Full Text
Harold Lloyd Wallace Born May 28, 1925 Based on interviews conducted October 1, 2012 and beyond Harold Wallace, known by Fair Havenites as “Wally,” was born at home in Cato, NY, in the spring of 1925 to his parents Lloyd Arthur Wallace and Marian Spaulding Wallace. Wally was the middle child in a family of three children. His older sister, Beverly Gertrude Wallace was born in 1923. She became valedictorian of her class at Cato High School. She went to Auburn Nursing School where she earned her RN degree. During the War years, she was school nurse for the Cato school district, but was laid off when the school system began requiring college degrees; she then moved to Auburn. She is buried in Cato. Wally’s younger brother, Edwin Chester Wallace was born in 1932. He graduated from Cato- Meridian Central School. He lived his entire life in Cato as a farmer and a truck driver for Marcellus Casket Company. Wally with his younger brother, Ed Wally and his son, Robert, have done extensive work on the family genealogy; Wally can trace his ancestors on his father’s side back to Scotland in probably the early 1700’s, beginning with William and Mary Wallace. A distant great-grandmother’s father was once awarded a 600 acre land grant in Montgomery County, NY, as payment for his military service during the Revolutionary War. PATERNAL ANCESTRY Wally’s grandfather, Chester Arthur Wallace (1878-1971) was born in Dimock, PA, and married Wally’s grandmother, Daisy Mae Allen in 1899, at Binghamton, NY. He managed milk plants in Perryville, NY, Munnsville, NY and later in Cato. He also made butter and cheese in these plants and shipped milk to New York City via the railroad. Later he had a successful hay business. “Chet” was mayor of Cato for several years. Some of his accomplishments were getting public ---PAGE BREAK--- water installed and bringing the Schuler Potato Chip Company to the village in about 1940. The company produced potato chips in the newly empty Cato High School. The new Cato-Meridian Central School opened at about this time. Wally wrote this about his grandfather: “Chet, as he was called by most people was handy with carpentry, plumbing and etc. I remember his installing the bathroom in the house I grew up in during my first 14 years, and his real proficiency in swearing when things didn’t go just right. He didn’t smoke but occasionally would take a drink, or at times really tie one on.” He is buried at Cato Union Cemetery. Daisy Mae Allen Wallace (1881-1954) was born in Bridgewater, PA. She and Chet Wallace married in 1899 and had one child, Lloyd Arthur Wallace. Wally wrote this about her; “My grandmother was a great Christian lady, who I never realized how much she was to me until later in my life. She is the one who taught me how to tie my shoes, told me stories as we sat in a front porch swing, always had gingersnap cookies in the cookie jar, plus gardening and many more things. She also talked about careers and always came to school functions I was involved in.” She died in 1954 and is buried at Cato Union Cemetery. Lloyd Arthur Wallace (1903-1996), only child of Chet and Daisy Wallace, was born in Interlaken, NY. Wally writes this about his father: “he was very energetic and money minded all his life; as a boy growing up he had a pony named Jimmy, and a wagon that his father built for him. With that he delivered papers, picked up the mail from the train and took it to the post office and returned the out-going mail to the train. He delivered coal to people who needed small quantities. He seemed to know the importance of having money; he was generous yet very thrifty and knew how to use the money to make it grow. As a teenager he told about going to dances in nearby communities and taking friends with him, sometimes paying their way in exchange for them helping him with some of his various work activities.” Lloyd married Marian Lovica Spaulding in Munnsville, NY in 1921. Soon he and his wife and his mother and father moved to Cato. Grandpa Chet became milk manager and Lloyd an employee at the milk plant in Cato. Later he became a milk inspector at farms that shipped milk to the creamery and later yet a cattle dealer. He became a full-time farmer about 1939, including establishing a slaughter house on his farm, and owning about 400 acres of land. He retired in the 1960’s and for a time became a summertime meat cutter for Wally in his Fair Haven store. He died in 1996 and is buried at Cato Union Cemetery. MATERNAL ANCESTRY Wally’s maternal ancestors have been traced back thus far to Leonard (1760-1792) and Priscilla Gleason Spaulding (1758-1856) who were from Massachusetts. Priscilla is buried at Stockbridge, Madison County, NY. Harold Wallace’s mother, Marian Lovica Spaulding (1900-1979) was born in Stockbridge, NY. She married Wally’s father, Lloyd Wallace in Munnsville in 1922. Wally has written a description of his mother: “she was a great lady with many talents and also suffered many health related problems during her lifetime. She was a people person who always kept a diary… She attended school at what is now Morrisville College… and was very