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| Lebanon Presbyterian 1938 Ralph’s first church For 3 years he visited all parishioners on his bicycle! |
Manse & Church 521 Northampton St |
Church entrance we used between two buildings |
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| Flat roof on left where Jean hung clothes to dry – Fay’s earliest memory |
German RC Orphanage 1852-1956 From our roof I could see all the children playing below |
Manse – Ralph’s study & church offices on 1st floor – we lived on 2nd & 3rd |
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| North Park United Presbyterian Church Jean sang in choir, Ralph supplied other churches each Sunday 1945-51 |
School 66 Fay & John attended K-5 & K-3 1945-1951 |
Good Shepherd – Buffalo where Ralph was ordained 18 May 1951 A former young person from Lebanon sent me the clipping in 2006 |
All photos by Karl R. Josker, used with permission
During my annual search of the Internet for Dad’s first church, I came across the beautiful photography of Karl R. Josker. I urge anyone with an interest in Buffalo to visit his pages – churches, schools, steam locomotives, lighthouses, Crystal Beach plus a moving pictorial tribute to his wife of 46 years.
After I mentioned my memory as a three-year-old of Mother hanging laundry on a flat tarpaper roof while I watched the orphanage children playing below, Mr. Josker went out and photographed our old house at 521 Northampton. The photos seen above arrived in my Inbox the next day! Thank you, Karl.
School 66 is now the North Park Academy. We had separate boys and girls entrances in the rear facing the playground, on the right and left. A big thrill was a huge barrel of apples inside the doorway as we exited one day. One apple to each child – a wonderful treat in those post-war days.
Also for 8 cents, we could stay after school and watch movies in the auditorium – once it was . I always sat in the balcony. I also remember a production of the Mikado with live actors! And signs pointing to the basement where in the evenings English was taught as a second language to the many German immigrants in the late 1940s.
We gave our fifth grade teacher Mrs. Bowker a fruit roll when she took maternity leave – each child brought a single piece of fruit wrapped in tin foil or wax paper. On signal, we rolled all the fruit up the aisle to her desk, which was on a raised platform in those days in the European style. I always wondered what she did with all that bruised fruit!
Such wonderful teachers – Miss Ruth and Miss Joliet (K), Mrs. Miller (1), Mrs. Eldges (2), Mrs. Rudin (3) (who sent me to the office for daring to whisper to another student!) and so many more.
Mother walked me to kindergarten the first few days in 1945 – from then on I was on my own at four years old, with the instructions to look both ways when crossing and don’t talk to strangers, especially if they are in a car offering you candy or a ride. The next year, when I was five, it was my responsibility to walk all the “younger” children in the neighborhood the four and a half blocks to School 66. How things have changed.
