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This is Rose H e arn int ervi e w ing Mrs. Florence Barlow 522 Kraft
Road , Fort Eri e , Ont ario , and the date is O c t ober 2, 1985.
R.H:
Good aft ernoon Florence.
F.B:
Hi.
R.H:
C ould you please t ell m e when you were born ?
F.B:
Oh yes , February the 7th, 1913.
R.H:
And where w ere you b orn ?
F.B:
Buf falo, Ne w Y ork.
R.H:
When did you come to Fort Erie ?
F.B:
May the 1st , 1916 .
R.H:
What are a did you se t tle in when you cam e ?
F.B:
Que en Stre e t .
R.H:
Que en S tre e t ? Th at o f course w as the South End, righ t ?
F.B:
The South End.
R.H:
That was called Fort Erie though , wasn't i t ?
F.B:
That was called Fort Eri e .
R.H:
What w as the North End called then?
F.B:
Bridgeburg and the West End w as Amigari .
R.H:
And you settled on Queen S tre e t , what was Que en Street like then?
F.B:
I
Oh ye s , it was a m uddy road and m y mother used to t ake m e across
the stre e t to play with the little girl across the stree t on cert ain
days, and her name is D olly Byers now .
R.H:
Were there any busine sses on Que e n Stre e t at that t i m e , or w as
it stri ctly h om e s ?
F.B:
Well, it w as m ore residential but there w as a farm er next door that
sold produce , but not as a st ore .
R.H:
F.B:
Yes.
R.H:
What w as his nam e ?
F.B:
William Shisler.
R.H:
D idn't your parents have a farm there to o ?
F.B:
No , it w as later w h e n w e m oved t o Bertie Stre e t .
R.H:
S o , it w as a h ouse that y o u lived i n ?
F.B:
Yeah .
R.H:
What else c a n y o u t ell m e about the neighbourhood ?
F.B:
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D o you re m e m ber his n am e ?
Well, everybody w as al w ays friendly and helping everyone else .
You never had t o w orry about your grass being cut or the sno w . . .
(1)
�Everybody helped everyone .
R.H:
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Was there a lot of homes on that stre e t at that t i m e ?
F.B:
We ll, the same ones are still there . Up at the corner where the
gas station is next to Irish brothers there, w as a w alnut tree, and
Mr. Heisted used to hang a sw ing from it every sum m er. He had
a little field where he farm ed, but to the back, and facing Walnut
Stre e t .
R.H:
Was there a lot of little farm s on that stre e t ?
F.B:
No , there w as only that one as far as I kno w . Lat er, there w as
a grocery store on the corner of Archange and Queen.
R.H:
D o you know what that w as calle d ?
F.B:
C arri ck's.
R.H:
S o , the roads w ere muddy, did you
F.B:
Ye ah , they w ere muddy and the cars used t o get stuck, the first
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new cars out , and the horse and w agons used to pull them out.
Mr. Shisler w ould bring his team and pull horses and c o w s out, anything
that got stuck there . Mr. Heisted w as crossing the stre et with
his cow one day and it got all stuck in the mud and he had t o get
a horse to pull the cow out .
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R.H:
S o , he kept cows, did h e ?
F.B:
H e kept c o w s , t w o c o w s because he had a little . . . The back facing
the other stre e t w as like a little farm for ve getables and so on.
R.H:
Did he get milk from these c o w s ?
F.B:
W ell, you could just go t o t h e st ore and buy i t .
R.H:
But you don't know what kind of c o w s they were then?
F.B:
Holstein.
R.H:
When you w ere living there, where did your fam ily shop ?
F.B:
D o w n at Hapgoods which w as the st ore on Niagara Boulevard and
it's next to Marian Archer's no w . I don't kno w who is in it now
but it's at the corner of
•.•
That corner, what is it, that goes up
there ? Is it Forsythe Stre e t on the corner of Niagara Boulevard ?
R.H:
What did H apgoods sell ?
F.B:
It w as a general st ore , gro ceries. Ne xt door w as a hard w are store,
h e became mayor too . . . Haw ley!
R.H:
F.B:
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Oh ye ah , so Mayor Haw ley had a hardw are store too at one time ?
Y e ah , he had a hard w are st ore there, and then next to that w as
a house and t w o old ladies lived in there named Rainsford and there
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�w as Y oung's, the Charles' w ere there . Where the be auty shop is,
w as the post o ffi c e .
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R.H:
Do you re m e m ber going in the post o ffice ?
F.B:
Oh ye ah, m any times. Mr. Plato , Em Plato w as there and then
as a student, Harvey Troupe . He later became pos t m aster in the
North End.
R.H:
What about restuarants, do you rem e m ber any in parti cular?
F.B:
Well, there w as a family room in the Anglo A m eri can Hotel where
you could go in w ith the children. A cross the street, where H appy
Jack's is n o w , was the
. .•
I don't kno w if they called it the Ne w
York C a fe but that's where the t w o e ating places where , down
there . Then also when you went down, there w as Elliott's Drugst ore
and you could get lit tle snacks in there .
R.H:
What about a place you m entioned called the Olympia Tearoom ,
where w as that ?
F.B:
That w as in the North End on Jarvis S tre e t .
R.H:
Did you get up t o t h e North End very much ?
F.B:
No , only when w e could g o t o the sho w , the Bellard The atre . Not
too much , because you had t o go w ith older people . I w as too young
then and the South End w as closer.
R.H:
And of c ourse they didn't h ave the C entral A venue Bridge then,
righ t ?
F.B:
No , no they didn't . You had to w alk all along the Boulevard and
so when it w as cold, you didn't w ant to w alk all the w ay but usually
you w alked everywhere .
R.H:
C an you tell me about the Olympia Te aroom , what it w as like ?
F.B:
Well, the thing that al w ays i mpressed me w as the st ained glass
separation part b e t w een the booths. It w as very pret ty.
R.H:
Who owned that ?
F.B:
I dont kno w , he w as a Gre ek man. Later I think Valachos bought
it but I couldn't be sure , but I don't kno w who had it first.
R.H:
Do you re m e mber anything else about Jarvis Stre e t ?
F.B:
Oh, when they t ore down the post office , I re m e mber that. There
w as a big house with a big veranda with t w o lovely old people who
alw ays used to w ave at all the kids.
R.H:
{
This w as a house and it was on Jarvis Street ?
F.B:
Y e ah , well, it w ould be probably where the Royal Bank is no w .
They used t o sit out there and I never kne w their name . All the
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�kids would run over t o Jarvis Stre et after they'd been t o the high
school and they'd sit and w ave . We'd go to the d airy, that w as Evere t t 's
D airy and get snacks and things. It w as just across the stre e t from
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there .
R.H:
Is that where they built the post office ?
F.B:
No , they built the post o f fi ce on the side where the lady and m an
used t o
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R.H:
Where this h ouse w as ?
F.B:
No , it w as next t o i t . Then they've gone up the street and I think
that's the Royal B ank, I'm not sure . Eventually Rungs w ent where
Canadian Tire w as, they had a st ore down there . Oh, there w as
a corner candy store where w e used to go, it w as called Baker's.
It w as on the corner o f C entral and Jarvis and that w ould be where
the G&P Re stuarant is no w .
R.H:
Was Jarvis Street a mud stre et then?
F.B:
Yeah , it w as a mud stree t before they paved Jarvis.
R.H:
Do you re m e mber a paint and w allpaper st ore with gas pumps outside ?
F.B:
Briggs had that and they did h ave gas pumps and Dit chburn's had
a hard w are st ore on the other side o f the street too. I think that
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would be where m aybe Stedman's is no w , or a little further up.
R.H:
What school did you go t o when you w ere living on Queen Stre e t ?
F.B:
D ouglas. It w asn't graded or t erraced like it is no w , so it w as all
bumpy coming down. We used t o t ake pieces o f rug and slide down
to the bottom all the t i m e .
R.H:
Was this D ouglas Stre e t you are t alking about ?
F.B:
Ye ah , there w as a hill and it w as a bumpy hill and w e used t o ride
down on pieces of rug . They h ad w ooden steps
.••
We'd cli mb all
the w ay up w ooden st eps and when the fall w ould come and the
rains or anything, and the w at er w ould run down under the w ooden
steps and you could see it, and the old
•••
I think i t w as probably
gas pipes or some thing for railings and they w ould wiggle and the
water w ould gather all in the bottom of the stre e t . The linesmen
from the p o w er company w ould come with their hip boots on, put
some boards down, and carry all us kids from the bottom steps
across, t o get us in the drive .