good at bookkeeping and very business oriented.” She is buried at Cato Union Cemetery. Marion’s father, Edwin J. Spaulding (1869-1959) was once Sheriff of Madison County, NY. He was married to Gertrude Sperry Spaulding (1873-1945). They had four children, one of which was Wally’s mother. Most people that knew him called him E.J. For most of his life he was a horse dealer and also held commission sales for many years. In 1941, he took Wally with him to Iowa by train where he was buying a carload of horses to resell. It was Wally’s first train trip. ---PAGE BREAK--- They traveled by Pullman railroad cars and ate aboard the train. Wally recalls it as quite an experience. He met a boy there whom he later met again at one of the bases he was assigned to while he was in the military. Lloyd and Marian Wallace at Stockbridge Falls, NY ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally’s Grandfather, Edwin Spaulding Brief genealogy: Daisy Allen Wallace Lloyd Wallace Chester Wallace Harold Wallace Edwin Spaulding Marian Spaulding Wallace Gertrude Sperry Spaulding ---PAGE BREAK--- Beverly Wallace Ed Wallace, Marian and Lloyd Wallace, Harold Wallace at Marian and Lloyd’s 50th Anniversary party, 1972 Harold Lloyd Wallace was born at home in Cato, New York on May 28, 1925. He married Carol Mae King (1929-2009) at Cato Union Church in 1947. Together they had five children: Kathy, Jan, Greg, Robert and Elizabeth. All of them but Greg still live in the general area which brings pleasure to Wally. He has nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great- grandchild adding to his pleasure. CHILDHOOD Wally went to the old Cato High School for his first eight years of schooling. That school later became the Schuler’s Potato Chip factory and later the Cato Show Print. Wally said that this school had separate entrances for boys and girls carved into the entrance ways. Children paid little heed, though. He attended the new (competed, 1940) Cato-Meridian Central School for his last four years, graduating in 1943. ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally at about age seven As a child, Wally can remember coming to Fair Haven State Park with a youth group. Little did he know he would end up owning a business in town. He can also remember playing on the railroad tracks in Cato; the tracks split his father’s farm in half, making them accessible to him. Once, early in World War II he saw a troop train in Cato. It was headed north toward Fair Haven. He also saw B24 planes flying over Cato as crews trained. Later he became a flight engineer on B 24’s. Wally had a horse, given to him by his Grandfather Spaulding. A neighbor, who had been a mailman that had used a cutter in winter and a buggy in the summer for delivering mail, gave Wally the buggy. One day at age ten or eleven, he hitched up the horse and buggy and took another boy and a couple of girls to the movies in Weedsport! He said that he fell in love with the svelte movie star Dorothy Lamour who played in some Hawaiian movies. Later, while in the military, Wally was in Hawaii for a time and found that, in fact, the Hawaiian girls were chubby! ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally as “Chief Sitting Bull” on his horse Wally remembers that during the Depression tramps would come through the village. One day his father invited one in for dinner. After he left, his mother asked his father who he was. His father replied “I don’t know.” His dad also butchered a hog and tried to sell the pork loin to a local store for 9 cents per pound. He could not sell it. ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally in front of his grandparents’ home in Cato, (Chet and Daisy Wallace) Wally became a farm boy. When the family moved onto the farm on Route 34 when he was 14, Wally began doing farm chores, such as raking hay and putting it into the mow, feeding the ---PAGE BREAK--- animals, etc. Before the age of 14 he had lived in the village with his horse nearby. The horse had a stumbling problem so the local blacksmith put some special horseshoes on the front feet. When Wally went to leave with the horse hooked to the buggy, the horse, probably not liking the new shoes, decided to give Wally a wild, runaway ride up Main Street in Cato. Wally finally managed to pull the horse into the gas station. Some men there took control of the horse and then the horse was sold. As a teen, Wally did some trucking for his father. At age 16, one day he took a load of five cows to Munnsville and the tires on the truck blew out on the way! The physical education teacher at his school, Mr. Crist, was drafted into the Merchant Marines, so Wally bought his first car from him, a 1936 black four-door Ford. It had 99,000 miles on it and he paid $99 for it—as he points out—for a dollar per thousand miles. Later he gave the car to his sister because she needed a car for her school nurse duties. Wally was 16 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He recalls that his family had gone to some close friends’ home for Sunday dinner when the news came in on their console radio. It was quite a shock. Wally