Published: June 06, 2009 11:47 pm      

HISTORICAL CENTER: A sweet lesson

History revisted at Strawberry Festival

Geraldine Coon Rademaker Reynolds, 97, brought her second-grade report card from 1919, Carol B. McIntosh had her Mary Gregory glass appraised and Glenn Gibson showed how ride a bike with a 51-inch front wheel.

Meanwhile, folks ate strawberry shortcake, took buggy rides and browsed as the band played at the History Center of Niagara County’s Strawberries & Antiques Festival on Saturday.

Reynolds, a long-time society member who helped set up the Royalton Historical Society in 1977, was given an award and a gift. She brought relatives, her grade school report cards and medals.

The Matt Coon Family came from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1637. In 1918, when Geraldine Coon was in second grade, she and her father got influenza, which was fatal to many people at that time. When she was sick, her grades dropped into the 70s, but six years later she won the Niagara County spelling championship. Ten years later, she was the valedictorian at Middleport High School.

Gerry watched the recent national spelling bee and said, “The words we had were not like they are today ... There’s no sense to them. We had practical words.”

She studied at Bryant & Stratton and worked at the Ellicott Square Building in Buffalo, Niagara Sprayer and the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease — now Roswell Park.

When her first husband, Carl Rademaker, died after 46 years of marriage, Geraldine moved to Lockport.

n Glenn Gibson of the League of American Wheelmen rode at the Niagara Street party on a 1884 bike with a front tire of 51-inch diameter. That’s about twice the height of today’s 26-inch wheel. His wife, Melinda Gibson, had a smaller bike, and Bob Glaser of Newfane had a 36-inch child’s bike which his grandchildren ride.

The bikes were made before chains existed, Gibson said. The bigger the front wheel, the faster a rider could go. The limit depended on the length of the rider’s legs. The little wheel is for stability. The spokes are handmade. The tires are solid rubber.

“My uncle and father found it in my grandfather’s barn when I was 5,” said Gibson, a native of New Hampshire. “I was tall enough to ride it when I was 14.”

Gibson, who lives in Lancaster, will take the bike on 10- to 12-mile cruises and has biked 100 miles a day.

• Folks brought collectibles of all kings for appraisal. McIntosh has been collecting Mary Gregory Glass for years.

“I wouldn’t part with any piece of mine, whatsoever,” she said. “I came here to ... give it (as a) donation.”

Her 1890s glass beauty spot patch was appraised at $500.