Dated: October 23, 2016
My wife Marlene and I recently got back from a two-day trip to Buffalo, New York, to meet up with some high school friends – Peggy, her husband Dick, and Ann. Peggy and Dick live in the Buffalo area and offered to take us sightseeing. Our main goal was to visit the Roycrofter Campus in East Aurora.
This picture shows the three women (I’ll always think of them as girls!) in the back seat of Dick’s car on Saturday morning. Marlene is on the left, then Ann, and then Peggy.
Our first stop was Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawana. Here’s a photo from the parking lot…
This church is incredibly impressive architecturally – about as close as I’ll get to the Vatican. This is especially true considering Marlene and I attend a church in a renovated barn! Here’s an interior view…
The Basilica is enormous, and I remarked to Dick that it must be very expensive to heat. He informed me the church has its own natural gas well.
From the Basilica, we drove along Lake Erie on our way to Forest Lawn Cemetery, a popular tourist destination.
We were there to visit the grave of Millard Fillmore, the 13th US president. Fillmore was born in Moravia, New York – or technically nearby Summerhill, which is now essentially part of Moravia.
Marlene, Ann, Peggy, and I are all graduates of Moravia High School (class of 1976), and our social studies teacher was Bob Scarry, a Millard Fillmore expert who even wrote a book about him. Here’s a photo of the five of us at Fillmore’s grave…
We had a great time discussing history and trivia. At one point, Dick shared a piece of trivia I had never heard – Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies) was originally cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, but he had an allergic reaction to the makeup. Here’s a picture of me and Dick from around that time…
As we walked back to the car, I told Marlene about what our classmate Ty St. John (who owns a memorial company) had told me at our reunion. He suggested taking pictures of headstones we like, which I thought was a great idea! Here’s one I really liked…
Later, we were all trying to remember all four members of The Monkees. We could only come up with Peter Tork, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith (whose mother invented Liquid Paper). Finally, Ann remembered the fourth Monkee - Mickey Dolenz, of course!
We had a 2:30 tour scheduled at the Roycroft campus, which gave us time for lunch at a coffee shop called Taste. I enjoyed a “Millard ‘Fill-Me-More’” wrap and a pumpkin spice latte.
During lunch, we discussed General Green, who lived in Moravia. Ann remembered him as a neighbor, and I knew about him from stories I had heard – including some from my mother, who helped care for his widow. Here’s a picture of General Green in his younger days…
General Green was at Pearl Harbor and even had an old car with bullet holes from the attack, which he would drive in parades. He was also involved in governing Hawaii while it was under martial law during the war.
After lunch, we visited Vidler’s 5 & 10 Store, an old-fashioned variety store. Marlene found a toy sheriff’s badge for our grandson, which we thought Dick might be able to use if he got pulled over!
We also drove past Millard Fillmore’s house in East Aurora, but we didn’t have time to stop. Fillmore was born in a log cabin, and a replica of it was built in Moravia with help from Bob Scarry. Here’s a picture of it…
Well, I’m out of space for now and haven’t even gotten to the Roycroft part of our trip! Stay tuned for Part 2…