went to air warden meetings and became an airplane spotter on the farm. The community practiced black-outs. Wally thinks he may have had to check other homes for compliance. Young Wally got an Airline Radio from Sears Roebuck. He liked to listen to The Shadow, Amos and Andy and Tom Mix. The radio went with him into the military. Wally played center on the six-man football team at Cato. He said the team did not do so well. He was accepted into the aviation cadet program before graduation which came in 1943. Wally and a friend had reported to the Draft Board earlier in 1943. He participated in several qualifying tests at Hancock Field before graduation. Harold Wallace as a senior in high school MILITARY SERVICE Wally spent some time zigzagging the country as a military man. He was sworn into the Army Air Corps on August, 2, 1943 and went active on August 19, 1943. He spent 30 days in basic training in Greenboro, NC and then went to Clarion, PA, for six months until March, 1944. At Clarion College he took physics (four hours per day), math and English classes in a military setting, with formations in the morning and fire drills at night in an intensive program. Each Sunday the recruits would march in uniform to their various church denominations. They were ---PAGE BREAK--- subject to white glove inspections. He had ten hours of flight instruction on Piper Cubs and related planes. He recalled being required to put the planes into spins. He would count the number of spins by the number of times the road or a fence passed by! New recruit Harold L. Wallace ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally in flight gear, February 10, 1944 In March, 1944, Wally was sent to Nashville for evaluation and more testing. He was sent to Biloxi, Mississippi’s Keesler Field to aircraft mechanic school. All the training was preparing him to become a flight engineer. He was there for six months before he was sent for three months to Panama City, FL, Tyndal Field for gunnery training. He trained to be a top turret gunner on B24 aircraft. He recalls that the WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) flew planes that pulled tow targets. The gunners shot live rounds at those targets, improving their skills. They also did some skeet shooting. Fighter planes would fly very close to them; it seemed to Wally like they might come right through the turret! ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally in the Gulf of Mexico After a short leave at home he went to Lincoln, Nebraska where his flight crew of ten was formed. At that time the plan was for them to go to England. They were sent to Mountain Home, Idaho, where Wally was put in charge of the enlisted crew as flight engineer. His captain was in charge of everyone! One night a hard frost had occurred. The next morning several crews went out on practice flights. One of the planes crashed because of ice on the wings. Three were killed including one who stood between the pilots and in the front of the top turret, Wally’s position in a B24. That man was crushed in the plane crash. That day another plane embarked on the final turn before coming in for a landing, flipped upside down and crashed into a ball of fire. Other fatal accidents happened that same day. Statistically speaking, about half of all men in the Army Air Corps and probably many US Navy test pilots were killed while training and testing aircraft. “Green” pilots and poor aircraft were contributing factors. Wally said he and his fellow-military men would utter the gallows-humor slogan: “gunner today, goner tomorrow.” While at Mountain Home, Wally had his first experience flying in tight formation, which made him and many recruits air-sick. They would fly to Crater Lake, Oregon and into Utah; all the while the wings of the next plane would be nearly touching. Wally said that experience was much different than “just cross-country flying.” ---PAGE BREAK--- B24 bomber, courtesy ww2total.com The crew left for Salina, CA to prepare to go to Europe; the year was 1945. They were loaded on a troop train in CA to go to Camp Kilmer, NJ to depart for Europe. After four days on the troop train, the train stopped and unloaded the troops at Kearney, Nebraska. It was determined that Germany was too close to being defeated to send all the crews to Europe. Gunners were taken off his crew except for Wally. Some gunners were sent to B29 gunnery school. Wally’s crew and fourteen others consisting of pilot, co-pilot navigator, flight engineer (Wally), and radio operator were bussed on to Topeka, KS, where Wally as well as rest of the crews awaited further orders. After a wait of several days, crew number 351-1 and crew number 351-14 received orders for flying two new B-24 M’s to the South Pacific (location undisclosed to them). They test flew these planes for a few days to check for any problems. Then they took off on their tour. On the flight to Mather Field at Sacramento, CA, they had an engine run-away (spinning out of control). The pilot asked Wally what should be done; Wally told him to ”feather it” which meant to turn the propeller blades to a straight forward