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From: "Margaret Torres" <>
Subject: Re: [NY-BUFFALO-EASTSIDE] Van's Bakery
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 19:54:10 -0400
In-Reply-To: <4872F4E1.3000902@verizon.net>


I am 74 and grew up in North Park. But we had family on the east side, in
south buffalo, and on the west side. As I remember the city..the west side
had been mostly Irish but was mostly Italian by the end of WW11. the East
side and Kaiser Town are part of the whole but not.it was mostly German
for a long time and spread out quite a bit but the EAST SIDE became mostly
Polish at some point. Look at the names of the Churches..they tell the
story. South Buffalo was and may still be mostly Irish. Black Rock was a
sort of mix with Irish, slavic and others..Kensington was homogenous and
north park where I grew up was not broken down by nationality but by
religion. I went to Holy Spirit school for 8 years. The public schools
closest to us were 21 and 81. almost everyone in our neighborhood was either
Catholic or Jew. There may have been some Protestants but not many. One
family lived on the street I grew up on and we all thought they were so
exotic because they didn't attend Holy Spirit or wither of the local
temples. It was a lovely way to grow up. I thought everyone had friends
and relatives of other faiths. It was ubeliveably good!!

Kenmore and Snyder and Cheektowaga and the other suburbs were not any
specific ethnicity or religiosity as far as I knew. Going down Hertel Ave
towards Military there was a church and school that preached and taught in
Polish but I don't know where the people who attended lived. There was a
Hungarian Church a little farther down and I think a small enclave of
Hungarian people but not in the same way as the west side and east side etc.
it is all different today. Better? I don't know.

Margaret



-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of nora
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 1:02 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [NY-BUFFALO-EASTSIDE] Van's Bakery



My father lived with his grandparents at 341 Johnson from 1925 thru

1928 an attended grade school at the time........he would have been 7 at

the time he moved there. Could anyone possibly tell me what grade

school he would have attended? I know the house was leveled for the

expressway in later years.



Also, when I look at the 1930 census , I notice that my

great-grandfather's second wife is listed as being born in Germany. Her

name was Louise Herbert(married name from first marriage I am presuming,

since there is an Irene Herbert, age 25, listed as step-daughter living

with them in 1930) Would this have been the German neighborhood at that

time?



Thanks!



Nora



Carol wrote:

> Hi Margaret.

> I am very happy to hear your memories!

> My family was on Johnson Street-- that's the next one to Sherman, isn't

> it? I used to ride "around the block" on my little two-wheeler and I
think

> it was Sherman...but I could be wrong. That was in the early 1950s. Of

> course I remember the trolley on Sycamore, too. Did you go to P.S. #39, or


> did you move away before you were old enough to go to school there?

> Carol

>

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Margaret Torres" <>

> To: <>

> Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 8:48 PM

> Subject: Re: [NY-BUFFALO-EASTSIDE] Van's Bakery

>

>

>

>> First, we sure are scattered all over the place. And I think I said we

>> have

>> subscribed to the Bflo. paper with t view to maybe moving home. It

>> probaby

>> won't happen but who knows.

>>

>> Weren't we lucky growing up in that city in those days? I don't get a
lot

>> of the references becuse except for a tavern on Broadway owned by my

>> Grandfather and gone before I came along and a house on Sherman ST where

>> family lived for some of my growing up years and where we visited often

>> all

>> I know of the east side is what I heard and dimly remember. But I know

>> every inch of north park. and I didn't remember what the street car

>> thingees

>> were called but I sure remember the rides we hitched on the back end.
When

>> the car turned either off Hertel Ave onto Virgil or off Virgil onto
Hertel

>> there was a big curve and the speed was perfect for grabbing on and

>> riding.

>> We never went very far and no one ever got hurt that I remember but it is


>> a

>> fun memory. And we ran all over Delaware Park..we climbed the face of
the

>> Rock Garden.it was not supposed to be used that way. We had to take our

>> shoes off and hang them around our necks because we would have gotten

>> killed

>> if we cut up the shoes..they were the only ones we had most of the time.

>> I

>> don't think sneakers had happened yet. We ran all over the golf cource

>> and

>> climbed on the old canon ( remember) and went through the zoo from one
end

>> to the other again and again. Does anyone remember Eddie the chimp? As

>> he

>> got older he stopped being cute and got pretty mean and he didn't like

>> people anymore. They had to put up a glass front to his cage because he

>> would pee on anyone silly enough to stand close enough. That led to the

>> glass on the front of all the cages I believe. And in winter we skated on

>> Delaware Lake. And had vile hot chocolate bought in the big stone

>> building

>> which I think we called the casino.may have been the castle..we had to
put

>> wooden runners on our skates so we could walk in and out with the

>> chocolate.

>> And of course Crystal Beach. I have had a wonderful life if you look at

>> having Crystal Beach as a kid and having Disney World now. wow!

>>

>> Oh does anyone remember Karas meat market on Sycamore? On the corner of

>> Sobieski or Koscusco (sp) if I remember correctly. When you walked in
one

>> of the men would say hello pani. Wonderful meats and nice people.

>>

>> Well, I have a bleeder in my left eye and I suspect there are a lot of

>> words

>> spelled strangely so to make it easier for all of us I will stop here.

>> Thanks all for raising fond memories.

>>

>> Margaret

>>

>>

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From:

>> [mailto:] On Behalf Of

>>

>> Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 7:43 PM

>> To:

>> Subject: [NY-BUFFALO-EASTSIDE] Van's Bakery

>>

>>

>>

>> Does anyone remember Van's Bakery? At one point there were five stores,

>> but

>>

>> the one that was in business the longest was on Seneca. My husband
Ken's

>>

>> grandfather, Martin Van Mechelen, owned them and his father Julius was
an

>>

>> employee. Ken said that, as the grandson of the owner, he got two

>> squirts

>> of

>>

>> jelly in his jelly doughnuts and was fascinated by the machine which

>> sliced

>> the

>>

>> loaves of bread.

>>

>>

>>

>> Ken, who is a train nut, said the pole on the streetcars is called a

>> trolley

>>

>> pole.

>>

>> Robin in Maryland

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

>>

>> fuel-efficient used cars.

>> (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

>>

>>

>>

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