Buffalo in the 70’s: Sports heroes and their gin mills…

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Buffalo is a city that loves its sports and loves to drink. It makes combining the two a natural, and many professional athletes have tried their hands at becoming professional tavern owners as well.

In the 80’s and 90’s, Sabres tough guy Rob Ray had Rayzor’s on Elmwood Avenue at Bidwell. Bills great Jim Kelly famously had a string of nightclubs.

But in the 60’s and 70’s, Sestak and Maguire’s Lounge — owned by Bills all-time defensive lineman Tom Sestak and Bills all-time punter Paul Maguire — was one of Buffalo’s popular dining spots.

Forty years ago this week, Sestak and Maguire’s was advertised in The News right next to Schony’s. Jim Schoenfeld is remembered in Buffalo for his toughness on the blue line, his singing ability and record albums, his selling of mattresses, even his broadcasting and coaching.

Many fewer, however, remember Jim Schoenfeld, your host at Schony’s in the Evans Town Plaza.

When Buffalo winters meant bread bags in your boots

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

In Buffalo we seem to start thinking of winter the moment the Erie County Fair ends. A generation or two ago, winter was something that needed a bit more preparation than it does in 2015—especially if, back then,  you were getting your brother or sister’s leaky hand-me-down boots to wear every day from November to March.

Putting on socks, then bread bags, then boots was a routine of chilly Western New York winters for decades.

In my neighborhood, we looked to tell something about kids from their bread bags. Colorful polka dots on a white background meant you were wearing Wonder Bread bags on your feet. This was basically the Lacoste alligator emblem of dry feet.

Yellow, orange and brown bags sticking out of the tops of your boots meant that your parents drove an extra couple of blocks to shop at Bells.

But most kids—including my brother, sister, and me—always had the red, white and blue of the Tops bags shown below, on sale this week 40 years ago for 39¢ a loaf.

Even with year-round bread bag saving, there never seemed to be enough bags for all of our playing and walking to school all winter. Not that they really kept our feet dry, anyway.

Buffalo in the 60’s: Big business in bowling shirts

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

We Buffalonians don’t bowl anywhere near as much as we used to. Even though most of our blue-collar jobs have been gone for decades,  we still consider ourselves a blue-collar town, and we still sentimentally feel a link to the blue collar game our parents and grandparents played.

Bowling was a game that was as much about smoking and drinking and socializing as it was about rolling a ball down the lane.

As we watch bowling alleys regularly close around the region, it’s fun to look back to a time 55 years ago, when it wasn’t just bowling alleys that were plentiful: On August 28, 1960, the pages of The News had no fewer than five decent-sized ads for custom bowling shirts.

17 aug 1960 nat nast bowling shorts at Laux

23 aug 1960 Bowling shirt Buffalo rubber supply

23 aug 1960 bowling shorts dekdebruns

Aug. 27, 1960: New Marine Drive Apartments is looking for residents

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

One of the last contested questions of Buffalo’s Canalside development is what should become of the Marine Drive Apartments.

Fifty-five years ago this week, open houses were welcoming prospective tenants to check out the only downtown waterfront living available at the time.

Buffalo in the ’60s: A look inside Cheektowaga’s new St. Joseph Hospital

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

This week 55 years ago, August 27, 1960, Western New York’s newest hospital was opened, as Bishop Joseph A. Burke cut the ribbon on the St. Joseph Intercommunity Hospital in Cheektowaga.

(Buffalo Stories archives)

A special section of The News was dedicated to the latest advances seen inside, as highlighted by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph.

Bishop Joseph A Burke dedicates Cheektowaga’s new St. Joseph’s Hospital on Harlem Rd. in 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)




Aug. 27, 1960: Pat Nixon visits Buffalo on a campaign swing

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

The 1960 presidential election was one of the closest in American history.  While Buffalo and Western New York seemed firmly in the John Kennedy camp — Kennedy visited here at least twice leading up to his run for president and the election — Buffalo was a big enough city not to be ignored by the Richard Nixon camp.

With that in mind, on August 27, 1960, Vice President Nixon’s wife, Pat, visited Buffalo.

Buffalo Stories archives

Back to School 1960: New schools debut in Cheektowaga, Orchard Park, Amherst

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Fifty-five years ago this week, The News’ special back-to-school section featured articles on the latest in education inside and outside of the classroom, and, of course, plenty of back-to-school ads.

Children around Western New York were getting ready to start in new schools that are still in use today.

The new Cheektowaga High School opened on a still mostly rural Union Road in 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Maple Road was also more rural than it is today in 1960. When St. Gregory The Great opened that fall, the parish’s current largest neighbor– Milliard Fillmore Suburban Hospital– was not yet built. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Opened as Orchard Park Junior High School in 1960, the building was enlarged in 1976 and it has been the home of Orchard Park High School ever since. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Buffalo in the ’60s: Buffalo ‘will remain unchallenged’ as world’s flour-milling center

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Fifty-five years later, Buffalonians are growing increasing excited as new and innovative uses are being created for the aging, hulking grain elevators and mills along the Buffalo River.

But this week in 1960, the chairman of International Milling would have “looked at you funny” had you told him the best use for grain elevators might be to wrap them to look like beer cans so people have something interesting to look at while they play outdoor ice hockey.