R.H:
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Were these steps for the entrance t o the school ?
F.B:
Yeah , t o go up the hill . . . no, t o go right up t o the hill. Oh, there
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�w as a lot o f steps.
R.H:
To get t o this school?
F.B:
Yeah , right at the bottom o f the hill. There w as a little flat part
and then some steps and another flat part and some m ore steps.
This piping would all get loose on a rainy day and you could alw ays
see the floods underneath. It scared m e .
R.H:
What w as the school like ?
F.B:
Oh , it w as a lovely school. R.L. Se xsmith, old Sekkie w e used t o
call him , he w as t h e greatest. Y o u couldn't beat hi m , we had lots
o f nice teachers there .
R.H:
It w asn' t very big, was i t ?
F.B:
Oh no, it h ad four roo m s then and a boardroo m . That's where they
used to t ake you and strap you. We used to hear the kids hollering.
R.H:
C an you re member any o f your t e achers at all ?
F.B:
There w as Miss Campbell. She used t o sit under . . . There w as a
little h a w thorne tre e and w e used t o sit there and e at and she alw ays
sat w ith the students on the lunch h our. She w as al w ays so ni ce.
R.H:
So, you didn't have a lunch r o o m o r a gymnasium o r anything, di d ... ?
F.B:
No , as a m at ter o f fa c t , I w asn't supposed to have lun ch there be cause
I only lived on Walnut . You had t o live a cert ain dist ance a w ay
{
for you t o bring your lunch. I used t o hurry back from my lun ch
hour just to sit with the teacher. She'd t ell us all kinds of stories.
R.H:
S o , did you start going there when you w ere living on Queen Stre e t ?
F.B:
Y e ah , I started to s chool. I w alked and your mother didn't t ake
you to school your first day. You w ent o f f and you couldn't w ait
t o get t o school.
R.H:
Was it pre tty bad in the wint er ?
F.B:
Y e ah, it w as bad in the wint er and you w ere al w ays w ound up in
a scarf, just your eyes sho w ing. We h ad mit tens and boots and
we w ere exhausted from what w e w ore , rather than with struggling
through the sno w . They had a sno wplow with a horse and the sno wplow
used t o go up the stre e t , so re ally they w ere out e arly in the m orning .
R.H:
S o , of c ourse you m oved to Walnut S tre e t , when did you m ove there ?
F.B:
I think it was 1921. Yeah, my brother w as born there in 1921.
R.H:
Was that a farm ?
F.B:
That was a small farm , ye ah , my dad farm ed i t .
R.H:
Was there anything else around there be sides your lit tle farm ?
(5)
�F.B:
Ye ah , there w as h ouse s.
R.H:
Just a couple of h ouses ?
F.B:
Oh no , Pauline Che ffins, Pauline Barnhart lived in the first one ,
then Mann' s , Evere tt's and the Wolbert 's w ere next . McLaughlin's
w ere next then our place , then C arri ck's, Vale 's and Rodicker's.
Th ere was a lot o f fruit trees and then it w ent on t o Meredith's.
C apt ain S m ith, I never kne w his first name and his daugh ter Eloise ,
and then there w as Hubbard's.
R.H:
S o , that w as really residential then?
F.B:
Ye s it w as , except for Dunkle's, they had a little hot dog st and
on the c orner and the Dunkle sist ers used to dance, Edna and Elmira
D unkle .
R.H:
And did your father gro w his own produce ?
F.B:
Ye s, be cause he c ouldn't w ork. He w as gassed in World War 1.
He did shoe repair crafts and then when everybody heard about
i t , he opened a little shop. We had a little side shed and we had
a little shop in there
•••
R.H:
What w as your father's nam e ?
F.B:
Arthur Naylor.
R.H:
S o , he had this little shoe shop , did he do anything else in the shop
besides repair shoes?
Did he t ake care o f anything for the h orses
or anything like that ?
F.B:
Well, I h ad older brothers and they helped him. I h ad t o get up
and milk the cow be fore I w ent t o s chool, w e had a h orse and a
c o w and chi ckens , and rabbits for food consumption.
R.H:
Did you h ave any other jobs besides helping on the farm ?
F.B:
Y e ah , I h ad to pick ve getables because we pulled them around in
a w agon and sold the m .
R.H:
Where did you go t o sell them ?
F.B:
Oh, just up and down Que en Stre e t and Walnut , Archange and Goderich
Stre e t , that w as all single house s there .
R.H:
D o you re m e mber how much you got for the m ?
F.B:
Oh ye s. If you took them to the Racetrack, you got 25 cents a bunch
for carrots for the horses and if you took them around the doors
you only got five cents. We alw ays tried to put 12 in a bunch and
size the m , so m any sm all and so m any large.
(
R.H:
S o , you went t o the Racetrack, what w as it like there ?
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�F.B:
My dad did, he w ent w ith the horse and w agon and w e had a surrey
with the fringe on top. One time when I w as home from s chool,
I w as sick, I asked m o m i f I could hit ch the horse but I couldn' t ,
(
be cause I w as too young but she let m e t ake it u p t o t h e s chool
and pick up all the kids and we w ent up all around Erie Be ach.
R.H:
D o you re m e mber anything about Erie Beach ?
F.B:
O h ye s.
R.H:
What w as i t like there ?
F.B:
It w as beauti ful , it w as like a park. It w asn't all concre t e jungle
like it is no w , the grass looked like it w as cut with a razor blade,
it was shaved. The H opi Indians used t o come every year w ith their
big snakes and put on this sho w , this perform anc e , and it w as the
first time I had ever seen that. The Indian ladie s used t o nurse
their children while the men w ere performing and I'd never seen
that , people nursing their children. That w as fascinating to me
too, the Indians sitting out in the park, but the p ark w as so beauti ful.
It w as all tre es and there w as a lovely D ance Hall, it was be auti ful.
It had an upper de ck, a terrace with little t able s. It h ad a place
you could buy food and you could look down on the dancers. I rem e mber
one orche stra came c alled the C ali fornia Bears but I can never
(
re m e mber his nam e , the guy who ran the band. There w as a beauti ful
s w i m ming pool and there w ere games downstairs under the D ance
H all and then you w ent out t o the s w i m ming pool and you rented
the bathing suit
. • •
R.H:
Y ou rented the bathing suit ?
F.B:
Ye s, you did in those days but you'd bring your o wn c ap and they
had all these gray w oolen things, they were it chy and they w ere
down to your knees. I asked h o w they cle aned these bathing suits,
I said , " What do you do" . Well, they ran the hose on them, they
had them all hanging and they ran the hose up and down on the
bathing suits and then they dipped them in a ble ach w at er and hung
them back up . Well, you used to think, you are w e aring a bathing
suit som ebody else took off. It w as a quarter to s w i m and rent
the bathing sui t .
R.H:
F.B:
(
C an you t ell me about some of the rides they had there ?
Oh ye ah , they had ride s. They had the Bluestreak and you know ,
that w ouldn't be so high now t o what they m ake the m , like the
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�Cyclone at Cryst al Beach . They had a skating rink and they had
a little . . . On one side o f the D ance H all there was the pool
.••
This
side w as the w ading pool for children and then they h ad the s wi m ming
(
pool on the other side. A t the t i m e , I think, that w as the largest
s w i m ming pool around, publi c s w i m m ing pool.
R.H:
Did i t have a deep end and shallo w e nd and so forth ?
F.B:
Oh yes, and life guards. One fello w s name w as Uri Sahri and there
w as a girl, Flo Southard . I think she be came Western Ne w Y ork
diving champion. I re m e mber they w ere the li fe guards and they
w ere alw ays very care ful with the kids.
R.H:
Have you any idea why Erie Be ach closed ?
F.B:
It w as the Depression whi ch came in 1929 and it just about closed
a lot o f things around here. They couldn't t ake t w o be aches like
that , Cryst al Beach w as still running in Fort Erie and t o get there
you came on the lit tle train from the ferry dock.
R.H:
I w as just going t o ask you about that , like h o w did you travel t o
Erie Beach?
F.B:
They used to stop at what they called Garrison Bay for the Garrison
Road , they used to come in and the little train ran. . . Well, the
train stopped and w e ran over from W alnut Stre e t and got on the
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train there .
R.H:
Was that called Garrison Bay?
