Christmas 1969: Schodack NY

Thinking deep into the past recently at my daughters Christmas party I went back about 40 yrs to 1969. Vietnam war still raged though my brother was back from that conflict as of September of that year. He still carries burdens from that war. Midterm exams done.....the end of my high school yrs were within sight....trust me ....I was thrilled with that prospect. My sports era well over bad knee and back in place for my future. Played soccer in a senior league many yrs later but for only a short time. But generally speaking....I was happy to be done with sports and being on a bench. I was not a great athlete and frankly sick and tired of hearing crap about how it prepared you for that unknown future. So here I was at my final High School Christmas vacation. One more winter slog to go...one more spring and group of final exams. I guess I am saying I was in a place of peace within. I was generally happy or perhaps just worn down from the era of the 60's. My perception was that people were in a hurry to get over that decade....the sooner the better. From counter culture to the moon landing , mass protest,civil rights , a rising tide of consevative politics made for a blur that Christmas. People were kind of looking over the horizon......I was not. I was out with friends for we were now mobil going to places like the Areodrome on Central Avenue to Albany and movies ect. By the way , thank you Elizabeth . Did I mention beer....the legal drinking age was 18 and I was 18 so Schlitz and I there as well. My buds Ron & John were close by. We all knew there were dark clouds on the horizon , war , college aging parents but there was that taste of new freedom and a promise of something more. Oh and by the way , I had my first glass of serious wine not the Ripple or Boones farm variety. A glass of Pinot Noir , at my aunts house for Christmas Dinner. I felt so adult for a moment. I took a long walk in the woods with Liz. The 60's may be close to over but I finally felt I was beginning. For Christmas day a watch......socks and underwear....always got that from my Mother....an aftershave popular at the time called Hai Karate and various other clothes ect,. New Years was fun and something we had heard about from our science teacher Unix Time started. My friends and I were probably way to serious at times that yr with Vietnam and the like hanging over our lives but that may have been my favorite Christmas not so much for what was but might be ahead. Not so much about me but what a young heart might be beyond the then me.

Opening of Castleton Thruway Bridge Schodack NY

It was, according to records May 26,1959 that was the official opening of the Castleton Thruway Bridge. This bridge was at the time considered one of the crown jewels of the NYS Thruway System. Deemed a big enough event to have an opening ceremony with the then Governor Nelson Rockefeller in attendance. I have to admit that though a small kid I was in attendance. So this blog is from personal memory. The thruway was blocked off for this section of highway. A grandstand had been built on the side of the highway heading west. The weather a sunny warm day. A beautiful day for a bridge opening. The crowd was appx 250+ in attendance. This was a huge day for the small town of Schodack N.Y. The local high school Maple Hill High School , sent their band. Many politians were in attendance including the then Town Supervisor Lewis Hudson who gave the introductory speech for the Governor. After three or four speeches the ribbon cutting occurred. It was a blue ribbon stretched accross the entire 4 lanes of the highway. The news cameras snapped pictures , the ribbon was cut. Later people took pieces of the ribbon for a personal memory. Rockefeller dove into the crowd and shook hands with the invited guests etc. He still had Presidential ambitions at that point in his career so he was really pressing the flesh. Often saying "hi how are ya." After a period of about 20 minutes the NYS Troopers began to line up cars for exit. Everyone got to drive over the bridge that day in a loop ending on the eastern lane . The last toll free ride for the bridge. Later on that day the span was open to regular thruway users. Many years later I asked Lewis Hudson why the bridge was named for the village Castleton which is a few miles from the bridge. He said he was told that it was felt people would not be able to pronounce Schodack so hence the current name.

Schodack NY Fitzgerald Bros Ale

I returned for a brief time to a previous dig. A former private farmers landfill near Graw Rd area of the Town of Schodack NY 12165 appx zip code area. The only item of interest from my 3 hr dig was an old bottle / can opener. Heavily rusted and unreadable in found state. After the use of Coke and a rust remover I was able to get enough rust and grunge off the bottle opener to get a reading of the engraved label. It read Fitzgerald Beer and Ale Troy NY. Fitzgerald's was one of the many local beer breweries common in America in the 19th and 20th Century that often disappeared after the 40's. From what I have been told they made 2 or 3 different brews. One of which was a Half & Half. This was a half beer , half ale combination. Before the advent of the pop top can and the easy off bottle cap these were a common kitchen tool. They opened your bottles or cut holes in the top of a can with the triangle shaped end.

