Thanksgiving, the failed pie sale...and memories in deep purple!

After  much hard work this week,  still recovering from a concussion, I was able to carry on and the three great helpers and a few friends managed to make the pies necessary for our annual fund raiser the "Thanksgiving Pie & Bake Sale". It was a bust!  

Thank you to those who did come... but the depression of seeing all those pies on the table was too much.  Tons of pies..and then what to do.

It brought me to memories of all those that put them on with me before...now dead...missing in action as my father would say.  Some great times were had then, friends and neighbors coming in with goodies, talking to everyone and catching up with plans for Thanksgiving.   Children of these old timers did stop to help the museum and say hi, and even give words of encouragement...but...

So we will have to be open today, on Sunday, and try to find homes for the pies and to tell more stories of the old days and memories of the Town's passed inhabitants.. (my friends)... and maybe me...a relic that needs to be retired.

Whatever it is, the snow, the terrible fires out west, whatever... 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 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 in 2018, or to war, or lovers left alone….hum along and sing along…..

Ghost Stories & the Thanksgiving Pie Sale!

The Old Town of Eaton Museum is closed for the winter season...with a special "thank you" to those who turned out..I enjoyed seeing you.  Some fun visitors included relatives of the Morse-Motts.  Thank you Dan it was fun to talk and listen to the stories, Sad the way the old stone house is in such limbo!

Our members are gearing up for our Annual Pie & Bake Sale set for Saturday, the 18th of November from 10 am until 2 pm.  We hope you will come done and join us,,,pick up a pie or bake good to have on hand for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The sale will be held at the Old Auction Barn next to the US Post Office on Rt. 26 in Eaton.  Thank You... Jim Monahan for the use of the neat little historic building. Lots of parking!

This year you can get update information from the Facebook page Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  Visit the page and friend us, leave a message, and look forward to a wonderful upcoming holiday!

I thought I would include a history story from my new book that with other gifts will be available on the Pie Sale Day!

As Halloween approaches stories of Ghosts, Ghouls, and Goblins make their way into the spotlight.  Eaton like any other old community has its share of ghoulish tales.  One such tale involves the Historic Eaton Cemetery.

Many years ago people were laid to rest with their jewelry and favorite personal belongings, this coupled with the common method of filling wealthy people’s teeth with gold made grave robbery a profitable thing.  A story of one such robbery is famous in the Eaton Hamlet.

Years ago a very famous Eaton minister was laid to rest in a well-attended service in the Eaton Cemetery.  This minister was renowned for his preaching and his assortment of gold teeth.  A few days after the service the Sutcliffe family of Landon Road went to call on the nearby Cary Road.  To the horror of the visitors and the chagrin of the host the Sutcliffe’s arrived and found hanging on the old woodshed a body that was being stripped of its flesh.  On a second look at the skull they saw a set of familiar shiny gold teeth.

The grave robbers explained that they were paid $100 dollars by a college in Syracuse for the skeleton, which they said was used by students to study anatomy.  The gold teeth were just a bonus!

The cagey thieves removed the bodies from the coffins by digging down, breaking the wooden lid, inserting a hook, and then pulling it out!

After that, to thwart their efforts, the equally cagey Eaton Cemetery sextant hauled huge slabs of stone off of a local farm and placed it over each coffin at burial, to prevent robbery using this method.

So truthfully, when writing stories about the Eaton Cemetery, I should say...“most likely buried in the Historic Eaton Cemetery.”  

Be sure to support our sale that the ladies work so hard at each year.