Tim: Do you remember when we used to go to, uh, that chemical place in Canada where they had a swimming area? What was the name of that? Cyanamid. Can you imagine the name? It sounds like poison chemicals. It was. We went there and swam.  

Mom: I know. We did the, well, the cyanamid, uh, smoke thing always came over here.

Tim: It did? Oh, sure. Today they'd be shut down in an hour and a half.  

Mom: Right. We survived.  

Tim: You remember the high diving board there?  

Mom: Well, not exactly. I did dive, but I probably worried about you kids.  

Tim: I was such a chicken, I didn't go off it much. But we had nice picnics there. Did other families go with us?  

Mom: Not that I know of, no...Cyanamid

What was that other little one we went to where it was so cold? In Canada? Yes. Had a, had a little waterfalls in it, and a whirly-gig thing. Up by the falls? Yes. Give me one more, please.  

Tim: I don't remember that.  

Mom: Uh, this is good.  

Tim: Have a pool or just a... A lake. Really? I don't remember that. Did you ever go to Sherkston?

Mom: No. That was kids.  

Tim: We went as teenagers, yeah. There's some on your shirt, too. Remember, wasn't there a place out on, uh, 104? An artificial lake? Lakeside or whatever. Yeah. We used to go there once in a while. We used to go there.

 I remember. When do you think it was we went to the Adirondacks?  

Mom: Dennis was not quite two. One year we went with the Brillhardts. It was freezing cold in August.  

Tim: Didn't we have raised floors on the tents. We had tents. I guess maybe they didn't have raised floors.  

Mom: We had the worst tent. Dad borrowed a boy scout tent from Fred Garde.

And it was the heaviest thing. He had no idea how to put it up.  

Tim: George Brillhardt probably did.  

Mom: Yes. And what else went wrong that year? Well, when I washed Dennis' Doctor Denton's, they'd freeze, hanging up. Huh! It was summertime! Yeah, well, it was 30 degrees. You serious? Oh, God, it was cold.  

Tim: We had a grill right there. We grilled food, yes. You know, picnic tables. Yes.  

Mom: And a beach.  

Tim: No pool, just a beach, I remember. Right. Was it Silver Lake or Golden Lake? Golden Beach. Golden Beach, yeah.

 So it was just Brillhardts, and Toohey's? I think so, yes. You know who died? Ray, young Ray. Did he? Yeah, my age.

Tim: So, just Sandy and uh, her brother. Mark. Mark, who lives out on Lake Ontario. I don't know where he lived.  

Mom: His wife left him, right? Maria?  

Tim: I think so, yeah. Was Vida Brillhardt related to Aunt Ethel? Cousins. Both Smiths somehow, right?  

Mom: Right. But they were never... You know, Aunt Ethel was in Brooklyn a lot with her mother. That's where Uncle Pat courted her, I guess. When he was in the service, she was in Brooklyn.  

Tim: Did she ever live in Lewiston before she got married? Aunt Ethel, didn't she grow up here?  

Mom: Oh, way back. I think they moved when she was young, though.

Tim: Oh, I didn't know that. Her father took a job in the metropolitan area?  

Mom: Did he die? He died, yes. That's probably when the mother went back to Brooklyn. Mmm.  

What do you mean? Because it was Aunt Lil, her sister, and Aunt Dot.  

Tim: Those were Aunt Ethel's sisters. Yes. Not her mother's sisters, Aunt Ethel's sisters. No men in that, no brothers, right?

She had no brothers. Not that I know of. Aunt Lil was nice. Boy, Tricia tells us how bad Aunt Dot got in her later years. She's never told me. She told me how mean she got and... Demanding. Well, I think her and Ralph were in a nursing type home together. Fighting all the time. What a way to go.

Mom: Well, she probably spent all her money and Trisha didn't get any.  

Tim: That's probably Trisha's disappointed about that. She had a lot from, what, the phone company or something?  

Mom: Yes. Retirements.  

Tim: It seems odd. Matt and Pat were twins. They didn't hang out together. Different personalities.  

Mom: Completely. They both could sing, but Pat sang in the, you know, more of a church singer, I guess.