Hooverville : Schodack / Castleton NY 12033

Parts of 2008 and time this yr 2009 have been spent looking for a remnant of the dark days of the Great Depression , a Hooverville. This was essentially an encampment of unemployed people and families in the especially early yrs of The Depression named for President Hoover. They were essentially homeless living off the land or occasional found work. I have been told in interviews done in college that the Town of Schodack near Castleton had a small one as well. The location was somewhere north of Castleton near the Hudson River south of the city of Rennsslear NY. near the railway tracks. I searched primarily the Papscanee Island Preserve. With metal detector and digging equipment in hand I went over a large area off the paths used by hikers. After much searching , finding bottle caps , old broken beer bottles , an old car or boat steering wheel , old railroad ties , railroad spikes all bent up , one metal dog collar and part of an old row boat oar assembly , I can honestly say I did not find any definitive evidence of the Hooverville. I did find outside of the Schodack Town Limits a couple of very rusted nails and old insulators used for electrical fences about 1 foot down. The Hoovervilles of this era were temporary and made to be able to be vacated on a moments notice. These were not popular places. They were frowned upon as few municipalities welcomed these people. Often raided by police from what I have been told. I believe some churches in the area attempted to help , The St. Paul's Methodist Church then located on Main Street in Castleton sent some food on a couple of occasions I gleaned from interviews. There were perhaps as many as 75 people there at perhaps it's height of population. The jobless and homeless often went through the town looking for work in that era. Route 9J was a fairly heavily used road from the greater NY area in those days. Rt 9&20 on the eastern side of the town often saw people walking or hitchiking through looking for work The then Superintendant of Highways Lewis Hudson would often allow people to sleep in the Town Highway Garage in the early 30's so they would not have to sleep outside in the open weather. Not a popular decision among some of the voters but there were few social services available then in that era. So after many muddy visits especially this year I can only use the couple of old interviews as evidence of it's existance. Long gone , temporary shelter from economic distress , a port in a 20th Century storm.

Ocean to Ice Age In My Hometown Schodack NY

Sometimes in my rambling attempts at archaeology & history I sometimes forget my lessons in geology. My lessons in the truly ancient. My hometown south of Albany has been covered by oceans & by glaciers as have been many places. The rounded pebbles I find 3 ft down on a dig glacier made , ravines cut not simply by water erosion but by ancient forces through millions of uncounted yrs. Once an ocean bottom now random hills and dells. Spring floods flowed over the Hudson River Valley for thousands of yrs unabated by man. Places such as Newcomb NY fed our area parts of themselves. Leftovers from slow moving events over millions of yrs. Molding discarding , shaping , leveling.............and it continues......................

