Greetings friends. Sorry I'm a little late with my column, but I've had another setback. A few weeks ago, I took a spill and fractured a couple of rips. Wow! What pain. I believe it was even more painful than when I was wounded in World War II and lost so much blood that I was not able to stand up.

The pain has now pretty much subsided, so I'm able to function better, and I hope the improvement continues. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will make every effort to get my column out on schedule.

In my last column, I covered the western part of the city that I grew up in. As I stated, our family moved to Jefferson Street when I was 7 years old, and the neighborhood basically included a couple of blocks of both Jefferson and Orchard streets.

As teenage boys, we had many fun activities in those days. Of course, we went to the movies - just about everyone did. There was no television. We also bowled and played pool at the Imperial on Genesee Street.

We went to basketball games at the old armory where Auburn teams played teams from out of town. The old armory was a fortress-type building on Water Street with the public entrance on State Street. At a younger age, I participated in Boy Scout jamborees at the armory.

Later there were basketball games on Sunday afternoons at the Roman Club on Clark Street that I attended. I believe that the Auburn team was sponsored by the he P & R Macaroni Co. There were great players on the teams that played there, both the Auburn team and opponents.

We went to baseball games at Falcon Park where an Auburn semi-pro team played its home games. The teams were members of The Post-Standard League.

All games, both home and out-of-town, were played on weekends and the games at Falcon Park always drew large crowds. When a new baseball park, Schafer Field, was built farther out on North Division Street, on the corner of York Street, the games were moved to that park. The Auburn team even played an exhibition game against a major league team there. Some of the Auburn players, as near as I can remember their names, were Frank Piorkowski, Johnny Cimpi, Stan Tokarz, Jake Savage and Don Miller.

The finishing touches were being put on a new high school stadium (now called Holland Stadium) in 1936, when I started attending Auburn Senior High School. The stadium was completed in time for the first home football game, which I attended. I continued going to all home games for several years. The coach was Ki Young, a great one who was also my gym teacher.

During the summer months, we would go the Enna Jettick Park, now Emerson Park, to see the free aerial acts and enjoy the music of the traveling dance bands that played in the pavilion. There was dancing in the pavilion every evening and also on Sunday afternoons during warm weather months that the park was open. We enjoyed the music of the big band era, and I miss it today.

When WWII started, all of these fun times came to an end, and we wound up in the military to fight for our country. Several from our neighborhood were wounded including Charlie Bizzari, Vincent Rizzo, Ralph Galiso and myself. The only one that I know who was killed was my cousin, Charlie Carnicelli.

When we returned home, we were glad and thankful to be able to renew our friendships. Not too long after, John Bizzari, a neighbor of mine, started up a neighborhood club, which I joined. He was the first president and had a lot to do with the club becoming a success.

It was named the Finger Lakes Social and Athletic Club and a vacant store on Orchard Street was rented for a clubhouse. The club had a pool table and several tables for playing cards and chess. I enjoyed a lot of pool and chess there.

The club had numerous activities including clam bakes. It held at least one dance at the Roman Club hall, and there was a large turnout.

The club sponsored a baseball team that played out-of-town teams and was managed by Frank “Chich” Locastro, who was well-known in local baseball circles. They played one game against the famous House-of-David team at Falcoln Park.

During the early post-war years, popular dance bands would occasionally come to town. When the Guy Lombardo Orchestra played the Auburn Inn, my wife and I attended and had a wonderful time. The music was so danceable that we danced nearly the entire evening.

As I write this, the song “Silver Bells” is playing on the radio and is bringing back memories of downtown Auburn of years ago during the Christmas season. However, time marches on as we well know.

I guess that this about does it for this time.

Happy holidays.

Carmelo Signorelli is an Auburn resident who enjoys reminiscing about the good ol' days