Hi Vee & other Niagara-ites, I'm glad to share a bit with you about my time in Lewiston. My name was McMackin & my dad was an industrial builder when we moved to Lewiston in 1956 from Lake county OH, just as the contractors began the basic preparation for the building of the huge power plant along the river. It was a wonderful time to be in Lewiston, as it had not changed from the sleepy little town along the river, whose main street was lined with trees and McDonalds was no place ot be found & we still stopped at the old post office to claim our mail. My memories are of a warm and welcoming community & a close school community at St Peter's from where I graduated in 1962. Peach festivals, carry-outs at the fish & chips shop, ice skating on what was basically a flooded & frozen field, Hibbards beef on kimmelwick sandwiches & the addition of a fantastic soda/sweet shop along Center street just west of the intersection with 4th are highlights of my memories. I recall after-school hours spent sledding down the hill at 3rd going towards Center St near the public school as the dark descended on early winter nights, walking to school with snow piled waist high & never even considering the idea of what's known in other areas as "snow days" on which the kids don't attend, tunnelling through snow-plow piles to make wonderful igloos in which to play, sneaking down the hillside behind DeChantal Hall to reach the riverbank. Taking visiting relatives to make the rounds to the forts & Welland canal, cold summer swims in the lake which was only achieved after surviving the walk along the painfully rocky bottomed shoreline, Sunday dinner at some steak place in Youngstown that served sherbet between courses & lots of other snippets of small town joy are among my fondest childhood memories. I lived first next to Phil & Jess Hanrahan on the corner of Mohawk & second when we first arrived and then moved to what I only knew as "McClure's house" in the 200 block of North 3rd, behind Vince & Marie Aungier's. My classmates at school included Betty Fermoyle, Kate Murphy, Maureen Toohey, Tom Napier, Pat Hyla, Bob Lucas & an assortment of others I somehow lost touch with after I left for PA where I finished high school & college. After I left & was busy with school & new things & with my parents no longer living there & no relatives in the area, time slipped by & before I knew it these names & places were no longer part of my vocabulary & the friends slipped away. It was only years later I realized what I had lost. Now I read this list avidly to give myself a sense of connection to the place that formed my childhood & gave me security and connectedness. I appreciate you all for sharing with us, Susan McMackin Reynolds in Lewes Delaware

Dear Susan, I've read your message of the 14th again this evening and I want so much to respond to it to the entire list but it's very late right now. I want to fill in some of the blanks and give you an update on some of the Lewiston landmarks that you mentioned. What you wrote is certainly a perfect description of Lewiston from the memory of a youngster who had fond memories of it in the 1950s and '60s. Hopefully, I'll be able to manage a proper response tomorrow. vee