Hilltop Tavern: Town of Schodack NY 12033

Periodically I have stopped by Rt. 9 close to the Albany entrance ramp to I90 in the Town of Schodack NY. About one half mile from the Columbia County border. It was in this vicinity that once stood an old Road House type bar. The Hilltop Tavern located at the crest of an incline on Rt9. Minor digging and search with a metal detector has only turned up a couple of old rusty nails. The Hilltop was bought by the State of New York on EminentDomain when the final leg of the I90 interchange was being constructed for the entrance ramp. No basement remnants were found and I presume the entire structure was raised during ramp construction. This occurred circa early 1970's. This was an old style local bar on a once fairly busy highway. The original owner I remember was named Katie. A women from the bootleg era it was often said she kept her money in jewels for safety as did not trust banks. Later on in the 60's the Finn family took it over. The business was expanded to sell Pizza. A very good pizza for the time and place. Today , there is a very different beer market than that era. Many local beers such as Fitzgeralds of Troy , NY or Doblers beer brewed in Albany were bought out or went out of business. The national chains such as Schlitz or Budweiser had taken over. The most local beer was Genny brewed in Central NY. As we can observe with local brew pubs and small breweries such as the Brooklyn brewery in NYC times have seemed to have gone back to earlier years. Hilltop served only Genny beer and Genny Cream Ale. I believe no hard alcohol was there. Their claim to fame was their beer cooloing system. Refrigeration in the basement and then the beer was pumped up stairs by a hand suction pump at the bar. The beer would go through a series of coils that were packed in ice. This created a truly ice cold beer which gave the rather cheap Gennesse truly a richer taste. The best I ever drank. The bar also had a bowling machine people used and I have been told an occasional poker game was held on the premises. Generally speaking this was a locals bar. Local rules. Women were not encouraged to sit at the bar there was a table where the ladies would sit. Local people with names like Golden , Kunicki , Van Deusan etc frequented the place. It felt in a sense like home for the locals. You talked, discussed issues from the Vietnam War to how the lack of rain was affecting crops. Everyone knew your name. This rather ramshackle looking bar in need of a paint job was a major connecting point for South Schodack area people. Part of the fabric of small town life , that has slipped away as we sped up the pace of life in this country.

Town of Schodack NY Natural Gas Exploration

The exploration for natural gas in the United States in the last 30 yrs has been a fairly successful enterprise. The southern tier of NY has found several fields of gas now under use. In the late 1970's the southern area of Schodack had an exploratory well in the Graw Road area. The general area of the 12123 zip code. This area is near major highways and the NYS Thruway. It is also rather isolated on a small secondary road. It is barely a two car road. So , there was easy access of equipment by highway with relative isolation. The spot of the drilling is now overgrown , judged mainly by the newness of growth as compaired to the surrounding area. The woodlot is in back of the 26-28 Graw Rd area. Apparently , it was not a successful exploration as nothing came of it some 30 plus yrs later.

Graw Rd Stream Revisited

In my last blog I have described How I have been finding stream pebbles in the Graw Road area of Schodack N.Y. The zip area somewhat in the 12123 region. Further research and discussion with people in the area has informed me of a stream that was activeuntill appx the mid 1960's. It ran through the farms and hills of that area. Graw Rd as a consequence was often in a washed out condition. In he 1920's the then Supt. of Highways Lewis Hudson built a culvert across Graw Rd to channel the stream into the near by wet land. This was done at appx 28 Graw Rd. The stream ran as an all year stream with the Spring the heavest time of water supply. It was a reliable enough source of water that a wooden Barrel was sunk into the ground next to the road and was used to water teams of horses. Farmers used horse or ox power well into the 1940's and even early 1950's. The Town would on a regular basis rent horse teams from local farmers to use in the building of bridges or do road grading on the then numerous dirt roads. This watering area was used by local farmers and road crews atleast into the 1940's. The stream finally dried up in appx 1960's. There was a deep 5 yr drought in the early 60's. Many water sources dried up or were used more extensively. The stream dried up as well as the wet land which has been taken oven by woodland. It never returned. The barrel eventually collapsed or was removed. I believe, however, that on my most recent visit I located the original placement across from 28 Graw Rd.

Ancient Stream Beds in Schodack NY Area

On some of my past digs in the southern Rensselaer County area I have come across a couple of places with what appears to be of the smooth stream bed variety stones. Such is the case recently on Graw Road area. Even though this area has been farmed and developed over the last two and one half centuries and many of the rocks removed for stone walls or disposal. I have unearthed several oval smooth smaller rocks that appear to be the kind one finds along steam beds or rivers. Even from heights there is not a decernable indentation of stream bed activity that I can detect. There was at the end of the last glacier period appx 13,000 to 14,000 yrs ago many streams created and faltered. The slope of the Hudson River Valley would tend to pull streams in an east to west flow from the eastern side of the valley. Perhaps a stream or 2 may have been formed from springs reaching the surface that have ceased to flow. Don't know. I hope in the future to explore this area with time and permission to a fuller extent.

