Sunday, September 29, 2013

Genesee Country Museum, Madison County History, and the country poet!



The fall in all of its colors has started to envelop Central New York and for fun my little "history circle" of history friends... took to the highway to take advantage of the Smithsonian Magazines "free day" at a museum.

The ride took us to scenic Mumford, NY and the Genesee Country Village.  The village is a living history museum on its own, that includes tons of historic houses, businesses and buildings that have been moved to the site and restored.  The village also contains and Art Museum and a Nature Center and I assure you you can not see it all in one day.


The barns and shops scream history and you can actually picture yourself walking around in the Disney movie Pollyanna.  The collection includes houses and buildings from the 1790's to the Victorian Age.... and has everything from farms to the local Post Office, all taken back to how they looked when they were built and used.

I so wish Madison County with all of its historic buildings in decay would realise the need for preservation and laws prohibiting the removal of historic structures that in the worst case are replaced by cheap trailers.

This week  also brought Madison County Historian Matt Urtz and hardworking Bruce Burke up to my historic building favorite... the Old Town of Eaton Museum.... to film "a historical insights" piece for the PAC 99 station in Oneida, that will air this week on Tuesday!

The museum building is the oldest stone building in the Town of Eaton, and it is a prime example of a structure that cannot be replaced..it is a rubble building..once mistakenly called a canal era limestone building.

This makes me think of a poem I did many years ago that I include here for your enjoyment. (I hope!)


Small Country Town


Small country town, your praises I sing!
Up with what is old!
Buried in your graveyard,
Now moss covered and fallen,
Is an age of birth,
Back to our nation’s beginning.

As I gaze at the town below,
I can see the old stage
With its old driver bent, riding away.
The town’s bustle now a mere hum,
Cars rolling by one by one.

Your people I salute, for they still persist,
As their past on the cemetery hill sits.
Families untouched by time, still close,
Though taken away by work,
And returning again at dusk.

I praise your farmer,
Who works from dawn to dark,
Full knowing his family heritage,
Has given way to progress,
Yet continues to plod along.

Hold on! For we need you as a nation!
Hold on for all that is good and fine!

To the preacher and his Sunday flock,
Whose church can only stay as a community faith.
To the small businessman who must make his word good,
For he faces each man day after day. 
Bless them Lord
And give them strength to continue,
So the country shall not want.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Deep Purple, Melancholy, 911, Suicide Prevention Day & Loneliness!


This week has been filled with sadness and nostalgia…memories.  I have been so depressed and laughingly said I should commit suicide on "Suicide Prevention Day"….but.. perhaps melancholy is probably the more correct term to use.

I have lost all of my family but a brother & family who all live a distance away, my friend of 37 years Chris, all of my relatives who were close…every friend I used to treasure here in old Eaton for the most part,  and it seems there is no way out of this downward spiral that I am on. 

Perhaps it was because of 911, thinking of those with loved ones in the service with thoughts of Syria and more war, or just seeing my cousin who lost his father - my Godfather, this past year …or because great friends from Syracuse some who I miss and some who came up to visit after they had lost their father & husband… but whatever it was.. I can’t seem to shake it.

Winter in all of its cold is creeping in on me and once again I am stuck in a place with few friends …but maybe it is just the times and the two floods of this year…

Maybe it’s the fact that I spent all of my money and energy to open a museum and put on a “Hometown Day” for Eaton that turned to disaster because of the thoughtless savagery of Peterboro, who could not even have their own parade but stole the once every three year parade that marked Eaton’s Old Hometown Day.

Whatever it is.. I could not stop singing or humming a very sad song…"Deep Purple"!

When the deep purple falls..
Over sleepy garden walls?…
And the stars begin to twinkle in the night..
In the mist of a memory ..
You wander on back to me..
Breathing my name with a sigh..

As of course, you would suspect …the song has an unbelievable history.  This piece of music was written originally as a piano piece written by pianist Peter DeRose, who broadcast, 1923 to 1939, with May Singhi as "The Sweethearts of the Air" on the NBC radio network.

"Deep Purple" was published in 1933 as a piano composition. The following year, Paul Whiteman had it scored for his suave "big band" orchestra that was "making a lady out of jazz" in Whiteman's phrase. "Deep Purple" became so popular in sheet music sales that Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1938 or 1939.
It was recorded so many times by different bands and sung by different singers that it is amazing.  On the hit charts it was a  number 1 song in 1939 with Larry Witman, it was also number 2 for Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, a number 9 for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, number14 on the charts for Bing Crosby, number 17 for Artie Shaw and His Orchestra….. all in 1939. 

By January 1949 Paul Weston and His Orchestra recorded it as well as Billy Ward and His Dominoes in September.  For us 60 year olds it became number 1 again for Nino Tempo and April Stevens in September 1963 and also a hit for Donny and Marie Osmond in December 1975.

It just seems to remind you of every love, every person you ever knew.. and how loneliness feels at night.

In the still of the night
Once again I hold you tight..
Though you're gone,
Your love lives on when moonlight beams
And as long as my heart will beat,
Sweet loved ones we'll always meet..
Here in my deep purple dreams…

To those who miss someone, friends who are departed,  or those who lost dear ones on 911, or to war, or lovers left alone….hum along and sing to Jackie Gleason and his Orchestra…..

 

Memories are all we have but they are worth more than money and are the only consolation for us who are lonely.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

A trip to Big Moose, South Otselic and the story of Grace Brown!


Well the summer is almost over.  After being stuck here in Eaton for another summer while recovering from the floods and other things… I decided to take a “busman’s” holiday to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. 

The factor moving me in this direction in was brought on by a history side trip to South Otselic. This small town with its national claim to fame… the Gladding Fishing Museum and Gladding Company Factory… is also the hometown of Grace Brown.

 
Marked with a historical marker its quaint cemetery is the place that Grace is buried, her story however, continues on and even sightings of her ghost bring visitors to Big Moose Lake where her lover Chester Gillette killed her in July of 1906.  Gillette had registered at one of its lodges the Covewood under an assumed name.

The Central New York area is so full of interesting history that one piece leads to another and another and this piece took me to the Big Moose Lake scene of the murder.  Though the day was cold the sun was high and the scenery was beautiful to say the least.  Big Moose and its lodges was once the summer retreat of the wealth and is today still a respite from the outside world.  The road in which winds through the wooded area is the only road in and out.

Covewood Lodge
As then it did then the train still runs out to Big Moose Station… but of course much less frequently than in the 1906 era when Gillette brought Grace Brown there, took her out in a boat, beat and drowned her.  Chester of course met his end in another spot in Central New York… the Auburn Prison in the electric chair, after being convicted of her murder. ( Also of his baby she was carrying.)

This story became the plot of the best selling novel the American Tragedy and numerous movies including "A Place in the Sun" with Elizabeth Taylot and Montgomery Clift.

Both places are worth a look-see and a great way to get out to the Adirondacks to enjoy the scenery or to visit the fishing spots of South Otselic.

The Goodsell Museum in Old Forge is another great “history spot” where much of the areas history is kept alive. For you fall foliage folks this is a great spot for you to see fall color at its best!

Here is the trailer for A Place in the Sun!