Doctor Borschlein

Dr Borschlein was a "family doctor" who lived on Chili Avenue, in Gates, just East of Hinchey Rd.
He was our obstretician, pediatrician, and internal medicine doctor for all the years we were growing up. Starting with our deliveries, I guess our last visits were for high school physicals.

I remember a couple of visits in particular. Once, on a Saturday morning when I was about 10, I was playing basketball at the Florence Brassar gym and I went crashing, face first, into the open bleacher bench. I remember being rushed to Dr B's and getting stitches very close to my eye. Another time, while playing kickball in the neighborhood, I "hurt" my finger. When it still hurt the next day, I was taken to Dr B and he wrapped the finger together with the adjoining one and said to come back in 2 weeks. When I did, I still couldn't move the finger so then he suggested x-rays. The x-ray showed a broken finger which meant that after two weeks of settling, the orthopedic surgeon had to "straighten it out again" and then set it properly. Other than those visits, I only remember a bunch of routine visits for routine shots and checkups.

Dr B also made house calls and I can remember him "stopping by" to make sure sick kids were getting better - how great was that for big family Moms in one car households??

Getting Around

Getting around the neighborhood, visiting friends in other neighborhoods, getting to and from school (in 7th and 8th grade) all involved walking and/or riding bikes. The ride to school, which we were not allowed to do until 7th grade (and then only sparingly because the school bus was the only way in the rain and snow which made up the majority of the school year), was about 5 minutes on a bike and a 15 minute walk. The appeal of course was the utter freedom one felt. Each such trip home included a stop at the Bungalow market to get something for a nickel or a dime (Butterfinger bar, ice cream sandwich, gum, etc). The ride for us went down Chestnut Ridge Road (past the pop stand) to Chili Avenue (Bright Oaks was just being built) to Chestnut Drive where, at the fire house we would glide down a little hill to the parking lot and then on home. A few times, in the 8th grade, I actually road home for lunch - a totally impractical thing to do but then again, something to do.

Somewhere around 7-8th grade I was allowed to take the city bus downtown to the library, by myself. This was a really big deal - made me feel I was in the world independently. A little strange now to think I used to go alone.

At some point, riding bikes was no longer cool, so we walked, everywhere. After school we'd hang out at the house where the girl's mother worked (an unusual situation in those days), in a house that was under construction, or just on the street corners, anywhere away from parental control..... our first interactions with girls. When time was a factor we'd try to hitchhike but almost never got a ride when we were so young. In our high school days, hitchhiking became a daily routine. We'd hitchhike home from school if the busses had already gone. On weekends we'd hitchhike to the Olympic pool hall, to friends houses, to the Grange and other band/dance venues...anywhere we wanted to go...before we could drive. (In retrospect, riding bikes would have been a lot easier - if only it were cool). I wonder now how we managed to get around hitchhiking...today it would be unthinkable, but it was like a free taxi service to us in those days. Later, in college days, we'd hitchhike from city to city and some around the country. It all suddenly stopped sometime in the 70's.

Hitchhiking was deemed dangerous and lost its appeal to kids after we had grown past it, but only a couple of times in the hundreds of hitched rides I got did I encounter a driver who was up to anything but a favor. The couple of times were memorable and scary - but that was just part of life... nothing reportable.

Introduction to St. Pius X

There were two kinds of people we were aware of growing up in Chili: Catholics and Protestants. We Catholics didn't know much about the others but we knew it was a sin to step into one of their churches and we knew there were schools, paid for by tax dollars (!), that they attended. Other than that, we didn't know or think much about them. (So much for dreams of world peace!) For us, the world revolved around St. Pius X (SPX) Church and School which this entry will be about. Note: St Pius X was the successor of St Feehan's Church.

For those who went through the SPX adventure with me, Sr. Joseph Michelle, Sr. Rose Irene, Mrs. DeRycke, Sr. Britta*, Sr. Felicia*, Sr. Emerita, Sr. Felicia, Sr. Mary Leonard were our teachers 1st to 8th grade. The asterisks mark my favorites - stories for a later blog.  A class was a unit at SPX. You sat together all day every day from September to June. And like the House of Representatives, the next year the class was 98% intact...maybe one person moving in or out, but rarely more. I only came up with  42 names. I need help from my fellow classmates to fill in the rest. Here are the ones I think I remember, hoping someday someone else will find this, make corrections, and fill in the rest in a comment. (Update: Since original post, I got 3 more names from a classmate, and a picture from my sister's family archives to realize 3 names I had were no longer in class at graduation - indicated by ** in list below).

Here goes (no guarantees on spelling) by row 1 (front) to 6 (back) left to right; so (3,4) is row 3, 4th from left:

The Girls: Carol Bates(3,4), Karen Bailey(5,1), Debbie Bevano(3,5), Marcie Beechly(1,6), Teresa Brennan(1,4), Diane Cullather(1,1), Debby Fullerton(1,3), Joan Geary(1,2), Teresa Goodberlet(1,5), Doreen Gould(5,7), Ann Guinan(5,2), Karen Jensen(5,4), Nadine Levick(5,6), Kathy Love(5,5), Jean Michelson(5,3), Kathy Ward(3,6): (16)

The Boys: Bill Atwell(4,7), David Brandon**, Gary Braun(6,5), Tom Brugger(2,3), Dave Clair(6,2), Ray Cromey(4,6), Tom Cruciollo(2,2), David Cruckshank(6,4), Jim Doane(6,1), Dan Falls**, Bob Farone(4,1), John Firpo(3,2), Dan Goldstein(2,6), Paul Gottschalk(6,6), John Guinan(4,8), Paul Hoffmaster(4,2), Henry McCarrick(4,3), Robert McNut(3,1), Wade Muncil(2,1), David O'Neil**, Bill Powell(4,4), Jim Powell(2,5), Pete Schickler(3,7), John Schmidt(3,9), Chris Shields(2,4), Marty Spence(4,5), Dave Stebbins(3,8), Jerry Summers(6,3), Ed Wurtz(3,3): (26/3?)   ---- Thanks KB for the names I was missing.

Altar Boys, Little League, SPX Basketball, 7th and 8th grade ballroom dance classes at Florence Brassar Elementary, daily playground activities, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, this was the SPX class of '64.

More to come

Hello World

Chili is a town outside of Rochester, New York. I grew up there in the 1950-60's and I'm writing this blog to jog my memories loose and share a little part of history with those who like such things. My intention is to remember out loud and leave whatever gaps (memory lapses) in hopes that others might fill them in one day. Welcome to what was my world and thanks for stopping by.