The Memory of Geography

Some Old Pictures Take Me Back

A part of my hometown, Cheektowaga, back when it was farmland. The field to the right of the house is where I sent a lot of time growing up 40 years after this picure was taken.

Back when I was a wee lad in my late teens and early twenties, I spent a disproportionate amount of time hanging out in a Pizza Hut on the main strip of Cheektowaga, my hometown. This is where the action was, all the fast food joints, the theater where I saw Star Wars with my dad, the 24-hour American food joint where I went after my prom, the railroad tracks where we’d hang out.

The town’s high school, Cheektowaga Central, sat right across the street, making the Pizza Hut a center of action for young people my age.

Even then, the area was built out. Then the mall came (where I first worked in a bookstore) driving a construction frenzy that basically - now-a-days - makes the area unwalkable.

But to this day, two thing remain - the Pizza Hut and the High School.

I spent a lot of time in that Pizza Hut talking about, thinking about, or otherwise considering my life’s direction in those days, in the way that young, suburban guys of a certain time did - sitting in a booth looking out across the road at the high school.

All these memories came flooding back to me when I happened across an old photo of that exact spot, when my old hometown was basically farmland.

Susan Knoblauch posted an aerial photo of her grandfather’s house from around 1940. The house with its peculiar tower (more on that in a moment) is centered in the photo. To the left of the house (right in the picture) is an empty field. That’s where the Pizza Hut sits to this day.

When I asked Susan about that tower, she sent me another photo at ground level, taken decades later, of her in the yard playing in front of the tower with her dog. You can see Central High School across the street. It was built in 1962 and given Susan’s age, this photo is likely from, perhaps the late 1960s.

The Pizza Hut, by the way, was built in 1972. Susan’s grandad didn’t sell that property until later but it wasn’t until 2009 that the Dental Offices that sit there now were built.

So, in theory, I could have driven past that tower when I was a kid. Susan said it was decorative and her granddad built all sorts of things like that.

This has just been an interesting trip into the way-back machine for me, in particular because it has involved a peek into the past of a very specific area of my hometown that meant a lot to me growing up.

Do any of you recall any very particular geography in your past that’s unrecognizable today?

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TOMORROW: We have a very special INTERVIEWS BY UMA lined up for you coming tomorrow, Wednesday, March 5. Special for two reasons: Little Bean was able to speak to the composer of a piece of piano music she's been learning. And, the composer, Wendy Stevens, turned around and then interviewed Uma about learning to play piano and what it was like learning her piece. It's the first time that we recall that Uma's been interviewed and her answers are enlightening. This is a new direction for Little Bean and we’re kinda excited about it! See ya at 10am tomorrow!