F.B:
Y e ah , w e called i t Garrison Bay ' c ause w e used t o s wi m there all
the t i m e . We could s wi m there in the sum m er and skate in the
w inter b e c ause the water came right in, came right in over the
road w ay, right where the Parkw ay is. The old Millrace w as there .
R.H:
The old Millrace ?
F.B:
Ye ah , they had an old mill but that w as kind o f gone , the h ouse
that w as . . . that h ad the mill when i t w as still there , Berger's, people
name Bergers had that . When they built the Peace Bridge , that's
where they housed the divers. We used t o go and get the doughnut s
from the c ook at the cookh ouse there . He used t o m ake doughnut s
for the kids every day. Right after s chool w e w ould go and w a t ch
them put these huge abut m ents in for the Peace Bridge. They'd
w ind up helmets for the divers and then they w ould pump the air
and w e 'd go over there and we w ere so fascinated by i t . I think
that's why it's so w ell m ade. The traffic on that Bridge no w , you'd
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�think it w ould cave in but I'm sure
.• •
It w as rat tling the other nigh t .
R.H:
I go over on that all the ti m e.
F.B:
Ye ah , I kno w but it took us 35 m inut es t o get over the other night.
R.H:
Tell me some thing, did you go on these little trains t o get to Erie
Beach ?
F.B:
Ye s, and H arry McLure
• ..
We used t o call it the Sandfly Express,
the Snakehill Express, the Dum my, all though they called the Dum my
by another name too.
R.H:
The Dum m y w as the one that ran over the International Bridge
too, w asn't i t ?
F.B:
Y e ah , but w e called this one the Dum my too.
R.H:
S o , this Harry McLure , w as he the engineer?
F.B:
No , he w as the t i cket t aker, " Albert S treet" h e used t o shout .
He had t o call out the names o f the streets and they st opped at
A lbert Stre e t too. We called i t the Sand fly Express because when
th w indo w s w ere open , that brought them in and you couldn't sit
on them 'cause they st ained your clothes so, i f you h ad light clothing.
The st ains never came out and w e used to brush them all off the
seat and then sit down.
(
R.H:
D idn't they call it the Pe anut Express t o o ?
F.B:
Oh ye ah , the Pe anut Expre ss, we had lots o f names. When someone
w ould say " Are you going to Erie Be ach t onight" we'd say, " Ye ah ,
let's cat ch t h e old Snakehill" . It w as so nice Erie Beach, m y mother
used t o t ake us when w e w ere kids. They had a lovely picnic ground
and they w ere the first place to sell soft ice-cre a m . They had
i t years be fore anywhere else .
R.H:
Did they h ave concession st ands there ?
F.B:
Oh yeah , all through there. You could get w a f fles, i ce-cream ,
candy and then they had all the gam e s you could play. They had
the Funh ouse , my m other t ook us once and she said "I'll sit out
here , you can play a half an hour" . We w ent in, my sister took
us in and w e came right out , she h ad looked around and came out
the exi t , so that w as a fast trip . We w ent in the entrance and she
w ent right to the exit, it w as a slide .
R.H:
F.B:
{
D o you kno w anything about the Bardo! family?
Y e ah , a little bit . They used to have little fram e w ork cars, just
the fram e w ork and they would put a board on the m . . . Edgar w as
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�the friendlie st. They had a cart , the bottom o f a car, like the wheels,
four wheels and they had the engine and everything and they'd sit
and ride all around the park. They h ad a zoo there too and he used
(
to give us kids a ride .
R.H:
You m e an Edgar did ?
F.B:
Edgar, Edgar w as the youngest and then there w as Bob and then
there w as Frank. They w ere older, m aybe t w o years older than
I. I re m e m ber the dad slightly 'cause he used to w alk down the
park and I only saw the m other once but they had a lovely home
j ust out side there .
R.H:
Where was it located ?
F.B:
It w as across fro m the Waverly and in fact, that W averly w as a
se cond dance hall.
R.H:
The Waverly Hotel w as a dance hall at one t i m e ?
F.B:
Ye ah , we used t o w alk through all the bushes and w oods there and
w alk up to the Waverly for the second dance h all but it never m ade
a go of it. It had nice t ables just like it has now and the m iddle
of the dining room was the dance floor.
R.H:
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Did they sell liquor there ?
F.B:
Oh no, it w as all like soft drinks and you could get that at the other
dance hall too.
R.H:
Did you have t o pay t o get in to the Waverly?
F.B:
No , because you bought ti ckets and you paid so much a dance like
they used to do, three tickets for a quart er.
R.H:
Did they h ave live musi c at the Waverly?
F.B:
Ye s, they h ad live music too and of course , w e never w ent for all
this disco. It w as alw ays live bands at Erie Beach too.
R.H:
You lived down where they built the Peace Bridge, what h appened
when they w ere t alking about building the Peace Bridge ? Didn't
some o f the residents have t o sell their h o m es ?
F.B:
Well, they w ere requisitioned and they had t o sell. We lived in
a rent ed house , $12 a m onth and that w as the Rainsford's . . .
R.H:
The Rainsford's?
F.B:
They w ere t w o old ladies that owned i t . Their house was down
ne xt t o Charles , Charles Drygoods S t ore , and I used t o h ave to
go and pay the rent and she w ould alw ays give us an orange or an
apple . I used to love t o go there .
R.H:
S o , you had to m ove there ?
( (10)
�F.B:
R.H:
(
We m oved t o the West End from there .
And no w your house w as sold then?
F.B:
Yes, it w as sold to the Peace Bridge. Our house w as m oved and
w e m oved with it, up the hill, Queen S treet hill. The poor cats
w ere running all over the house going crazy.
R.H:
Where did you m ove t o ?
F.B:
It w as m oved up t o Lavinia Street and somebody bought it up there.
R.H:
S o , did your family buy the lot up there and
F.B:
Well, whoever owned the lot bought the house and put it there.
•••
?
We w ere still renting for that m onth then we m oved up to the West
End. We didn't o w n that house .
R.H:
Y ou didn't own i t , oh , I see.
F.B:
They got $12 a foo t .
R.H:
S o , you had to m ove out of there ?
F.B:
Ye ah, w ell, everybody I think rented on the street. I don't know
that anybody owned their own house, the Wolbert ' s m aybe. Some
of them m oved further down, where there w as a fruit orchard.
Some of the house s moved further down the stre e t .
R.H:
(
C an you re member the Peace Bridge being under construction?
F.B:
Oh, we w ere there every day.
R.H:
Were you ? Where did some of these people live that w orked on
the Peace Bridge, did they board in the area ?
F.B:
They boarded and s o m e a s I say, lived i n the old, what we called
the haunted house .
R.H:
Where w as that ?
F.B:
Oh, I suppose it w ould be where the first abutm ent is, o f the Peace
Bridge. Well, i t w ent over i t , the two abutm ents, I think it w as
under there anyw ay. It w as a grand old house but it had been ne gle cted,
it had a slate roof. We t ook slat es home and rode on them. That's
where the men, a lot of the men and the divers stayed.
R.H:
So they m ore-or-le ss kept that place t o house the w orkers in?
F.B:
Yes, and there w asn't any windo w s in some o f it because when they
w ere there in the sum mer ... I don't know where they w ent in the
w inter. They probably boarded locally.
R.H:
What was the name o f that stre et where the house w as, so you know ?
F.B:
That w as Erie Stre e t no w I guess, what they call Erie. Where the
parking lot is for the trucks now, I think it's called Erie Stre et.
(11)
�Keyes lived on that street and White's and C ole m an's. Colman's
house is m oved up the Garrison Road , it's still around and so is
McLaughlin's. It m oved to the other side o f W alnut Street. It's
probably t aken for a brokerage now , I don't know , Walnut Street
is just ruined as far as I'm concerned , i t's sad.
R.H:
Did you w a t ch the divers when they w ere building the Peace Bridge ?
F.B:
Oh ye ah , we thought it w as the gre atest thing. It w as fas cinating
be c ause we w ondered, if they ever quit pumping, oh , they'll die
under there . You think of all these things. It w as am azing how
those w ere form ed and how they could push the m . I suppose they
are no w eight under the water. I don't know how they pushed them
int o place and anchored them down. They didn't stay up very long,
they w ere up a while, then back down.
R.H:
Do you re m e mber the opening o f the Peace Bridge ?
F.B:
Oh yeah.
R.H:
Did you go t o that ?
