It was some time during these years when I was in the little corner store on West Avenue and I stole a five cent candy bar. I was scared for months that I would be found out. It affected me so much that the feelings have remained with me throughout my life. It was a great lesson because I never did anything like that again. Jack VanBrooker ran the store and when he had bananas that were too ripe to sell, he would tell Ray and I that if we could eat them all we could have them for free. We would sit on the lawn by the store and watch the cars go by while eating bananas until they came out of our ears. We never did have to pay for any.
We had many other enjoyable pastimes outdoors. We would cut the cover off a golf ball and unwind some of the miles of rubber bands inside. By putting half on each side of the street we could stretch it across and when a car came down it would stretch the rubber about a quarter mile. We would also go to the top of Arsenal Hill and hit golf balls with baseball bats. They really go a long ways. We found our golf balls in the bottom of the creek down by the golf course.
On the west bank of thad Chapin Street there was a row of black oxhart cherry trees belonging to Doctor Behan's widow. When they were ripe we could not resist trying to get some. As soon as we got in the trees, "Old Lady Behan" as we called her, would come running down the street yelling and waving her arms. Guess she watched those trees all day long. One night Ray and I went over and filled our pockets with cherries and ran through the tall weeds back to the tent in our backyard. To our utter dismay, we had run through the weeds where a skunk had just sprayed and we had to throw away all the cherries and change our clothes.
During the harvest season the wagon loads of pea vines passed up Thad Chapin and, when we saw them coming, we hid along the road until we could run up behind the wagon and pull off a big armful of pea vines. Sometimes we would get enough to take home to our mothers. You understand this was not like stealing candy from a store to our way of thinking, so we were certainly not doing anything wrong. There is a big difference between stealing and mere survival. Besides, we had to have something to do to keep us out of trouble.
There were many sheep pastured in the open fields around Camp Woodcraft in the summer time. They were taken to the farm barns north and east of town during the winter. The herders drove the flocks down the road by our house every spring and fall. They were driven down West Avenue and up Main Street. There were so few cars at that time that traffic was not a problem.
The ice truck came around in the summer with ice for everyone's ice box. Mother would put a sign in the window for 25, 50 or 100 pounds and they would chip off a piece and weigh it. While the driver took the ice into the house, all the kids would run up to the back of the truck and get loose pieces of ice. The ice man would yell and chase us away when he came out.
During the Civil War there was an arsenal built at the top of what was thereafter called Arsenal Hill. Weapons were stored there in the event that the city had to be defended. Of course the buildings were gone by the time we played there as kids, but we found the old foundations by digging down a ways. There were a lot of old red bricks. The gully down the other side of the hill had a creek running down it. Ray and I would dig in the mud looking for cannon balls and one time we found one, four to five inches in diameter. It was very heavy. We eventually took it to the Historical Museum as a donation and I believe it is still on display there.
Arsenal Hill (West Avenue) was a steep and dangerous hill. There were many accidents at the bottom and near the corner of Pearl Street. We could hear the crash of accidents from our house on Chapin Street and the kids would all run down to see them. One time a truck load of prunes tipped over and there were prunes everywhere. Another time a load of butter in wooden crocks tipped over and the crocks rolled down people's lawns. People were coming out and carrying them into their houses, but we didn't know enough to get any. Once a car hit a tree and the driver was thrown through the roof and landed on the sidewalk. When we got there, he was sitting up and asked us for a cigarette. Probably he wasn't hurt because (he looked like) he was drunk.
My grandfather, Peter O. Benson, was born September 12, 1831 and died in 1931. Sometime in the 1920's there was a full page article and his picture in the daily paper. It told of his attending the Ontario County Fair for 90 consecutive years. The Fair was held in September then so all the farm products were on display. The fairgrounds were off Fort Hill Avenue where the present High School stands. There was a grandstand, barns and a race track for harness racing. It was a big day for us, as kids, as a picnic lunch was packed and we would park the car in the center of the race track and stay at the Fair all day.
I remember one day when we were playing in the front yard a big black car, with a Philippine chauffeur, stopped. Inside was Ada Kent, from California, a cousin of my father. Her husband had helped finance George Eastman when he founded Eastman Kodak. She came to set up an annuity for my father and all my uncles. They cost $45,000 each and my father received $100 a month for the rest of his life. I remember that he was able to get a better car and buy my mother a new coat (which I recall was blue). When I was in the service, Ada Kent died in Carmel by the Sea, California and left two million dollars to the old woman who cared for her.