesite - a place we missed on our recent visit!

-Jeff

Research for a Buffalo Trip

2007-05-20T18:42:00.000-05:00

Before we left for Buffalo, we researched places to see using several different sources. As I've mentioned, one was the excellent blogs being written by several people in Buffalo - and I've got many of those links on this site.

Another research method was books about Buffalo - and there have been a lot written over the past 100 years, and especially over the past 10 years(although many good ones are out of print). One that was particularly helpful was "Buffalo - Good Neighbors, Great Architecture". We're not new to Buffalo, having spent 30+ years there (me) and ~50 (my Mom). Nevertheless this book contains an enormous amount of information I never knew, and it was very helpful in locating the historical and industrial sites we wanted to see - as well as for filling me in on their background.

Unfortunately, it appears to be out of print... but as usual Amazon.com came thru! You'll find this book, and several more, in our Amazon.com store.

-Jeff

We're back from Buffalo!

2007-05-20T17:56:00.000-05:00

We completed a 5-day trip to Buffalo last weekend, and we're only now recovering. We survived almost 400 miles of exploration thru every possible old neighborhood, historical site, the downtown and industrial waterfront, and various old haunts of ours in Buffalo and in the suburbs. And we toured some new-to-us places like Graycliff (great!).

The *great* blogs being written by several people in Buffalo, particularly Craig Howard, inspired our trip. We spent the last couple of months going thru old blog postings looking for historical locations and other significant places. We visited a large number of them, including the incredible Dodge Street orphanage and this great old house below:

We mapped every place of interest ahead of time using Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007, then followed the map using GPS. We didn't miss a single spot.

We also stopped for food at some our our old favorites, including Asa Ransom House and the Roycroft Inn. And of course Andersons for a roast beef on weck. As well as Parkside Candies for some ice cream (now Perrys ice cream, but just as good). There are many more places to eat like these that we wished we could have visited...

One particular focus was on my Mother's childhood neighborhood in the Fruit Belt, including her high school nearby. Needless to say, the neighborhood has changed a lot from ~60 years ago - but it's not as bad as we initially thought it would be. My Mom tried to talk her way into the school for a quick look around (she is after all a former teacher in the Buffalo school system), but unfortunately they were testing students and we couldn't get in.

Another unfortunate fact: Central Terminal was unavailable for a look-around. I had talked to the group before our trip (they have done a great job saving it!) and they told me the bad news. I will come back sometime to our it. I would have sworn I'd been in it as a child (possibly for our train trip to the worlds fair in 1964?).

Our tour began with a landing at the Buffalo Airport... which was completely unrecognizable (and that's a very good thing!). I think the long passage below was originally the eastern termimal of the airport, which as I remember used to have an outdoor viewing platform where the jet exhaust of the planes would blast you! No more...

All of us moved away from Buffalo for career purposes around ~20 years ago, and I haven't been back for more than a day since then. So we really wanted to see what everything looked like and how the city is doing. We found a lot of good news, some bad, and some things that are as hopeless as ever (http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/73337.html).

And we have over 760 photos, which together with original photos we took 20-60 years ago will form the basis of this site. It will take some time to process all of this, and we have severe information overload from our trip, but now the real work on this site can (at last) begin. Hopefully our fellow ex-Buffalonians will also see some places they might remember...!

More (lots more!) once we get our thoughts and photos organized....

-Jeff Fisher

Getting closer to the big visit!

2007-05-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

The big visit to Buffalo that we've been planning for the past few years is set for Mothers Day weekend this month. 4 family members are converging from our homes across the USA to visit. We've planned an extensive drive past old family homes, favorite places, and with a special emphasis on the architectural aspects of Buffalo that are in decline or are being saved.

We've marked everything in Streets & Trips software, rented a big car, and finalized our arrangements.

2 disappointments:

my Mom's old school on Masten Avenue has survived - and that's a good thing. But there are some special activities taking place and we can't get into them then. The marble stairs are still there, the inner courtyards, very tall doors with lovely pediments over them, etc. Band room gone though. Basement and cafeteria the same. Everything my Mom would love to see... but the timing is wrong. Instead we'll go by her old childhood home in the Fruit Belt, as well as the armory and stadium nearby. I don't think I've seen those places in 20+ years myself.
I really wanted to see how Central Terminal looks - I never got to see it during my 33 years in Buffalo (although I think I did as a child - my Mom claims I couldn't of seen it). We've all been following the restoration (great job folks!) intently. We may have to settle for a drive-by instead, unfortunately.

