We had Ellen right away and just kept on until there were six, Catherine, John, Sally, Stan and Anna Marie. One of the benefits of a large family is all the helpers you have. Ellen took over from the beginning. The only issue with that was John was the oldest son, and that was an important role in the 1940s and 50s. Many a battle was had for control.
As I said earlier, I taught at the new Greenwood school during the 40s. English. And, as I too said earlier, I used my French later and never used my German. The 1940s with World War II was not the time to teach German in the United States. As a matter of fact, I never even spoke it except to the children. When they were good, they may have gotten a little French "mon petit chou"; but, when they were bad, they may have heard a bit of German "du bist ein esel".
St. Mary’s Church was and is in Rexville and the Catholic students at Greenwood School needed a place for their education classes. As I was a member at St Mary’s and our home was right down the Triple Terraces from the school, it made sense for them to use our home.
“Kathy here… that connection stayed. As I attended Catholic education in Andover as a kid, those same nuns were always holding me after class to talk about my grandmother and the rest of the family and one even called me Anna Marie all year. All the kids from class, first, wanted to know who Anna Marie was and second, why are you always in trouble and have to stay after class?”
I taught in Jasper after our youngest was born. I even served as the school newspaper adviser and a proofreader for the yearbook. Around the time Anna Marie was about 4, we bought “the station”, JE Armstrong and Son downtown. The children were not quite old enough to work there, not to say they didn’t help us as much as they could, but, they had school. So, I quit teaching for a while and Stanley and I owned and operated “the station for a number of years.”
It originally had a small grocery store inside; but, we decided to enlarge the lunch counter. I was never a gourmet cook. But, I could handle hamburgers, hot dogs and even roast beef with gravy as a special. We had nice, what you might call ice cream parlor style, tables and chairs for our patrons to sit and have a meal, I think John’s daughter Trish or Patty as we called her, still has them; and we had the soda and candy cases as Stanley described.
There were little cabins out back that had been used for travelers to spend the night in the past. It was a busy little place and we got to visit with the truckers and travelers as well as our friends and neighbors; our children were in and out with their friends and we and our patrons had a bird’s eye view of what everyone was up to downtown from our corner.
Stanley even found a way for one of those old cabins to be of use. He volunteered our family as members of the Ground Observation Corp.
“John here, yes, that cabin was an official GOC Post for the Civil Air Command after WWII through the Cold War period. It had a phone and it was our family’s job to run out every time a plane flew over, note the number on the bottom and report it. Whichever of us saw the plane had to run back in to the “post” and ring up Blanche and she would put us through to the Air Force. I still have my pin after all these years. It says I logged over 250 hours working for the GOC.”
Blanche Wallace, she was the operator for the Greenwood Telephone Exchange for 35 years. She set up shop and directed calls from a corner in her living room. Blanche finally retired when Iroquois Telephone Company added dial up service in our small town. After working for Lew Cornell here in town, our son John worked for Iroquois Telephone. He stayed as they got gobbled up by Continental Telephone who became Contel then GTE and finally Verizon before retiring.
Around 1956, at about 14 years old, our John, or Jackie as his grandmother called him, moved to Stanley's parents to help his granddad with the cattle. I missed having him at home, but, I think Ellen was relieved at times. He was around as school was right up behind our house there on Main Street and of course he helped out at the station. And, his brother and sisters were always needing him for something or another. As they grew up, all our kids were busy, helping us at the station and with school, organizations, and sports. Never a dull moment.
“Stan here…Another job our family ended up with was the Mutual Aid tests. On Saturdays, they would do a test of the fire siren from Bath. It would just start sounding and it was our job to shut it off and reset it in case of a real emergency. I remember watching Mom grab that key and take off running from the station across the road to the firehouse to shut the siren down as it wailed and brought everyone out to the street from the businesses downtown. She sure could move when she had to.”
“Anna Marie again…I remember the road construction workers hanging out at the station the summer they built the road between Greenwood and Rexville; drinking coffee from the coffee bar we had set up inside just as you got to the lunch counter. There was that one that ate what we all called the Cannibal Sandwich, raw hamburger on bread. And, Pocket Comb. John and Stan called me Porky. I don’t really remember why and Jim Franzee, the son of the construction company owner, started calling me Porky too. Jim was a teacher and coach at Watkins Glen School during the school year and worked road construction with his dad in the summer. I don’t know exactly why; but in retaliation, I called him Pocket Comb; he was just Pocket Comb to me.
“Stan again. I also remember the time mom told me I better disappear for a while. Dad didn’t get mad often, but when he did, mom knew it was best for us kids to lay low. This time, it really wasn’t intentional and Mom knew it, but Dad, not so much. Mom and Dad kept a few cigars behind the counter. And, also some exploding loads. Pranks were just a part of this happy little band of young family men in town. I took one of the cigars and loaded it. I had to run off somewhere so I just put it back with the others and took off. Dad came in. Handed one to a friend and took one for himself. Guess whose cigar exploded? When I showed back up later, Mom sent be packing for home where I hid out until things cooled down.”
There were a number of characters in Greenwood. Most were good people and we took care of each other. For example, Waldo Updike. Waldo had a heart of gold but he did enjoy his adult beverages.
One day, the Tennessee Travelers showed up in Greenwood. They were a big group of unsavory people we referred to as gypsies. They would show up with five or six carloads and descend on our little town. Yes, they would do odd jobs like painting, etc. But, mostly, they stole from the local merchants. That day, Waldo happened to be at the station when they rolled in. Knowing that most of the stores, like Lippert’s and Young and Young, just had the women working alone, he took off running and rounded up all the men he could find to come and stand guard in the shops.
To repay these good deeds, the townspeople were known to take care of Waldo too.
“Stan here… let me tell the rest of this one! The phone rang at the station late one afternoon. Mom answered it and it was Waldo. He asked for Dad and told her that he needed a ride home as he did not want to drive. Well, Mom told him Dad was not there, but, that Sally and I were. She sent us off to take him home. When we got back, Dad had returned from a construction job, he did those back then too. And, just as we were walking in, a deputy sheriff pulled into the station. He did not look any too happy. He stormed up to Mom and Dad and said, “I came all the way from Bath because I was told I could get Waldo’s license today and what do I find out, the judge’s kids took him home.” What could we do, just laugh.”
Waldo’s family is still taking care of the good people of Greenwood at Updyke’s Willow Ridge Quality Care Facility. My long-time next-door neighbor June Rollins lived there for a time and Irene Wallace Chaffey is there now, so I hear.
Things sure have changed in Greenwood. First, the New York and Pennsylvania Railway that had served Greenwood since November 16, 1896 was abandoned in 1936 due to severe flooding in July of 1935 which began the withering of our economy. This was also to promote trucking. Which it did, right into town. Then, a lot more changed when the highway department decided that our corner was too dangerous for the big trucks that had to come down the hill and make that left turn to go through town. Many a truck ended up on its side or in the buildings across Main Street over the years. Not only was a bypass on Route 417 added; but, another contributing factor to the decline, the Southern Tier Expressway, Route 17 and now route 86, was built through Hornell and Arkport in the 1960s, removing traffic further from Greenwood. We closed the station in 1963.
Return for Part 3: Grandma of 20