Growing up in New York State we took the town structure for granted. It was not until I moved away that I realized its peculiarities. Monroe County, a typical NY county is divided into towns (and villages and a city). The City of Rochester ("the hub of Monroe County") is surrounded by towns and villages. Each town is a small political entity unto itself with elected officials, school system, police and fire departments, etc. Some towns had central areas - commercial centers or town centers. Once you get away from this town structure you realize just how expensive it is to duplicate all these services so many times for such small populations. Chili, like other second ring towns, was a little different. On the west side of Rochester, once removed from the city limits (by the town of Gates), it was the boondocks in the 50's. Not populated enough to support its own town services, it shared a high school with Gates (Gates-Chili High School), and another with Churchville (Churchville-Chili HS), and it did not have its own police force.
On entering Chili heading west on Chili Avenue, there is a sign that says "Welcome to Chili -- Home of Little Guy Soccer". I have no idea what Little guy soccer was/is. I know I never heard of soccer until I was in high school and even then it was a sport that had a "foreign" aura... coached by guys with European accents.
Besides the Grange, Chili had little to offer in terms of teenage activities in the 60's. Chili Center had a library, baseball fields, and ice-skating rink. There were no stores except for a supermarket and drugstore. Westgate plaza was a mecca for us westsider tweens and teens but it was a couple of miles away so we couldn't just hang around there. Maybe the best hangout was Olympic Park on Scottsville Road. There was an old amusement park, bowling alley and most importantly, a pool hall -- and that is where we spent a lot of guy-time from about 8th to 12th grade. I think it used to cost $1.50/hour and the tables were bigger than anyone (we knew) had in their homes.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
The Grange
During the 60's there were a lot of dances. They were mostly at schools, but sometimes at other venues most of which have faded from memory. But one place we went to a LOT was the Chili Grange. There were dances there with live bands on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. The building was somewhere out in the country and even before we could drive, we somehow got a ride or hitched a ride. The only thing I knew about the Grange was that it was some kind of meeting place for farmers. The building had steps in front leading up to the front doors and inside the doors a big open room, maybe the size of a basketball court. In front was a stage and I think there were some side doors towards the front of the hall. Below, with access from the parking lot was another floor where I seem to recall refreshments were served during the breaks.
The great thing about the Grange dances is that, unlike school dances, they were not chaperoned - there were no adults in sight - a place for teens. Nothing very weird happened but there were no adults to tell you how you should be dancing or not to smoke. Drinking wasn't allowed in the building.
The bands were sometimes the biggest draw of all. The only one I thought I remembered was The Invictas - although the names of other bands which were probably comparable just slipped from memory. I found this little note which mentions a few more bands (Showstoppers, Herd, etc) which I certainly remembered when I read their names.
In the summer, the place was packed and sweltering and often on Sundays it was all but empty. When popular bands played, there would be a stampede to get in through the narrow front doors. All kinds of kids from all over the city would attend the Grange dances. That's part of what made them so different and exciting. It was the kind of place girls, in order to attend, might have to invent stories for their parents. But in looking back..... it was pretty tame - just an atmosphere of freedom from any watchful eyes and a chance to listen to loud rock and roll music.
One thing we never took notice of as teenagers was the Grange cemetery out back. (This cemetery link includes the location of the building as well.)
The great thing about the Grange dances is that, unlike school dances, they were not chaperoned - there were no adults in sight - a place for teens. Nothing very weird happened but there were no adults to tell you how you should be dancing or not to smoke. Drinking wasn't allowed in the building.
The bands were sometimes the biggest draw of all. The only one I thought I remembered was The Invictas - although the names of other bands which were probably comparable just slipped from memory. I found this little note which mentions a few more bands (Showstoppers, Herd, etc) which I certainly remembered when I read their names.
In the summer, the place was packed and sweltering and often on Sundays it was all but empty. When popular bands played, there would be a stampede to get in through the narrow front doors. All kinds of kids from all over the city would attend the Grange dances. That's part of what made them so different and exciting. It was the kind of place girls, in order to attend, might have to invent stories for their parents. But in looking back..... it was pretty tame - just an atmosphere of freedom from any watchful eyes and a chance to listen to loud rock and roll music.
One thing we never took notice of as teenagers was the Grange cemetery out back. (This cemetery link includes the location of the building as well.)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
What do they mean "Don't want for anything" ?
Bear with me while I digress now and then from life in Chili - I might use the blog to write a few things about how growing up in Chili shaped my thinking.
Sometimes when people hear the Zen goal of ridding themselves of "wants" people react (especially the more goal-oriented ones) by saying that it doesn't make sense not to have any ambition in life and other such things. I think the message is often lost in the loose way the words like "wants", "goals", "desires", "ambitions" are interchanged in thinking about this concept. For me the message has mostly to do with "needs". It is one thing to want to achieve a goal in life.... it is quite another to need any one thing to make ourselves at peace in the world. Goals are fine, but what stresses us and makes us suffer is when those goals turn into obsessions or needs without which we feel lost or sad or non-contributing.
By releasing ourselves from needs we can more easily accept and appreciate what it is we already have.
What is advertising? Creating wants - that's okay, just don't let them become needs. I don't need a Corvette even though I'd like to have one. Wanting can be fun, but needing isn't.
The commandments used an interesting term...do not covet....don't make it a need. Sure, your neighbor has a cool TV and it would be nice to have such a thing.....but don't covet it, don't turn it into a need because then life is out of balance.
The Beatles sing "I Want You...I want you so bad it's driving me mad". That's okay, just don't let it become a need because then someone is liable to get hurt.
Wanting is part of life, needing is part of suffering, also part of life, but something some strive to lessen.
As the saying goes: It's not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Hasta luego.
Sometimes when people hear the Zen goal of ridding themselves of "wants" people react (especially the more goal-oriented ones) by saying that it doesn't make sense not to have any ambition in life and other such things. I think the message is often lost in the loose way the words like "wants", "goals", "desires", "ambitions" are interchanged in thinking about this concept. For me the message has mostly to do with "needs". It is one thing to want to achieve a goal in life.... it is quite another to need any one thing to make ourselves at peace in the world. Goals are fine, but what stresses us and makes us suffer is when those goals turn into obsessions or needs without which we feel lost or sad or non-contributing.
By releasing ourselves from needs we can more easily accept and appreciate what it is we already have.
What is advertising? Creating wants - that's okay, just don't let them become needs. I don't need a Corvette even though I'd like to have one. Wanting can be fun, but needing isn't.
The commandments used an interesting term...do not covet....don't make it a need. Sure, your neighbor has a cool TV and it would be nice to have such a thing.....but don't covet it, don't turn it into a need because then life is out of balance.
The Beatles sing "I Want You...I want you so bad it's driving me mad". That's okay, just don't let it become a need because then someone is liable to get hurt.
Wanting is part of life, needing is part of suffering, also part of life, but something some strive to lessen.
As the saying goes: It's not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Hasta luego.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
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??
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??
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, March 4, 2011
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
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.
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