Dalton Main Street
Approximate Years 1942-1946
Ages 6-10
This is a continuation of the previous post of my grandfather’s autobiography.
The autobiography is transcribed exactly as it is presented in the original document, which was handwritten and did not have the benefit of spellcheck.
Page 6
It was at this boarding house that I experienced being knocked unconscious for the first time. Another boy and I were boxing with gloves and he KO’d me with a blow to the eye. The next thing I knew my mother was holding me at the sink and splashing water in my face. We then moved that spring to a house at the edge of town right next to the muck fields where farmers grew celery, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes. There was a 50 yd buffer of cattails between the house and the fields this was a great place to play and explore.
Dad would take us over to Sodus Point to swim at the white sandy beaches near the light house at the entrance to Sodus Bay. And we fished from the concrete walkway that went from the beach to the light house. We also rented a boat and fished in the Bay. We caught yellow perch and sunfish and small mouth bass. In the spring we caught bullheads and eels.
Page 7
That fall I started first grade at Sodus. That winter 42-43 we moved to Sodus Point into a cottage on the side of the bay where the entrance to Lake Ontario was almost straight out from the cottage. We could see the great coal boats come and go. That was a busy place in those days. The school house there was a two room school house [Teachers 1940-1943: Genevieve Brant and Etta Page]. 1-12 grades, each row was a different grade.
[1943] The next spring we moved to Avon and I passed from first grade. That summer I got caught playing with matches. Was pushed from a hay stack and dislocated a thumb. And took a wild ride down a steep hill from the five & dime store on one of the trycicals that were on displays on the front porch of the store.
I went down the side walk standing on the back of the bike and very quickly I was going at a very fast rate of speed. So I got off and landed on my butt and slid quite a ways and burned all the skin off my bottom. One sore kid for days.
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[1943] We moved to Geneseo late that summer and I started in Second grade. We first lived in a very large house. Next door there were two boys named Moore and it was from these boys Fred and I learned to swear. Needless to say, my mother did not like these two guys. One of them stole my piggy bank and so we were not allowed to play with them anymore. I got my first puppy while we lived here and it later died of distemper and I cried for two whole days.
We then moved over the movie house into an appartment.
I cannot remember how long with lived in each of these places. I went to school and Geneso for three years. 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 3rd grade. They made me stay in 3rd grade because I was started in school one year to early. This was terrible to me and I think I was embarrassed also. During the less than three years living in Geneso I was constantly tormented by the April boys. They chased me home, beat on me and even stood me against a wall and shot
Page 9
me many times with a bee bee gun.
Dad bought a house for the first and last time in his life.
We moved to Livonia to 13 Spring Street in June 1946.
This would be a place we would live in the longest. My brother Fred was born just two weeks after my third birthday. And my sister (Penelope, Penny for short) was born just six months before Dad bought this house in Livonia. So when we moved here we had this tiny, plump little blonde that took baths in our dish pan with us. I thought she was a beautiful little thing.
I thought I now had seen the last of being chased, beaten, and intimidated by bullys. Boy was I wrong. When I started school that fall, there were two Murphy brothers, Larry & Dick and their cousin Mike. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was Larry Richardson from Lakeville. Who had to punch you in the stomach every time he met you in the hallway. I wasn’t the only one though, he didn’t care who you were he picked on almost everyone smaller than himself.
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Getting back to the house at 13 Spring St. It was a large home with a flat roof [It is a 2600 sq foot house and has been since converted into a Triplex]. It was so large, Dad rented the other side of the house to Walt Harvey, his wife Leona, and they had a little tiny, very frail daughter Irene who was three years old and had very red hair. We all used the same bathroom. I think there were many things that happened to me here in the five years we lived here that influenced me for the rest of my life.
I will say at this point that my parents let us do our thing most of the time. Fred and I were allowed to go where we wanted to, and this was true with our lives as we lived it, as part of this family. They were great parents.
This old house [Built 1900] came with a large yard [.31 acres] and trees to climb and a farm with a lots of nooks and crannys, a sleigh and a buggy. We spent many hours with this old barn.
Of the North Shore 