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pye;be»griin?MifoilSoithe!ofSClt;wiPl«baexfoi1Jai(First of a series of 10) |ttlC1That in writing about the Nor-'nn walk days of the 1880‘s and the nat pay 1890‘s one must take Into ac* cja count that those days were several r\ decades ago and that the youth of enfseventy to eighty years ago was only different in that the days ofthe automobile had not yet arriv-ed and old Dobbin had his share of the load to carry. I think back often of the many years that are behind. of the days when “Knighthood was in flower,” in Norwalk.Of the days when a lot of men went calling on their girl friends, or perhaps their girl’s mothers. Those days were principally New Year days when most of the calling was done. Calling cards with names neatly engraved or printed weir usually left in a receptable provided for the purpose at the homes of the girl friends. Often times there were so many callers that the cards stacked up to more than a hundred Many of the cards carried the names of a group of boys who were making calls together. I have one of those cards before me as I write. The names ta were those of my own set of boys. Harry E. Terry (now living inChicago. 1957. and other than myself the only one now' living*,Otis Parker, James A Ford. William N Perrin, Con Taber. Rob Christian, Ralph Wickham, myself. Another card before me bears th“ names of some older men, once well-known in Norwalk. Ed Dickey. Frank Manahan. Pitt Curtiss, WillMcVitfy, George Benham. George Kline. Still another has the names of Louis Jacobson and John Milieu.Those names are all reminders of the Norwalk of another day a Norwalk when society and socialaffairs in the homes seemed paramount to all else, a Norwalk w hich rarely saw a winter week go by without a dancing party in somebody’s house with Mrs Flannagan at the piano, wdth that well-remembered nod” which was so characteristic of her and which was her only baton, a Norwalk where peace and the very joy of living held full sway. I can recall many I in blustery and zero New Year's days! Ilynlt;hascmththinorlecoMwith snow so deep one could hardly get his girl out of a hack” and over the sidewalk to the St. Charles hotel building stairs. Once in the McAfee hall, however, the outside cold was forgotten as the strains of McAfee's orchestra from Clev. burst forth in the Grand March. The waltz, poka. attractive girls in new gowns made for the occasion, punchesMPSnlt;Pigitvgslt;pthroughout the night, topped off j with a big dinner or supper in ;|the hotel dining room 'price onetinobuck and a half extra*. Then there were New- Year days not so blustery. one in 187(» so warm that no overcoats were necessa r y. Throughout all of the many years up to the turn of the century No:-rwalk people made as much of / New Year’s day as they did of j Christmas. Those were the good old days never to come again.Continued —■
Newspaper Details
Norwalk Reflector Herald
Norwalk, Ohio, US
Tue, Jul 30, 1957
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Bursley M.
NA, 09 Dec 2022
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