F.B:
Oh , did I go to that ? I'm not that dumb . I could t ouch the Prince
of Wales foot and Prince Ge orge's fe e t .
R.H:
(
Why their f e e t , w ere you s o little ?
F.B:
No , no. There w as a st and w i th a flag or a bunting around it and
there w as a space like . . . My brother w orked on the Peace Bridge ,
he w as an i m m igration offi cer and he forgot his lunch. So , I said
to my m o m , "I'll t ake it down" . " Oh , you can't come in here" they
t old us and I said , "I've got my brothers lun ch" they said, " Oh , okay" .
I said , "I've got my girlfriend" so, they let us through . We w alked
past the revi e w ing st and , I got in like that . He led us along the
side and I got in, but I couldn't see my brother anyw ay. He had
aprehended a pi ckpocket in the crow d and he had the poli ce and
they w ere kind o f grilling him or what ever you call it. So, h e never
got his picture in that picture you see of them all been t aken on
the Bridge . They also w alked past and shook h ands with the Prince
of Wales and Prince George . Well, he w as never in that picture.
There 's a m an that looks like hi m , Earl Johns, so, everybody says,
" Oh , I know your brother is in that picture " . They looked so much
alike . Well, that w as my excit e m ent for that day. We ran all the
w ay along the Boulevard be cause of the parade and everything.
R.H:
So, there w as a parade that day?
(12)
�F.B:
Oh yes , there w as a parade and those planes that were flying over,
I'm sure they w ere , at that ti m e. There w as a heli cop t er and those
little plane s, I'm sure there w as things like that going over the
(
Peace Bridge b e c ause we w ere as fas cinat ed w i th the planes, i t
w as 1927. There w as a helicopter but w e didn't call them helicopters,
we called them autogyros. I w ent up in one several times. In 1935,
the Leaven's brothers from . . . brought their planes t o the aircraft
field there and they took you up for a penny a pound. I w ent up
for 99 cents. I gave him a dollar, "I w as a big tipper" , I t old him .
I was friendly with the para chut e jumper, him and I got friendly
' c ause my m o ther sent him cup cakes. The Leaven's bro thers w ere
so nice .
R.H:
Did you say one o f the Le aven's brothers w as the parachut e jumper?
F.B:
No, the parachut e jumper w as Clem Ennis. I got kind o f friendly
with him 'cause we fed him and t w o other girls and I brought him
hom e . S o , every time he w ent up for a jump, I got a free ride .
I used t o go up and then he'd jump. He'd jump just over the field
in Fort Eri e .
R.H:
F.B:
Oh, just one of t h o se li ttle World War 1 ones.
R.H:
H o w m any people c ould get in that plane ?
F.B:
Just the one jumper and the one other person.
R.H:
Well, when he jumped out , what did you d o ?
F.B:
Oh, I w as sitting in t h e b a c k seat .
R.H:
Who w as flying the plane ?
F.B:
f
D o you kno w w h a t kind o f plane it was ?
The pilot who w as one o f the Leaven's brothers and there w as another
seat and I used t o sque eze in with him. Well, I w as only 99 lbs.
R.H:
Oh, I se e . I w as w ondering. I thought he had left you to fly the
plane . Ge tting back t o the Peace Bridge opening, w as . . . ?
F.B:
I'll t ell you something else , did you ever hear anyone t alk about
the medi cine m an that came next to Happy Jack' s ? What 's the
name of that place . . . King- Wah ?
R.H:
May Wah ?
F.B:
Y e ah , there w as a little field there , like it didn't have anything
on i t , well, there w as a h ouse , Muskroph's house and this fellow
came t o town and he sold snake oil. He sold snake oil for all your
(
ills, aches and pains and he used to put the w agon up and lift up
(13)
�a hood t o the w agon and he w ould put these flares, like these big ...
I suppose it w as kerosene t orches and then he'd put on a Pun ch
and Judy sho w for the kids. We just loved it, be cause he w as alw ays
(
punching Judy out and Judy al w ays fought back. Then he w ould
give this pit ch and it w ould be about 35 cents for a bottle of the
oil.
R.H:
Did he come here every year ?
F.B:
No , m aybe not every year. There w ould be a run on them for t w o
or thre e ye ars and then you w ouldn't s e e him for a couple o f years
and then he'd come ba ck. He al w ays came back to the same spot,
right down by the baby-hole .
R.H:
Would that be around the '30s then?
F.B:
Oh, the '20s because I w as gone in '26 from the South End, so, it
had to be the '20s.
R.H:
Did any of the pe ople buy this snake oil ?
F.B:
Oh yeah , sure they did. Oh, Poppy Kohl did. You've heard of Poppy
Kohl who owned the but cher shop across the street from there,
you've heard about him m any ti m es ? I bet nobody ever kne w why
he w as called Poppy.
(
R.H:
No , I've never heard of that ni cknam e , why was he called that ?
F.B:
He was called Poppy because he bought the largest poppy, he alw ays
bought a dollar one. So , we started calling him Poppy Kohl. Th ey
were usually ten cents but he'd al w ays give you a dollar for the
large one . I'd get them from the legion and then run like hell to
sell i t to Poppy.
R.H:
So, you sold poppies on re m e m berance day, did you ?
F.B:
Oh yeah , I sold them for ye ars. Well, my father w as a vet eran,
he couldn't help , he w as alw ays in the hospital so m o m had to raise
seven kids. It w as t ough but i t w as fun. Kids don't have fun like
that anym ore .
R.H:
C an you t ell me anything about this Gasoline Alley, why w as it
called Gasoline Alley?
F.B:
It w as called that because Mr. Bell h ad the gasoline t anks there.
It w as a little ... you can't call it a gas station, it w as m ore like
a repair shop with pumps. It w as right behind where the Parkview
is, you had t o go up the alley, it w as called Johns Street. We called
(
(14)
�it Gasoline Alley because he had the
••.
probably because o f the
comic strip too. He used t o t ake us t o Sunday s ch ool down at the
(
Angli can Church every Sunday.
R.H:
And didn't they h ave a furniture place there or somethin g ?
F.B:
That w as further up , you have to cross Archange and I guess i t
w ould be t h e next one and he w as over o n t h e righ t . That used
t o be our school, that's where I went to kindergarten for half a
day be fore the Furniture Exchange w as in there , and i t w as a library
too at one t i m e . It w as the s chool , the library, and then the Furniture
Exchange .
R.H:
What w as the name of that s chool ?
F.B:
They used to call it Gasoline Alley S chool. That's what I called
it.
R.H:
Gasoline Alley S chool? And that w ould still be on John Stre e t ?
F.B:
Y e ah , opposite the . . . I don't know i f it's still there , opposite the
hotel and Rose's lived in the hotel at the t i m e . The Rose family,
you've probably heard all about the m , right ?
R.H:
F.B:
She w as a Kraf t , Mrs. Rose w as a Kraf t .
R.H:
Was she J .L. Kra ft's sister?
F.B:
Oh yes.
R.H:
And her name w as Mrs. Rose ?
F.B:
(
Wasn't Mrs. Rose relat ed to the Kraft fam ily?
Yes, Art Rose , I don't re m e m ber her nam e . There w as Al, Bob,
D oris, Isabelle . . . She w as a sister t o J . L. Kraft but they called
him Lou, Lou Kraft , they called h i m by his middle initial, I guess.
He used t o s w i m in the pond they h ad on Kraft Road. I don't know
when it w as named Kraft Road but the first homest e ad is there
down t o w ards the Kraft's and then they m oved up on the corner
of Cre scent and Dominion , but by then he w as probably gone . On
our stre e t , Kraft Road , where I live , they are all descendent s of
the Krafts, they w ere in the first five house s, but not no w . There's
another sister, Mrs. Learn, she had 12 children in there .
R.H:
F.B:
Well, it w asn't a hotel a t that time , it w as their h o m e .
R.H:
It was their hom e , but that's where t h e h o t e l is no w , righ t ?
F.B:
(
S o , Mrs. Rose , she lived in that hotel at one ti m e ?
Ye ah , and then they moved up t o . . .
R.H:
What is that hotel called ?
F.B:
The Erie Lane Hotel. Th at big place w as their h o m e. They h ad
(15)
�tennis courts at the side in the sum m er and they w ould let anybody
play on the m . They had a skating rink, they put a skating rink in
(
there and we all skated there .
R.H:
They let the kids skate there in the w inter ?
F.B:
Oh yeah . Did anyone t ell y o u about the rum runners?
R.H:
Oh, we are trying t o find out what w e can, what can you tell m e ?
F.B:
What w e used to d o . . . We had a t ent and w e could sleep out in
the backyard.
R.H:
Where w ere you living at this time ?
F.B:
Walnut Street, and my brothers, my t w o older brothers used t o
come and get m e and w e 'd go and lay on t h e embankment and w a t ch
the rum runners and the coast guard , and they'd fire on them too.
R.H:
Did you see anything interesting when you were w at ching the m ?
F.B:
You only heard the coast guard shouting t o the m , "You'd better
pull over" and then, they'd speed aw ay. They didn't use the motor
on the boat , they w ould row across and a lot of the times they w ould
put the liquor in . . . like feed bags, bags w i th the . . . instead of throwing
them out singular, they could qui ckly t ake a bag and dump i t over.
They say that in those days, a lot of liquor w as retrieved from the
river, e spe cially when they tried t o cross the river, in fact, there
(
w as a very sad incident where a cop fro m Buffalo shot his o wn
son. Do wney, their name was.
R.H:
Was his son living here at the time ?
F.B:
I don't know . I only rem e m ber that, 'cause I re m e mber the big
do in the paper about it, that he had shot his o wn son. They'd cli mb
up on the bre akw all . . .
R.H:
What happened, was he killed ?
F.B:
I don't re m e mber but there w as such a fuss about that . It w as a
shock that his son w as a rum runner. Oh, there w as lots of fascinating
things going on when w e w ere kids. You didn't need any m oney
to have fun, our m oney w as 21 cent s a w eek. We used t o go to
the sho w on the West Side in Buffalo. We didn't get the quart er,
we got 21 cent s 'cause it w as six cents for the boat fare , five cents
for your candy, and ten cents for your sho w . My m other had so
m any kids , she had to dole out the 21 cents instead of a quarter.
So, m ost of the kids w ould get a soda at the Gree k shop and I w ould
(
alw ays buy five cents w orth of candy 'cause I had three younger
(16)
�brothers and I used t o bring the candy hom e .
R.H:
Was the lit tle candy st ore on Jarvis Stre e t ?
F.B:
No , no , this w as on the West Side in Buffalo.
R.H:
So, the candy shop was in Buffalo ?
F.B:
Y e ah, on the hill, Dehart's it was called, and my sister w orked there
as a young girl.
R.H:
When did you start w orking and where ?
F.B:
I w ent t o w ork . . . my sister had a hot dog st and d o w n at the baby-hole .
I w orked from 11 t o 11, seven days a w e e k, five dollars a w eek.
R.H:
H o w old w ere you then?
F.B:
14 years old . I w orked there for t w o years and then I w ent to w ork
for Me sservey C o mpany when I w as 16 . That's where they m ade
the Christmas tre e lights in Fort Erie.
R.H:
Where w as that ?
F.B:
There w as an old church that burned down, on Court wright Street.
R.H:
Y e ah , but what's the nam e of the place ?
F.B:
Me sservey C ompany. In fact, that place ble w up, there w as a gas
leak. There w as an old church there and they used it t o m ake Christ m as
tre e lights, in fac t , I used t o do the soldering.
R.H:
H o w long did you w ork there ?
F.B:
Well, about . . . I w ent there in 1929 and it burned down in '31. It
ble w up, i t was a gas leak. It w as a funny thing , I went out for
food one day for the w orkers, they used to send m e and they'd say,
"You run fast ". I w ent for food and I came back and all the w orkers
w ere half sle eping . We h ad a long hose , gas extension hose . It
was a long hose and it w as le aking , they w ere all half asle ep. I
w e nt around opening the window s, shaking everybody, saying, "What's
wrong ". "Oh , I'm sleepy" one girl kept saying. The o w ner, he w alked
in that nigh t , he lit a m a t ch to find the s w i t ch and . . .
R.H:
What w as the nam e o f the factory owner?
F.B:
His name w as Me sservey, the same as the factory.
R.H:
[Did you say he drove hi m self t o the h ospital after the explosion?]
F.B:
He drove right a cross the Peace Bridge to Buffalo to the h ospi tal.
The flesh w as h anging o f f where he w as burned. He lived a week
and he said "He w ould rebuild " but of course , he died. Oh, he w as
a big m an, he w as athle t i c , and he could fight but I guess h e w as
(17)
�so badly burned
••.
but h e drove over himself. We w ent to the hospital
t o see him but he w as a m e ss.
(
R.H:
Where did you after that place burned down?
F.B:
I w ent to the Arner C o mpany.
R.H:
Was that the pill factory ?
F.B:
Yeah , ('art er's little liver pills. We used t o ship them to England
and England sent them back and everybody thought they came from
England . We didn't have enough seats so we sat on a tin can t o
w ork. We had to shake the m , t h e pills, to take all t h e cracked ones
out . We did all that by h and and then later w e got m a chines to
fill the bottles. I w orked on e m erald oil and i f it w as .. .
R.H:
What about w ages, how m u ch did you m ake ?
F.B:
Oh, I m ade $11.75 and that w as good.
R.H:
Was that a week?
F.B:
Yeah , and I w as only gettin $8 at Messervey's. At the Arner C ompany,
they'd let us pick our o w n hours. It used to get so hot with all that
glass in there , they'd let us come in at six instead o f eight and go
home at four. We didn't w ork short hours in those days, you worked
from eight to six. If everybody w as agre eable, we could come in
(
e arly. We ran out of there and there w as swim ming right across
the stre e t .
R.H:
How long did you w ork there ?
F.B:
I w ent to Antidollar after that.
R.H:
What w as that ?
F.B:
The Antidollar on Queen Street. C ook-Waite Laborat ories they
later became. They did anesthetics for dentists.
R.H:
What did you do there ?
F.B:
I filled all these cartridges with
.••
for your teeth, with instructions
and everything. . . There w as quite a cre w there, 12 or 13 people
w orked there.
R.H:
Who owned that company?
F.B:
Oh . . . Waite , his nam e w a s Waite from Springville, Ne w York. I
can't think of his first nam e , but Waite w ent in with Windsor and
it became the Cook-Wai t e Laboratories. There w as another little
business there
•.•
I w as there fro m '33 t o '43 and the w ar w as ...
My mother w as very ill and I needed t o m ake more m oney so I w ent
(
back over t o Buffalo t o w ork. I changed my w ages from $17 t o
(18)
�$71 a w e ek. I w as able to buy a bond a w e e k at $18.75, a w ar bond.
R.H:
(
D o you think the w ar cre ated m ore jobs in Fort Eri e, w as there
m ore jobs ?
F.B:
I think there w ere , because they h ad Fleet and I think e verybody
was w orking. I kno w I had three jobs during the D epression, and
I w as glad for one job .
R.H:
Y ou had thre e jobs , how did you m anage that ?
F.B:
Y e ah , but my brothers couldn't get a job. I w orked at the Arner
C o mpany, I w orked at the Antidollar and then I w orked at the Buf falo
Skating Club every Sunday at the Arena.
R.H:
Our Arena ?
F.B:
Y e ah , the Fort Erie Arena, it caved in in 1936 , I think it w as.
R.H:
What did you do there ?
F.B:
I w orked at the hot dog st and. We h ad it for the hockey night games
and sometimes I w orked three nights a week there and then all
day Sunday at the Buffalo Skating C lub and then back Monday m orning
at m y Antidollar job . The boys couldn't get a job during the D epression,
in fac t , my brother w ent out o f town and they cut w oods and forests,
they m ade roads through some o f the w oods and forests.
R.H:
What w as the name of the hot dog st and where you w orked ?
F.B:
I t w as just called Elsie's.
R.H:
(
Is that the one you worked at , for the Buffalo Skating C lub or was
that your sisters ?
F.B:
No , no, that was in the Arena and my sisters w as down at the baby
hole .
R.H:
D o you re m e mber any o f the guys that played on the Buffalo Bison's
Te am ?
F.B:
Oh , the h o ckey players used t o come t o our parties. We used t o
h a v e parties all t h e time and they w ould alw ays c o m e and they
w ould tre at us like young kids anyway.
R.H:
Who had the party?
F.B:
They w ere m ostly at our house ' c ause , when one of the kids w anted
to have a party and they couldn't have it, m y m other al w ays let
them h ave it at our house . We lived in the West End and w e kne w
all the ho ckey players. You'd always see them around t o w n , w alking
the stre ets and . . . The kids missed a lot .
