Foodies, health, Mother Nature and the crazy world of today's medicine!

Foodies…yes ”Foodies”…they seem to be everywhere on line…health nuts…organic lovers…on and on.  Buzz words that link us to all types of websites, information, and resources.  I really wonder what happened to just plain healthy living .  I personally think we have become so obsessed with ourselves and our health that we are being distracted form what is important about life.

A drive anywhere will bring into view huge medical complexes that replace the poor family doctor who helped patients not only with their physical problems but many times gave advice on eating, life, and discussed mental health.

Gone are the Doc. Wests who simply dealt with the problems using common sense since he knew the families and their histories and did not need a long written explanation of genic linking health issues or personality traits.  We all want to live to be 100 to enable us to populate thousands of nursing homes waiting to die… in a setting…well a setting I do not want. The old Indians used to go out in a field… lay down and die…my thinking exactly!

Health tips on line have become big money and on one site you can learn that pepper is a stimulant and could raise your blood pressure, and then on a health cure page find out it will help keep your blood pressure in check…I wonder if any of it is real? Don’t eat eggs…do eat eggs… What?

Vitamins to make you healthy…yes instead of eating your vitamins at well-rounded meals like breakfast, lunch and dinner… you can pop a pill. Oh yes and by the by…the pharmaceutical industry.  Money, Money, Money and more MONEY… Really cancer has been around for years and genetics and the world that each and everyone of us lives, eats and breathes in has created the epidemic mind state of our feared illness called “Cancer!” Folks you can’t get out alive…and you are going to die of something...its called LIFE!

I was on a website that tickled me as it touted Nature as the drug you could take to cure your ills…the site called “Nature” said get outside and view nature…the cure for everything is stress related.  Humorously, I think “Work” and filling your life with love, faith and the beauty of nature and Nature’s God has cured more people of stress related illness than every pill in the world. But that of course is the view of a backward thinking person who thinks we should step back and look at our society for what it is…”commercial” and money oriented.

Memorial Day Monday to bring history to the "Forefront" with food, fun, raffles and PIES!

Well the special Eaton Day is coming together.  Though the parade will be in West Eaton you can follow the road down to Eaton and enjoy History Day.  The 3^rd Annual Pie Sale, gift sale and more will be in front of the old Auction Barn on Route 26 again.  

This year weather permitting Back Street Mary will be giving a tour of the Historic Eaton Cemetery and we will be having history lectures on front street and will show history videos….A great look back at the Bicentennial Celebration 20 years ago.

In that idea we are publishing a special book for the occasion with almost 50 pages of history, with new pictures and information… that... even some historians are unaware of.  The book will be in the same size and style as the old one and we are seeking donations to publish it in that format.

We sold the original Eaton History Book on History Day 20 years ago! Since then we have a museum full of history and tons of history books on subjects pertaining to Eaton.

This book covers not only Eaton but also the entire Town of Eaton… stories and pictures that are new to the museum and that represent the years after 1850.

To get this book printed we need a little help.  The advertising off the other book paid for it and we are hoping to do the same thing again.

So we will place a page or two with Friends of History and card size ads for businesses that are friends of history

For your name only $5 as a friend of history

For a Memorial $10 (For a deceased family member that was a part of the original group of Eatonite)

For your business card only $25

First printing will be of a hundred and of course they will continue to be printed and sold at the museum forever after or when our gift shop travels to Madison Hall.

So Help if you can…our printing deadline is the 18^th…Contact Cathy Nagle,, Barb Keough, Bob Betz, Steve or Judy Goodfriend or Pat Utter for details or you can always go to our web page at www.historystars.com and hit donated to book to do it with charge card or debit….it will go through PayPal.

How about a little Madison County Fair History..some fun facts!

Picture by Gwen Lacell

It is getting close to Fair time again and stories of the Madison County Fair abound among the older residents of rural Madison County’s southern hills. The once well-known fair, called in the 1930s and 40s the “ Biggest Little Fair in New York State” attracted crowds estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 people. Today our modern cars, fast-paced life-style and our yearn for all that’s electronic, has left our rural roots behind. America it seems has become beautiful color pictures and oh so much nostalgic talk to a generation of text messagers and computer “geeks." But all that said, it has been a joy to read through the stories of the Madison County Fair’s past glory.

In the early fairs wrestling was the fair’s highlight of physical endeavors and the wresters were well remembered including some that made it into the Professional Wrestlers Hall of Fame. One such lad was John Bonica who worked the fairs as a wrestler in the summer to pay his way through college. (Later he became a famous Doctor.)

The best remembered story about John is the one telling how he pulled the famous Professor George Keller out of a ring of wild cats and helped resuscitate him. The story account actually came from an article in the Saturday Evening Post of November 6th, 1943 recounted in the book “Brookfield’s Pride” written by the Brookfield High School class of 2007. The story is about legendary wild animal trainer Professor George Keller. Keller is remembered as the only trainer who was able to put many varieties of wild cats into a ring together.

Keller started his career as a young man growing up in a town like so many American towns that welcomed the circus every year. After seeing the wild animal act, George went home and got the children of his neighborhood to dress up like wild cats so he could tame them. This included clipping a few pet cats to look like the “real thing”. One year while he was at college, one of his old friend “buddies” sent him a wild young cat in a box and told him to train it, and he did!

Keller as part of his wild animal act always put his head into a lion’s mouth. The lion would close his mouth around Keller’s head with Keller’s neck between his fangs and on the count of ten, Keller would tap the lion’s mouth and the cat would open it. Well on this rain day in Brookfield the cat did not open his mouth. In the article title “I’m scared All of the Time,” Keller recounts waking up to the voices of Bonica and firemen who dragged him out of the ring and resuscitated him. Keller had suffocated, and when he went limp was drop like a dead mouse by the lion. Keller was considered dead for three minutes before being finally resuscitated by the firemen, regained his composure and called for the cat to come back into the cage and redid the stunt, this time the cat opened his mouth.

In the “Brookfield’s Pride” book, Hobie Morris recounts interviewing Keller who said he had to do this, or the lion would have thought him afraid, though Keller never performed that trick again.

For the 2014 Fair schedule, or more information on the Madison County Fair one of the oldest in America go to the Madison County Fair Facebook Page!