position and stop the turning. If it had been allowed to continue, the engine’s propeller could have blown apart and gone through the fuselage, said Wally. Later the pilot asked what to do next. Wally told him to go ahead and try it again. Now that engine worked perfectly and seemed to be ready for the rest of the trip to Mather Field. They had a few days off and then took off over the Pacific, but the plane’s auto-pilot would not work. Wally said that they had to place extra fuel tanks on board the B 24s and when those now very heavy planes took off, they would sound like they were barely able to get off the ground. Wally’s plane had the additional problem of a non-working autopilot with extra fuel aboard and a long flight ahead. The pilot decided to turn back. They had to continue circling over San Francisco for six hours to burn off enough fuel before they could land! The plane was repaired and Wally’s crew took off for a 16-hour trip to Hawaii, flying at 8000 feet. After not more than two days in Hawaii, they flew to Canton Island, a coral atoll. At that time the island had only an air strip and fuel. The plane refueled and took off for Tarawa, a Polynesian Island. Tarawa had been the scene of a bloody battle between US Marines and Japanese soldiers, with the loss of 6000 lives on both sides before it was secured by the Marines. Wally has a photo of a blockhouse ---PAGE BREAK--- where, it was claimed, more than 100 Japanese soldiers’ bodies were found. While the crew was at Tarawa they watched some Polynesian men wade into the water, catch fish by hand and bite off their heads to kill them. These fish were about “perch-sized.” The native women were on another island so Wally and his crew did not see them. They were on Tarawa for about five days. During this time the war in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany (May 7-8, 1945). Wally, second from left on Tarawa; the structure once contained the bodies of more than 100 Japanese soldiers. ---PAGE BREAK--- Natives fishing on Tarawa From Tarawa, Wally’s crew left for Guadalcanal where they had to land on metal air strips in the jungle. They taxied into the camp area. That night Wally had to sleep in a hammock under the plane’s wing. He was supposed to be guarding the plane though his gun was useless. The next day the plane flew along the north shore of Papua, New Guinea, where they ran into a typhoon. The plane was continuously thrown higher into the air and then suddenly downward in a storm that was so violent that the plane’s wings were flapping. While in the throes of the storm they could hear Tokyo Rose on the radio. At least we had music, Wally stated! They flew the plane to Biak, an Indonesian Island, for delivery. He saw acres and acres of allied planes there, and believes that some were later used in the Korean War. He also noticed that the natives did not wear many clothes! Wally and his crew stayed just one day on the Island of Biak; they were loaded on a transport plane and flown to San Francisco, and then back to Topeka where the crew was totally split up. The pilot went to B29 training school; other officers furthered their schooling, and Wally went to Reno, NV, to work as a mechanic on C46 transport planes. One time there was a close-call on a C46. Wally said while he and others needing air time were in the plane flying over Lake Tahoe, it went into a stall. The pilot advised them to get their parachutes on. Wally said that was scary, as they were over mountainous terrain and Lake Tahoe. They attempted to land with ambulances and fire equipment on the ground awaiting their landing. “It was a thrill,” Wally said. ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally, standing, third from left, back row, with the flight crew, Mountain Home, Idaho ---PAGE BREAK--- While Wally was at Reno, a Colonel arrived in a B24; unfortunately it had run out of fuel before it could reach the runway and landed in the desert. Since Wally had been assigned a half-track vehicle for moving planes around for a time, he was voted to be the one to somehow get the ---PAGE BREAK--- plane back to the airstrip. Wally says that, contrary to what it may seem, a desert is not a smooth, easy surface to navigate. Adding to that is trying to drag a huge B24 to an airfield. Wally says he missed the celebrations on base that ended both of the wars. While he was on the Island of Tarawa, the war in Europe ended. The Japanese surrendered, ending the war in Asia while he was home on leave. When Wally heard the news, he headed for Auburn to celebrate. He said people were going crazy on the streets there. He was in front of a bar that Randolph Shaffer of Fair Haven was running, dressed in his uniform as required, when a woman came up to him and asked, “where’s your base?” When he told her she said her husband was there, too. Wally thought his barracks might be right next to his. The woman stepped up and gave him a fat kiss, telling Wally to take it back to her husband! At the end of January, 1946, Wally was sent to Hamilton Field, CA, near San Francisco, and was assigned to air transport command there. The Military