(
R.H:
Did you kno w any o f the hockey players nam e s ?
(19)
�F.B:
Oh yeah, there w as Gamy Lederm an and Harry . . . Oh, gosh, I probably
could have t old you all of them if I didn't have to tell you now.
They broke the w indo w b oxing with my girl friend. My brothers
(
got boxing gloves for Christ m as and we w ere having a February
party and this girl w as boxing with the m and she ducked and he
put the boxing glove right through the windo w . My mom she w as
gre at, she used t o m ake everything for the party and then say, " W ell,
I'm going to bed, have fun and don't bre ak anything" . When she
came down after she said, " Oh, gone w ith the w indo w " .
R.H:
What else have you got for m e ?
F.B:
When I lived in A m i gari . . . When I first m oved t o A m igari this fas cinated
me be cause the fire company had a truck down here in the South
End . I m oved to Amigari and they still had a fire hall w i th the
cart s. Som ebody had t o bring a horse and hook it up to them. They
still had the horse and w agon and that w as on Russell Street. At
the Race track, they used to have a band play b e t w e en
••.
a live band
play be t w een . . . you could hear it all over town playing 'I' m Looking
Over a Four Le af C lover' .
R.H:
(
Do you m e an b e t w e en ra c e s ?
F.B:
Yeah, b e t w een ra ces. They h ad a band. They w ere all up there
when a local kid w on, Johnny Pissaro on a horse c alled Play Flow er.
All the It alian people w ere w ith him, all the Purpuras and Fredos
and everybody w as lined up against the fence.
R.H:
You m e an they w ere on Gilm ore there ?
F.B:
Yeah, w e w ere on Gil m ore le aning up against the fence there and
they came around and Mr. Fredo hollered " Who w on it"?
R.H:
What kind o f race w as that ?
F.B:
It w as regular racing.
R.H:
This Johnny Pissaro w as riding the horse ?
F.B:
Yeah, he w as riding the h orse and he be came quit e a gre at trainer.
He w as the le ading trainer at one time. He died very suddenly.
R.H:
I heard that a lot of people w at ched the racing across from the
Grand Trunk, is that right ?
F.B:
Ye ah, we used t o all go up to the fence and being sm aller
•.•
They
had the drainpipes and we used to craw l through the drainpipes,
my girlfriend and I and w e 'd get in to the Racetrack. You weren't
(
supposed to be there unless you were 16 .
(20)
�R.H:
What w as it like there at that time ?
F.B:
A t the Racetrack? Oh, it w as gre at. I w as w alking through one
time and this fello w said, "Hey Jo ck, do you w ant to draw some
(
w ater for the horses"? S o , I stopped and I h ad sailor pants on, w e
used t o w e ar t h e m all t h e time and he said , "D o you w ant t o draw
some w at er for the horses"? and I said "Sure ". So , I dre w some
w at er and som eone cam e along and said, "Hello Florence " and he
said, "God , you're a girl ". He gave me a buck which w as a lot of
m oney then, and it w ent so far. Oh, i t had such a beauti ful, entrance,
the Racetrack. You h ad t o w alk around w ith the flo w ers on either
side , it w as gorgeous. They had one turf race usually at the last
but they quit that.
R.H:
What is a turf race ?
F.B:
When they ran on the grass. I had a book called 'Flat Iron for a
Farthing' and I w as reading it one time and the st ory w as supposed
to be in 1899 and they said, "Le t's go t o the races ". It was set in
Buffalo and they said, "Le t's go to the races in Fort Eri e " w ell,
that fas cinated me. I kept that book for ye ars and I don't kno w
w h a t h appened to i t , but i n there it said, 1899, so they m ust have
(
been running then.
R.H:
They had the Bertie Fair there too, didn't they?
F.B:
Ye s, they did. They had all the games, the ring toss games. We
w ere just t alking about things that my brother-in-law at the Bertie
Fair gave to my nie c e. That w ould be about '31, '32.
R.H:
What games did you play there and what could you w in ?
F.B:
Well, it was the ring t oss gam es, you thro w a ball and so on
•••
The
prizes are still be auti ful, they w ere like a cream and suger, yello w
chickens and then he w on salt and pepper shakers and a coffee pot
which he used 'til it burned out . It lasted about 50 years.
R.H:
Did you go to the Bertie Fair?
F.B:
Oh ye ah , alw ays.
R.H:
What else did they have there ?
F.B:
They had lots of things for s chool kids. You could enter your hand wri t ing
and any proje cts you m ade , and quilts, be auti ful quilts, jam s and
jellies. They had the contests where you w on the prize s just like
the Welland Fair but on a sm aller s cale. They used to h ave the
Toront o races there .
R.H:
D idn't the farm ers have races there ?
(21)
�F.B:
Oh ye ah , the farm ers had races but the Toront o ra ces came there
too but just for the Bertie Fair. They'd have all these heats where
they could
.•.
that w ould go on most of the day. They'd have a band ,
they got prize s and ribbons. There w as m oney prizes too, like t w o
dollars for s chool kids or something and you could buy lit t le things
there too.
R.H:
Did you h ave to pay t o get in?
F.B:
I don't kno w whe ther you did or not because the s chool kids had
ti ckets to go, so, I really don't kno w . I re m e mber when I got older,
I w on a hotdog eating contest there. You only had to eat one hotdog,
so fast , and you ate it from a string. I got a two pound box o f chocolates
for that . Did anyone ever t ell you about the dumps?
R.H:
No , tell m e about the dumps?
F.B:
They w ere at the t op o f Que en Street where the t o w er is there,
well, just beyond there, i t w as all down in there . That w as our
biggest adventure on a Saturday m orning.
R.H:
What w as the dumps, actually ?
F.B:
Everybody used t o dump everything in there like bicycle parts ,
m y brothers built their bi cycle from there . There w as part s for
boats and I used to get the broken dolls and broken beads. Mom
used t o m ake us undre ss outside the house after that. We'd come
home with all kinds o f paint and everything that people had thro wn
a w ay. It w as the gre atest adventure . My brothers used t o say,
" Saturday m orning, the dumps" .
R.H:
Y ou've heard o f the Dummy, did you ever go on it ?
F.B:
Oh yes , w e used t o go on at the North End and you'd end up in Black
Ro ck. W e only w ent over because it w as a ride. I didn't like it
because i t w as open and you could see the water.
R.H:
Did some pe ople w orked that Bridge ?
F.B:
Y e ah .
R.H:
D i d they h ave a path there ?
F.B:
No , they w alked right along the side there . There's no w alkw ay,
there's just
•.•
R.H:
So you didn't like using the Dummy, why?
F.B:
Well, w e used t o ride over just for the ride . We w orked down there
on C ourt wright S treet and sometimes w e 'd ride back w ith the guys
that came from Buf falo to w ork at this pla ce where they m ade
(22)
�Christmas tre e lights. W e 'd just ride over w ith them, have a soft
drink on the other side and then w e 'd ride back. We used t o do
(
that on payday.
R.H:
Did you go to Cryst al Beach?
F.B:
Not too much because that involved a car. So , what w e did a couple
of times w as, we w ent to Buffalo and t ool: the boat over. Harold
Austin used to play on that boat . You had t o come all the w ay
back in t i m e t o cat ch the ferry and come h o m e.
R.H:
What was the boat called ?
F.B:
The C anadiana. I bough t a souvenir on there when I w ent on the
first time, ' c ause you think you w eren' t going t o go on again. It
w as really out of our w ay, from Fort Erie on the Orleans, City of
Toledo or whate ver, and then you had to get a bus down t o the end
of Main Street and then go over there and come all the w ay back.
R.H:
S o , the only w ay you could get to Crys t al Beach w as either by car
or this boat , right ?
F.B:
Y e ah, by this boat . Well, I don't think they h ad the busses.
R.H:
Did you go m ore often when you were grow n ?
F.B:
Oh yeah , all the t i m e . I w on a w altz contest with Joe Barone, I
(
used t o go w ith Joe B arone. That w as another box o f chocolates.
We didn't know w e w ere in a dance contest . We ran in and the guy
said, "The dance is half over ". We sai d, "We don't care, we don't
w ant t o miss it ". They started to com e over and t ap people on
the shoulder and they'd leave and I said, "Some thing's going on "
then, we w ere the last ones left, we w on i t .
