Page:Brunswick 100 Years of Memories.pdf/221

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On cold nights there would be a bonfire to help keep

us warm. From Second Avenue you'd be able todrifthalf way up the _300 block - if you didn't crash into someone coming from the east. Coordinatio n and cooperation were the name of this game. If you played with the rules and the base was hard and slick, you could start at East Brunswick School and make it half-way up the hill to the Episcopal Church. Then I learned about Georgia Avenue. That was great too. You started at Potomac Street - or Brunswick Street, if someone was on guard duty at Potomac - but you really had to manipulate at Walnut Street to avoid sailing across the ditch, I thought. Some sledders were even able to tum the comer at the bottom of the hill. Then I heard about sledding down "D" Street hill between Maple and Second Avenues. Jack Brady said you couldn't start at the top, but had to take off at about the Arnold house. You either made that corner at Sanger's or plunked into the branch. Oh to live on New York Hill when it snowed! Were they kidding when they said they started at Moler' s Store (9th and "B") and stopped at Ten Row for gosh sakes? There were two dangerous curves to negotiate, but worst of all, was it worth the long walk back? And surely someone must have used Park Avenue. Just don't hit that culvert! What protected us when we were kids? It surely wasn't good judgment. There were accidents, but having fewer cars in circulation helped. And if the snow was deep enough, the cars stayed off the streets. Hey, what's the weather forecast? W-MMM

SHAMBA TILE When Mr. Edward Shafer was mayor,a cowboy and Indian sham battle was held each Fourth of July. This was a planned program played out on the area that later became Brunswick' s football field, across Potomac Street from City Park. The Red Men's Lodge, in realistic costume, took the role of the Indians, while the cowboys were played by members of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. The latter was an organization of boys of good character, age 16 and above, who paid 50 cents per month dues. Mr. Lawrence "Monk" Haller and Hyatt Beans always helped with this event. Mr. Beans was a "cowboy," and the Indians always caught him, but

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by the end of the battle he was always rescued unharmed. There were guns with blanks sounding off. No one was ever hurt, and even using blanks, the player always shot into the air. With this event there were always homemade games over in the park; hobby horses (carousels, in modern parlance) were brought in for the youngsters. S - Dutch Burns W-MMM

THE WESTALL HOUSE The late Mrs. Esther Smith Measel was the widow of WalterP. Smith, of Brunswick, and Frank Mease!, ofMountain dale, when she recalled having Iived in the Westall building early in her marriage to the affable baker of Brunswick. She and her husband rented four rooms; the kitchen and living room were on the first floor rear, while her two upstairs front bedrooms faced Potomac Street. Their son Neil was 14 months old when they moved there, and Genevieve was born in the house. At the time there were two other apartments , she recalled. The three back rooms upstairs formed an apartment and the other three rooms downstairs formed the third apartmznt, for a total of five rooms up and five down. "There were two wide sets of stairs," she recalled. One went up from one side to a landing, then on down to the other side of the house. "We lived there from about 1915 to 1918." She also remembere d that Mr. and Mrs. Frank Howe lived there when their son Franklin was a baby. The Westalls, owners of the property, lived next door while they also owned the third house from the corner, now occupied by Mrs. Donald i:Adelaide) Musgrove. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Virts lived in the second floor apartment when their daughter Marjorie was born. At the same time, young James "Punk" Youtz lived with the Westalls. "Punk" started school from the corner house. Marjorie Virts and "Punk" Youtz later married and today the Youtzes live on Dayton Avenue. Mr. Judge Ayres believed the Westalls opened a store there but gave it up because family responsibilities prevented their operating it. Other persons have mentioned a store in that building; ads appeared in earlier directories. But the location was too far away from the other businesses to succeed.