Spring Valley Dairy:South Schodack N.Y.

In a recent blog I wrote about local soda companies in the Schodack/Castleton N.Y. area. From my digs last summer I also uncover a couple of broken milk bottles. The writing in both quart bottles was seriously worn. But with magnification and careful cleaning I could ascertain the words South Schodack and the name Spring and the letters Va. Quite recently I came across a complete bottle. It was from the Spring Valley Dairy of South Schodack New York. There were also telephone numbers - PE2-7420 and PE2-7597. On the other side of the bottle reads Drink Chocolate Milk with a picture of a young lady in period 40's or 50's clothing on a picnic blanket reading a book and having lunch. So some additional research has followed. The Spring Valley Dairy was owned and operated by the Swartz Family. A family still in the Schodack area. There was a time when milk was delivered to ones home by milk men early in the morning. Up untill circa 1965 this was how the majority residence in many towns and cities got their milk. Most homes had a milk box on their porch or steps. Your bill was left weekly and money was left in the box for the milk man. There were atleast 4 companies working in Schodack area. Golden Farms and Peters Dairy were two examples. The telephone numbers are representive of the Pershing exchange. Telephones were much more localized back then and the first 2 letters put you into your local district. The exchange system ended by the late 50's early 60's so I judge the bottles to probably be of 1950's vintage. Perhaps 1940's but from the picture of the young lady I would judge 50's era bottle.

Schodack: First Radio Reciever in Town

What does one do when one of your hobbies is archaeology and it's the dead of winter. The ground is frozen and damn it is cold up north. Well there are always musty basements or researching past pieces from previous digs or on this one occasion a dining room in 06037. A recent visit to my aunt & uncle home uncovered an interesting piece from media past. It was a punch bowl from around circa 1910 and not an expensive one , however , it could be classified as a family keepsake. Let me explain. The time is circa March April 1921. Two major radio stations had been established in the east. KDKA Pittsburg & WGY Schenectady. Radio was in it's infancy. There were not really what we would call a real radio on the market. What you had was a crystal radio. Aroll of wire attached to a crystal that you would drag a small wire across the crystal & pick up radio signal & hear the station over earphones. The set was attached to a long wire antenna located outside of your building or home. People had apparently been building these sets for years. The 2 industrial giants of the day Westinghouse & General Electric in sharp competition began to experiment with radio for the general public. Malcolm Harris of South Schodack Rd may have the been the first or one of the first to build a set and begin listening in Schodack. The Harris family which eventually had 13 kids lived in a house about a quarter of a mile from the Columbia County line. Malcomb , sent for the kit from a catalog with extra earnings from construction work. So , radio , news , farm reports , sports. The radio supplied it all without electicity because the radio used power from the actual radio signal itself. The farm itself as almost all farms of that era did not yet have electical power. With alot of kids and neighbors wishing to hear this new wonder the earphones were difficult. The solution from an article in the newspaper. You placed the earphones in a large bowl , like a punch bowl such as my Aunts heirloom. Then by leaning in close the sound would be amplified as in a megaphone. It was simple but somewhat effective. This was that punchbowl. A memory from radio's past and a quick story related to me on a family visit.