R.H:
What w as t h e D ance Hall like ?
F.B:
It w as beauti ful, it w as a big D ance H all and it was w ell t aken care
of. They had t i cket t akers all the w ay 'round the floor, you didn't
have t o hurry t o the place and you danced by ti cket there too.
R.H:
D o you re m e m ber any of the bands?
F.B:
I don't re m e m ber
• ..
Well, I re m e mber one time I think, Bob Crosby
came there but I don't just re m e mber. Y ou just used to go and
dance .
R.H:
Is there anything else you re m e mber about Cryst al Beach?
F.B:
Well, the C yclone , we w ent on that high Cyclone. Another girl
and I were crazy about that . We used to ride that all the t i m e ,
(
b u t after a fellow g o t killed on it w h e n w e w ere u p there one time . . .
(23)
�He just stood up and splattered
.••
R.H:
F.B:
Oh, I w as in my t e ens then.
R.H:
Was that in the '30s then?
F.B:
(
How old w ere you when this h appened ?
That w ould come up late '30s or early '40s. So they lo w ered that
Cyclone after that .
R.H:
S o , you were there when this incident actually happened ?
F.B:
Y e ah , I w as there with a fello w from Buffalo, a poli c e m an. He
pulled me a w ay, the guy was w e aring a wh i te suit and all the blood
over his white suit
..•
The pe ople on the ride said, "H e just stood
up and thre w out his arm s above his head and fell" . It w as t errible.
R.H:
What else did they have there ?
F.B:
The Caterpillar, that's wh ere you did all your kissing. They h ad
the Funhouse there , that w as great
•••
R.H:
Do you kno w who ran the Funhouse ?
F.B:
No, I don't kno w but I kne w the kids that w orked there . The H all's
son did and I think Hall's w ere conne cted with the Beach fore ver.
R.H:
F.B:
(
What about doctors, who w ere some of the doctors you re me mber?
I only kne w Dr. Clark and Dr. D ouglas that I ever rem e m ber. Dr.
Clark w as up on the corner of Bertie and Battery.
R.H:
Was Dr. Douglas your family doctor ?
F.B:
Yeah .
R.H:
Where was his practice ?
F.B:
Right on Niagara Boule vard opposite Eugene A gre t t e 's place and
there w as the Cust oms and Im migration next door, that's where
you landed.
R.H:
That's where you landed when you came over?
F.B:
Yeah , it w as during World War 1.
R.H:
Do you re m e mber the rationing during the second World War ?
F.B:
Oh yes , it w asn't very fair rationing, not like they had in Brit ain.
But t er w as 26 cents a pound . . .
R.H:
Did you have ration books ?
F.B:
You had ration books with coupons and milk was about 11 cents
a quart and you al w ays w as rationed, you had t o give a ti cke t for
m ost o f the dairy products and the bacon.
R.H:
(
It wasn't too bad then ?
F.B:
No , I didn't think it w as t o o bad. Well, there w as only mom and
(24)
�I , my brothers w ere all out to w ork. We didn't have a car so w e
didn't need gasoline .
(
R.H:
Was gasoline hard t o get then?
F.B:
I think that w as one of the tougher things t o get. I'd hate t o think
no w , with people with five cars in the family, how they'd m ake
out .
R.H:
Do you know anything about the boxing m a t ches they used to have
here ?
F.B:
You m e an where the Le gion i s ? Did I t ell you about that ?
R.H:
No.
F.B:
We w ere t alking about that 'cause girls and women w eren't allo w e d
in there . My brothers u s e d to dress m e u p in their clothes . . .
R.H:
Where w as that no w ?
F.B:
I t w as where the Le gion i s and that w as the Town Hall and upstairs
R.H:
This w as on Que en, right ?
F.B:
Y e ah , Que en Stre e t , and upst airs where the b al cony w as , t o look
•••
down on the boxing and wrestling too. My brothers used to dre ss
m e up in their clothes and pull my h air back and t ake me with them.
We w eren't even supposed t o be in there 'cause w e w ere too young.
We'd creep on our hands and knees so they wouldn't see us and get
(
up on that balcony and look through the railing and see the boxing
and the wrestling.
R.H:
It w as legal, wasn't i t ?
F.B:
Oh yeah , it w as legal, it w as just that our age and w e w ere kids
R.H:
Did they have a boxing ring and everything there ?
F.B:
Y e ah .
R.H:
Did a lot o f people go t o see these m a t ch es ?
F.B:
I didn't think too m any w ent but of course t o m e , m aybe it didn't
••.
look like a good crowd. To m e , it didn't seem like m any people
w ere there . You know that library, Mrs. C ousins used to re ad to
the kids . I just re m e mbered that .
R.H:
Was Mrs . C ousins the librarian ?
F.B:
Ye s , she w as and so did m y sister Elsie read t o the m , Saturday mornings.
She'd say t o my brother Ri chard "Y ou've got t o com e , I'm reading
at the library". He'd say, "We're going to the dumps ".
R.H:
When the Peace Bridge w as being built , did you go over there a
lot ?
(25)
�F.B:
R.H:
(
Oh ye s, w e had the bus servi ce.
There w as a bus service from Fort Erie ?
F.B:
Ye ah , right from the North End, they had a bus service going past
down here .
R.H:
What was it called , do you know ?
F.B:
I can't re m e m ber.
R.H:
You can't re m e mber who ran that servi ce ?
F.B:
Not when it was first opened. They alw ays used t o stop at the hotdog
st and , the driver did.
R.H:
Where did they stop ?
F.B:
Ne ar the place where I w orked and later the driver's name w as
Peachi, that w as_ his last nam e .
R.H:
Did you e ver go on the ferryboats?
F.B:
All the t i m e , we alw ays w ent t o the West Side . On a Saturday night
we w ould go shopping over there to Wool w orth's on Grant Street.
Yo u w ould see everybody over there o n the Wes t Si de and then
at the foot o f the street w as Sargent's and Zellin's Fish and Chips.
Well, it w as called Sargent's and Zellin's.
R.H:
(
So, getting back t o the ferryboats, did you
F.B:
Ye ah , I t ook the ferryboats and it w as three cents for kids and then
• .•
?
it got t o be a ni ckel. In later ye ars before they closed, fello w s
w ere com ing o n and playing guitars and you could request a number,
they'd play it and then they w ould t ake up a colle ction, but that
w as later. I re m e mber one o f the Rose boys, Alf Rose , we w ere
coming on the ferry and he came running up and he jumped on and
he said , " We m ade i t " . We w ere just com ing in and he thought w e
w ere le aving.
R.H:
D o you re m e mber what any o f the ferryboats looked like ?
F.B:
Ye ah , we used t o ride out on the ferryboats, jump in the w a t er
so w e c ould ride back on the w aves from the paddle-wheels.
R.H:
Did you jump o ff the ferryboat s ?
F.B:
Ye ah , w e jumped o f f the ferryboats to s w i m . We jumped right
off the back and then we dived off into the w aves that came from
the p addle-wheels. It w ould ride you right back t o the dock.
R.H:
So, you paid five cents t o get on and then dive o f f ?
F.B:
No , we'd sneak on. We used t o swim in the river and then the ferryboat
guys w ould let us have a fre e ride back 'cause w e didn't have any
(26)
�m oney.
R.H:
(
Do you kno w who any of the guys w ere ?
F.B:
No , well, one w as called Billy Hulse and then there w as a Fort Erie
m an who worked on there for ye ars called George Senn, they were
brothers-in-la w . His wife's still around, she's D olly Byers sist er
that I m entioned.
R.H:
Y ou m entioned some thing about Mr. S e aton, Peanut s Seaton, could
you t ell me
.• •
?
F.B:
He had a brokerage o ffi c e .
R.H:
Where w as that ?
F.B:
Well, it w as
• .•
I guess it w as opposite the Anglo Hotel, I think it
w as next t o where Happy Jack's is. They've filled up the space
no w , he had a little offi ce down there and he w as also on Walnut
S tree t .
R.H:
Did he sell insuranc e ?
F.B:
Ye ah , and then he had the brokerage. He w as the only broker that
they had in those days, that I re member.
R.H:
Was Pe anuts a ni cknam e ?
F.B:
Ye ah , I think his nam e w as Bill. He w as a little short fello w , re al
(
jolly and his sister w as the principal o f Phipps S treet S chool, Rose
Se aton S chool.
