Memorial Day Monday - Museums 25th Anniversary

Opening Day 25 years ago

Memorial Day Monday marks opening of the Old Town of Eaton Museum for this year. The day will highlight a special display in the yellow Museum Building next to the museum.  

The display will be compliments of Doug Chilson and his wife Diane who collect interesting items from Eaton’s past. The Chilsons are founding members of the Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum and did a display for an event 3 years ago that was a success.

The main Eaton Museum Building will be open with its extensive Eaton history and there will be books on Eaton’s history for sale by Backstreet Mary.  

The group is kicking off the little museums 25th year.  The museum started in the Wood House on Brooklyn Street for the Bicentennial in 1995, moving to the ancient stone building on River Road in 1998.

The stone museum building is one of the few early rubble buildings built just after the 1790’s.  The building was an early tannery building which became the shoemakers house.  The Sprague family kept it in the family for much of its life of service to the community.  The museum has a special display that honors Mr. Sprague who was a shoemaker, no doubt his father was as well since we have records dating to 1802 for William Sprague who was also a shoemaker..

So come out to Historic Eaton and visit for the day, enjoy the parade and history display on Rt. 26 and enjoy the rural quiet of Eaton. The hours are from 9 am until 1 pm.

Memorial Day the Weather and Our Lady of Fatima rolled into one!

This week of unbelievable turmoil politically, has been made even drearier by the rain and unusual cold in Eaton. 

Our little group of workers have continued toward our goal of getting things together for our upcoming 22^nd “Eaton Day” on Memorial Day Monday.  The old Auction Barn on Front Street (Rt.26) next to the Post Office is being painted for the occasion, (thanks for its use Jim Monahan) and the bakers, seamstresses, and even this writer has been getting things together.

In the midst of this I picked up the calendar and realized that today was May 13^th..2017.  Now to some this is just another day, but to me from good old Solvay… it brought back a small vision of the church I attended as a child… The basement the church had a “Grotto” of rocks dedicated to Mary…who I always believed was Our Lady of Fatima.

The story was one I knew from childhood, by coincidence or by reality, the Secrets of Fatima seemed more relevant to me today, than any time in the past especially with news of this

week..

The story started on a hillside in Portugal in 1917 where three children tending sheep belonging to their family were greeted one day by an apparition… many call it the “Angel of Fatima”. The Angel appeared to them to foretell that the Blessed Mary would appears to them on a specific date...  which the children said she did.

The children were at one point examined by the authorities that of course thought they were making it up or seeing things.  As their stories of the apparitions and the Lady words that they were told reached the public… it caused 20,000 people to take a pilgrimage to the hillside in Fatima on the day specified for the “Lady” to appear again.

That day after a dark stormy interval, an unearthly sun danced in the sky above them, the sphere looked like a disc in rainbow colors as it zigzagged across the sky… miracle cures occurred some claimed.

Two of the children who became resolute followers died very young during the outbreak of the horrible flu epidemic of 1918.  One… Lucia, the eldest lived, to be 95 and wrote books on what she saw and what the Blessed Lady told her.

This year Pope Francis was in Fatima for its 100-year celebration and to declare the children Saints.  The trip was much like the other Popes before him had done in different capacities. Of interest…Pope John Paul who was shot on a May 13^th brought the bullet to Fatima, and placed it in the crown of the statue of the “Lady”… he believed Mary had saved his life.

The three secrets told to the children were predictions of what awaited the world unless it changed.  Written down by the third child, Lucia, who became a nun, the third secret continued to be sealed and tucked away from the World until opened by Pope John Paul.

The first two were predictions of the coming if World War II, noting the rise of Fascism even predicting Kristallnacht—the "Night of Broken Glass.  in Austria as the start.

I personally believe the vision of “Hell” given to the children was the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan… scenes that still haunt the world today, with their visuals as the vision of “Hell”..…

The third secret or prediction…released on 2000 I copied verbatim here….”

 [Russia] will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated' (13-VII-1917)”….

The Lady basically said we needed to stop our hatred... our persecution of religions... to act as one and to come together..for there to be peace on earth.... Much to think about in today’s world huh!

On  a lighter note…. please come out to our event on May 29^th, Memorial Day Monday…. celebrate community and take a pie or gift home as a way to support history and goodwill among neighbors and men.

Memorial Day & Eaton Day and the PIES are almost here!

Rain, Rain, Go away… come again any day but Memorial Day Monday also known as Eaton Day!  

The usual Eaton Day (Memorial Day Monday) plans are firming up and some new ideas are going to be put together.

The “Day” that runs from 9 am until 3 pm is an opportunity for everyone to grab a pie or a gift or arummage sale item to bring home.  This year we are adding more items to our “Museum Gift Shop” and more books to our vast new local history book selections.

A special addition to the fun this year will be a historic reproduction tin sale, used book sale and of course, our “what not” museum rummage sale.  These little additions should prove to be fun to look through and any purchases will of course go to helping the museum fund.

This spring the Friends of the Old Town of the Old Town of Eaton Museum became an official 501 charity, this will allow the group to look for grants and also allow museum supporters to donate tax-deductible money to the cause. Few people realize the cost of keeping a little museum going!