Of course when I left Buffalo in 1989, the Canadiana was being restored. I would have liked to see how it turned out... but that is gone too. I have some pictures of it's final resting place (before being cut up) in Canada that are very sad.

The purpose of this visit is just to attempt to catch up on what's happening in Buffalo since we did spend most of our lives there. As I say in my personal intro to ex-Buffalo.com, we've always been interested in the city and especially in it's rebuilding. Several very nicely-written blogs from the Buffalo area have kept us informed - many of the locations we're driving past are architectural gems that have been detailed on these sites.

And of course we're also planning on lots of pictures to illustrate this site - to which we'll add our recollections over the next several months. Hopefully some other ex-residents will see some places they recognize.

-Jeff Fisher

ex-Buffalo: new blog hosting service!

2007-04-03T14:55:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our new ex-Buffalo blog, now hosted by Blogspot.

All the existing blog postings on the old host have now been moved over to here.

Next month we're all going to Buffalo to play tourist. We'll go by our old homes, places where we used to go, some places we'd never even seen before.

We'll have many new topics to write after our expedition!

If you are subscribing with RSS, please note the new feed URL: http://ex-buffalo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

-Jeff

Wegmans

2007-02-21T19:35:00.000-06:00

I was out of town on a business trip the other day when I found out that one of our business partners we were meeting with was originally from Rochester NY. He told me that people are leaving Rochester in droves for the exact same reasons that they leave Buffalo for.

That didn't surprise me. Rochester is known for major employers like Kodak and Xerox - but neither of those companies are anywhere near what they once were. He told me about the favorite things he remembers from Rochester - including my favorite Roast Beef on Weck. I never thought of Rochester for those types of foods, but of course with a large (and segregated) multi-ethic population just like Buffalo it makes sense that the ethic foods would be mostly the same. He also told me about how well Wegmans is doing these days - Wegmans being a home-grown supermarket chain originally from Rochester.

I remember the first Wegmans in Buffalo, although I'm not sure where it was located. I think it was in West Seneca I don't remember the name of the street, but I could certainly drive it from memory. I do remember going in there when it opened (1977?) and that it was gigantic for its time.

He also told me about a modern Wegmans in Virginia that is so large it has 56 checkout lanes. Apparently Wegmans is doing very well these days. I would also guess that Wegmans has invested heavily in data mining/analysis tools. Smart company.

We also talked about the enormous snow storm that fell earlier this month to the east of the city, and we talked about the ski resorts in central New York (my local skiing was mostly in Holiday Valley). And we talked about hiking in Letchworth and Watkins Glen, two of my favorite places in upstate New York. He told me that he'd move back to Rochester, despite the weather, if his job allowed him to. I have the opposite thinking - I wouldn't go back to Buffalo under any circumstances. I'm very clearly of the line of thought that I've been able to grow personally and professionally in ways that I never could of if I'd stayed in the same place for my entire life so far. I've made my own choice and I can't imagine any other. But to each his own. Per the purpose of this site, this doesn't mean I'm not interested in what's happening in my old home. Exactly the opposite.

Another partner of ours on this same trip told me about his racing experiences in Columbus, OH - another city very much like Buffalo. He has the same racing interests as myself, especially Formula 1. He's never been to Nelson Ledges, but knows Mid-Ohio very well.

Small world!

Reference: http://www.wegmans.com

-Jeff Fisher

New Ariel Theater

2007-02-17T16:33:00.000-06:00

The unlovely New Ariel Theater at 185 High Street was a big part of my childhood in the late thirties and the forties. I went to the "Airhole," we kids' nickname for the theater, every Saturday afternoon to see two full-length movies (usually A and B movies), a serial, a newsreel, a cartoon, and coming attractions. Sometimes I went with my father, who was hooked on movies too, on a week night.

The lobby smelled like a combination of vomit and popcorn. Inside the auditorium, I found a good seat near the screen, being very near-sighted, and settled down for the approaching pleasure. The black fold down seats were wooden, of course, making it awfully uncomfortable to watch long movies like the four-hour Gone with the Wind. The undersides of the seats were studded with gum; so were the aisles and floors. If there was time before the movie started, I always tried to find a gumless seat but it was usually a lost cause. (My father would invariably ask if I wanted to go to a movie by saying, "Want to get stuck in the gum again?)"

