A defining feature of any high school experience is what you ate and how you ate it. But during the post-war and baby boomer years, the students at Bennett High School, Main & Hertel in Buffalo, not only enjoyed eating– but also seemed to do a pretty decent job of chronicling lunch time and snack time.
Boys drink milk from Kart’s Dairy, across Main Street from Bennett High School, in the Bennett cafeteria in the 1956-57 school year. (Buffalo Stories archives)
Looking through newspapers and yearbooks and a pile of other resources, here are some great photos showing what teenage-life was like for the students of North Buffalo, University Heights, Central Park, Parkside and other neighborhoods in the north-central part of the city.
Some of the locations are obvious, but some of the them aren’t labelled. If you have any idea which soda fountains, coffee shops, or pizza places are represented in these photos– from Hertel, to University Heights, to The Central Park Plaza– please drop me an email at steve@buffalostories.com.
Van Slyke Pharmacy and Luncheonette, Hertel Avenue corner of Parkside Avenue. (Buffalo Stories archives)Bennett students Judy Silverstein, Lynda Sturner, Bonnie Sandler and Sunny Weinstein at an unnamed soda fountain, 1957. Possibly Bargar and Wright’s pharmacy at Hertel and Colvin? What do you think? Any idea where this photo was taken? Email steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)Bennett boys eating pizza, 1957. Do you know where? Drop me an email, steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)Larry Nadel, Judy Rovall, Susie Silverman, Alan Carrel, Jane Stiller and Irwin Falk eating hamburgers and sodas,at The Salad Bowl Restaurant– in what was then The Delaware Shopping Plaza, later the Great Arrow Shopping Plaza, and today, Marshall’s Plaza. (Buffalo Stories archives)Bennett girls doing homework, talking on the phone, and drinking Queen-O, 1959. (Buffalo Stories archives)Girls eating pizza in front of the jukebox, 1959. Any idea which pizza joint? Drop me an email, steve@buffalostories.com (Buffalo Stories archives)Coffee, water, and a jukebox remote. 1957. Louis Trachtman writes: “These guys are (left to right) Richard Kulick (now deceased); Gordon Cohen (now deceased), Elbert Siegel and Murray Munshen. I feel certain this photo was taken at the Salad Bowl on Delaware Avenue, which was a popular “hangout” for teen agers from North Buffalo. We all graduated from Bennett High School together, class of 1957. ” That sounds definitive to me– but earlier, two folks thought it might be Clarence’s Diner. Clarence would give the kids food for helping keep the place clean, and would even let kids fry their own french fries. Clarence’s Diner was in a typical storefront building at Hertel and Starin, where Deep South Taco now stands. (Buffalo Stories archives)
Mister S Hamburgers. Now the site of the LaSalle Metro Station, just north of Hertel, before the viaduct was removed. 1967. (Buffalo Stories archives)
All decked out here for Christmas 1937, Kart’s Dairy was at 2990 Main Street, “about 500 feet north of Hertel,” just south of where the NFTA’s LaSalle Park and Ride MetroRail station now stands.
Buffalo News archives
The year this photo was taken, “The White House of Buffalo Dairies” was one of 36 dairies listed as operating in the City of Buffalo.
Buffalo Stories archive/Steve Cichon collection
Founded in 1926, Kart’s Dairy was the city’s fifth largest dairy producer when it was bought out by the city’s largest—Jones-Rich—in 1962. Kart’s 30 delivery trucks and $2.6 million in milk sales were moved to Rich’s headquarters on East Ferry Street at the time of the sale.
The building remains, fenced in and a shadow of its former self on Main Street.
By Steve Cichon
