Ilion High School - Class of 1945

Ilion Sentinel - August 16, 1945

Cars Choke Main Street As Band Plays Concert

Article 21

Source pdf file is here Illion NY Sentinel 1944-1946 (1) - 0624.pdf on fultonhistory.com

Ilion Sentinel - Cars Choke Main Street As Band Plays Concert - Ilion High's Class of 1945

Cars Choke Main Street As Band Plays Concert

Even before the seven o'clock broadcast Tuesday evening announcing the Jap surrender was quite completed Ilionites began boiling out of their homes and going places. Any place - it didn't matter where they were going. Mostly they went downtown on Main Street between West and Otsego.

Minutes before the fire whistle sounded and the air raid wardens had finished exploding those bombs they had left over from the days of air raid alarms, the din of automobile horns drowned them out. Auxiliary police were out and doing a good job of directing traffic which was a steady parade of on Otsego and Main Streets.

Crowds of boys and girls in their teens were roaming around scattering excelsior, torn paper and colored ribbon streamers. Their elders were milling in small groups or just standing on the curbs watching the cars go by. Several trucks filled with teen-agers and younger were adding to the hysterical clamor. Nobody knew exactly what he expected to see but he was there to see it.

A little later in the evening the band came down from Russell Park where they had given, a band concert, and played in'Memorial Park then adjourned to West street for a block dance.

Early in the evening a series of small explosions which sounded like pre-war firecrackers went off, in front of the Manufacturers bank, and everybody within hearing distance looked at everybody else and said, good gracious, where did he get those?

There were some drunks out, many and no rowdyism - this was no night for fighting.

Spontaneous neighborhood celebrations broke out in various sections of the village and one on West Hill mushroomed into a full sized parade led by William Rix, North Fourth Avenue, who started praying the drums in his own back yard. He was joined by neighbors and friends including Miss Mary English, who played a slide trombone, and Mrs. Thomas Morris, mother of five sons in service, who played an accordion.

Victory celebration was a different matter up in the Ilion telephone exchange. There the regular operators aided by all the extras they could call in were very nearly swamped. Part of the time they were standing up because they could work faster that way and for more than an hour the call board was a mass of blinking lights. As one spectator remarked, 1 didn't know that hands could work so fast and i accurately. For a considerable time they could get no Cat through to New York as the city just wasn't answering.

The seven o'clock show at the movies opened to a houseful of empty seats, although a few people dropped in later.

Churches were open during the evening and a special thanksgiving service was held in St. Augustine's with the Rev. L. R. Benson in charge.

At a fairly early hour most of the celebrants were off the streets, but torn papers showed where they had been and then came the final phase of Tuesday's festivities. Joe Anna and his men were out and Wednesday morning found Ilion streets as clean as they had left them Tuesday night.

Created and maintained by Aileen Carney Sweeney - Class of 1974