There was little decoration in the shabby auditorium, but curiously, it had been ornamented at some time with a row of bas-relief plaster-of-paris Greek-style heads (probably a feeble attempt to portray Ariel) with slightly open mouths around the ceiling. In one, a wag, probably a workman, had stuck a cigarette between the lips, giving it a cynical air.

After the long day at the Ariel, I'd emerge, dazed, into the clean air outside, to walk home, already planning to go again the next Saturday, because the coming attractions had been so alluring.

-Marilyn M. Fisher

V8 Snowblower

2006-12-02T15:58:00.000-06:00

Do you need a new snowblower?

Why waste time? How about one powered by a big 454 CHEVY V-8??? Whatever happens this winter, it won't be a problem!

-Jeff

Wanted: Discovery Channel Urban Explorer show on Buffalo

2006-11-24T02:15:00.000-06:00

On the great website http://www.undercity.org/about.htm , I found that the Discovery Channel created 5 episodes of a show named Urban Explorer in the 2004-2005 timeframe. One episode covered Buffalo.

Unfortunately, the Discovery Channel doesn't offer copies of the show... there is a site in Britain that offers a quick view of (parts?) of it for 1.50 - but I am hesitant to use by credit card on that site: http://www.discoverylifestylebroadband.co.uk/broadband/broadband.jsp?site=lsuk&template=episode&genre=7&series_id=420&episode_id=946&episode_list_no=1

-Jeff

Central Terminal Restoration Corporation 2006 Slide Show

2006-11-24T01:39:00.000-06:00

Wow! While looking around for an episode of the Discovery Channel Urban Explorer television show that covered Buffalo, I came across this slideshow on YouTube from the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation.

The question comes up... was I ever there? I would swear I recognized the staircase up to the office levels, and the grand hall. But I have no absolute memory of ever being inside. If I was then it must have been as a very young kid, when it was still operational. I do remember a steam train ride around the city in 1989 that went past it... leaving me wondering then what it looked like inside.

In any case, hopefully we'll be able to go into it during our planned trip next year to Buffalo - IF the preservation group happens to have it open that week. I think we should schedule around it... but we may have to miss it.
-Jeff

Our plan to visit Buffalo next spring!

2006-11-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

I've been talking to my Mom about a possible visit to Buffalo next spring. And not just a quick visit, but the definitive drive-by of anything and everything we knew when we lived there. My Mom and I will both fly in from our respective current homes (almost a thousand miles apart), we'll rent something comfortable, and we'll hit the road for probably 3 full days. Then we'll split up to visit our respective friends.

My entire family has left Buffalo.... we all live in different parts of the country. All of us have been back to Buffalo since we permanently left (all around 20 years ago). The last time I was back was about three and a half years ago... on a very quick business for my company. In fact, it was the only business I'd ever done for that company in Buffalo or anywhere nearby (I'd been all over the world on business, millions of miles on various airlines, but only this once to Buffalo). This was also the first time I had flown into the newly remodeled Buffalo Airport... I didn't even recognize the airport, it was unrecognizable (in my day, the open viewing platforms out to the runway were still open!).

I made some time on that trip to take a quick "tour" past some of the old homesteads (and for a beef on weck with loganberry to drink - of course!) and it became clear that a much larger trip was going to be needed. My curiosity grew and it has been growing ever since. Combine that with some memories that have come up from reading all of the really excellent blogs about Buffalo (especially the work of Craig Howard of North Coast Online) and it became *really* clear that a much longer trip would be needed to adaquately cover the long list of locations.

Our (partial) list includes:

