Shuffle Off to Buffalo — and Cuba

June 4, 2016

We said sad goodbyes to Susan and Gary, with promises to get together again soon.
I wanted to take Route 5, one of the old truck routes, to our next stop outside Buffalo. After about forty-five minutes of detours, construction and frustrating city street re-routes I gave in and we hopped on the New York State Thruway, an east-west toll road in quite good condition.

[An aside; since I commented on truck stops in a previous post I will add that the Thruway rest stops are very well done, clean and reasonably priced. They have a variety of fast foods and each stop is slightly different. They are much more traveler friendly than they were a decade ago. They do have a lock on business. In order to shop elsewhere it is necessary to exit, pay toll, then re-enter again, a nuscience.]

COUSIN NANCY AND THE GHOST
We checked in near the Buffalo airport then coordinated with my niece Kellie to meet at her mom’s, my cousin Nancy’s for dinner. Nancy, who is a couple years my senior, has been widowed for many years and is in failing health. Kellie and husband Don live about fifteen minutes away  and spend quite a bit of time caring for her and her house. It’s that age-old situation of the parent becoming the child and the child becoming the parent. Always a very delicate dance.

We met Kellie and Don at Nancy’s for dinner and an evening of reminiscing over our various family mishaps and stunts. Both sides of the family oddly seem to enjoy appearing in costumes and make-up. ( I spared you, in a previous post, a picture of cousin Susan in her favorite chicken suit.) Nancy insisted we try on her latest.

I have to say this carefully because it may offend some of you gentle readers; There is a paranormal spirit in that house. I have never experienced or been aware of anything paranormal, however I accept the word of Nancy, Kellie and other family members who have been there and had those experiences. They began shortly after Nancy’s husband, George died.

George was a happy, good hearted guy who dearly loved being with Nancy and Kellie, and who loved to play with his granddaughter Sarah. After his death, among other harmless but amusing events, Sarah’s remote control toy car will from time to time decide to follow or bump someone, usually Nancy. It has even shown anxiety when there was concern over Nancy’s well being during a big storm power outage. There have been numerous other un-normal events witnessed by those whom I trust and believe. (Picture awakening one morning alone in the house and the toilet paper has been pulled loose and strung through every room, over and through chairs and tables). That sort of activity continues but has declined over the years.  Now it’s time to move from the house… and any spirit that might be there.  It adds to the difficulty for Nancy.

As usual there were no paranormal events while we were there, but Nancy had prepared a delicious dinner of some of my old favorites, particularly my mother’s clam casserole and mince pie, a dessert only I seem to enjoy. (I brought the remains on the road and finished it last night.) I get to enjoy them in their entirety as GG turns up her nose at both.

LOCK DOWN ON THE ERIE CANAL
Geezer Gal had never seen Niagara Falls so we set out the next day to fix that. A river cruise from Lockport seemed to promise both a tour transiting some canal locks and a view of the falls.
It was the sunny, mild day we have come to enjoy every day on this trip. The fare was under twenty bucks each and the two hour ride in the open but covered tour boat was pleasant.

We transited the very unusual double lock just upriver from Lockport.
Most river locks in the world are single, with a door at each end. This set had three doors, one on the ends and one in the middle. Thus the boats could go through two eighteen foot steps in a row where there was a particularly sharp drop in river level.

The captain provided a very informative and educational history lesson of the canal’s financing and building as well as local highlights as we progressed.  We progressed… but not as far as Niagara Falls. Careful reading of their ad promised only the locks tour. We were a little disappointed but realized we never would have had the experience otherwise.

CONCERT DELIGHT
Following the boat trip we picked up  Nancy and went off to an evening of music at Sarah’s high school in Akron, NY. It’s a large school and has a substantial focus on choir, band and orchestra… and the instructors to inspire the kids.
In my past lives I was sent to record many church, community band  and high school music events for radio and TV station employers. Some were very good, some were very painful. These kids were really good, particularly the choir… more than mechanically good… notes and beats… but emotionally good as well, a quality difficult to teach unless the student really wants to feel the music. A very nice surprise.

Kellie instigated a “jailbreak” before the end but after Sarah’s participation. Sarah met us outside and the six of us went to the Akron AleHouse for dinner. Along with the dinner banter it gave me time to chat with Sarah asking about her likes and future plans,an opportunity I don’t get often, teens being mostly in their own world.

Once again our family parted with promises of “next year”.

NIAGARA FALLS AT LAST
Friday morning we packed and headed for Niagara Falls, the American side as neither of us had thought to bring passports. It was a short hop up there and the crowd was still light. We followed about a hundred matching yellow t-shirted eighth graders through the gate. The park is so large they disappeared in its vastness.

The falls themselves are beautiful, hypnotic and overwhelming in the volume of water passing over the three falls hour after hour, day after day, century after century. Nature drops 750,000 gallons a second over the one hundred and sixty-five foot precipice.

We spent about an hour enjoying the park and views before heading on our way.

OFF TO CUBA
… New York, that is.
Charles, (always Chuck to me,) Woodford has been our “third brother” since we were born. His mom was a close friend of mine and they were roommates in nursing school. They were lifelong friends and we spent a lot of time together. Those were war years; Chuck’s dad was lost, our dad came home. Whenever we could we included Chuck. He is almost a year older than me and we both liked hunting and fishing. Mom and dad and us boys just naturally included him in our camping and outdoor adventures.

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Chuck joined the Army out of high school, becoming a paratrooper. If you collect old copies of Life magazine you can find him on the cover… on the schoolhouse steps protecting a little Black girl as she broke George Wallace’s Alabama segregation laws.

Following his service he took full advantage of the GI Bill, eventually getting his doctorate and a career at the University of West Virginia. A couple of marriages and three children later, retirement finds him a cheerful bachelor living on his 180 acre farm outside of Friendship NY, a small farming community below the Finger Lakes and near the Pennsylvania border. A Rotarian, he is about to take the office of President of their fifteen member Friendship club.

We spent the afternoon with him, sitting on the porch drinking beer, talking Rotary and reminiscing.He had to put his beloved quarter horse down recently due to age, so he hasn’t ridden in a few weeks and is beginning to think of getting another.

But he does still have his three Clydesdales that he bought at auction to rescue them from the grinder. Two full size and one pony Clydesdale.

He’s been dealing with a hip issue and didn’t want to go to dinner, so  about sunset we headed back to our motel in Cuba and to Moonwinks for the regionally traditional Friday Night Fish Fry.

Moonwinks is on a site of restaurants and buildings since Cuba was formed as a point on the Southern New York canal and a rail line back in the 1800s. The  present building began as a hot dog stand in the 1930s and has expanded numerous times. Presently it has two large dining rooms, a banquet room and a nice bar.

We enjoyed our fish fry in the dining room — white table cloth, real silver, etc. The fish fry, traditionally haddock, was done just the way it should be. Both dining rooms and the bar were full and there was overflow in the banquet room, attesting to its local popularity.

We enjoyed an after-dinner wine in the bar before retiring.

-Geezer