Out of the Past

125 Years Ago

Dec. 15, 1881

We really must economize somewhere! Yes, indeed, we must! But I’m sure we are neither of us extravagant. We must eat, we must drink and we must live.

Probably nothing tires one as much as feeling hurried. When in the early afternoon the day’s affairs press on one’s attention beforehand, and there comes the wonder how in the world everything is to be accomplished, when every interruption is received impatiently, and the clock is watched in distress as its moments flit past, then the mind tires the body.

Only $6 a pair, ma’am. Dirt cheap. It’s positively giving ‘em away at that price. (A pair of dark blue vases.)

The spot where Stonewall Jackson fell is marked by a rough block of white flint, quarried in the Wilderness. It stands 3 feet 8 inches high and is 2 feet 10 inches in breadth.

The passion for feasting increased so much in England in the fourteenth century that when Lionel, son of Edward III, was married, there were thirty courses, and the fragments of the table fed 1,000 people.

No room was ever made large enough to hold both a fat man and a mosquito.

The girl who dropped a basket of eggs while flirting made a mash.

100 Years Ago

Dec. 13, 1906

The Mejah Pedro Club enjoyed a wagon trip to Bowmansville where they were entertained by Miss Kathryn Meyer.

Miss Kathryn Tracy of Clarence is holding an exhibit of burnt wood and painting.

75 Years Ago

Dec. 17, 1931

Williamsville this year surpassed any previous year in responding to the annual Red Cross roll call. This year residents in the village subscribed $580.25 for that purpose, exceeding last year’s amount by $35.35, and that of 1929 by $101.25.

Lee E. Wittlinger was named treasurer of the Amherst school district (Williamsville High school), at a meeting of the board of education Tuesday evening. Mr. Wittlinger, succeeds the late S. A. Westland, who was treasurer for over forty years.

50 Years Ago

Dec. 13, 1956

The New York Telephone Co. will open a new business office at 13 South Cayuga Road in Williamsville on Monday, Dec. 17. A. H. Wendin, Company Manager, announced today. The new office will occupy 3,500 square feet of space on the first floor of a newly-constructed brick building. The increased space was needed because of the continuing growth of telephone business in the area.

As a convenience for shoppers, most of the retail stores in the Village of Williamsville will be open until 9 p.m. nightly until Christmas. The action was taken at a meeting of the newly-formed Williamsville Chamber of Commerce.

Joseph P. Kelly, chairman of the New York State Traffic Commission, announced that the existing 35 miles per hour speed restriction on Union Road (Route 18 B) between the northerly Williamsville Village Line and Sheridan Drive has been extended an additional 1,374 ft. northerly.

25 Years Ago

Dec. 16, 1981

With the western New York economy still wallowing in troubled waters, Christmas trees are apparently something for which citizens are still willing to shell out good money. Dave Lee, general manager of the Stedman Old Farm Nurseries, located at 9300 Transit Road in East Amherst, said prices for Christmas tress are about a dollar higher than the previous year.

Eileen McCarthy resigned as editor of The Clarence Bee and James B. Fink of Amherst was named her successor.