A New Sketch Of Old Utica COMMENTARY

[fiona]

I think "down street" is a phrase used to define a certain area of a city or town that has fallen out of use with the advent of suburban sprawl, malls, overpasses, ect; in the same way "across the tracks " as a place marker, and a division of one's social standing has. For instance, to go "downstreet" meant, at least to me , that one was going shopping and "going shopping" was a big deal, especially for the older generation,of which we are now a part of.
First, no one I knew ever went shopping unless they were in their Sunday best. It was a matter of seeing and being seen, to go Downstreet. Second, it was a family affair, with all the old maid and dowager cousins and aunts always " meeting you somewhere" at this dept. store or that. Then, third, there was the inevitable lunch on the mezzanine of a certain dept store that I cannot recall the name of. This consisted of little egg salad sandwiches cut up into neat triangles, a dish of rice pudding on a china bowl, on a plate adorned with a paper doily, and then a cup of weak tea. It was a social affair and you were expected to behave yourself. If you did not it always caught up with you. Usually in the form of there not being that coveted box from Doyle Knowers on you bed when you came to your next birthday. So, "to go downstreet" meant something. Compare that with "going to the mall." What a joke.

[Dave]

Downstreet or downtown, I remember it well. I remember as a little kid standing on the corner of Taylor and Square, waiting for the bus to take us there. I was quite young and it was cold and snow was blowing and I stood inside my mother's sealskin coat. It was big and black and as soft as rabbit fur, maybe softer. The bus was one of the smaller ones running Utica's streets in the late 1940's. It came down Taylor Ave (heading north, from where I didn't know at the time), would stop and pick us up and then continue across the tracks through the intersection, turning left and heading west over Square St. and eventually down to the Busy Corner where we disembarked.

There was a smell ... probably KarmelKorn ... that would immediately greet us and that became to me the smell of downtown. I suppose I was infrequently dragged into Doyle Knowers, but what I remember most is Daws on the Busy Corner and the candy bars and little gadgets for kids, Woolworth's and the amazing smells in that store, on both floors. And with my eyes closed, even today I could find my way to the back of Woolworth's first floor and the pet department where they sold canaries and parakeets.

Sometimes we'd get off the bus early and my mother would go into the Industrial Bank of Utica, withdraw money and then walk to the Niagara Mohawk building and pay the gas and electric bill in cash. We used not much gas, only for the hot water heater. We heated with coal, using the big octopus furnace in the cellar. Not the basement, the cellar.

All of this walking around was accomplished in any kind of weather. I don't think anyone in my family consulted a weather forecast, aside from looking out the window before we chose a coat or decided to carry an umbrella. I remember my father coming home from the newspaper with news of a storm coming, that information provided probably by AP or UPI and passed around by word of mouth from the reporters upstairs, eventually making its way down to the pressroom. And there were forecasts on WIBX, I suppose, but I don't remember my mother ever having the radio on until she began her housework after my older brother left for school. I do not ever remember a snow day at Blessed Sacrament school during my tenure there from 1948 to 1952. Nor were we ever sent home early. Later, Lourdes had snow days, because school buses brought kids in from New Hartford. But closing school was done very infrequently.

[fiona]

nice memories.

[Dave]

Speaking of memories .... I dont' remember if I posted this link when we had a Writing Board on this Forum, but I wrote a piece a month or so ago of my memories of moving from Utica to Whitesboro and back in 1952. I'll start another thread and put the link there.

[keith]

Yes, you did post it.

[dicknaegele]

I remember well the pet department way in the back of the store near the escalator. The escalator at one time dumped you in the toy department on the second floor. I don't remember exactly what was on the third, but I almost think it was part of women's wear and housewares.

Great lunch counter too. If I didn't get pizza, I alway would order a tuna sandwich and a milkshake whipped up on the pale green hamilton beach shake machine.

The last memories I have of department store lunch counters was when we would order fries and a coke at the Whitesboro Neisner's.

Downtown was just a fun place to spend a day. My grandmother would sometimes order her groceries from Carrocks or Chanatry's and have them delivered and then we would shop the department stores. I had a bank book from the gold dome and we would go there and put in $1 that my gramp gave me to bank whenever we went downtown, and I also had a bankbook from a school program that was sponsored by the gold dome bank where I used to get a quarter a week from my dad to put in on bank day at school. Those two bank accounts grew as I later got a paper route, and then after we moved to Newport, I did day work on farms and dug graves for the local undertaker for $30 a grave. Ultimately I spent $100 for a riding lawnmower from National Auto for my dad for father's day when I was getting ready to go in the Navy, and was not going to be around to mow for him. I kept that account that my gramp opened for me until I was married to my first wife. I don't remember what we used the remainder of the money for, but a young married couple didn't have much to put in, and usually ended up needing to draw some out for some reason, haha.

Sometimes if it was really cold and we had to wait for a bus, we would grab a hot chocolate in White Tower on Franklin Square.

Kids today have no memories such as that to cherish when they get older. Not much nostalgia to be found sitting in a video arcade or food court at the mall.

Just a footnote, everything went full circle. I bought dad a rider in 1964, so he could mow when I was not around any more. In 2002 we moved here to Tennessee, and I resumed mowing mom and dad's lawn with MY rider and mowed it until they sold the house when mom died and dad came to live with Kathy and I.

[Dave]

All great memories, Dick, and they point to Utica as a great city for a kid to have fun. Back then, anway. Seems hard to believe, but by age ten I was allowed to go by myself downtown on the bus and roam around at will.

[fiona]

dave: I have a problem posting an image. Can you go into my photobucket accn't and post the image of the First Universalist Church to the Oneida Square portion of "Sketch"? It should be right after the image of the Oneida Flats. It simply will not post no matter how many times I try. thanks.

[Dave]

Done. Problem was with the name of the jpg. I changed it to firstuniversalistchurch.jpg

[Dave]

Fiona, I notice you ran a photo of the Olbiston, rather than the Genesee Flats.

[fiona]

Yes, because the (loose) date of the tour is around 1900. Also, remember, that these postcards were all printed around 1900- 06 or so. When the Flats was built, there was not yet the technology and the picture postcard was not really popular. I had to date it around 1900 because of that. the GF would have been too early. Also, notice a lot of the houses are missing from the tour... like the Munson houses, there are either no timely postcards of them or the views I have are in the 1940's. for instance, before the soldiers and sailors monument was built, there was a large electrical tower on that spot.

[fiona]

About the spiffing up of the Tour thread - first I am going over to OCHS and have someone look at it, because I am unsure about the Mann Building - the placement. I know there were two points on the west side of Genesee - first was the Deveraux Block, which was across from the Arcade, near Bleecker, on the west side of the street. Farther up was the Winston Building, still standing, where the Triangle coffeee shop is now. These two buildings look alike to me. This is confusing. Then, when I finish the posting, I want to work on the introduction. I want to show, say something about "A Sketch of Old Utica" by B. Dudley Miller, as this is only right. Then I have an old pic of myself in a Victorian dress. I want to post this intro in a Victorian fashion. After the last post, which I already showed you, I want some old timey music, like " so long, it's been go to know ya..." or something like that. I don't know how to do an insert, but I can work with the modify. How does this sound to you? I was even thinking of a table of contents, but, once again, am unsure of this. Let me know what you think.

[Dave]

Sounds great. How about the fuzzy post cards? Were the originals fuzzy or was it the scanning?

[jon]

Mann Building 1910

[jon]