Continued
Posted Sunday, January 24, 2016 01:49 PM

From Cheryl Cath Smith

Wow, Suicide Hill, I remember that well.  The other place my Dad used to take us was on the hills behind Mt. Pleasant before the Cross Town Arterial was completed, did anyone ever go there? No one knows what I am talking about when I bring that up.  I had a flying saucer that I used to speed down Suicide Hill with, one day I hit a tree, ripped my coat, but got up and did it again!  Lowell, you are so right, nothing has ever tasted as good as the hot chocolate from the Casino at Central Park.  How about hanging out at Apex Music Store picking out records and listening to them with the headphones for hours.  Going to a movie and staying all day for the price of one ticket, was quite a perk when A Hard Day's Night came to town! How about Election Day rivalry football games?  Still remember walking to Mt. Pleasant (what kids would do that today?) and the cars full of kids  screaming, "Stomp the Swamp  or  Kill the Hill" .  We bought stamps at school to purchase our yearbooks, Mr. Felthousen allowed me to work in the greenhouse for credit because I could not bear to kill my frog. What a simpler world we lived in, we did not realize at the time how fortunate we were, that is of course until Vietnam reared its ugly head. Jim Lake, I remember going to the Union Inn and having a beer with you before you were leaving...not sure if you remember. Does anyone ever hear from Ross Emery? Let me know.  Anyway, now that I am retired, my husband and I are going to the best place on earth for lunch today, GERSHON'S......how jealous are you all now?  Well when I tell you the temperature here is a very windy and icy  -3 you should all feel sorry for me.  Have a great day all, and  Sandy, you looked great on the news the other night.  :) Still the same smile-just flipped my 401K so now it's time to ride the slow moving wave. 
 
And more from Lowell
The ice we skated on was not only hard, but very unforgiving.
Skating on the ice at Central Park was always fun,  but difficult-  I always thought the City of Schenectady should have purchased a Zamboni, for nature’s way of forming ice was always so uneven and lumpy.  And do you remember how our ankles hurt after a couple of hours on the ice?  I can’t imagine what our ankles would feel like today after one hour on the ice.
Speaking of winter, and since some of you back East are ready to get socked with a terrible winter storm, I remember walking to Linton when the temperature was -60 with the wind chill factor.  Everyday, you see,  on the way to school,  I walked by Rock Garden Pharmacy, on the corner of McClellan and Eastern Parkway, and that is also where the taxi cabs would hang out for prospective fares.  I just couldn’t take the cold anymore that day, and opened the rear door of one of the cabs, stuck my head in, and immediately got hit with a wonderful heat wave, I asked how much to take me to Linton.  Fifty cents was the fare, and I had fifty cents for lunch that could be sacrificed-  so I jumped in.   Off we went, and despite the warmth of the car, my shivering didn’t stop until we reached the Plaza.  The cab escorted me to the front office area, and I was unceremoniously dropped off- and I thought, no one was to the wiser-  until later that night I got interrogated at dinner- did I take a cab to school that morning?  Apparently the cab passed my sister, who was walking to school in the freezing cold, and she spotted me in the cab and was very upset I didn’t stop the cab to take her along for the ride.
L:-)