Niagara Power - A HOME RUN!

Niagara and Power! Two words that go together. But did you know that there is another "Niagara Power" in Niagara Falls? The Niagara Power is an expansion team in the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) and is an Affiliate of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), a national, faith-based ministry. FCA partnered with Cal Kern (Grand Island, NY) and the city of Niagara Falls to establish the Niagara Power in 2007.

The Power provides opportunities for furthering baseball skills and abilities of collegiate players while also emphasizing the importance of character, integrity, and excellence in baseball and in the community.

The New York Collegiate Baseball League, founded in 1978, is a summer wood bat development league for professional baseball. Major League Baseball funds a small portion of the leagues annual budget. The league gives college players who have not yet signed a professional contract the opportunity to develop their skills at a higher level of play, gain experience with wood bats, and be evaluated by scouts. The NYCBL is located in scenic Upstate New York.

Teams play a 44 game regular season schedule with games beginning in June and ending in the last week in July. All games are 9 innings, with most doubleheaders scheduled on the weekends. The All-Star game is played in early July, and the League Championship Series concludes in the first week of August.
Niagara Power players come from all over the country and are housed in host family homes around the area. I am currently housing two fine young men, Danny Hall, from San Jose, CA, and Matt Van Slyke, of Oxford, MS. What a joy it is to have the power of youth again in the home!! (and in case you baseball fans wondered, yes, Matt is related to the famous major leaguer, Andy Van Slyke, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who coincidentally, was one of my favorite major league players).
The Niagara Power 2010 season began on June 4th at Sal Maglie stadium, where all their home games are played.

The best thing for area baseball fans is the reasonable cost to attend a game. Adult ticket prices run $3 or $4, with a dollar off for senior citizens, and youth (6-12)tickets are only $1 or $2. Concessions are available at very reasonable cost and there are many promotion nights during the season. You can check out the team rosters as well as the schedule and other interesting facts at the team's website:
http://www.niagarapower.org.

If you are a baseball fan be sure to take in a game or 10 during the next two months and if you have a spare room available next year, please consider hosting a couple of these fine young athletes. I have just made two new, wonderful friends and look forward to a winning season.


Jim Brunn

Hyde Park Ice Rink - circa 1950s

(Submitted by JB)

I received a phone call from Colorado this afternoon and the guy said, “this is a voice from the past and I saw you on StenzTV and looked up your phone number.”

It was a fellow from NF who I knew as a child when he was ice skating on the outdoor rink at Hyde Park (where the senior center is now) and I was the Rink Rat (the guard on the ice). We became friends and I lost track of him after he graduated from high school. In fact, he is one of the guys with his back turned in the photo at Carroll’s Drive-In on Main St I submitted. We had a nice chat and I pulled out my file of photos from when he was a kid (he’s a grandfather now) and scanned them and said I’d send the originals to him.

Back in the era of 1950-60’s there was an outdoor ice rink (artificially frozen) in front of the “big pool” and stadium at Hyde Park. The original warm-up building is now part of the John Duke Senior Center, and the ice rink extended from that building, north towards what was a line of poplar trees. One of the “stars” on the ice during that time was an elderly gentleman named Tom, who owned and operated a tie shop on Falls Street (before Urban Renewal). He was a fine man and wonderful figure skater and was always willing to show young folks how to skate. Being a camera-bug, I took many photos and these 4 are of a few of the kids on the ice with whom I became friends. Because of StenzTV.com, after 50 years apart, Jeff Walker, now a grandfather and living in Colorado, saw my name and contacted me. It was great to reminisce about old times and catch up on our lives.


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"Packard Court" by Jim Brunn

I grew up in the projects. Today, when someone says that phrase you usually think of poverty, crime, drugs, and guns. But in the 1940's and 50's, growing up in the projects was a great place to live.

Although known as the "Honeymoon Capital of the World, "Niagara Falls, New York, was a center for war-time industry. As a result of the influx of war-time workers, primarily from Pennsylvania, Alabama, and other southern states, housing was at a premium. Packard Court was built in 1941-42 and was meant to house families whose bread-winner was working in factories such as DuPont, Hooker, Carbide, Carborundum, Vanadium and others, producing material for WWII.

Due to a high school football injury, my father was deferred from military service and went to work at the Chemical Warfare Plant operated by DuPont Chemical here in Niagara Falls. Our family was the first to move in to the still-under-construction project, settling in apartment 8E right after the building was finished. The day was bleak, rainy and muddy, but the excitement of relocating from a farming community to the "big city" was palpable. And to make it even better, we were going to have our maternal grandparents in the next apartment, 8F.

Packard Court was a near-perfect community, with buildings in circles of about 6, and each center area holding a playground for the children. On the west side of the project, extending from the main road about a mile back was a dense hickory forest with a creek running through it. On the north side of the complex were fields that included wild strawberries and many areas of high brush, into which we could venture and see various wild life, as well as create our "forts." And this was in the city (long before the power authority conduits destroyed the forest)! The fields extended to Porter Road which was the site of the LeValley Stables (yes, with horses) and the SPCA. We would frequently venture there to pet the horses or spend hours in the SPCA playing with the dogs and cats. The horses were available for riding on the bridle paths that extended throughout Hyde Park.

Green space not only surrounded us on three sides but was included within the project. Many a football game (mostly tackle - and no helmets or pads!!) was played on the expansive lawns maintained by the management.