Dad sang in the barrooms.  

Tim: Irish tunes, right?

But, they don't even seem like, they didn't have any friends they shared. Like, Herbie Jordan wasn't really a friend of Uncle Pat's, was he?  

Mom: Well, I can remember, we'd go to a lot of New Year's. Kay Finn. Oh, yeah. And that group, they were friends.  

Tim: Included both Toohey families, right? Yeah. Kay and Bob Finn. Right.

Herbie Jordan.  

Mom: Cruz. But then we went to some, uh, New Year's Eve. Bob Schroeder. Mm hmm. Those were the Smiths.  

Tim: Uh. You didn't go to New Year's Eve at his house, that little house on Kerr Street?  

Mom: No, probably not. But, uh, oh God.

Her sister, Dad and I went to their wedding up on, up on, uh, Highland Avenue. I can't come up with the right name right now.  

Tim: Whose sister?

Bob Schroder's wife. Bob Schroder's wife, sister?  

Mom: Dorothy. Her sister, Betty Smith, Taylor. She married Bill Arnum. I remember Taylors, yeah. And, the last I saw them was in Ohio when, when, um, I drove to New York, er, to Florida with... With June? Irish. And on the way back, we stopped in Mariana, Ohio, and that's where the Taylors lived.

And Irish claimed friendship with them from being at Myrtle Beach, where they had gone. Same times. And of course, I knew them from way back.  

Tim: So they were both, the husband and wife were there, and did you stay overnight with them? Yes. I didn't know any of their kids. I don't remember any kids by that name.

He worked at a plant, a factory, didn't he?  

Mom: Yes, and transferred.  

Tim: Oh, that's why he went to Ohio. That was probably a carborundum facility. Whatever. I can't remember. They had a ceramic something out there, I think. I remember when you used to put an army blanket on the table and play cards. Do you remember?

Bill Taylor? No, you would put an army blanket on the table out here and you'd have people come and play cards.  

Mom: That was with the Johnsons. With the Johnsons? And Emma, Dick, McDonald. And Jim and Gladys.  

Tim: How about Gillesses?  

Mom: Gillesses sometimes, yeah. And Don and Peggy. And... That would be a crowd.  

Tim: You drank whiskey then?

Mom: Probably. I remember. The guys drank beer.  

Tim: The men drank beer, the women drank whiskey? Highballs, right? Yeah. You couldn't, how many, what kind of cards? Did you play poker? Did you play poker?  

Mom: I think we did.  

Tim: You had to sit around and do other things too.  

Mom: I know we did with the Johnsons, yes. Penny poker.  

Tim: Oh yeah?

Jim, Jim and Gladys. They had Bob and, uh, Robert and, uh, Jim, Jim Johnson and the girls, but, oh, I forgot about the girls. Yeah. Yeah. None of the family's around here. Jim died and he lived in Fredonia. He married a classmate of mine from law, from high school, Carol Koopman. Jim was a good guy. He had a long a career with the, uh, State?

No, Niagara Mohawk. Oh. You know who died? Uh, Rob Schweitzer. You just said. Yeah, Rob and Joey are both dead. Johnny's still alive, the oldest brother.  

Mom: That's right you told me of Sandy Brillhardt's brother.  

Tim: Yeah, Ray, he died a couple years ago. Oh. So did Rob Schweitzer.

Mom: Well, the brother died long back.  

Tim: Joey died in the 90s. In early nineties, I'd say. Yeah, 94 drunk. Oh, he, he drank himself to death. Yeah, he was working as a night clerk in a motel six. Oh. Found him dead there. So he stayed, he was staying in a motel room. He was a very good lawyer. Earl Bridges and Jack Gelman told me Joe was smart, and then both of them said they had to let him go from their law firm because he...alcohol.

He spent 10 or 15 years working, representing the city of Niagara Falls on the Love Canal cases.

