Hide Article Text (OCR)
r\ftdcsVwI-sIclt;Second in a Series of Ten)That for many years this columnhas appeared almost daily in the Reflector-Herald It has covered * the anecdotal history of Norwalk, many of the incidents were told to me. some came from oldletters, others came under my personal observation, at any rate all go toward preserving, in printedform, what might otherwise have been forgotten. Except for school and college days and time out for a couple of wars, I have spent my entire life in Norwalk, as did my father who was born in 1820 and \died in 1907. Having been born1 lt;and brought up in the very center of the downtown area and having had a father who put few restrictions on his boys. I went around at will, day or night. My father was past middle life when he married my mother who was almost half; his age, so when I was born he was fifty years my senior. That ac- counts for the half century difference in our ages and which has permitted me to gain much knowledge of the very early days of Norwalk I went around at will to play with children in all walks j of life and in all parts of town On Main Street I knew every merchant and every one of his clerks, if he had boys of my age I got to know them and their families. The playmates of my early days grew up to be my friends of after years. So far as I know not one of them are now alive. Some ofthem continued to live in Norwalk, many went to other cities, a few climbed the ladder of success in commercial or professional activities. All of them, rich or poor, I continued to hold as friends as c long as they lived. When we occasionally met the talk was always of the old days when we played around the gas house, the depot.or somewhere on Monroe or Milan streets, both of which were adjacent to my home and where the neighborhood boys playfd. However. I used to play in all parts of town, in summer time principally along the creek from Benedict avenue to the cemetery. The log hole to our youthful minds was the grandest swimming spot im- \ aginable. It was situated in the creek very close to what is now the East Elm Street bridge. Therewas no East Elm Street in thosedays.Norwalk has always been a I clicky town. The ciders clicked or ganged up together for business or social pleasures, the youngsters. likewise had their exclusive groups and in some cases wagedwar on each other. There was the Brewery Hill crowd, the Milan and Chatham street crowd. the Bank street and Tallow Hillers, the Irish boys down State St.. andthe West Enders. a snootybunch. I played with every crowd.My admittance to the snootleswas made through contact with most of them at St. Paul s Episcopal Sunday school. A West Ender• was any boy or girl whose homewas west of Hester street and south of the old Lake Shore and Michigan railroad tracks. T h e snooty west enders called us of the east end Muckers. Of course all of us began school life in the grade buildings where the children all clicked in their respective ward buildings. Later when we came together under one roof in the old Seminary building, sectional lines became greatly eliminated when the grade schools had been left behind in 1884.ttfttit1tilt;I1I
Newspaper Details
Norwalk Reflector Herald
Norwalk, Ohio, US
Wed, Jul 31, 1957
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Bursley M.
NA, 09 Dec 2022
Other Publications Near Norwalk, Ohio
Norwalk Reflector Herald
Norwalk Daily Reflector
Norwalk Reflector
Norwalk Experiment
Norwalk Reporter and Huron Advertiser