This year’s Pie Sale will feature a number of locally grown fruits and a good variety of local favorites made by our local pie bakers and volunteers.  So come out get a pie and enjoy a special piece of our local history.  The Museum’s cookbooks that are for sale, list a number of local recipes handed down from local bakers of the past.

If you have relatives or friends from the area and need a Christmas Present…come down and pick something up in our gift area. We even have gifts for your cats and a coloring book for kids!!  This year we will have our 2018 Historic Eaton Calendar available early.. it comes with an envelope that allows you to mail it out.

Our new Friends of the Old Town Museum Facebook and Internet pages will be up shortly and you can learn more on everything there! Right now you can go to our Old Town of Museum Facebook page!  For information or to make a donation you can email backstreetmary@yahoo.com.

Mother's Day, Memorial Day Monday, White Roses & Pope Francis!

Its been a busy week here in Eaton as we are finalizing plans for our upcoming “History Day” on Memorial Day Monday…now called Eaton Day.  As an added side to the event we have decided to hold a “White Elephant” type of sale with new and used items in an attempt to bolster the sales on the day that raises money for the upkeep of the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  We decided to call it a “White Sale" of sorts.

With that in my mind, this morning while looking through Facebook, I saw a white rose picture put up by someone to honor their mother on “Mother’s Day!”  It reminded me of a very interesting history story on Pope Francis. 

Pope Francis has a special devotion to Saint Therese who said that when she got to heaven she would shower white rose petals down as a sign of her intercession when prayed to.  So the white rose is a sign to him, a sign from heaven.

When he was in Buenos Aries he had to solve a number of important problems and says he would pray to Saint Therese. “Whenever I have a problem,” Bergoglio explained  “I ask the saint not to solve it, but to take it into her hands and to help me accept it and I almost always receive a white rose as a sign.”

Saint Therese... who is one of the most popular of the Saints of the Catholic Church, is often referred to as the “Little Flower.” Her approach to having a spiritual life was both simple and practical.  Pope Pius the X called her "the greatest saint of modern times”.

The Pope’s belief in the saint is pulled from a quote of hers before her untimely death at the age of 24, Saint Therese said,  “A soul inflamed with love can not remain inactive...  If only you knew what I plan to do when I’m in heaven … I will spend my days in heaven by doing good on earth.”  

Most recently it was reported that before World Youth Day the Pope prayed to her for her intercession…. and that randomly, while taking a walk through the Vatican garden he was handed a white rose by a gardener working there.  Pope Francs took this rose to be a sign that she was interceding on his behalf... especially since in 1927 Pope Pius the XI had made Saint Therese the Patroness of the Gardens of Vatican City.

So in 2014 to honor both the Saint and Pope Francis, Croix Dominique and Jacques Ranchon, horticulturists from Bourg-Argenal in the Loire region, developed the new white rose and asked permission to name it Pope Francis.  They also donated 50 of the plants to the Vatican garden, one bloom of which was given to the Pope in his walk.

Isn’t history fun! 

Be sure to join us for our special White Elephant Sale on Memorial Day Monday and for all you Mother’s….Happy Mother’s Day!

Here is a the story of the Saint!

The Museum..an Event...History...and TROUBLE!

This has been another wild week of weather...unbelievable it was 33 this morning!!!  I am still trying to get caught up for our big museum opening.  Sure hope Monday is nice…

After fighting with my poor old PC I gave up and transferred the documentary I was working on to the Apple and from there it blossomed into more trouble. 

Everyone thinks that the country is quiet…ha!  I had to try and get up at 2 in the morning to record the voice over for the documentary on Leland and believe me every so often I still heard a truck rumble through town and of course, into my voice over.  Then my little video camera took a turn for the worse…rule 1 - never take your video camera on to Fourth Lake in a Kayak.   But all and all.. the documentary is together without a studio (which I need terribly) and without using my large camera in a space that is too small and…fighting the fact that sound travels for miles…and farther.

I then called the group together to set up the canopy frame that had been twisted into a pretzel by the storm that dropped a tree on the museum and had punched a hole in the roof.  It took three people exerting all their weight to bend that thing into submission.  Then the poles that hold it up had to be shortened to eliminate the bent ends….Now you say flimsy metal right?  Wrong!  It is 11/2 inch steel pipe.  Luckily I have a plumber on Front Street who came over and in a few minutes eliminated the problem.

Then on to the big problem….it is 33 degrees outside and they are predicting cold nights like this for the weekend!  So tomorrow it is get propane and set it up to heat building in the morning of our big “Event”!

Humorously… the person who is supposed to bring the ice for the event emailed that maybe she should bring hot coffee and tea!  Also  said, “Who do you think is going to want “Ice cream”!  Hmm….

Lastly but more importantly, since the tree also took out my electric service for the second time and I have not reconnected because of money…the generator won’t start!  So as a sidelight….generator repair 101!

Well there is one thing for certain …we are going to celebrate history!  And even though the historian who has only had 3 hours of sleep a night for two weeks is sleepy…the Revolutionary re-enactors will wake her up when their cannon fires the first volley of “Remembrance” behind the museum on Monday!

So come out and help us celebrate a Museum Opening, Revolutionary War Veteran’s and one of our founding father’s here in Eaton…Col. William Leland whose sword will be in the museum to liven things up!

Eaton’s Old Town Museum is located on River Road in Eaton, NY.  For more information visit www.historystarproductions.com.