LIFE GOES ON

The Life and Times of the

Carl and Dorothy Cramer Children

Marshall Bruce (Bud)
Robert Alan (Bob)
Dorothy Lucille (Dot)
Patricia Ann (Pat)
Gordon Dean (Gordy)
Carol Joan (CJ to some people)

Carl Cramer Family Reunion
June 28, 2008
Home of Howard and Dorothy Parker
(The Former Cramer Family Homestead)
4680 Chestnut Road, South Wilson, NY

Marshall Bruce “Bud” Cramer
September 4, 1931 – January 20, 1979
47 years, 4 months, 18 days

With apologies to other family members who may not recall events or see things as I do, I will share my remembrances of Bud. These are things he told me and things gleaned from my own observations and memory. What I write here will not begin to tell it all. On September 4, 1931, in Bellwood, Pennsylvania, a bouncing baby boy was born to Carl and Dorothy Cramer, the first of their six children. This ten-pounder was named Marshall Bruce whereupon his Aunt Lucille said, “Humph, I don’t like Marshall and I don’t like Bruce. I’m going to call him Buddy”. So Buddy or Bud he became. His first seven years were spent in Pennsylvania and he had many happy and typical childhood memories of life there. Then it was on to Niagara Falls and city living. It was quite a contrast from quaint little Bellwood. Fortunately the next move was to East Wilson and he was back to country living with new friends, new school and the great outdoors. Bud had lots of interesting stories of life and growing up in that house on Chestnut Road.

Robert Alan Cramer

I was born on March 22 (my mother’s birthday), 1933 at Altoona, Pennsylvania. My early years were spent in Tyrone, PA and then at Roots Crossing, PA. It was at Roots Crossing that my father, Carl built a house, or should I say started to build a house. It was never completely finished while we lived there. Some of the walls only had sheet rock installed on one side. The upstairs did not have any sheet rock, and in the winter it was so cold that ice would freeze if you happened to take a glass of water up to the bed room. We didn’t have inside plumbing, only an outhouse some 100 yards from the house. The kitchen sink which was installed on a wood top had a small hand pump which had to be primed with a small amount of water every time you wanted to use it. The water for the pump came from a concrete cistern in the basement of the house. Drinking water came from a larger hand pump located on top of a hand dug well outside. The cistern water was collected from rain that was piped from the roof gutters.