BRADBERRY: Bring Christmas spirit back downtown, again

By Bill Bradberry

I received a Christmas card in the mail a few days ago; an actual Christmas card personally signed by my good friends, the Coopers and it got me to thinking again about just how much things have changed and yet remained the same.

I do get a lot of Christmas well wishes from family and friends, but most arrive by telephone and e-mail.

Some of them are beautiful electronic versions of the best old Courier & Ives cards that used to be hand delivered by the dozens for weeks before and after Christmas by our mailman whom we actually knew by name.

When I was a kid, Christmas started in earnest with the arrival of the giant Sears Christmas catalogue. My sisters and I would pour over that precious tattered compendium thousands of times until the pages would begin to fade and fall out as we touched the pictures of the dozens of toys we wanted Santa to carry down the chimney for us.

Convinced that there was a connection between our behavior during the year, and the likelihood that any of the toys we had nearly smudged off the pages would ever actually arrive, we’d eventually leave the kitchen table to dutifully tend to our assignments, reminded that Santa was always watching.

I can remember when I was barely old enough to walk or peer out through the car windows that all of Niagara Falls was lit up like a huge Christmas present with beautiful wreaths and ribbons streaming from the street lights, gigantic banners stretched across the streets wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. It was breathtaking, wonderful!

Most of the churches in my neighborhood back then actually had congregations (there were officially 43 churches in the city in the 1950s representing 20 denominations), and many of them built life-like manger scenes in front of their buildings attracting the faithful and the curious, many of whom like me, made those images come to life. It was almost as if we were actually in the scene, a part of the story.

I was guaranteed a role in the annual Christmas play at Our Lady of the Rosary Elementary School as one of the Three Kings, a character universally accepted as mine since one of the three magi was supposedly black. I was a shoe-in as the only black boy in my school at the time. I would rather have played the role of Joseph, but I guess the world was not ready for that.

Christmas time was a fusion of Santa Clause lore and religious observance, not just the nearly total commercial enterprise it seems to be now.

There was a genuine Christmas spirit and it was reflected in the decorations not only on the city streets but throughout the neighborhoods where most of the homes were decked out in some way that reflected the content of the neighbors hearts more than the special effects of the flashy inflatable mechanized high tech decorations we see today, though they and the spirited competition they generate is certainly not a bad thing.

They have their place too when they are not over done, I suppose. A slow ride or a brisk walk through Hyde Park can certainly reignite some of that old flame; I highly recommend it!

I wrote the following almost exactly three years ago, but it bears repeating as little besides talk has changed much since then, though there is always hope:

A Christmas shopping spree in 1950 Niagara Falls might have taken most of the 90,000 city residents along Falls Street where a cup of hot chocolate at the Main Restaurant might have been followed by a stop at Meyers & Deckers Gifts and the Madeira Linen Gift Shop, the Cataract Cigar Store and Roxy Jewelers, the Strand Dress Shop, Harvey & Carey’s Drugstore, the Betty Ann Hat Shop, the Frontier Camera & Photo Supply Store, S.S. Kresge’s and of course, Sears.

After shopping and meeting friends and neighbors in those fine establishments, city residents and throngs of tourists would likely find a seat at a table for lunch at Walgreen’s, the Falls Luncheonette, the Colonial Restaurant, the Lido Grill, the Star Restaurant, or the Ideal Coffee Shop before they went on the spend their hard-earned Christmas Club dollars at Biers, the Cataract Song Shop, Reed’s Jewelers, Kayes Dress Shop, Betty Dixon’s Candy Shop, JN Adam’s Department Store, Nisley Shoes, Amberg & Company Men’s Clothes, Fanny Farmer’s Candy Shop, Yaseen’s Jewelers, Esquire Men’s Shop, or Mack’s Men’s Shop, just to mention a few.

And Main Street also had its share of wonders garnished with Season’s Greetings decorations including Thom McAnn Shoes, the Lerner Shops, Ray’s Clothes, Krausmann’s Department Store, Kinney Shoes, Woolworth’s, Belbot’s, Singer’s Drugstore, Day’s of Niagara, Silberberg’s, Grant’s, Wolke’s and of course Jenss’ among many, many others that once served our once burgeoning population.

A lot has changed since those days, not all of it for the better. Much of what has happened was the result of forces far beyond us, but some of it was then, and is now within our own control should we choose wisely to exercise it.

The best of it can be recreated by complimenting the out-flow of local investment and spending in the surrounding suburban communities, and bringing some of it back to the city where smaller retail enterprises and the spirit of individualism could once again flourish if we can find a way, like so many other similar communities have, to recreate the excitement of unique “downtown” shopping experiences.

We need to find a way to focus more of our public and private sector resources on the development of our small, family owned and operated retail businesses within the city. They were, 50 years ago, the backbone of our downtown retail commercial trade, and they are the real future if we are ever going to revive our local economy.

With a combination of good planning, serious cooperation with Niagara University and Niagara County Community College, SUNY at Buffalo and others combined with some real relocation incentives, I’d bet many of those who were forced to the suburbs (and others who’d like a chance to try) would be willing to consider coming back home and expanding their business opportunities by being closer to the millions of tourists and the thousands of local residents who’d be only to happy to do a little shopping with them all year round.

Perhaps if we can do that, we might also re-light some of the best of the good old fashioned Christmas Spirit and the true celebration of the Reason for the Season.

Wouldn’t THAT be nice?

Contact Bill at bill.bradberry@yahoo.com

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