Air Command was in charge of three large VIP transport planes that flew around the world transporting various “upper echelon” officials. The planes would fly in from Hawaii and go from Hamilton Field to Washington, DC. Wally was in charge of five enlisted men in the maintenance of these planes. He recalls one time having to change an engine on one of them. He also recalls the military beginning to place planes on the airstrip and running them over with a bull dozer to get rid of them. On the last day of February, 1946, he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, KS, where he was discharged on March 11, 1946. He and another soldier wanted to save their mustering out pay so they tried to hitchhike home; the farther east they came, the less able they were go get rides. They boarded a train out of Indianapolis and rode to Syracuse, arriving on March 13, 1946. Wally bought a car and got insurance on March 14. CIVILIAN LIFE Wally rested a day or two and then began to work for his father delivering meat from his dad’s slaughterhouse to places in Auburn. On April 1, he began working at a grocery store in Conquest at a wage of 52.5 cents per hour. Wally thinks his father may have set it up so he could work there. He went to a basketball game and met a girl there named Carol King. He had to wait for her to graduate so they could be married. On July 5, 1947, Wally and Carol were married in Cato. ---PAGE BREAK--- Harold and Carol King Wallace on their wedding day On May 28, 1946, Wally’s 21st birthday, he and his new partner, Carl Smith, bought out Carl’s father’s, (Homer B. Smith’s) Conquest store and named it the Smith & Wallace Store. Wally recalled that his partner had leg trouble and that at 6-feet six-inches tall, he was not able to sleep in the military bunks when he was in the service. The store they bought was a self-service grocery. It became a “mini-Wal-Mart” Wally said. They added shoes, Benjamin Moore paint, Berkshire nylon stockings for women, men’s jeans, women’s and children’s clothes along with selling meat, groceries and produce. They sliced cold cuts by hand! They sold gasoline and kerosene via their pumps out front, including Tydol and Sunoco gasolines. Wally does not know why, but Sunoco gas was a bit more popular. They sold plow points and farm machinery repair parts from a nearby storage building. Soon they began selling appliances as well. Wally remembers a particular two-barrel freezer with a compressor in the middle, because he had to take it back for repairs. They sold 10 inch-screened televisions. The first show he ever saw on one was “Uncle Miltie’s ”Milton Berle show. He delivered a TV on Christmas Eve, 1946, to the father of part-time Fair Haven resident Sam Colvin. The elder Mr. Colvin lived on Town Line Road between Cato and route 38. ---PAGE BREAK--- Carl Smith and Harold Wallace in front of their store in Conquest The partners moved all their products over time to a larger store across the street in Conquest. In the larger place they had a walk-in cooler and a long display case for meats. They also installed a soda fountain. Wally recalls that they stacked so much paint on the shelves that one day a shelf gave way and paint went all over the floor. Wally also went to meat cutting school for about a week. There he learned how to make a presentable meat case, instead of just “throwing the meat ---PAGE BREAK--- in there.” He was instructed in how to put bright green fake lettuce strips between the cuts of meat, for example. Wally and Carl Smith remained partners in the grocery and other sales business until 1951 when Carl bought out Wally. Wally began looking for another store to buy. A store in Fair Haven looked like a good transaction to him so he bought the Red and White store on about March 15, 1951. At that time he had three children and a home in Conquest so once he took over, he commuted the 16-mile trip until his house was sold. He took over the mortgage on the store from Bob Thompson, who was in the process of purchasing it from Earl Houghtaling. After he more closely examined the store he found that it actually had “faced-up” displays, that is, only one product deep. Wally had thought there was much more stock on the shelves! He had only a small cooler so he bought another and put into the back room. The cooler came from Harry Lockwood’s store in Oswego. He used the small one for produce. Madeline and Chuck Wilkinson delivered milk to his store so he got to know them. Reba Turner and Roy Maynard quickly became his friends. Mary Bond (VanLiere) was Wally’s first cashier, followed by Georgy Butler and then Gil Teachman. Wally did the meat cutting. Doris and Carl Beshures both worked for Wally. Wally had competition; Lynn and June Parker had a Clover Farm Store on the west corner of Lake and Main Streets. Horace Fessenden ran a grocery store on the east side of Richmond Avenue and Main Street. Wally remembers that Dan Washburn worked for “Fezzy.”