My Sources , My Family , History

With the passing of William F. Buckley this week , a political figure of some weight in the latter half of the 20th Century I began to cast my mind back to my own family. Buckley made it to 82yrs. My family is both blessed and cursed in many cases with long {sometimes to long] lives. My last greatgreat aunt died at age 102 in 1991 for instance. My father was wellinto his 50's when I was born {surprise}. Hence some of my sources. Old relatives , family reunions etc. My aunt , I spoke of, husband was a pilot in WW1. 72nd Aero Sq. James grave is marked as such near Chatham. Those were some stories I remember as a kid listening to. So you see my sources are from the oral traditions as well as others. Probably my interest in history and archeology stem from those discussions as a youth and later.
My career choices took me in other directions but I always return to what was. As a matter of fact I have come to believe we carry history with us. In the nature vs nurture arguement our ancient relations have their say , in both our gene pools and in the history they were part of. So I sit here pecking away , putting down some small find or thought. Adding a small side street to some tiny town in this gene pool of the web.

The 40yr Political Itch-1928 ,1968 , 2008

It has occured to me in the last few weeks as I have been researching an incident in Castleton N.Y. 12033 and the Town of Schodack N.Y. that there seems to be a possible pattern in political upheaval or atleast prelude to change. 1928 had Gov Alfred E. Smith running for President on the Democratic ticket. What made this so landscape changing was the fact he was of the Catholic faith. This was the cause for great debate in America at the time....high controversy.
The year 1968 was a year of great social unrest. M.L.King and Robert Kennedy Senator from N.Y.....were both assasasintion within a short time of each other. Major rioting were touched off by MLK's assasasination. Rioting in Paris and other cities of France caused the eventual ending of the DeGaule Adm. Political riots at the Demcratic Convention in Chigago were a national T.V. shock. Richard M. Nixon was elected in part as a direct result of those disturbances.
On Christmas Eve of that year we first circumnavigated the Moon....the argued high point of that yr.
As of this year 2008 we are seeing signs that this is another year of possibly great change in the socio-political winds. The year is still young but I do see this forty yr itch as a prelude to the beginning of some new national adventure. Perhaps a prophetic year is ahead. Smith was defeated but many political historians view Smith as a prelude to Kennedy and a more liberalizing of former taboo ideas such as an expansion of who could be serious contenders in the political theater. 1968 was the rise of the Conservative Republican Party we see today in 2008.Time will of course tell as they say. ......2008?????

The old Castleton High School rebuilt

I was passing through Castleton on the way to 11001. The elementary school is closed because of a major reconstruction project , new buildings being built. The newer section built to house the early grades has been torn down. Only the old high school section is being left up to remodel.
Even the old play ground and tennis courts are ripped up. A fence surrounds the construction site. To some visitors to this site this means out with the old less functional in with some new brand of form follows function. To the others perhaps a post-mortem might be in order.
I have a small piece of post 1950 brick from the newer section , I grabbed before it was carted off. Back when this brick was laid there was what was to be called THE BABY BOOM. We needed space...kids were cropping up in the United States and England at a fast pace. This post WWII population expansion was overcrowding schools and adding burden to a variety of infrastructures in our country. Castleton High School was too small , the smaller district schools were overcrowded. As a temporary fix church basements were being rented out to use as temporary classrooms. So land was purchased on Maple Hill Rd. A new high school was built and the last graduating class of Castleton High School was 1955. The new MHHS opened the next year. Later years a new middle schoolwould be built.
Once a young man named Henry Peters played football on the field in the late 1930's and early 1940's they called the Sand Pit because of the fill used to make the field. Hard to grow grass on.
High school students filed into the Gym on December 8th 1941 to hear President Roosevelt address Congress about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A very somber day....but not as somber as the graduation ceremony of 1941 as the teenagers of that graduation would soon be off to war. A young Pat Riley of basketball playing and coaching fame would shoot baskets at the outdoor court while visiting relatives in Castleton. People would learn tennis on it's courts and one day play soccer on the old football field {sand pit}. Education occured....lives lived. Teachers with names like Ward and Ruth Steele and Henninger roamed the hallways. Latin was taught as a regular language along with French at C.H.S..
Then I look across Scott Avenue.....a small house...........site of Castleton's and Schodack's only triple murder. A mother and 2 daughters killed by their father. The father sent away to a criminally insane locked unit when he was found incapable of standing trial. I would later meet this man in a professional capacity for a moment , sent chills down my spine and I try and forget it. Some things are not so easily forgotten.
And let me say.....just to keep an honest record....this was no Disney Land of Education....some were cast off pushed to quit others just ignored. For some others , however , it was a place to grow , discover friends and go on from there.