Our old homes in Williamsville and Tonawanda
downtown Buffalo, including Marine Midland (my old company. Which is now HSBC. My old lunch place - JT Garcias - is it still there?), the subway, and the waterfront. Maybe a quick walk thru Main Place Mall and out on the transit plaza.
the Fruit Belt area (where my grandparents raised my Mom)
the Rockpile.
Frank Lloyd House on Summit & Jewett Parkway - and another on the lake shore
the former Freddies Donuts.
The former Sealtest plant, where my Grandfather made the famous ice cream.
the industrial canal zone, the Skyway, and the former site of Bethlehem Steel (soon to be a wind farm?).
One last look at the 'Aud.
former 998 Broadway (where my Grandparents would take me on Saturday mornings once a month)
Central Terminal (which I don't ever think I've been in, but which fascinates me)
The Orphan Home on Dodge Street (which I've never seen in person, but which has been the subject of several blog postings recently)
Buffalo Zoo (we'll see the controversial Elephant exhibit that we've been watching from afar)
Delaware Avenue, Delaware Park Casino. Maybe the history museum.
The castle in Williamsville, along with Glen Park and the mill (I remember the amusement park there, we were driving by the night it burned down)
The Conservatory in South Buffalo.
Grand Island (site of my college years summer job for three years at the old Fantasy Island amusement park (1yr bumper cars, 2 yrs roller coaster)
Graycliff, the Wright house on the lakeshore (never seen it, but have read about it since in Buffalo blogs)
Niagara Falls (for the first time as actual tourists, rather than residents). Especially Canada. We'll do the entire tourist thing, including the Maid of the Mist. And we'll return to Buffalo thru Canada and the village of Chippawa (as we recently recognized in the Marilyn Monroe film "Niagara"), returning to Buffalo via the parkway along the river.
Niagara gorge. Would be nice to see it as a tourist for a change. Plus, I've never been on the Spanish cable cars, so it's now or probably never.
Many things from our past, like AM&As and some of the downtown movie theatres are all long gone.

Where to eat?

Town of Tonawanda - Ice Cream at Longos
Williamsville - Roast Beef on Weck and loganberry at Andersons
For old times sake, Salvatores Italian Gardens (outrageous decor, or tasteless? - but good food)
Clarence - Asa Ransom house for dinner, maybe the Red Mill for lunch
East Aurora - The Roycroft Inn. One of my favorite places, especially in winter with the gigantic fireplace
We'll certainly find some more fine dining while we're there... but any of the places I remember are probably long gone. Heck, I (barely) remember the big cafeteria in Niagara Square downtown when I was really young...

So this will be an interesting trip. We're tentatively planning for the Mothers Day timeframe next year. Needless to say, it will provide a lot of background material for this site and this blog.

-Jeff Fisher

Early November in Buffalo... 25 years ago

2006-11-12T04:00:00.000-06:00

Going back in time to Buffalo NY, 25 years ago. November in Buffalo is a time I remember well...

Being a car-nut, it meant that the summer racing season (autocross and Open Track events) was over and it was time to put the car away for the winter. Of course, I stretched it out for a few weeks from the first sub-zero day until the first snowfall, since I certainly preferred driving my nice summer car instead of my old winter car. But at some point the first snowfall comes and it's time to switch cars. My summer cars were Mustangs, and my winter cars over the years were a mix of German Capris and American Escorts. The Capri will be the subject of an entire post in the near future... I believe I picked up the car just before the winter of 1981. I'd run 4 snow tires and get by ok; although obviously traction wasn't perfect in this rear-wheel drive car. At the time I was a college student, so money was in short supply and the tires weren't always in great condition. The Escorts came later and were much better winter cars - they could run all year with just all-season tires and of course front-wheel drive made for far better traction.

So the major downside was that I had to put the good car away and get out the old car. If there was an upside, it was that this time of year was also a really great time of year for TSD (time-speed-distance) car rallies. I was a member of the Southtown Rally Club (as I think it was named - if it exists anymore I can't find it) for a number of years, as well as another rally club. We ran rallies all year round, but the fall and winter were the best of times because the climates and roads got progressively more challenging.

The object of a TSD rally, if you haven't been on one, if to match the time and mileage of the route setup by the rally master. A route you identify as you are driving it from the provided instructions. It isn't a speed event, but it is about maintaining an average speed on the public roads it was run on. You have to decipher instructions and follow the route the rallymaster created - solely with instructions such as "turn left at 3.2 miles past last turn". Periodic checkpoints would check your progress and time. Off-course checkpoints would catch you if your measurements were off - for example if you saw a turn at 3.1 miles and took it. Many participants found themselves completely lost if they didn't interpret the instructions correctly.

The fall rally season would start in the October timeframe with an all-day rally that ran over several counties south of Buffalo for a couple of hundred miles. This would start in the morning and run until dinner time, when the prizes for most accurate time and navigation would be handed out. The rally was named "Discover America", the rallymaster and event organizer was Tom Krajewski, and - incredibly - it's still running these days. I remember that my Ford dealer in Arcade NY was usually a sponsor. The owner, Les Halazi, enjoyed rallying a lot. The first time I met him, he was driving an untitled Ford Futura right off the showroom floor (it'd be sold with a couple of hundred miles on it).

