Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Connecting yesterday with today....







South Main Street - Cindy K. (early 50's), Teresa (current. Thanks for the photos Teresa.


We are working on a series of Jordan photo albums which will be available on line. Hopefully we'll get at least one connected Easter Sunday. Hey Dave V., do you have any photos of out-houses on the four corners?

Is everyone telling their friends and family about the JordanNY Blog?










6 comments:

Dave Vrooman said...

Maureen:

Sorry, but I do not have any photos showing the "4 corners" with their Halloween decorations. I do remember that one year someone put the sign from Miss Gilbert's house on one of the out-houses. I am not sure what happened to most of the pictures that my parents had. At that time cameras were not used as much as they are today. People brought them out for special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas but there were few that just took pictures around town on a regular basis. That is too bad as a lot of happenings have gone unrecorded except in individual's memories.

I forgot to ask about the picture you had posted of the fountain (gse_multipart34797.jpg). I do not remember it, but think that it stood at one time in front of the Jordan Hotel, right? I can't wait to see the photo albums that you are planning to post.

Remember noon on Wednesdays? The fire department tested the siren and all of the stores closed for the afternoon. Is that still the way it is?

Dave

Bruce said...

Maureen:

Susan gave me a list of photos to add to the blog. This is my first vist to any blog so i'm just visiting. I'll attempt adding the photos when I get home.

"outhouses" are in the collection.

John Pinckney said...

There are no where near the number of stores that Dave can remember, but those that remain do not close on Wednesday afternoons as they used to back in the 50's. When Dave and I were part of the local "street urchin" bunch there were at least 4 grocery stores, 2 meat markets, 3 soda fountain/diners, 3 hardwares, 3 bars, a small department store, a liquor store, an optician, a dentist, 3 doctors, 2 barbers, a drug store, a jeweler, and more. It was quite a different village then and yes, all those businesses shut down every Wednesday afternoon.
The fire siren blows every day at noon now.

Dave Vrooman said...

OK, I am nosy, who are Bruce and Susan? Could Bruce be Bruce Fenster or maybe Bruce Patterson?

John:

As I recall the original soda fountain was Rotes (spelling?) that was on the West side of Main. Then Buzzy bought them out and moved it across the street next to Johnny MacNabb's Jordan Supply. I remember besides the great fountain and fish sandwiches on Fridays he had a juke box and pinball machines. If they knew who was in the store when you had won some games on the pinball machine and knew it to be OK they would pay you off with five cents per game.

John Pinckney said...

Speaking of Buzzy's pin ball machines. I can remember hanging around watching the "older" guys (are you listening Bob Gumaer) pump nickels into them in the hope of winning a few nickels back. Sometimes even a couple of dollars! I was too young to play them and didn't have any nickels to spare anyway but I sure enjoyed watching the reactions when the dreaded "TILT" light came on.
From what I remember Buzzy's attracted the younger crowd and the adults were more likely to go to Milly's or Al Coon's.
I agree with Dave that the 25 cent fish sandwich on Friday was a heck of a deal and darn good too. It was worth the walk uptown from the school.

Dave Vrooman said...

John:

Like you, I was too young and broke for pinball, but spent my share of the time watching the "older" guys. I seem to remember that I got so excited with what was going on that I actually caused the machine to tilt once. Needless to say, I was not the most popular person at that time. I think that whoever it was that was playing had a pretty high score and was about to win big. I learned in a hurry to watch and not get involved.

Do you remember a guy that we called "koo" Yawney? He was a little slow I think and helped out / worked at Rotes(?) and also at Buzzy's. He seemed to be always around. One of the nicest guys, he would do anything for you. There was another guy in town that they called "koo" but his last name was Kerr, I think. He was a military pilot and I remember one time, I think Memorial Day, he buzzed the village with his plane. The story I heard was that he got in big trouble for that.

I am sending a picture of a milk bottle that I have had for years that is embossed "Willowdale Dairy Jordan, N.Y.". It was made by the Thatcher Milk Bottle Company in Potsdam, and from the trade mark on it I think that it was made in the 20's or 30's. I do not remember that dairy, does anyone else know of it? I also have a plate that was made in 1960 for the 125 anniversary of Jordan. It has pictures of various places around town such as the swimming pool dedicated in 1948. I got the plate at the Erie Canal museum and am sure that a lot of you have one of these plates.