LIVERPOOL — Nostalgia never fails. And a hint of humor helps.
Our June 30 column – you know you’ve lived in Liverpool too long if – generated significant positive feedback.
Among the appreciative emails we received was one from former Salina Town Supervisor Dick “Ace” Ward, a longtime Liverpool resident who now lives in the town of Clay.
“Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane,” Ace wrote. “It brought back memories of mine of Smitty’s horse stable, Gulgert’s feed mill etc.
“My all-time favorite,” Ward remembered, “was of the railroad crossing at Heid’s where the traffic control consisted of Al Pope hopping out of his shack and holding up a sign that said, ‘STOP!’”
Pig’s knuckles
Another superannuated Liverpudlian who asked to remain anonymous emailed several recollections. One was of “Weigand’s watering hole at the southwestern corner of First and Vine streets where Nichol’s Liquor Store is now located. They had one of the few table shuffleboards in Syracuse.”
I wonder if that nameless reader recalls my uncle, Big John Egloff, who tended bar at Weigand’s until his untimely death in 1964 at age 32.
The anonymous man continued, “Then there was Coach Denny at Liverpool High.
Then there was the jar of pickled pig’s knuckles halfway on the bar at Tarbe’s Grill.”
Even thought that tavern was operated by my father and his brothers, I never had much of a hankerin’ for pig’s knuckles. I did, however, heartily enjoy the pickled eggs!
Sports shorts
Fleet-footed outfielder Tim Locastro – a Syracuse native who was raised in Auburn and played intercollegiate baseball at Ithaca College – became a member of the New York Yankees on July 1 after being traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The 28-year-old Locastro is considered one of the fastest baserunners in the game. On April 10, this year he broke the major league record for number of stolen bases to start a career without being caught (28), a record previously held by Tim Raines.
Good for Locastro, and good for the Bronx Bombers who can use all the help they can get!
Meanwhile the Syracuse Crunch, the local American Hockey League affiliate, can share the glory of the 2021 Stanley Cup championship won by the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Twenty of the Lightning skaters, including MVP goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, honed their championship chops at the local War Memorial Arena.
Guitars Galore!
An abbreviated concert series dubbed Guitars Galore kicks off at Johnson Park, at 7 p.m. Monday, July 19, with veteran six-stringer Mark Hoffmann and the Hoffmann Family Band playing classic rock and R&B.
Hoffmann – a Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall of Famer – was a founding member of Jam Factory, a soul sextet that recorded for Epic Records a half-century ago.
Jam Factory owed its existence to Syracuse University student Howie Wyeth, a pianist and drummer who went on to work with Bob Dylan. Hoffmann was the band’s guitarist and songwriter. Its horn players were Steve Marcone and Earl Ford, bassist Kent DeFelice, keyboardist Gene McCormick and drummer Joe English who later joined Paul McCartney and Wings.
Jam Factory’s best-known Epic LP was “Sittin’ in the Trap” (1970), while its single, Hoffmann’s “Talk Is Cheap,” hit the airwaves the following year.
Monday’s concert is presented by the Liverpool Is The Place Committee. Three more Guitars Galore concerts will complete the season. Fingerpicker Loren Barrigar and his son, L.J., will take the stage at Johnson Park on Monday, July 26.
Last word
“White soul groups are not uncommon, but the Jam Factory is a good one, as this Syracuse unit cooks together with a hardworking energy rather than big city polish.”
–Billboard magazine, June 6, 1970.
Contact the columnist at [email protected].