. Russ Cramer had a grocery store in North Fair Haven. Other business in the village at that time included three gas stations—the Fair Haven Garage owned by Roy Maynard, John Harmony’s Gas Station and John Rossiter’s and Earl Stanton’s Tydol Station. By May of 1951 Wally had sold his house in Conquest and he, Carol and their eldest three children moved into the upstairs apartment over his store. One night in early July, 1951, when Carol and Wally were sitting on their upstairs glassed in porch, they began hearing banging. Wally went downstairs to investigate. It was Doctor Hanford shooting off fireworks near the Pleasant Beach Hotel. Wally said that what the store offered for sale was an expanding process. Wally bought the Howell Building next door, from the Howell Estate, perhaps through March Howell, and opened up his store into the downstairs portion of the Howell Building with an archway. He placed shelving in this area for general merchandise, gifts, toys, etc. No one lived upstairs by then, but up there he found a long sled, funeral chairs and other items. He had the Howell Building sided. Chester D’Lugazima had bought the east end of that group of buildings, and was converting the area into a bar and hotel. In its history, that building had housed several businesses including an apple dryer, printing press, soda fountain and grocery stores. Wally remembers the whole set of buildings as being rat infested. A barber shop was located in a small section on the corner of Main Street and Fancher Avenue. Keith Conroy, John Ryder and sometimes Walt Wall barbered there. (The barber shop was once on the other of the Mendel Block on the corner of Main and Richmond.) ---PAGE BREAK--- In the old days: from left, Methodist Church, Spaulding block, Lyon-Howell block, Robinson & Phillips block; the Robinson & Phillips block would later become Wally’s Red & White grocery store ---PAGE BREAK--- From left, Kathy Wallace, Greg Wallace, Robert Wallace, Doris Beshures, Jan Wallace on the east side of the old store ---PAGE BREAK--- Greg and Bobby Wallace in front of Wally’s first store, about 1954 ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally’s first Fair Haven store The great fire had started on the west end of the buildings, by Fancher Avenue. An earlier fire had started in this section as well but had been quickly extinguished. At about 10 PM Reba Turner smelled smoke but saw nothing so she did not investigate. Wally had just finished putting up his spring decorations in the store and completed his bookkeeping. He fell asleep on the couch waiting for Carol to return from bowling with Lucille Wilkinson, Vera Cooper and others. He awoke smelling smoke. He ran down the stairs to see smoke billowing from the other end of the set of buildings. He ran back upstairs to his apartment only to see smoke coming up through the carpeting. He called in the fire to Mary Lombardo. He yelled for the girls to get on their snowsuits and started dressing the boys. Fred Nihoff arrived to help get them dressed. Wally remembers that for some reason Fred went over and turned off the television. They quickly left the building. Don King grabbed young Bobby who was less than three years old at the time. Don put Bobby in Don’s car only to bump Bobby’s head while trying to get him in. Of course Bobby cried and Don was very upset about it. By now the Fair Haven Fire Department was there. Lawrence Turner suggested that Wally go back and get his books if he could. Wally crawled upstairs and retrieved them. Wally went across the street to Roy Maynard’s Garage to call his parents. He told them if they wanted to see his place burn down they should come over. They did. “Coop” (Clarence Cooper) arrived with his tractor and pulled Wally’s store safe out— right through the side wall. It had been near the walk-in cooler. Robert and Lucille Wilkinson offered their home to the Wallace’s. The Wallace boys went home to Meridian with Carol’s parents and the girls and Wally and Carol stayed with the Wilkinson family. ---PAGE BREAK--- The block fire, March 17-18, 1955 ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally says that the community was very generous to him and his family. They took up a collection and had a shower for Carol. The Town of Sterling leveled the lot and filled in some of it. Wally’s dad’s theory was “you build back where you lost.” Wally decided to build a new store on the land. He purchased the land on the west side of his former store, the portion that bordered Fancher Avenue, from Chester D’Lugazima. Wally bought the Mendel block next door to the burned blocks from Charles (“Peanuts”) Paternoster for $850. Within three weeks after the fire, he had created a grocery store in the building which he used until his new store was completed on August 2, 1955. The middle section of the Mendel block had previously burned; now Wally was going to make a parking lot on that spot. Sonny Sherman helped him tear off the roof. When they went upstairs to begin work, they saw movie advertisements on the stairway wall. It had been the entrance to Central Hall. GAR (Civil War veterans) meetings, dances, plays and movies and even school classes had been held upstairs. The fire department conducted a controlled burn of the building beginning at 6 AM on a Sunday. Wally