Greg Wright ('61) contributes the following memorabilia, ranging from his first grade report card and early photo to his graduation program:
 
 

 

Our friend Harold Wilkin offers a picture of his Dundee High School class of 1932 when they were all still in grade school - he believes possibly the fifth grade.  He asks for help from others of his era in identifying some of his classmates whose names he can't quite recall.  Harold is No.5 in the group, while his twin brother Harvey is No.19.  He believes that No.7 is Laura Larson (Crans), No.17 is Eugene Hunt and No 20 in the bottom right-hand corner is Douglas Miles.  Can anyone name others in the class?

                   Click on picture for enlarged image

Harold says that for their senior trip the class rented two cottages along the shore of Lake Ontario near Rochester.  One evening a group from the class decided to travel to the city and check out a popular form of diversion of the day - a speak easy.  After climbing a stairway to a door with a peep hole, they were allowed to enter, sat down and ordered some beer.  All was going well until two policemen entered and     " . . . we just about fell through the floor."  The tension was quickly relieved when the two officers just sat down and each ordered a beer!
 
Harold continues with his recollections from his boyhood days in Dundee:

"Three mornings after Halloween are especially remembered.  The pranksters did their work around and on the school yard. On Seneca Street the Baptist church . . . had a long shelter behind the church.  This was for farmers who came to town on Sunday to park their horses and buggies while they attended services.  One morning there was a wagon straddling the peak of the roof.  It had been taken apart and reassembled on the roof.  A similar thing happened when the next morning a similar horse-drawn vehicle had been assembled on the front porch of Dundee High School.  Another time a light carriage was pulled to the top of the school grounds flag pole.  I can't believe the flag rope was that strong."

"As there was a quite a bit of logging in the Dundee area, in the winter we liked to hook our sleds behind the log hauling sleds.  It was even more fun to catch on behind the faster horse-drawn cutters.  The saw mill was across the railroad tracks from the railroad station, and I remember the time something broke and a large saw blade went sailing across the street and smashed into a building."

"The Fourth of July was also a day of adventure.  A plumber lived next door to me, and he made cannons for Doug Miles and myself.  They were about twelve inches long with a pipe cap screwed on one end.  A hole was drilled in the cap for the fuse, which we obtained from fire crackers.  We learned how to make gun powder from the dictionary and bought the necessary chemicals from the drug store.  There was a grocery store called Hammers, where they always sold fireworks.  He would load the front window with them.  If a spark had ever dropped, it would have blown the whole front of the store out. One night I was downtown and noticed that there was a fire starting in the rear of the Hammer store.  I ran up the nearby stairs to the telephone company, which was almost directly above the fire, to have them call the fire deparment.  (Another feature in Hammer's store that caught my attention was the monster red coffee grinder which had flywheels 2 1/2 to 3 feet in diameter.)  It's a wonder that we survived our early days!"
 
Harold recognized the house he lived in on Seneca Street in one of the pictures we have on display in the Digital Gallery.  The house was owned by Dr. Cyrus Harvey after whom Harold's twin brother Harvey was named.  Harold continues:  "The door at the right end of the porch was the entrance to Dr. Harvey's medical office.  An unusual feature of his office was a large closet with a little sink with running water.  This was at a time when there was no village water piped into individual homes.  In a small attic above the closet was a cistern which fed rain water drainage from the roof.  The doctor had his bottles of concentrated medicine stocked on the closet shelves..  To furnish a prescription for a patient he filled a small bottle with this rain water and then added several drops of the appropriate medicinal concentrate.  I often wondered if the birds on the roof added to the potency of the brew.  The kids today do not know how good (?) the old days were."

"If you enlarge the picture of the "infamous sign" just west of Main Street (see the Digital Gallery), you will see on the right a red building which used to be a local blacksmith shop.  As a youngster I used to enjoy watching the smith forge and fit shoes to farmers' horses.  Across the street there was a machine shop of some kind, and I remember a large "hit miss" gasoline engine outside the building with a belt running into the building to operate the machinery inside."

