Where did you live while growing up?  I first lived in Williamsville, New York (a suburb of Buffalo).

What was your house like?  The house in Williamsville was two stories high with an enclosed sun porch.

The first house in Bradford was large, with one L-shaped porch across the front and one side (a great place to play on a rainy summer day!).  It was two stories high with three large bedrooms with walk-in closets; large bathroom; living and dining rooms; large kitchen with a pantry.

In December of 1936, we moved to a smaller house in the east end of Bradford, called Tuna.  It was a gray shingled house--one story with two bedrooms, bathroom, living and dining rooms--the full basement was a neat place to roller skate in the winter.

In May of 1942, we moved into Bradford.  This house was one of Bradford's older homes that had been made into four apartments.  Our apartment was on the right side on the first floor.  It consisted of two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living and dining rooms.

It also had a laundry room.  The main reason we moved into town was World War II was in full swing, and gas was being rationed.  This house was close to downtown, Uncle Al's lab, church and junior and senior high schools.

In 1943, Uncle Al built a camp where the Kinyua Dam is now.  It was 20 minutes from the west end of Bradford.  We spent a lot of our weekends out there--especially in the summer and fall.  Now the waters of the Kinjua Dam cover most of that area.

What was your school like?  I attended a private kindergarten, two grade schools, Junior and Senior High Schools.

The grade schools in Bradford were termed "neighborhood schools."  Every student attending that school lived within walking distance.  We also went home for lunch.

My first grade school was called Second Ward.  First grade through sixth were there.  I went there until December 1936--first half of fifth grade.  The building was an old wooden one built in the early 1900's.  When I was in third grade, the new brick building was built.  We went to school in an old mansion type house.  City schools had grades first through sixth.

The grade school in Tuna was called Lincoln School.  Those grades were first through eighth, as it was a township school.  We living within walking distance.  A lot of the students had to be bussed as they lived too far away.  Those of us who walked ate lunch at home.  It was a tan brick building.

In grade schools we had one teacher in one room for the entire year.  In grades one, two and three we had reading, writing, science, math, English, spelling, art and music.  Then from fourth grade on we had more of the same, with history, geography, vocabulary and gym.

For ninth grade, I went to School Street Junior High School.  It is a tan brick building.  We had to learn to go from room to room for each subject that we took.  There was a teacher for each subject.  Our subjects were algebra, Latin, English, literature, typing, science, art, home economics (cooking and sewing), music and gym.  There were two lunch periods and we had to tend to what we were doing or else the time ran out, and we weren't finished.  We learned this in ninth grade very soon into the start of that school year.

Senior High School consisted of tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades (sophomore, junior and senior).  This is a large red brick building.  The subjects taught there coincided with what course one was taking.  These courses were General (Business), College Prep and Vocational.  We also changed rooms for each subject.  We had good basketball and football teams.  One of our rivals, especially in football, was Jamestown High School, the one uptown.  

My classmates and I lived through World War II for our junior and senior high years.  We lived through air-raid drills, blackouts, gas and food rationing.  Because of this, our class became very close.  We seemed to grow up fast.  We had happy times, but there were serious times that involved some of our lives.