75°
TUCKAHOE, N.Y. -- Former Mayor Phil White remembers watching a movie at the theater that once occupied the space where the Wells Fargo Bank is now located in the Village.
"I was in the movie theater and Mr. Linhart stopped the movie," White said. "He came out and with glistening eyes announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and our nation was now at war. We all stood up and sang the Star Spangled Banner.
Former Tuckahoe resident Captain Edward Woodward, who became a Tuskegee Airman, learned about World War II watching newsreels in that same movie theater.
The two friends sat in Mayor Steve Ecklond's office Wednesday morning, along with Alice White, the former Mayor's wife of 63 years, and reminisced about the old days of Tuckahoe. Ecklond organized the impromptu get together before Woodward returns home to California later this week.
Woodward, 89, came home to Tuckahoe this week to donate one of his most prized possessions, a replica of the 8-foot Tuskegee Airman Statue that is located in a place of honor at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
In addition to attending the Main Street School, he worshipped at Shiloh Baptist Church on Marbledale Road, bowled at the bowling alley that was located at the corner of Underhill and Columbus avenues and met Tuckahoe native Leona F. Hill.
"I was talking to a friend and she came around the corner, I would say it was love at first sight," Woodward said.
The couple were married for 63 years until her passing in 2008.
The trio remembered getting treated for ailments at the Lawrence Hospital clinic for a fee of 50 cents and buying lemon ices for three cents.
"I remember coming down the hill every morning and stopping at Miss Anna's candy store before school," said Woodward, who attended elementary school in the building now occupied by village hall.
Both White and Woodward admitted to remembering that the principal's office used to be in the space where, ironically, the Tuckahoe Police Department is now located.
White and Woodward said that, although the many communities that were segregated in those days, Tuckahoe was not one of them.
"We all knew each other and lived peacefully," Woodward said. "I would say that Tuckahoe is home and I would say that above all I brought my statue home to Tuckahoe. It had to be here.
Do you remember Miss Anna's Candy store, the bowling alley or the movie theater in Tuckahoe? Let us know on Facebook.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Bronxville and receive free news updates.