The next big rally of the season was the annual Halloween rally, which besides navigational challenges included stopping by graveyards to pick out clues. Prizes were given for the most involved costume. In 1981 (or 1982?), my friend and I went as the the Bell Hoop Elves from the Wizard of Oz. Weird costumes, and it took a lot of nerve to wear them. But it was a purposely calculated risk (and also there weren't any other costumes to rent by the time we got around to picking out some) and we won the best costume award because of it. I've got a picture, but it will *never* be seen in public. I remember that we had to drape the back of the hoop over the back of the Recaro seats in my Mustang in order to drive. Furthermore, on the way home that evening after the rally party, some kids thru some rocks down on my car from an overpass. Once I got out of the car, I gave chase in the outfit - I can't imagine what they were thinking!

The winter rallies would get progressively tougher - the conditions would worsen, snow and ice would be the major problem. I remember that the driving was just as tough as following instructions. By the time the snow really piled up around the end of November and beginning of December, we were well tuned "winter drivers" and could handle anything as long as the road was passable at all. And sometimes it barely was... one rally post-Thanksgiving in approximately 1982 had us driving a Camaro with 2 old snow tires down roads in the southern counties that had walls of frozen snow and ice over 10 feet tall on each side of the road. It was literally driving down tunnels... it was outright hazardous... and the car was not at all prepared for it. Nonetheless, we tied for first place overall... and the jerks organizing the rally gave the prize to the other car solely because it's owner had prepared for rallies with a professional rally computer and 4 snow tires. We felt we should have gotten the first prize because we had a far tougher driving experience in a far more challenging car that obviously took a lot more skill to overcome. But our prize was a 20 pound turkey... and neither of us had any need for that.

So while the season was tough, and getting a lot tougher, all of us made the most of it and managed to continue in our motorsport hobby, such as it was. And that's how it worked in Buffalo - whatever your interests were it was important to dive right into them or else you ended up hibernating all winter and hating the climate even more. That's why you see Buffalo Bills fans sitting in their open stadium (under any conditions - even wind chill well below zero) and enjoying their game. And that's why we went out and drove challenging roads all year round, no matter the weather. Call it making lemonade out of lemons, it was good times.

-Jeff Fisher

Remembering The Rockpile

2006-10-15T02:00:00.000-05:00

Late sixties, the father of my best friend, Mr. Cheskin, took us to see a baseball game at the Rockpile. He got us tickets in the section where balls would fly straight into the audience - giving us the chance to catch one. If I remember correctly, I believe I did that.

"IndaBuff" has a video slideshow of the Rockpile on the web. I only vaguely remembered it at this point in my life, but my Mom still does and also reminded me that she had gone with my Grandfather to Offermann Stadium to see baseball, and Civic Stadium to see a stock car race. More benefits from the WPA program which built the stadium in the middle of middle-class housing so that more people could enjoy it.

I've seen more and more examples around the country of the great projects that were built in the WPA years. I'm going to look for some books on the topic and will get back to you later.

Reference: http://x.indabuff.com/donut/?p=202

-Jeff Fisher

Bad news for Buffalo: college graduates

2006-10-14T02:00:00.000-05:00

Number of college graduates per 100 people.

Reference: http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2006/10/richard-florida-v-buffalo-ny.htmlvv

-Jeff

Ice-racing the winter car

2006-03-14T12:14:00.000-06:00

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I used to live in Buffalo NY. In fact, that is where I grew up. For a car enthusiast, half the year was hell. It was not a good town for a car enthusiast!

In the winter months, we had a sort of Stockholm Syndrome... necessary to make the best of our captivity indoors. INCREDIBLY hot chicken wings were the norm... and were also good for curing whatever winter ailment you had. NFL? Well, the game took place no matter what was coming down. A couple of inches of snow? No cause for a "snow day" there - school and work would continue almost no matter what (an inch of snow closes down Texas!). Huge snow storm that closes the city? Well, as the mayor once said, just sit back, get a 6-pack, and enjoy it.

Car enthusiasts had it very tough... if you drove your "good" car through the winter months, by spring you'd have rust coming thru somewhere. Extremely heavy use of rock salt was the norm. Don't ask what thousands and thousands of tons of salt did to the environment... I guess that didn't matter since the old steel industry had polluted so much anyway.