Our 2 bedroom apartment was tiny by today's standards, but we thought it was great. We had coal-fired furnaces and the outside coal bin had a slanted, hinged, cover that was the perfect angle for winter "skiing." We had both a front porch and a back porch, and our mothers would sit out on nice days with their coffee discussing the news of the day with the neighbors.

It was a friendly place. On weekends our parents would have card games around the kitchen table with their friends. Although when television came along, Friday nights were made for walking to Eli Roffle’s gas station & the Packard Diner to watch the Friday night fights. Saturdays evenings were saved for the 'Rasslin' matches watched over a freshly grilled cheeseburg and milkshake. Very few residents had a personal TV of their own. The Packard Diner became our gathering place for television and Eli’s service station was a great place to “hang out,” and Mr. Roffle was very kind to us kids.

Street lights made it possible to have evening games of kick the can, or hide and seek, with our parents simply having to hollar or whistle when it was time to come in for the night. Summer days were usually spent in the woods climbing to the highest branches of the hickories, swaying in the wind, or perhaps playing a game of "war" with sticks for our rifles and plenty of good cover. We frequently would collect hickory nuts that our parents would crack and extract the nut meats for cookies or brownies or just nibbling.

Winter provided a chance to ice skate on the frozen creek, which extended several miles north before doubling back into Hyde Park Lake, where the city would clean the snow off with a bulldozer.

It took quite a few months for the completion of construction and the filling of the apartments, but when they were occupied we had a ready supply of friends our own age, many of which were kept for years afterwards. We lived in the projects for 11 years before our parents bought their first house.

Today Packard Court is a subsidized, low-income housing facility, recently renovated, and looks better today than it ever has been. The hickories are gone, replaced by baseball and soccer fields, and a new high school sits on the strawberry fields, but the great memories of a wonderful place in which to grow up will never be forgotten.

Jim Brunn


Apt 8F – at the time was one story 3 room apt.


Children outside - note the cars in the background!


Harold and Kay Quinn sitting on their back porch – Harold was an owner of Quinn and Keller Appliances in the 300 block of Third St.


Having morning coffee on back porch of Apt. 8E – Note the coal bin


Herold Woodring (visitor) and John Brunn standing outside Apt 8F c1945


Jim Brunn hiding behind great-aunt Eva Woodring c. 1946


Judy Brunn c1944 – buildings in background are around #20-22


Mary Woodring standing by the family sedan



Bob Woodring, who was a welder at DuPont following service with the US Army during WWII built the basketball “net”. Bob was an outstanding player in the Industrial Basketball league.


Circa 2009


Circa 2009


Circa 2009

DIFFINE'S DAIRY

Diffine’s Dairy was located at 1314 Hyde Park Blvd. and was a division of the Niagara County Milk Producer’s Co-Op. These photos are circa 1957 at a time when there were several independent dairies bottling milk and making ice cream in the city. Carrigan’s on Portage Rd., Wendt’s on Buffalo Ave, Milleville Dairy on Cayuga Drive, and Diffine’s, were the four largest. Diffine’s and Wendt’s were prime competitors and both made their own brand of ice cream and bottled milk under their own name as well as for other, smaller dairies. Diffine’s also made “real” frozen custard, the only other place you could get it besides Hibbards in Lewiston. And Diffine’s ice cream was what today would be called “premium” because of the very high butterfat content. Mmmmm, good!

Being located directly across from Hyde Park, Diffine’s was a “must stop” after a ball game or a walk in the park. At times, several baseball teams would inundate the soda fountain all at once and there would be 30-40 kids in line. Note the prices on the signs in the background: 10cent cones, 30cent sundaes and milkshakes, 89cent ½ gal of ice cream.

One of the interesting things was dealing with tourists from other parts of the country where terminology was different. Someone might ask for a “soda” when they meant “soda pop,” and in the dairy a soda was ice cream, flavoring, and carbonated water. Or they might ask for a “frappe,” when they meant what we called a milk shake. For anyone who loved ice cream this was the dream job, as you could eat as much as you wanted……FREE!! If you were really lucky you got to actually make ice cream under the tutelage of a seasoned dairy employee and there is not much in life better than to taste fresh, soft ice cream, right from the freezing machine.

The first photo is of Bob Woodring serving a cone. After he became an adult he became the owner of his own dairy in Boston, NY.

The second photo shows Naomi waiting on a couple young girls. The dairy store was run by women and employed teenage boys. Naomi was very well liked by everyone as she had the sweetest personality.

The color photo shows Jim Barto handing 3 cones to awaiting hands.

The last photo is a view from behind the counter and shows Bob Woodring, John (who was also a mail carrier and worked the dairy part time) and Joe Smith on a busy evening.

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Then & Now - Police HeadQuarters, Niagara Falls, USA

With the Grand Opening ceremonies of the new courthouse last week, I thought I'd post an entry dedicated to those that serve and protect Niagara Falls... reaching deep into the Public Library's Local History Department for old photos, along with some snapshots of what you see today (2009). If you have anything to add to this post, please send it along! stenztv@gmail.com


CHIEF OF POLICE 1908


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AN ASSORTMENT OF NIAGARA FALLS CRIMINALS - circa 1908


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NIAGARA FALLS POLICE PATROL WAGON 1908

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NIAGARA FALLS POLICE "PATROL WAGON" 2009

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Communications Room - 10/16/1962 (Hyde Park Public Safety Building)



POLICE HEADQUARTERS - 1908

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The new Police HeadQuarters - Grand Opening Day 6/17/09

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Hyde Park Swimmers 1931

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Swimmers at Hyde Park - Summer of 1931. Photographer was standing near where the dam is now located.