Westfield ...

In 1965 Greg and I sat in Miss Betts 7th grade history class and spent an entire year learning about our state, New York, and our town, Westfield. It was Miss Betts last year of teaching. She must have been at least 65 and was retiring at the end of the school year. She had taught many of the fathers and mothers of the students in our class, the parents of our friends. She had been teaching in the Westfield school system since at least 1930. I remember her vividly to this day. She was "old school," no pun intended. Miss Betts was strict and she had total control of the class. She commanded respect, worked hard at teaching, and she knew her subject matter. If she is still alive today, and it wouldn't surprise me if she was, she would be 108 years old. She was a treasure trove of historic information about New York state, but perhaps even even more importantly, she was probably the leading authority of information about our town, our community, Westfield. She was her own institution, a proud citizen of Westfield, N.Y., and this is what she taught us about the town that we grew up in, as best as I can remember:

In the late 1600's and early 1700's, French explorers were travelling up the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. "Up" in this case would have been south, or southwest. They would have travelled to the beginning of the river at Lake Ontario, and from there southwest to the far end of the lake to the mouth of the Niagara River. At the mouth of the river they built a fort, Fort Niagara, in what today is the Village of Youngstown, N.Y., about six or seven miles below Niagara Falls. (The fort is still there and is well worth a visit.) These explorers pressed on from Fort Niagara on orders from the King of France to continue claiming and mapping this part of New France for its European motherland.

They would have travelled a few miles up the Niagara River to what today is Lewiston, N.Y. in their hollowed out canoes, carried their boats and supplies up the Niagara escarpment and past the Falls to the northern point of Grand Island, where they would have put back into the Niagara River and paddled upstream past the current site of Buffalo, N.Y. and out onto Lake Erie. From there they went southwest along the southern shore of Lake Erie until they disembarked at a point at or near what today is Barcelona, N.Y. From there they followed an old "portage" through the woods and up another escarpment to Mayville, N.Y., and the northern end of Lake Chatauqua. After leaving Lake Erie and just before the escarpment rising towards Mayville, this "portage" took them right through the main intersection of what today is the Village of Westfield. The portage in Westfield is Portage St., north and south, and also New York state Route 17. The explorers eventually found their way to the current site of Pittsburgh and beyond by way of Lake Chatauqua, and the Chadakoin and Alleghany Rivers. In Pittsburgh they established Fort Duquesne and New France was expanding rapidly into the interior of North America as the English had established themselves only along a thin strip of the east coast between New England and Georgia. These French explorers in the beginning of the 18th century were the first Europeans to set foot and eye on the land that would eventually become Westfeld, N. Y. It would be over 100 years before the first English speaking Europeans settled and established Westfield as a town at the very beginning of the 19th century, approximately 1802 if I can recollect Miss Betts speaking to me from the past, when a James McMahon and perhaps a brother of his established the town in almost the most western point of New York state along the shores of Lake Erie. (This information is off the top of my head. It is basically correct but in all likelihood not very exact. Where is Miss Betts when I need her? Caroline Betts, are you still with us? Now there was a teacher who was truly deserving of a "Teacher of the Year" award.)

(Well Greg, I just had to do a quick historical/geographic background of Westfield. Got to have some sort of perspective to work from. But, I like the blog, and I hope and assume I am using it correctly. And, since we haven't established any specific direction in which our story of Westfield will take us ... well, this is a beginning footnote of sorts. More later ... its late Sunday night, 1/6/08.)

My Friend Doug and I are going to write a book

Two guys now more then fifty years old have spent a lifetime apart physically, but another lifetime connected emotionally deeply rooted by a high school friendship borne in their hometown of Westfield, New York. They laugh when joking about the fact everything they needed in life they learned in Westfield, their ground zero. Lured by its small town comfort, simple beauty, the field, family and pages of stories and stories, that formed the very foundation they have leaned on all this time, until now.

Thirty years after they saw each other the last time, they reunite in Atlanta which between the two of them and their families is the 15th place they have lived. an amazing journey not uncommon but an adventure that has shaped their lives and the people around them.

Once reconnected its like nothing has changed - a lifetime of living and experiences hasn’t affected their friendship it has only given them more share with themselves, their families and others around them.

Neither of us are sure where this is going to take us. There are no boundaries. In the little bit I have written, I've found the road to be very emotional. I came from a large Italian-Austrian family with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, many of whom I'm still in touch with. After a lifetime of living away from my memories, Doug (my best friend in high school) and I have circled back together. The bond has remained strong and our stories are so vivid we have laughed endlessly remembering our young exploits. Much of the time we spent together since seeing each other again has been on the phone. Not as much fun as being together and sharing our thoughts with the rest of the family but just as important to reach out when our homes, families and work keep life busy. And thats where the challenge comes in. Writing and talking have borught us back together and have linked our families forever. I'm excited about learning from my friend, and listening to how his life changed since leaving Westfield.

Its 2008. Happy New Year. This year will be the best yet!