"I remember a candy store that was the first store to the south of the old Harpending House hotel.  The Italian who owned it had a wagon with a steam engine which ran the corn popper and turned a peanut roasting drum.  At Christmas time he also made multi-colored ribbon candy which I haven't seen for years.  (In recent years, as a hobby, I built a full-size replica of the original Creators Pop Corn Wagon steam engine.)"

Harold Wilkin continues:  "One of my favorite pastimes as a young person was Indian artifact hunting.  There was a favorite hunting area near Wayne where the road now passes between Waneta and Lamoka lakes.  A little stream runs between the two lakes, and an ancient Indian village was located along the steam in an area more recently known as Wood's farm. A Rochester museum conducted a dig at this site for two or three years, and I would get my father to take me there on weekends to watch the activities.  I also hunted the plowed fields in this area for many hours, finding some nice projectile points, many broken ones, stone hammers, fishnet sinkers, skinning stones, throwing stones and many flint chips from the manufacture of projectile points.  I also hunted the grape fields along Seneca Lake, but I remember only finding one point.  Our daughter also found a nice arrow point years later on the shale beach along Seneca Lake.  I often wondered how she found it, as it was among the flat shale beach stones and the once sharp edges were worn somewhat smooth from flaking."

       Click on image for larger view of map
 

Marlene Kelly McDaniel ('58) of Taylors, SC sends us the following:

"We have all experienced how, when we were young, everything seemed bigger and better.  Well, when I attended Dundee Central, I thought it was such a grand and beautiful school with a gorgeous campus.  My impressions may have been slightly exaggerated, but I'm sure that some of my fondest memories and the shaping of my character belong to the days spent there from 4th grade on through to graduation.  I'm so glad to have gone to a school at a time when values and character were imparted.  I remember the respect we had for teachers and especially for Mr. Depew!  Does anyone remember how he had only to give you 'that look' to know he meant business?  I recall his pride in the school and how he would set an example by picking up any trash on the floor and making sure all was neat and in order.  In junior high Miss Lafler invoked my interest in American history.  Mrs. Utter gave me a love for English and even a desire to understand some of Shakespeare.  After all, I did name my kid brother 'Mark Anthony.'  And who remembers Mr. Ballard having all the girls in class take out their tubes of lipstick and analyze their personalities by how they wore down their lipstick?  He had some weird non-history classes.  And, oh, what a jerky crush I had on V.J.V., the math teacher - funny I should end up marrying one!  The basketball games, PE classes, senior ball and junior prom, art class with Mr. Witter (who referred to me as the 'girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead'), Mr. Greyback and the band music (marches especially) that made one feel so patriotic, and last but not least, Mr. Jerome, who almost persuaded me to attend the Julliard School of Music.  So many times I wished I had gone there."

[These are Marlene's memories of her days at DCS.  Her story and thoughts on life since leaving school are continued on our Where Are They Now? page.  Editor]

Our thanks go out to Lt. Col. Wilbur L. Morgan of Taylors, South Carolina for the following picture of his graduating class of 1934 from Dundee High School.  Because of the age and condition of the clipping it did not scan very well, so here is the caption:

First row:  Gerald Culver, Audrey Travis, Frances Faucett, Principal Frank Ryan, chaperone Eugenie Townsend, Harold Ryan, Gorden Carter, Doris Florence, Marjorie Rapalee.  Second row:  Stanley Coolbaugh, Winifred Green, Allen Bassage, Mildred Sproul, Clarence Pierce, Elizabeth Vaughn, Eldyne Trenchard, Mildred Manhold, Richard Smith.  Third row:  Wilbur Morgan, Lois Haskell, Robert Spence, Edna Smith (missing from picture), Alfred Huey (partially torn), Betty Gray, Marvin Stalker, Mary Faucett.