I’m in my hotel room in Ithaca right now. Things
have changed quite a bit, at leat along Rt. 13 (Elmira Rd.). There used
to be Wegman’s and Tops, and that was about it. There is now a Walmart,
A Lowes, an enormous (looks like 2 stories) Hollywood video. There are
now strip malls all along the main drag… Oh, and “Deaf Child Blvd.”
is no longer. The street is still there (that incredibly narrow one way
street on the way to Wegman’s), but they have taken down the “Deaf
Child” sign. It’s now just like any other street… They did change the
traffic pattern at the end of the street though, you are no longer
supposed to make that slight left to take the short cut to Wegman’s.
I’ll get a better feel for the place tomorrow when I do some real
looking during the day.
I stopped in Binghamton along the way. Checked out 9
Serrall ave, my grandmother’s former home. It looked pretty good, they
seem to be taking care of the place. Downtown looked a little more run
down, it’s just a general feeling, but maybe it’s that I’m no longer
used to it. The big news is that they tore down my wharhouse! This was
the old Lander’s cosmetic wharehouse. It had a beautiful, enormous
mosiac tiled floor and really dramatic decorated colums inside. It must
have been used as a ballroom or something. The main building is still
there. It has a a beauftiful, old fashioned elevator (the kind with the
sliding scissor doors) surrounded by a marble staircase with brass
handrails. It’s really pretty, too bad nobody gets to see it. Ate at
Little Venice, it was as good as I remember… I was looking for
Sharky’s but couldn’t find it. Where are (were?) they? If worse comes
to worse, I can get my speedies at Pancho’s, but I always preferred
Sharky’s… I’ll let you guys know what Ithaca has turned into
tomorrow…
Isaac