They were different, that family, John and uh, what was Joey's mom's name? I don't know, now. I remember with Richie,  

I used to go with Rich, he had a grandmother who lived on Wyoming Avenue in DeVaux. So, uh, his father, John, Joey's Oh, no, that was Joey's, not Rich Jensen, but he'd been there with us once in a while, too. You didn't socialize with them? Schweitzer's or Jensen's? Jensen's kept to themselves, I think. Whitey.  

Mom: We had, Dad had his own friends.

Mm hm. From growing up here. They didn't, you know.  

Tim: Yeah, Dick Crew. Yeah. That was tight, yeah.

But, it was interesting, you were talking about drinking the other day. I'm not focused on it, but did you, did you, you know, I have such a lousy memory, like you and dad would go to parties, there'd always probably after a few years there was somebody old enough to babysit here in the family.  

Mom: Do you remember Denise?

Denise. Hickey? Hickey was a babysitter. Yeah, I forgot about that. I thought there was one of those girls.  

Tim: You know who I remember? Suzanne Ross. Sue! That lived, uh, not Suzanne Dave Ross. Sue, who lived across the street. What was her sister's name? Janice?  

Mom: No, yeah. Well, there was one that used to come back from...

California, when Mary Ross still lived here, right?  

Tim: Yeah, that was Sue. No, I think it was the other one, Janice. Sue became an executive of a not for profit in Buffalo. Huh. Did they have any boys in that family?  

Mom: No. Well, yes. Did they? Remember the one, big tall guy?  

Tim: No. I remember a big tall Swann down in the next house.

Hi, there was, you know where Mrs. Richardson lives? That was Swans.  

Mom: I wonder if she went to Germany for the winter. You don't see her? I never see her.  

Tim: I saw her maybe two months ago. Walking? Yeah, right by her house. Huh. She have a dog? Yes. Yeah, I haven't seen her recently. A beagle. A beagle?  

Mom: Or something like a little beagle.

Tim: How many, how many ex wives does Richardson have living in Lewiston?  

Mom: I don't know. He's got... The Chinese woman.  

Tim: She's back in Toronto. Japanese. You look on the property rolls, she owns a lot of houses in Lewiston. That wife, that Asian woman.  

Mom: She owns this one up here. I wonder what's going on up here.

Tim: Remember, I thought that the people not living there, but just working on it. There's people overnight there.  

Mom: They're not doing business.  

Tim: They haven't come down and said hello? No. Do you learn anymore about Jeanine from, from Pat?  

Mom: Jeanine hasn't been answering Pat's calls. And Pat was kind of upset about it.

So I'm not questioning.  

Tim: Yeah. Maybe she's unable to.  

Mom: Well, Teresa's been having operations. Her lung collapsed. In Florida? And they had to move her from one city to another for a better hospital.  

Tim: Yeah, you know, talking about your friends, Monins were an interesting family too. Very. Ruth and, uh, Leo. Yes. Did they, Leo, they both grew up in Lewiston, didn't they?

Mom: Leo on River Road, Ruth right down here. She grew up in the house... She was Walters.  

Tim: She grew up in the house at the corner of, of, uh, 4th and, and... Not the  

Mom: corner. That was back in.  

Tim: Well, the next house is part of the church property. I didn't know that. They  

Mom: lived there. No, the Walters lived up above. And they had a path down to this little house.

Tim: Oh, really? But Monons lived in that house at first.  

Mom: They moved from River Road when David was born, I think. No, he was over there, because I remember he had that skin disease.  

Tim: Did they have chicken coop or something over there? I thought they did.  

Mom: At, at Grandma Monin's?  

Tim: Well, is that what you call the house here on this street, Grandma Monin's?

Mom: No, Grandma Monin's was over on River Road.  

Tim: Oh, I didn't know that. Leo's mom. Yes. Then there were Monin's out on Ridge Road, too. Was that Leo's brother?  

Mom: Yep. Several brothers. Don't ask me to come up with them right now.  

Tim: He was like the first white collar person I knew. You know, he wore a jacket and tie to work.

Was he like a purchasing agent or something?  

Mom: He worked in an office. I couldn't tell you.  

Tim: Jim, I think, was in insurance in North Carolina. Insurance or real estate. Wasn't David a...  

Mom: Married to Betty, remember? No. She was here one time with Ruth, nice gal.  

