Blodgett - Pierce Family --- Family Stories
Memoirs of life growing up on a farm in Chautauqua County
by Barbara (Blodgett) Vannier
Fredonia
When I lived there as a child, Fredonia was a small town of a little over 5000 inhabitants
in western New York, about fifty miles southwest of Buffalo and about two miles as the crow
flies from Lake Erie. Main Street in Fredonia was and is US Route 20, which crosses the nation.
The town's outstanding feature is West Hill, on Main Street just west of the town. This is
a long, steep hill on the western edge of the main part of town. Our farm was about a mile
and a half beyond the hill, at 516 West Main Street. Our elementary school was just off
Main Street at the top of the hill. Junior high school and senior high school were both
in the same building about half way down the hill. We walked to and from school every day
except once in a great while, when the weather made Dad take pity on us and he drove us.
In the middle of town there is a small park, Barker Commons. The park is two blocks long and
one block wide, while the town itself was only four blocks long at that time. Main Street is on
one side of the park and the bus station, four churches and the library are on the other sides.
The sidewalks in this park, including the one around the fountain, were of large blocks of slate,
which I thought were heavenly for roller skating. The sidewalks didn't extend to where I lived,
but I persuaded my parents that I needed skates anyway. To get to that delightful slate sidewalk,
the only one in town, I needed to go down West Hill. That was a challenge for me on skates,
especially since about three fourths of the way down there was half of a block of concrete
missing which I had to jump over. When I came down the hill on my skates, anyone walking
stepped aside, so I didn't have people to worry about - only that missing half block of concrete.
Thankfully, I never came to grief on the hill.
One time I came close to getting into trouble about skating in the park, though. I had an exam
one morning at school and, I didn't know it, but my father had reason to be in town before ten
o'clock that morning and he saw me skating in the park. That evening he said to me,
"I understand you had an exam this morning".
"Yes, I did."
"Then how was it that I saw you skating in the park before ten o'clock?"
"It was only a Civics exam and I had finished it."
"Did you take time to do your best?"
"Yes."
"Well, we'll see."
Later, when the marks came out, I found I got 100, which I reported to my father.
Another distinctive feature of our town became apparent in August and early September
every year. The tomato processing plant filled the whole town with the delightful aroma
of ketchup and chili sauce. The tomatoes we grew on our farm contributed to that aroma.
The State University of New York had one of it's colleges in our town. It's specialty was
Music Education. I decided that, even though I was not particularly talented in music,
I would go there. After I graduated, I taught only one year, though. I had an opportunity
to learn drafting and discovered that I liked that much better, so I became a draftsman,
instead of a teacher, until I took time out to have a family. Then I went back to drafting
until I retired.