R.H:
Did you ever go w a t ch the baseball gam e s ?
F.B:
Oh ye ah , down at the end of B o w en Road, yeah , b e cause I had a
boyfriend who w as playing ball.
R.H:
What team did he play for?
F.B:
Oh , Erie Be ach.
R.H:
Oh, Erie Beach had a baseball team ?
F.B:
Yeah , I don't kno w who sponsored them
• • .
no , it w as Bulle ts Shoes
that sponsored the m . They had a shoestore on Seneca Street in
Buf falo .
R.H:
But the name of the team w as Erie Beach ?
F.B:
No , no, they called it Bulle ts Shoes but all the guys w ere from Erie
Be ach. There was a Cre s cent Park t eam too there .
R.H:
Where did they play?
F.B:
At the B o w en Road diam ond , that w as the only one there . Fort
Erie had a gre at team but they w ent to a lit tle to w n named Deloro
(
and they lost . All the pe ople were w aiting at the train for them
(27)
�t o come back thinking that they had w on. Th ey w ere all at the
train station celebrating . It w as a little town named D eloro and
that w as where my husband w as born. They had t aken the pennant
(
and it w as only a little . . . Well, it's a company t o w n you'd have
to call it, the houses w ere all built and they paid them t o have
seats for rent and they h ad one st ore and they beat the Fort Erie
team .
R.H:
What w as the team called , was it called the Fort Erie Baseball Team ?
F.B:
I don't re m e mber who sponsored the m , m aybe Mentholatum . H orton
Steel men played on it but I j ust can't re m e m ber.
R.H:
What w as that baseball diam ond like down there , w as it nice ?
F.B:
No, it w as just a sand lot to m e , just like you had on any field.
They h ad nice ble achers and that , but there w as . . . It w as the only
place to go so of c ourse it got a lot of use , it never w as overgrown.
They h ad a lot o f good ball players in Fort Erie in those days.
R.H:
You said Mr. Seaton w as on W alnut Stre e t , did you
F.B:
He w as on Walnut Stre e t but be fore that he w as down on the Niagara
• • •
?
Boule vard .
R.H:
(
D o you re m e mber Sullivan's ?
F.B:
Oh ye ah , the be s t fish and chips you ever t ast ed. I 'v e been t o England
and I kno w they w ere the best , the best I e ver tast ed. They w ere
al w ays so ni c e , and it w as so homey, such a homey place to go.
R.H:
Have you any idea when he opened that place ?
F.B:
Well, when I w as a kid the Rhodes w ere there , pe ople named Rhodes
and when he bought that place
•• •
The original house is the t op floor
where Charlie live s. He put the fish and chip shop underneath i t ,
otherwise Rhodes lived there and then Muskroph's, they w ere there
too.
R.H:
S o , that 's been there since what . . . ?
F.B:
Oh , it's a long t i m e , I couldn't even tell you, did you think t o ask
Charli e ?
R.H:
What w as next door t o Sullivan's at that ti m e ?
F.B:
Pong Ki m ' s Laundry. He used t o do the uni form s up for all the
girls that used to w ork in the Antidollar Company. He was so nice,
he used t o bring us Christ m as treats, lichee nuts and things like
that and ginger. H e 'd send t o Vancouver for them , you couldn't
(
even get them around Toront o. He'd send them t o his relatives
(28)
�there and then he had his family, he still had his family in China.
I used t o pack Christmas parcels for them and do his shopping for
the m . The kids w ould send pictures out o f the catalogue s that they'd
get over there . I'd go to Si mpson's or Eaton's and I w ould shop for
him , so then, he w ould do my uni form for fre e. It cost 35 cents
for the uni form , that w as a lot.
R.H:
Did he close down?
F.B:
We've often spoken o f that , we don't kno w whether he closed down
or died or what . It w as bought up , and Sco tty Miller had a candy
st ore there , near Sullivan's, right in there. I w ould have to go down
and study the whole w at erfront 'cause w e used t o swim from the
baby-hole down to what w e called the hot sands, that's dire ctly
behind H appy Jack's and that are a h ad beauti ful sand. The re ason
w e called it the hot sands was, it w ould burn your feet. It w as terribly
hot down there , the baby-hole w as flat ter, there w asn't much sand.
R.H:
So, that w as all taken a w ay because of the businesses then?
F.B:
Y e ah , and then filling in w ith the retaining w all along there. It
all fitted in to that area, that's where the train ran past , the Sand fly
Express and the To.,nerville Trolley . . .
(
R.H:
What w as it calle d ?
F.B:
The T�pri erville Trolley. Everyone had a different name for i t , the
Snake hill, the Sand fly
• ••
R.H:
I gue ss that was quit e an interesting area at one tim e , w asn't i t ?
F.B:
Oh , it w as a beauti ful area because the Old Fort , it w asn't rebuilt . . .
That w as about 1939 when they started restoration.
R.H:
So the Old Fort w as still in ruins up until then?
F.B:
That was all like it had been during the w ar when it had fallen down.
There w as a big bri ck w all 'round the front of it too. They say the
Anglican Church is built from the stones from the Old Fort.
R.H:
S o , when you w ere a kid the Old Fort w as in ruins?
F.B:
It w as all falling down. We played all over it and there w as like
moats. In the spring all the ice and sno w w ould melt and the m oats
w ould fill up , but otherwise in the sum m er it was all grass. Pauline
Che ffins m other used to have the parties for Pauline and Christine ,
they both had July birthdays and she'd t ake the Sunday in bet w e en
the birthdays and she used to baby buggy the ice cre am m aker and
(
take us and have the party and m ake the ice cream right there .
(29)
�F.B:
To the Old Fort . She used to push it up in the baby buggy. Poor
little Benny, he'd have t o w alk. They had a nice park there and
f
they kept the grass real well, it's al w ays been w ell kept. I felt
sad when it w as restored , i t w as a good place for kids.
R.H:
You said that some of the bri cks from the Old Fort w ent to build
the Angli can Church, righ t ?
F.B:
Ye ah , that's alw ays been the st ory around to wn.
R.H:
D o yo u re m e mber t h e date it w as rebuilt ?
F.B:
I thought it w as 1939 when that was restored, I thought w e had
a parade and e verything. There w as so m any things going on. I
loved the South End.
R.H:
I guess i t w as very interesting 'cause you could see everything that
w as going on. Is there any other activities you can tell m e about ?
F.B:
The gre atest activity w as when they had spe cial days at Erie Beach.
Crowds w ould come over, they'd have spe cial days like they still
do at Crystal Beach and they sold you a strip o f ti ckets cheap , to
use on the rides and everything. The people w ould flock over and
they w ere alw ays so dolled up . Everybody w ore their long skirts
and white blouses, big hats, they w ere j ust beauti ful. There w as
(
long chains on their handbags, I rem e mber all that ' c ause my m other
had one and I alw ays w anted t o play with i t . It j ust was so sad when
the stock m arket crashed in '29 and the Bardol's couldn't afford
the Beach. Hardly anybody went in 1930, there w as no m oney.
We used t o w alk to the Beach though i f we didn't have the fare.
R.H:
You would w alk t o Erie Beach then?
F.B:
Ye ah , nothing see m ed t o far in those days.
R.H:
Thank-you very much for the super int ervi e w Florence, I really
enj oyed i t , thank-you so much .
F.B:
I thoroughly enj oyed it too. It's nice bringing back all the old memorie s
and I lived i n such a t i m e when everything w as so ni ce.
(
(30)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History Transcripts
Subject
The topic of the resource
oral history, Fort Erie
Description
An account of the resource
Transcriptions from interviews of various Fort Erie residents conducted in 1985 by the Fort Erie Public Library
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Fort Erie Public Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
FEPL- LH - Oral History
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Fort Erie Public Library
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Rose Hearn
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Florence Barlow
Location
The location of the interview.
Mrs. Barlow's home at 522 Kraft Road
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History - Barlow, Florence
Description
An account of the resource
This is a transcript of Florence Barlow's interview. She discusses topics such as:
Queen Street
Shisler Farm
Life on the farm
Restaurants and hotels
Olympia Tea Room
Jarvis Street
Schools
Walnut Street
Race Track
Erie Beach
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Fort Erie Public Library Local History Collection
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
October 2, 1985
1980s
1985
Erie Beach
olympia tea room
Oral history
Queen Street
race track
rose hearn
shisler farm
streets and avenues
transcripts
walnut street