Memories of the past, the Old Town of Eaton Museum, and thoughts of the Holidays!

Words cannot describe the 20 plus years we (I) have spent down here trying to keep the history of Eaton alive. Time mixed with memories that are both good and bad. 

The original group of Neighbors for Historic Eaton formed out of the group that put on the Bicentennial for the Hamlet of Eaton… a thing that took great co-operation and time…and much effort.

The result of this is the Old Town of Eaton Museum and the Friends of the Old Town of Eaton Museum, a group now left in great part to new faces as the old ones have slipped from our grasp one by one.  How sad to look back, and yet how wonderful to have these memories.

I myself am not from Eaton or Madison County, and yet by that right alone was able to solicit help that bore no old grudge nor hard feelings… as do occur in small country towns.  I started by writing weekly updates on an old word processor loaned to me by Mike Curtis.  These articles were published in the Mid-York Weekly at a time when we had to take them to the paper’s office to get them put into print…a world of difference from  in today’s world of internet sending of both prose and pictures for publication.

We also… with the help of Bob Betz and myself put up the first webpage for Southern Madison County History called Our Old Town.  I did all the writing for that and took the pictures on old used computers and a cheap camera.  That progressed to covering 20 pus historic sites for Madison and Southern Onondaga County as Fall Festival History Weekend.

We have worked hard, and we need to continue in that vain to support the Eaton Museum.  This years pie sales were a great success and this years “Eaton Day” on Memorial Day Monday was an awesome opportunity to turn the whole Town of Eaton out to celebrate it vast history.

As Christmas closes in on us, although a season of hope and joy for many, let us remember the past struggles with happiness for their success…and let us remember with much sadness those who have passed on to become a piece of Eaton’s vast history.

This year coming …will bring us closer to the future…but with sad eyes we tend to in the holiday season to look back…This weeks passing of Ginny Chilson did that for me. 

***Please take the time to view the video below… put sound on… and revisit the Bicentennial in 1995 and view many of our neighbors, relations, and friends who have passed on! 

9-11, November 22, 1963, Warmth of the Sun, Beach Boys, hope for the future!

This week has flown by… the whole summer has actually.  Summer is exiting and sitting here in the dark tonight I have been remembering the past.  It is true that certain dates on a calendar seem to hint of past history and act as a reminder of times gone by… dates like today’s 9-11.  This date in our time takes us back to an awful tragedy in NYC and for me the death of a history friend.

On this day in time I always remember the death of Ken Morse, a great friend, and a major help in founding our little Old Town Museum.  Other dates that bring to mind history include for us “that are older”... November 22…the day Camelot died in Dallas, with the slaying of JFK.

Interestingly, this date comes to my mind each time I hear the Beach Boys song “Warmth of the Sun”… a song they wrote on November 21, 1963 and last night for some reason I began humming it.

Mike Love who co-wrote it with Brian Wilson said that on learning of JFK’s death the next morning they were saddened and finished this song they were working on… A song that was unlike their others for it was in a key that had never been used on their recordings before, a haunting melody. Love wrote in a blog…”Being the eternal optimist, as hard as that kind of loss is, the one good that comes from it is having had the experience of being in love in the first place. That experience became "The Warmth of the Sun".

Here is a link to the blog...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-love/jfk-warmth-of-the-sun_b_4318208.html

“Warmth of the Sun” has always been my favorite Beach Boy cut and the harmony and its tone reflect a certain sadness and yet a hope for a possible love after loosing someone you love. 

The words “the love of my life, left me one day”… still evokes a melancholy meaning to me. In this case they wrote it as a love that walked away… but now as we are older it denotes someone we loved that died... someone we fear can never be replaced.

Ironically…as sad as it sounded then, and as sad and dark as their feeling were that day, they decided they needed to give it something more uplifting … hope… that God given gift that allows us all to face the future. “But I have the Warmth of the Sun, within me tonight”… Yes they decided they needed to add a warmer feeling…and today to me it denotes a “hope for finding love in the future”.

I first heard this song in the War Memorial sitting in the front row in the middle of a concert they did early in their career, many years ago now… 50 to be exact.  I loved it then, went home and learned to play it on the guitar…it is still my favorite…and as Fall in its dazzling colors and warm days with chilly nights approaches… I guess I am reminded of “The Warmth of the Sun”.

*Listen to the song below… Enjoy! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Memories, elderberry time...friends in the country and Elderberry PIE!

A favorite haunt.. hunting for berries on Jack Ass Hill

Sometimes memories can make you laugh until you cry….and this week I had such a memory. I thought about the end of summer and all the good times we had in the past including the yearly hut for “Elderberries”!

The first time I came in contact with elderberries was the second summer I lived in Eaton. I heard a knock on my back door, and there stood my neighbor Brownie. In her hand were two huge bags of elderberries. She had come over to inquire if I knew how to make elderberry wine.

Seems it was a banner year for elderberries, and she and my neighbor Nellie could remember their mothers making the wine for special occasions. I guess I looked like the guru of this type of knowledge.

Actually I did have winemaking supplies, and we did make Elderberry Wine! It was a banner year for elderberries, and I remember thinking it was a banner year for new friends too!

One time after Nellie’s death when Betty, Nellie’s daughter-in-law, lived in Nellie’s old house, Pauline came over to the house and said that Deb, a friend, had told her she could go elderberrying on her property.  She claimed  that there were loads of elderberry bushes up there and she didn’t pick them.

Brownie and Betty wanted to know if I knew where her house and the patch of bushes were. Well I did, and I also knew why the woman didn’t pick them, but we will get to that.

That morning I picked the ladies up, and off to the road the woman lived on. I took them down the slope to where the berry bushes were, and sure enough there was a mess of berries. We picked and picked and picked. Finally we had filled all our bags full..... My eyes of course were full of elderberry pies to come.

As were leaving Brownie said, “Why, that woman leaving all these berries here like this—it’s a crying shame.” Betty said, "It's a SIN.... why doesn’t she pick them!”

I paused for effect and casually replied, “Because of all the snakes that live in this patch of bushes.”

With that, old Betty kicked up her heals and beat a path for the car at double speed.

Betty later claimed that if she had seen one of those wiggly creatures she would have made a path out of the patch the size of a two-lane highway!

P S.... I didn’t tell them that the kids told the woman that there were snakes there just to scare her! 

The video.....last fall one of Brownie's granddaughters came to visit me and we went to old Jack Ass hill to relive those great days of summer...good friends..neighbors...laughter and " Elderberry Time."   

Enjoy a trip back!