Deb and Tim Smith visit with Red Wings GM Dan Mason. Photo by Rochester Democrat & Chronicle senior sportswriter Sal Maiorana
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
In conjunction with the publishing earlier this year of our 7th book, Royally Regaling Greater Rochester ~ Taking Stock of the ROC, we’ve embarked upon a related charity project that has generated some interesting stories in and of itself. The goal of the project is to gift Lollipop Farm and Channel 21 with copies of this local Rochester history project, signed by as many contributors as possible, for their springtime 2026 fundraising auctions.
As of the present, we’re up to 50 signatures with the very first being the fine folks at Garth Fagan Dance in the city. Our advice on that one… if you go to see them their disclosure that “parking is an absolute nightmare” should be taken very seriously! We have stories in the book from all over the Greater Rochester area, so the autograph project is a very gradual process.
At one point last month we had tickets for a concert in Buffalo so we decided to plot a course of travel that had us zigzagging through Western New York looking to obtain signatures from officials at various towns which we wrote about in the book. We ended up with an itinerary that charted as follows… Mendonà Rochesterà LeRoyà Bataviaà Medinaà Lyndonvilleà North Tonawandaà Mendon.
This mutually symbiotic concept provides the opportunity for us to meet, in person, some of the many people who had assisted us in our research on the book. The charity component involves the concept that we are taking two copies of the book and having them autographed by as many people as possible who are actually in the book.
So our sojourn to Buffalo begins with a stop at the 35th annual Oatka Festival in LeRoy. Probably the most unique storyline in picturesque LeRoy is the Jell-O Museum which, once you’ve found it on Main Street, will afford you the opportunity to, “follow the JELL-O brick road, past the Victorian garden, to the JELL-O Gallery and see where it all began!”
Back in the car we recalibrate the GPS for Main Street Batavia and the Holland Land Office Museum. There we are meeting Executive Director Ryan Duffy and Batavia Town Supervisor Greg Post. Greg comes off as the kind of guy you’d love to run into at a party! The self-deprecating sense of humor kicks off immediately as he introduces himself as the “Stupid-visor” of Batavia. We sense he’s told this joke before.
He says, “I’m getting ready to celebrate my 25th anniversary,” then adds, “my second one.” We look a bit puzzled, so he goes on to explain, “I divorced my first wife after 25 years and just told my second wife she has 5 years left on her contract.” We feel quite sure she’s towing the line at this point. Five years flies when you’re having fun!
Greg, who emits kind of a Santa Claus vibe, extends an effervescent invitation to come back to Batavia when we have more time to spend. His guarantee of Red Carpet treatment makes this an invitation that will be hard to refuse.
Then a very interesting and ironic Mendon-Honeoye Falls connection kicks in. Greg shares that his niece Amanda Balling is running for Mendon Town Justice and boy is he a proud uncle. We are left with directions to make sure Amanda knows that she is strongly endorsed by Uncle Greg and we are to convey his greetings when we meet her.
Subsequent communications with Amanda confirm our take on her uncle. She told us that, “My uncle Greg shared the story of meeting with you when I saw him on Sunday. I immediately recognized your names as the contributors to the Sentinel. He sure is a character, but our family would be lost without him, he is such a wealth of knowledge and can tell stories for hours. I find it so funny that you made the Santa connection as well. All of our little kids think they get to see Santa all year round!”
At that point he pulls out a $100 bill and buys four copies of our book which leads us into a double irony. A former Mendon Town Justice Sheldon Boyce, as fate would have it, has his own component in the book. Sheldon’s chapter features the highlights of his live call-in-for-free-legal-advice radio show. As Sheldon puts it, there’s nothing like live radio!
The next stop on the excursion is at the home of Todd Bensley, the Village Historian of Medina, NY. We are able to add his signature to the charity project and also take in a sight that can only be seen at one place in New York State. Culvert Road is the featured attraction in Medina and they don’t call it Culvert Road for nothin’. The culvert in question is the only place in the state where a road actually passes underneath the Erie Canal.
As we continue to zigzag our way from Mendon to North Tonawanda the next stop on the tour is Lyndonville, the home of the four Shoe Trees. There used to be five but one blew down in a 2009 windstorm. If you were wondering where our boots are walking on this one, here’s the story…
A row of four ash trees at the corner of Foss and Lakeshore Roads is full of hundreds of shoes and locals have been keeping the trees stocked for years. Some of the footwear is nailed to the bark on the trunks of the trees. Others hang from branches, some on the ends of limbs high in the air. (The shoe donors have great arms to reach these spots.) For nearly three decades folks have been flinging sneakers, slippers, boots, and every other type of footwear imaginable into the trees.
So there’s a sampling of what writing a local history book can lead to… It made for one adventurous afternoon of touring Western New York. And as you might have guessed, some other interesting developments have occurred.
Our baseball adventure at Innovative Field turned out to be an interesting one when a problem with the tarp forced the cancellation of a game on a day when the weather was 80 degrees and sunny. We had scheduled a meeting during a Red Wings’ game with both Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle writer Sal Maiorana.
It was the game in which Rochester was competing against the Syracuse Mets in the Thruway rivalry which has become billed as the “Duel of the Dishes”. In this game both teams don special caps and jerseys and the game pits the Rochester Plates against the Syracuse Salt Potatoes for the largest trophy in professional sports.
The premise plays upon the signature food of each city. Rochester has become nationally known as the home of the Garbage Plate, which was created at Nick Tahou’s, while Syracuse boasts the salt potato as its own by virtue of the fact that the dish was first brought to a boil by Irish immigrants working the potato fields in Syracuse in the late 1800’s.
Because of the unusual circumstances under which the game had been postponed, the majority of ticket holders were unaware that the game would not be played and didn’t find out until they had parked and walked up to the ticket gate.
The unexpected silver lining result of that scenario was that we got to enjoy a private session with Dan Mason and Sal Maiorana in Dan’s office. From there Dan happens to have a front row view of that main ticket gate and it was definitely an unusual scenario to watch hundreds of surprised fans approaching the gate only to turn around and walk back to their cars after hearing the disappointing news.
We’re sure to have some additional highlights transpire as we continue our book-signing tour. We promise to keep you posted.