believes they probably used kerosene to start the fire. Don Rasbeck, fire chief, arranged for someone from the fire department set up a sprayer system and a screen of water to save the trees that were located ten feet from the back of the Mendel block. Not a tree was scorched. After the burn, the bricks were used to fill in the hole and a parking lot was created. ---PAGE BREAK--- Building a new store; note Mendel block on left, phone booth near center of photo The new store in progress From the new store, Wally delivered groceries to elderly and sick ladies that lived around town. The ladies mostly called in their orders on Fridays. Grace Sherman usually did the grocery packing and Wally would load up his station wagon with the orders. He delivered to Minnie ---PAGE BREAK--- Harris on West Main Street, Ella Roach and Mae Shawley on Victory Street, Mrs. Duncan Campbell on Lake Street, Belle Mahaney (“she had the most beautiful geraniums in her kitchen”) on Cayuga Street, Ms. Pattee, (“the cat lady”) and Agnes Turner on West Bay Road and Mrs. Gleason in North Fair Haven. He also delivered to Pearl Brundidge, across from the State Park entrance and Millie Brown (Naomi’s mother) on East Main Street. There were never any delivery charges. Charlie McIntyre owned a couple of lots on Fancher Avenue, near Cottage Street. Sometime after the fire, on one lot he built the present Post Office and rented it to the US Government. Leo Lunkenheimer bought it at a later time. Wally bought the lot south of the Post Office lot for storage and trash. Wally put a delicatessen into the store. Summer people loved that deli, he Wally said. He had a chicken barbecue device, an oven for pies and a fryer for donuts. All proved popular. For a time Carol made all the salads and baked beans but that got to be too much so they began buying them. ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally’s float from the store in the 1960 Independence Day Parade In the early 1950’s Wally was instrumental in starting a Chamber of Commerce in Fair Haven. He recalls meeting with Doc Hanford, Marv and Ed Hadcock, Ronnie Smith, Don Rasbeck, and Veer Northrop in the dining room of Mary’s Restaurant. Wally became a member of the Auxiliary Police, a branch of Civil Defense. He recalls having been issued a heavy yellow coat and a Civil Defense badge to be used on duty. Carol took First Aid courses and was also issued a heavy yellow coat. Wally remembers being out directing traffic during Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Wally says that he threw out his coat about a year ago because it was rotting. Wally, second row, second from left, marching with the Legion Wally also joined the fire department as a volunteer fireman. He said he answered a good many calls during his 35 years in the Fair Haven Fire Department (1951-1985). He also joined the American Legion where he marched in parades, went as a group to visit Jack VanLiere when he was terminally ill with cancer, and worked at barbeques, even up until recent times. He was also a participant at military funerals. Wally was a member of the Presbyterian Church until about the time he moved to Oswego. ---PAGE BREAK--- Wally with the Fair Haven Fire Department in the 1950’s He was a member of the Grange. They met at the Rebekah Lodge of the Odd Fellows in their building and in the basement of the Fair Haven School. He was a charter member of the Bay Betterment Association and on the Boy Scout Committee. Wally certainly proved to be a civic- minded citizen of Fair Haven. MOVING DAY Right away after the Wally’s store and home burned to the ground, he and Carol began house hunting, soon purchasing a home on Victory Street from Mrs. McElvaney. The Osterhaudts live there now. When Wally’s and Carol’s fifth child, Elizabeth, was born, they no longer had enough room in the Victory Street house. They purchased a house on Richmond Avenue from the Johnson family. Later this house was the location of the Front Porch Gift Shop, before that business was moved in 2011-2012. When the library moved to its present location from the Phillips home, on the east corner of South Fancher and Main Street, Wally bought that house and updated it. It was a large house with two baths and six bedrooms so each child had a room. The house had uneven floors, though. It had a carriage house. He did not sell his Richmond Ave., home but rented it as two apartments. At about this time Wally was learning the real estate business. He showed the Bill Bellinger house, on the west side of South Fancher and Main, to Martha and Jim Child. They thought the house needed too much work so Wally showed them his own house. They bought it. Now, much to his children’s disappointment in losing their bedrooms, they had to move. Wally had previously purchased a house in the Eldridge Point area from Dr. Platt, thinking that someday he might remodel it. Now it was imperative to hire someone to do the work immediately. While the Wallace family moved back to the two-bedroom upstairs apartment of the house on Richmond Avenue, (Merrill and Ginny Parker lived downstairs,) Sue Lozier designed