Charles Ritz — who hailed from Minneapolis, not Buffalo, mind you — said things like “Buffalo’s geographic advantage cannot be matched” and “Buffalo is best situated to supply growing populations of the American Northeast.”

25 aug 1960 buffalo will remain flour giant

The 1,000th look at critical, mundane: What BN Chronicles is all about

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Every week, I read a week’s worth of The Buffalo News from some gone-by year, looking for articles, photos, and ads that shed some interesting light on our past, help provide some clarity to our collective community memory of the great people, places, and institutions of Western New York, and help explain where we are now.

Western New York historian Steve Cichon combs through old editions of The Buffalo News to gather material for BN Chronicles. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)
Western New York historian Steve Cichon combs through old editions of The Buffalo News to gather material for BN Chronicles. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)

This week, The News will publish my 1,000th BN Chronicles look into Buffalo’s past.

We are all excited and thankful about the renaissance Buffalo is currently enjoying, but I think projects like BN Chronicles help us to remember — even amid all that is new and exciting — what truly makes Buffalo unique.

Every place has history, but few places have so much, so varied, so unheralded history as Buffalo.

In a city like New York or Boston or Chicago, there is likely at least one college professor who is an expert on every fascinating facet of those cities’ past. Books have been written that tell the complete stories of nearly every neighborhood, group of people, and institution.

Here, we are playing 50 years of catch up. For a half-century, as a community, we had a general self-defeatist attitude thinking that if it had to do with Buffalo or its past, it was probably not worth thinking about or keeping.

Now we realize our strength is in a future planted firmly in and building upon our past. The way to build Buffalo’s future is to collect and codify its past making for a deeper, richer experience not only for us, but also for the newcomers to our city who arrive daily.

It is the big things and the little things. Buffalo was suffering from a sort of mass depression, and many of the great moments of our pop culture history limped away and vanished unnoticed. Now that the depression is lifted, we are wondering what became of the way we have lived our Buffalo lives over the last 50 or 60 years.

In the ’50s and ’60s, we steamrolled our past with good intentions, expecting our city of 600,000 people to grow to 2 million. We wanted to build roads and giant skyscrapers to be prepared. In the ’70s and ’80s, the hemorrhaging of industry, jobs, and people left us reeling and wondering if the last person leaving Buffalo would turn off the light. The ’90s and 2000s saw more people realizing our resilient and friendly people were our strength, and seeds were planted to show off our assets and bring people back.

As the writer of the BN Chronicles, I enjoy taking the opportunity to share the snapshots in time that help tell us the story of how we got to the place we are right now. How our industries wound up decimated. Why the waterfront, Buffalo schools and Peace Bridge have been difficult puzzles to solve for years. But also the good news. The men and women who believed in this city when few others did. The sometimes terrible, but certainly well-intentioned and hopeful development that took place through the years. The people and places who through it all kept Buffalo the wonderful blue-collar spirited community it remains today.

But along with the heavy lifting, come some of the stories of our lives that have been lost to time. We are able to look at the city where you could not walk more than two blocks without hitting a corner gin mill, a firebox, and a milk machine. Maybe we are reminded to tell our kids and grandkids that when we did well in school, we took our report cards to Loblaw’s to get a free day at Crystal Beach.

Whether it is the earth-shattering headlines or the warm and fuzzy “whatever-happened-tos,” it is more than just nostalgia. The most important piece of what happens in the stories of the BN Chronicles is taking a step back and seeing how all these vestiges of our past have shaped who we are today. It is what makes us in Buffalo unique, and each story told adds to the critical mass that is bringing new life to our community.


This first appeared at history.buffalonews.com.

aaaBuffaloStoriesBNChronicles Watermark

 

Back to School 1960: Where girls were shopping

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Fifty-five years ago this week– the last week of August, 1960– The News’ special back-to-school section featured articles on the latest in education inside and outside of the classroom, and, of course, plenty of back-to-school ads.

Goldin’s at Broadway-Fillmore and Thruway Plaza, featured “The Goldin Twins” and S&H Green Stamps in this 1960 ad. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Clothes shopping was a much more gender-specific endeavor in 1960 — while many larger department stores and discount stores obviously offered accouterments for both sexes, there were also plenty of specialty shops that catered to only boys or girls.

Hengerer’s, 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Girls were looking for dresses and skirts as they found new school clothes 55 years ago; most schools banned girls from wearing slacks.

Kobacker’s, 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Goldin’s, Morrisons and Oppenheim Collins all catered to women and girls.

Morrison’s, Main Street downtown, Broadway/Fillmore, and North Tonawanda. 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Hengerer’s, Kobacher’s, Neisner’s, Sattler’s and the Sample sold men’s and women’s fashions.

Neisner’s. Main Street Downtown, Broadway near Fillmore, and Bailey Avenue. 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)
Oppenheim Collins: Main at Huron, Thruway Plaza. 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)
Sattler’s, 998 Broadway, 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)
The Sample. Hertel Avenue, Walden Avenue, Seneca Street, Lockport. 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)
Ulbrich’s. 386 Main, 17 W. Chippewa, University Plaza, Sheridan Plaza, Southgate Plaza, Thruway Plaza, Hamburg. 1960. (Buffalo Stories archives)