Eschelman's in Clarence Center

Pretty interesting mini-history of Eschelman's Store, corner of Goodrich and Clarence Center in the video .As seen on WKBW:



When I was little that store was called Bratt's, run by an in-law, and another Eschelman's was across the street where the day care center is now. Bratt's stayed in business a bit longer and had a corner on the penny candy trade.

The Statler Revisited

Last August I roamed around the Statler on Delaware taking pictures and compared them here to some stills from The Shining. This past week I decided to revisit it before it is possibly "mothballed" which is the equivalent of a death knell in the City of Buffalo. I mean, it worked out so well for the Aud.

The pictures are finally loaded to my Statler page on Picasa, labels to come at a later time. More chandeliers are included, even though it annoys me that I can't capture them exactly how they appear to my eyes...


...and even the ladies room off of the Golden Ballroom where it's apparent New Year's Eve was in its recent past.


Outdoors shots too, even though that will be there to enjoy for a while.


Some pictures are a bit pixelly, but my point and shoot did the best it could...and you wouldn't throw out pictures of a treasured friend just because they weren't coffee table book quality, would you? Well, I hope not anyway.


At the bottom is a video shot by WGRZ that shows the Golden Ballroom "live" with the couple that will soon to celebrate their newly wedded life there. Enjoy!

On-Site Memorials

There was an interesting discussion in the comments area of story on WIVB on the subject of roadside memorials. They seem to be everywhere, and it's not just a WNY thing but spans the world. I'm of the opinion that the place for grieving, for remembering, is wherever people find comfort.

From Perfect Memorials (source of picture):

"Roadside memorials can be therapeutic for survivors, according to E. Jean Scully, psychotherapist, bereavement counselor and retired professor at the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University. Scully states, “When a loved one is violently taken, it leaves you unable to say goodbye . . . and creates a helpless need to connect to that spot.”

Back to the online story, "can't understand" wrote (5th down):

"I can never understand the motivation to put flowers at a crash site. I mean, I don't put flowers on my lawn where my grandma had her heart attack. Now you have to go to two places to remember people---their grave and where they crashed?"

This sparked a lively interchange with numerous replies that the administrator finally cut off. On one hand a friend of Amber Graf wrote that the memorials are a way for people to deal with the grief and shock, and that it was very little encumbrance on the owner. Very emotional.

Another viewpoint (who seemed to me to be a person just spoiling for an argument) claimed that as a property owner they would tear up every last speck of a memorial because mourners were trespassing. Jerk. Then there was the dispassionate person who brought up a public safety issue, as in a distraction while driving.

First, public safety. This is in a time where community groups are solicited to "Adopt a Highway" and get out there with orange bags to pick up litter while traffic is sometimes whizzing by at 50+ mph. Then there are billboards, signs, you name it. Non-issue in my opinion.

Then there is the subject of the rights of property owners. Many people agree with the concept that an owner should be able to do with their property what they want, even if it means coldheartedly shoveling a roadside memorial into a garbage bag. Where things start to unravel is when an owner wants to build a WalMart or Wegmans, or maybe wants to fiddle with a historic building. Or when a widow wants to have an on-site memorial on her own property.

Karen Wielinski hopes the Town of Clarence and its residents can understand that a memorial for Flight 3407 needs to be on the spot of the crash. Robin Tolsma is on camera explaining that 6038 Long Street is where her beloved passed from this earth, not down the street, around the corner, or a mile away, but right there. And it is on that site where many feel the last tenuous connection their loved ones taken so tragically, so suddenly, from them.

From WKBW:



The Town supervisor is shown making a thoughtful but neutral statement, knowing he's caught between a rock and a hard place as far as the divided wishes of the residents of Clarence Center are concerned.

And now Long Street has now suffered another horrific loss, perhaps giving more people some insight on the need to go to the spot that will now be forever indelibly linked with the life and untimely death of a person they loved. Then again, perhaps not. Some may never understand how a memorial brings comfort, whether it be roadside, on-site, or a stone in a cemetery, far removed from the last moment of life. Loved ones live on in memories and in the heart after all.

However, whether it's to mourn, to remember, or to feel connection with the last moment of life of a loved one, the feelings of those left behind on this earth should be respected. Leave the mourners and memorials be. It may be the only semblance of peace they can find.

Buffalo in the 1930's

The public works projects of the 1930's built much of what we take for granted today in the City of Buffalo and elsewhere. WGRZ did a nice piece on the results a few weeks ago:

Notable WPA Projects:

• Alden Sewage System installed
• New Amherst Schoolhouse
• Best Street Stadium
• Broadway Auditorium Renovation
• Buffalo's New Airport
• Centennial Park created
• Clearwater Reservoir
• County Park Improvements (Como, Chestnut Ridge, Sheridan, Emery)
• Delaware Avenue Improvements
• Elk Street Wading Pool
• Erie County Sewing Project
• Household Training Class
• Lovejoy Branch Library
• Manhattan Quarry
• 174th Regiment Armory overhaul
• Wales Center Burying Ground converted to modern cemetery
• "DeWitt Clinton's Ditch" - filled in a 5 mile ditch that was once the Erie Canal between Buffalo and Tonawanda
• Holland Town Hall
• Zoo Improvement
• Buffalo Public Library Renovation
• Demolition of Elmwood Music Hall
• Major Renovation of Buffalo Parks
• Riverside Park Renovation
• Topographical Survey of Niagara River and Lake Erie along Waterfront

The original focus of this newscast seems to be current federal stimulus money, however I found the photographs and history presented here fascinating on their own: