Thursday, September 10, 2020

Happy Dyngus Day! Another Fun Buffalo Fact!

 By HoraceClarke66

 
As our boys leave Buffalo for the first and last time, tails tucked firmly between legs, it is time to look at yet another charming feature of the Empire State's second largest city.  That is, the old Buffalo Central Terminal, seen here today looking like a hallucination on a prairie, or a set in a post-apocalyptic movie:

Buffalo_Central_Terminal_from_the_back.jpg


It sort of looms grimly over the existing Amtrak lines as you approach and leave Buffalo.  But the train doesn't stop there anymore.  

Trains are another one of those things Buffalo failed to master, back in the days when it was the City of Light and another bustling port on the Great Lakes, its docks filling up with the steamers owned by the Steinbrenner in-laws who were about to die in a freak shipwreck and leave everything to the Luckiest Family What Ever Was.  

As early as 1889 the good burghers of Buffalo, like good burghers everywhere in the U.S. of A., were saying why don't we consolidate all the miserable little, separate train stations around town into one big "union" station, and make it an architectural marvel at the same time?  (Americans used to do stuff like that back then.)

As Buffalo would have it, though, the city stalled and debated, and didn't get around to finally building its station until 1929.  But hey, things were still booming.  In fact, they were going so well that the good burghers decided to build the new station NOT downtown but 2 1/2 miles away, sure that booming Buffalo would grow into it.  

(What makes me think a Steinbrenner had something to do with that decision?)

What's more, they didn't exactly get one of the premier train station architects that in those days were roaming around the country in greater numbers than Yankees relievers.  But still, they managed to put up a station that served 200 trains a day, including maybe the greatest train ever, the 20th Century Ltd., making the water level route from NYC to Chicago in just 16 hours.  

At its best, Buffalo Central looked something like this planned restoration:

images-1.jpeg

Well, that's pretty cool, right?  And what could go wrong?  In 1929?

Anyhoo, in 1979 Amtrak abandons the station, just as it does the great stations all over the country to save money and because of our inability to make incredibly small technological adjustments in rail, power, etc. 

Instead, Amtrak starts building what "foamers"—train enthusiasts, so nicknamed by the Amtrak staff that despises them and depends on them for their jobs—call "Amshaks," lousy little stations closer to downtown.  

Even though the roof actually caves in at the Buffalo Amshak in 2016, still nobody will shell out for reviving the Central Terminal, which continues to rot away.

800px-Buffalo_Central_Terminal_20_8c35b162-5056-a348-3a6d324b1fc83c0c.jpg


Hey, don't laugh.  In our own city we tore down maybe the greatest train station ever built nearly 60 years ago, and have yet to build anything beyond a nice tax break for the Dolans.

There HAVE been thoughts of maybe restoring/making Buffalo's over into a popular array of shops, businesses, museums, and even a commuter train station, just as the burghers of Cincinnati—

CMC rotunda_@photogdslavey.jpg


and Cleveland—

the-terminal-tower-residences-cleveland-oh-be-among-the-first-to-live-in-clevelands.jpg


—managed in their burgs.  But no can do.  Due to various reasons having to do with how government works in New York State and our general, technological regression as a people, some 15 years of restoration work have succeeded mainly in bringing back the station's clock:

Unknown-2.jpeg


But hey:  unlike with the Yankees, all is NOT lost.  

Buffalo has managed to hold various public celebrations and festivals out there, including the 2007 Dyngus Day festival.

What IS Dyngus Day? I hear you ask.  

Well, according to wikipedia, Smigus-dyngus is a traditional Polish holiday, celebrated on Easter Monday:  "The festival is traditionally celebrated by boys throwing water over girls they like and spanking them with pussy willows."

Which, coincidentally, is sort of what happened to the Yanks in Buffalo this week.
 
Happy Smigus-dyngus!

500px-Dyngus_postcard.jpg

5 comments:

  1. Ah...but on Tuesday the next day...the women throw buckets of water on the men...don't know if they throw the actual buckets too...sort of a revenge day...I know what you're thinking Hoss...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Buffalo...the shining metropolis not far from Niagara Falls, home to Tesla's great AC generators.

    Buffalo...where O.J. frolicked and ran into NFL history before running through airports for Hertz (a campaign my old boss came up with, possibly the worst of his great career).

    Buffalo...it was Polish once, and young.

    Buffalo...the mini-Detroit, the abandoned colossus with the Lake Effect.

    Buffalo...the endpoint of the great Erie Canal, that made New York the Empire State.

    Buffalo...what a dump.

    ReplyDelete

  3. As a train guy, I only wish the links to the pictures in the article were working....

    ReplyDelete
  4. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR HARD EARNED FUNDS TO THE WRONG PEOPLE?
    MEET THE PROFESSIONAL HACKERS FOR HIRE TODAY.
    📁 Hiring a professional hacker has been one of the world's most technical valued navigating information.
    Regarding:
    •Recovery Of Lost Funds,
    •Mobile Phone Hack.(Catching A Cheating Spouse).
    •Credit Score Upgrade,
    •HACK.
    leroysteckler@gmail.com
    High prolific information and Priviledges comes rare as it's been understood that what people do not see, they will never know. The affirmative ability to convey a profitable information Systematically is the majoy factor to success.
    Welcome to the Global KOS hacking agency where every request on hacking related issues are fixed within a short period of time.
    When you wonder “which hacking company should I hire, the first aspect that should concern you is Sincerity. Secondly, Rapid response. Clearly, you want to embark for services that povides swift response, With our astonishing Hackers, you will be glad to find out that our services Implies precision and action.
    This post is definitely for those who are willing to turn their lives around for the better, either financial-wise, relationship-wise or businesses.
    The manual Operation of this hackers is to potentially deploy a distinguished hacking techniques to penetrating computers.
    If your shoe fits in any of the services below, you will be assigned to a designated professional hacker who is systematically known for operating on a dark web V-link protocol.
    Providing value added services to clients as a hacker has been our sustaining goal.
    Are you faced with cyber challenges like
    💰Recovery of lost funds:✅(BITCOIN INVESTMENTS, BINARY OPTIONS, LOAN AND TRADING FOREX WITH FORGERY BROKERS.) 🖥️I would try my possible best to shortly explain this in particular.
    This shocking study points to one harsh reality we all face today. It saddens our mind when client expresses annoyance or dissatisfaction of unethical behaviours of scammers. We have striven to make tenacious efforts to help those who are victims of this flees get off their traumatic feeling of loss. The cyber security technique used to retrieving back the victims stolen funds is the application of a diverse intercall XX breacher software enables you track the data location of a scammer. Extracting every informations on the con database. Every information required by the Global KOS would be used to tracking every transaction, time and location of the scammer. This is acheived using the systematic courier tracking base method•
    However, there are secret cyber infiltrators called brokers and doom. The particular system used by this scammers permeates them to manupulate targets digital trading system or monetary fund based accounts. Strictly using a dark web rob to diverting successful trades into a negative outcome. This process bends to thier advantage while investors results to losing massive amount of money. An act of gaining access to an organization or databased system to cause damages. We have worked so hard to ensure our services gives you a 100% trading success to recover all your losses•
    📲 HACKING A MOBILE PHONE:.✅ Do you think you are being cheated on? Curious to know what your lover is up to online? This type of hack helps you track every movement of your cheater as we are bent on helping you gain full remote access into the cheater's mobile phone using a Trojan breach cracking system to penetrate their social media platforms like Facebook, whatsapp, snapchat etc.
    The company is large enough to provide comprehensive range of services such as•
    • Email hacks📲
    • Hacking of websites.📲
    • Uber free payment hacks.📲
    Our strength is based on the ability to help fix cyber problems by bringing together active cyber hacking professionals in the GlobalkOS to work with.
    Contact:
    ✉️Email: theglobalkos@gmail.com
    Leroysteckler@gmail.com
    ®Global KOS™
    2020.

    ReplyDelete

  5. I really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
    God bless you
    I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.

    ReplyDelete

Members of the blog can comment. To receive an e-mailed invitation, write to johnandsuzyn@gmail.com. And check spam if it doesn't show up. (Google account required.)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.