Post by Clipper on Sept 8, 2019 16:30:16 GMT -5
I love old videos and photos like this. The thruway went through right next to my grandparent's house on Main St in Whitesboro. I was very young and I remember taking my toy trucks and playing in all the sand that was used to build up the berm that the road runs on across the flats, the RR, Main St, and Rt. 69. they moved a lot of material from the cut that takes the road up over the hill and on toward Westmoreland. They had huge earth movers bringing the material from the hill down onto the lower ground where they deposited it. They had a flag person where they crossed main street and the RR. When the berm got too high to watch from the side yard, my brother and I moved to an upstairs bedroom window to watch. I was fascinated by the riveters and the guys that took the rivets from the forge with tongs and tossed them up to the riveter working on the steel beams. The guy working up high would catch the rivets in a leather bucket. In later years we would climb the berm and slide down the hill on our toboggan until they at some point put up a chain link fence.
As I age I truly enjoy reminiscing and remembering events like the building of the Thruway, riding the buses to and from downtown, popcorn at Karmel Korn shop, movies at the Avon and Highland theaters, Ice cream at Wittig's, salty French fries in a paper bag from Jean's Beans eaten with a wooden cocktail fork, and many other pleasant memories made as a kid.