Tim: North Carolina  

Mom: girl? No, she was Texas. Remember he was in baseball?

Tim: Yeah, he, he, he was, uh... And I think he  

Mom: met her in Texas.  

Tim: He, he, probably Texas League or something. He got, I wouldn't say he got drafted, but he was scouted. He played a little minor league ball for a while. And so many do, you know, only a small percentage make it to the big leagues. I don't, I don't, I remember going to a few games of it after they had moved to Snyder.

For some reason, I think.  

Mom: I don't remember ever seeing them.  

Tim: No? No. You didn't see the Monins after they moved to Snyder? Sure you did. No, I didn't see him play ball. I remember you telling me, didn't you see Monins in North Carolina?  

Mom: Yes. Dad and I both went one time, then I stopped. I went once by myself, I think after Dad died.

And then, naturally, when I was with, uh... Again with Irish? Irish.  

Tim: You took her to Monins? She make a good impression? I don't know. Probably hard to, for Irish to make a good impression, you know. She was, uh. You had to like her or hate her. I know. Somebody, one of my, I think we had Megan in the house with no clothes on or something, and Irish was here, do you remember?

Oh. She scolded us for letting the child run around bare naked. She was one, maybe two. I don't know how old she was. But, and it might have been Ryan, I don't remember, but. Little kid running around their grandparents house. No big deal.  

Mom: Right. You ever

see John Haley?  

Tim: You know where I see him. In the bars. And I don't go to the bars. I saw him last summer at the jazz festival at an outdoor bar on Center Street. I talked to him briefly. But, he's still doing business, you know. Selling wine. I don't know what the, his wife does, what does she do? Teacher?  

Mom: Takes school pictures. Oh, yeah.

On her own business or as a? I think  

she's working for somebody.  

Tim: She's got black velvet box she puts the kids on? Like Sears?  

Mom: Probably. But she travels all over. Oh, does she? Oh, yeah, you set up dates.  

Tim: Yeah, she travels from Wilson to Newfank to Royhard. She doesn't go to? London and Berlin. No, no. It's still traveling, I guess.

Mom: Yes.

Don't have kids. Hmm? The two of them probably don't have kids.  

Tim: First marriage for both of them. Oh no, John had a... Did John have a child out west, or was that Danny?  

Mom: John did. [Unintelegible]. Yeah,  

Tim: out in California. Yeah. Forgot about that. Irish had nothing good to say about that woman. Remember? I'd forgotten.

Yeah. Jim was an interesting guy too. Yeah, yeah, that generation. Was he World War II? Oh yeah. Was he a veteran? Was Dick Crew a veteran? Yes. Was, was, uh, Brilhart a veteran?  

Mom: I couldn't tell you. Your dad wanted me and he couldn't get in.  

Tim: Uncle Pat didn't, like, belong to a VFW or anything, did he?  

Mom: Not that I know of.

Tim: What did he do with himself all the time? Read books?  

Mom: I don't think so.  

Tim: It's funny, you don't know what other people do in their house. It's none of your business, really. I just wonder, you know, what... I don't know. How people pass the time. You see, you read obituaries of people that did a thousand things. Not a thousand, but...

A lot, you know, he did this, he started this, he did that, she did this, they did that. They must not watch TV.  

Mom: I bet that's what he did mostly. Uncle Pat? Yes.  

Tim: He wasn't a sports fan.  

Mom: No. Not at all. But stories, he'd be watching stories. He's a storyteller?  

Tim: Did you get along with him? That's  

Mom: funny. I didn't know him that much.

Tim: Your own brother in law who lived next door? That's so fair, so long. I guess I can understand that. I mean, he's different. I don't remember ever seeing him in this house.  

Mom: Yeah, Ethel never came very much. We were there. He'd sit in the backyard on a [??], or on a, on a blanket for anything? to have potato chips or something to drink in the afternoon while we watched the kids.

But that's about as much as we were together.  

Tim: Didn't travel with him or anything? No. Jim and I were in the same class. I don't remember. So strange. Life is strange. A lot of things not worth even trying to figure out.