the new interiors and Buster Lozier began the remodeling ---PAGE BREAK--- process on the Platt house. Dave Sutterby dug out an area for a foundation. The house was move-in ready the week before Christmas, 1966. The Wallace family lived on the Bay for ten years. They had a house built near the area where Victory Street becomes Acre Road. This was their first brand-new house. The 17 acre property had village water but was located 200 feet outside the village. At the same time they bought the Anthony St. Phillips home on the east end of north Richmond Ave and lived there until their new home was ready. Then they rented out the St. Phillips house for a time and later traded it with the for their house in Westbury. The Wallace’s lived on Acre Road from 1976-1985, when they sold the house to their daughter, Kathy. As Wally’s business was in Oswego by this time, they moved to Oswego. Five years later, Kathy returned to CA to work at a surgical transplant center, so Wally and Carol moved back and lived in the Acre Road home until 1996. John Borden bought the house so Wally and Carol moved to West Lake Road, Oswego. They were living at that home when Carol passed away in 2009. Since that time, Wally has sold that house to his daughter Kathy and friend and has moved into the former Claire and Sarah Stone home in Red Creek, across the street from Wally’s daughter, Jan and family. Harold and Carol Wallace on their Fortieth Anniversary at their Acre Road home NEW CAREER In 1969, Wally sold the store to Ed Kawar. Wally had become involved in the real estate business in 1965 and liked the work. To qualify for a real estate license Wally was required to work for a licensed broker for a time so he worked for Bill King. Wally’s friend, Robert Wilkinson began working in the insurance business with Ed Herrald in Oswego. Soon the three men formed the incorporated King, Wallace, Wilkinson Insurance and Real Estate Company with offices in Fair Haven in the former Mary’s Restaurant and in Oswego on East Bridge Street. At the time of purchase of what was to become their Fair Haven office, it was called “Fred’s Diner,“ ---PAGE BREAK--- which was owned by a man from Auburn. Bill King loved the job of remodeling so they converted the building into three one-bedroom apartments, an office and a barber shop. Bill King became involved in real estate in the Caribbean so Wally and Robert bought out his share of the business. Wally began to work indirectly for RG&E in the company’s efforts to buy property in North Sterling for a nuclear power plant, 2910 acres altogether. The property was supposed to be able to support six nuclear reactors if the company had wanted. Wally says it was a stressful but interesting time. Robert was having serious asthma attacks and lung problems by this time and was not always able to work. Lauren Dates came on board. Lauren advised Wally that the Coppernoll farm was a good buy so Wally bought it. At this time, Bob Wallace, Wally’s son, got laid off from his job right at Christmas. He was hired by Wally’s Company and sent to insurance school in Rochester. Robert was very ill by this time so the insurance portion of the business was sold to Eastern Shore and Bob Wallace went with it. In turn, Wally bought a Century 21 franchise so his new business became Century 21 H. & C. Wallace Realty, Incorporated. Leo Lunkenheimer, Candy Rasbeck and Marilyn Simmons all worked for the company out of the Fair Haven office. This property had been owned by the company and now Wally ended up with it. Unfortunately, over time, prices of properties, especially around the Bay greatly escalated so people began to buy and sell the properties without agents. So Wally closed the Fair Haven office. The Oswego office remained open. While Wally worked and lived in Oswego, he was President of Oswego County Realtors for three terms. “Wally’s girls:” from left, his wife, Carol, and daughters, Liz, Kathy and Jan at their Acre Road home ---PAGE BREAK--- WALLY REFLECTS “I think I should have worked for someone else and got a pension,” says Wally. “Or, I should have used the GI Bill and become a CPA.” He also would have liked to go to college but his father was not in favor of that. Wally says that he actually has few regrets. Serving the public and enjoying relationships with his workers have been most important things to him. He says “summertime in the store was great. We were busy.” He enjoyed having “all those kids” working for him. During the height of the summer he might have 20 people working there; many were students that soon would go off to college or were home for summers. At the new store he recalls some of the kids that worked for him: Pat Lehne Cooper Dick Parsons, Holly, Sally and Geoff Hanford, Sue Campion (Robinson), Donnie King, Sylvia Packer (Becker) and many others. Some worked there for years such as Irene Moore, Grace Sherman, his father Lloyd, Ethel Griggs and Dorothea Field. Frank Perkins and Sonny Sherman worked in the store as meat cutters and then went on to meat cutting careers at other stores. “It has been a good life and I have met a lot of good people over the years.”