A Return to WNY

I was born in Jamestown, New York and then, when I was only 1 year old, my family moved to Lansing, a village outside of Ithaca. This is where I grew up until I was 13 years old. I attended public school in Lansing, New York and, in summers, swam and played in Cayuga Lake.

My father taught at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture before opening his own meat shop, named Scherer’s Old World Sausage Shop. There were two locations: one in Lansing and the other in downtown Ithaca.

My dad built the meat shop himself, with the help of some very unskilled labor!

Once in full operation, my dad had sides of beef delivered to the meat shop and then he’d cut them into cuts of beef. He was well known in the region for his high quality meats.

There was a lot of work to do, so every day after school and during the summers I and my siblings would walk up to the meat shop to “help”. Our walk up to the meat shop was more like a meandering but the way home was non-stop direct!

When we weren’t working as child laborers, we’d go to Stewart Park in Ithaca to play.

It was an idyllic time, growing up in beautiful upstate New York.