I knew one enthusiast who purchased a 633CSi and claimed it would never rust through - being a "master" German car and all... Well, by spring there was a hole right thru the drivers door. I remember trying not to snicker. But also feeling sorry.

Life was tough in "Nifelheim". As an resident, you had to be tougher.

So the solution was a "winter car" - an old beater that you drove just in the winter months and which you could afford to loose. But, as an enthusiast, not "too" much of a beater - it had to have some sort of sporting "credentials". And a darned good heater.

Hence, my Mercury Capri: with a 4-speed manual, a long-tube header, and an extra large Weber carb. And this from the good old days when Capris came from Germany - not the United States and certainly not from Australia. And compared to the beemer, the metal on this German was probably twice as thick. It wasn't going to rust thru in it's first year in the cold and salt.
And I equipped it with 4 European ice and snow tires. The hot ticket!

So I drove this poor thing for two winters, and left it parked on the side of the driveway for the rest of the year. It turned out to be almost ideal. Front wheel drive would have been tons better, but this was in the days when front wheel drive was rare and the cars that had it were mostly mediocre. AWD Audis were exotica. 4WD trucks - due to their height and resultant high CG - usually ended up by the side of the road upside down.

And, just to prove my mettle, there was the "ice race" run by the local SCCA region (the worst SCCA region I have ever encountered - but that's another story). This was a yearly event, held on a frozen lake with a course plowed out of the snow. It was a combination road course and autocross. I should have been able to handle that, since I was in the middle of 5 intensive summers of continuous (literally) autocross and roadcourse events. Wrong, I blew it.

The day of the event was *so* cold that even I couldn't stand it - and I was (then) an inmate who did everything outdoors no matter what. I went out on the course and over-drive it, oversteering around all the turns. And when I went off course, I just plowed a new course and kept on going. I don't remember how I placed but with all the oversteer it wasn't great.

Fortunately, a nearby watering hold had hot chocolate, so I didn't fare too badly. And as you might imagine, one car (a Volvo) went thru the ice. That was a good time to call it a day and go home.

My second year of ownership wasn't so good: the heater quit in the middle of a particularly cold period. There was no way to drive without a defroster. So, I drove to the local junkyard and bought a used heater core... and replaced it in my driveway. In a wind chill of probably 10 below. I've never been so cold. The final straw was when the parking brake snapped it's cable - activating the parking brakes at all times (who designs this stuff?). That required a new cable and a new rear hydraulic line - again fabricated under the worst of conditions. Enough was enough.

You know what they say about adversity making you stronger? It's true. I am better off for my experience in Nifelheim.

Whatever happened to the Capri? A friend bought it from me and turned it into an autocross car. He completely rebuilt it, almost to the point of restoration. It was painted bright red. He called it his "Crappy" and that was apt. Unfortunately, shortly after completion, he found a handling "issue" (or lack of driver skill) and hit some guardrails on an entrance ramp he was using for practice. I don't know what happened to the car, but his next one was a (European) Fiesta and that was also highly modified. I don't know whatever happened to him. I hope he got out and is enjoying all-year auto enthusiasm somewhere warm.

These days I have a large collection of books and original Capri dealer brochures from Europe. That's probably as close as I'll be getting to a Capri ever again. I did recently notice that there is a German Capri club in this country, and they have a get-together every year. Averaging about 6 cars. I may even stop by if I am ever close to one. I recently did some research on the market for original German Capris, and there are some to be had. Hmmm... I never owned a hatchback... and the hot ticket would be a 302 under the hood. Hmmm...

-Jeff Fisher

Remembering the Blizzard of '77

2006-01-28T14:11:00.000-06:00

The ClassicBuffalo blog has an interesting article on the Blizzard of '77.

Yes, we were there - and we'll never forget it!

Continue at source: http://classicbuffalo.blogspot.com/2006/01/remembering-blizzard-of-1977.html

-Jeff

Buffalo is the 5th most stressed city

2006-01-17T20:01:00.000-06:00

Are you surprised? Buffalo is the 5th most stressed city in the U.S.

Reference: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/02/07/daily39.html

-Jeff

Welcome!

2006-01-15T15:33:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my new website - although it's still under construction. I'm working on getting the basic structure finished and working before I start to add the major substance.

I hope you enjoy it - and be sure to leave comments.

-Jeff