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38 Goodyears. It gave me a first look at how the other half lives and what they're like and how they think, and I found they're a pretty good bunch all in all and I learned to get along with them. I made a few visits to Bill Legge's home which was over on the edge of Lincoln Park and we became good friends; I think his father was a letter carrier but the home was neat as a pin and the whole place kept up beautifully. Among the other boys I knew well and enjoyed at school were Henry and Edward Horn, Emil George, August and Chester Cuny, Carmen Ianuzzi, Charlie Williams to name a few. I don't really remember too much about the girls who came from the other side of the hill, so to speak. One incident I'll never forget was when a rather slovenly girl named Dora Shire walked across the front of the room and her pants suddenly fell off. Another girl I'll not forget was named Harriet Hobson who was a beauty whom I could have fallen pretty hard for if I'd been thrown with her socially at dances and such things. nor can I remember too much about my teachers at Lincoln, mainly I suppose because I'd have them for just one term and that was it. A few names were Cahill, Lawler, Carr, Hughes, the latter the teacher of the 8/2 who appears in the graduating class photo which I have preserved and is in pretty good shape. It's obvious that the Irish were in good control including Mr. Shea but they were a fine group and Mr. Shea in particular. I graduated in June 1916 and prepared to enter North High that fall. Many of my old friends were preparing to go away to prep school and I was to part from a good many of them literally forever. My father had died and it was imperative that I go the route that would involve the least expense and one where I could also earn some money to help finance the rest of my education. It certainly didn't hurt me but it surely changed my life almost entirely. From then on, I lived in a somewhat different world. VII As I grew older, downtown Syracuse gradually became more significant to me. One feature of downtown was not only noteworthy locally but nationally -- it was the New York Central passenger tracks which ran the full length of Washington Street, around a mile and the last few blocks right through the busiest part of the business district. I suppose this may have had more to do with my fascination by the railroads than any other single influence. The University Block, where my father had his office, was on Washington Street (sometimes referred to as Railroad Street) between Salina and Warren Streets and Washington Street was widened out in this block so there was room to park cars in front of the building and facing the tracks, thus affording a box seat to watch the parade of trains that proceeded past this spot day and night; for the New York Central had a huge passenger business at the time -- for example, on certain heavy days, the 20th Century Limited would run in a dozen sections or even more! So I could sit in our car parked here and simply revel in train