Fall Out Shelter : Cold War Underworld

There is a current series on History Channel entitled Cities of the Underworld. In that series they explore what is under the surface of cities and country side. Last week as I traveled south on Columbia County Route 66 I was going to have my smaller version. I had managed an invitation to see a piece of the cold war. A home fallout shelter. My uncle was a carpenter , he had done work on the house several yrs ago. Through a mutual acquaintance I had after a number of months arranged an invitation to see this piece of history. I promised to keep the exact location private. The owners would rather not have their names and location mentioned in a blog. So be it. So about 11:00 am on a cold Thursday morning in February I arrived at my hosts home in Dutchess County. The owner greeted me as he came out of his garage , a large 4 car brick structure. We walked around the back of the garage to a small shed type building built into a dirt mound. At the back of the shed was a heavy wooden door with a tin front. the door led to wooden stairs. The owner said that the wooden stairs replaced the older stone steps. 5 steps down , left turn. A common bedroom door which my guide unlocked. This door was put in several yrs ago and was not part of the original construction. Down 3 steps to a large wooden platform. There before me was the final door. I will call it a bulk head door , metal door with a turning wheel in the center. It looked like the doors you see in submarine movies from WWII. With some small effort I turned the wheel , opened the door with a slight creekiness. switched on the light , now placed on the outside of the door. Two steps down and I was there. Not quite in the Cold War. It was as I had been previously told no longer an active shelter as the original intention. The ceiling was high....about 9 ft 6 inches tall. Poured concrete floor , drain in the center of the floor. It looked essentually like a basement of that era with a higher ceiling. It was now a combination wine cellar , store room etc. The one remaining left over from the original was a small safe that was open empty and unlocked. It was not a combination safe but was opened by a large brass type key. The current owner said that some valuables and articles such as birth certificates was stored there. Also stored there was a couple of hand guns and ammo. The safe not longer could be locked or once locked might not be able to reopen through age and disuse. In the south east corner was an old wire stapled to the ceiling beam that went into the ceiling. Below was what I realized from my old radio days was a grounding rod. I believe this is where the radio was to be used....the wire was an antenna of some sorts and the grounding rod would help protect the radio from elecrical discharge from lightening etc. The rod was imbedded in the concrete floor. The owner then directed my attention to the center of the western wall. He moved a wooden crate so I could get a good look at the floor. I turned on my flashlight. There imbedded in the concrete of the floor by 2 bolts and the concrete itself was the most curious item. A traditional Masonic Symbol with the G for God in the center. The previous owner was a Freemason. Exactly why he placed this apparently brass disc of about 4 inches in diameter in that location is not known. I speculate it was perhaps a symbol of belief or of fondness for his brotherhood. A statement of this is what I am for an uncertain future if this was ever needed for the original purpose. I discovered my host was himself at one time a freemason. The tour contained 2 more items. A new vent had been placed in the wall into the heated garage to keep the temp more stable for the wine storage. It was about 18 degrees outside but was rather comfortable with my coat on itside the shelter. The other patch was for the old filtered ventilation system. The vent lead to a small shaft to the surface where I was told there was a cone shaped outlet. Air was pumped down by a hand crank air pump. With my tour over I was invited to lunch after a quick tour of his garage and a look at his 1968 mercedes automobile that belonged to his father. The lunch was healthy , low fat cream cheese with sprouts on whole wheat bread his wife made up for us. The coffee on a cold day was good as well. Over lunch we discussed some of the background history. The house was bought by Susan's grandfather in the 1950's. He had been a lawyer and served in WWII as a legal liason to the British Forces stationed in London. He had the shelter built between May - July of 1960. He felt that Richard Nixon might not be elected President and feared the worse if John F. Kennedy was elected. He felt he could travel from his NYC home to his summer/ weekend gitaway home if war was imminate. His wife I was told was not a big fan this project. Without Eisenhower who he had known the world was likely to go to hell in a hand basket. The house was later sold after his death in 1970. The current owners bought it back in the family in the early nineties as a semi retirement , summer gitaway home. After they bought the property , they took the then empty space converted it to storage and a place for family wine storage. John also told me of a nearby outhouse built in the same time period made of brick. I guess they could not be sure of plumbing facilities after the bomb. After lunch I said my thank you's and goodby. As I traveled back towards home that afternoon I came to a more full understanding of archeology. It helps us uncover past culture , knowledge , community etc. It also often looks at fear , the walls to keep an enemy or other culture out. Roads built to ease the transportation of armies. The fear in the darkest of days of the cold war was real. Duck and cover drills in schools , fear of the Communist menace as it was often called drove people in some cases underground. In this new century we we still have our fears and our politics sometimes reflect that fear. In reality few home shelters were built. The population seemed to slowly ease into a nervous acceptance or change of official policy towards other nations. Now the shelter from past has become the wine cellar of the present. So it goes.

schodack local beverage companies

On my dig into local farmers landfills last summer I found several pieces of broken bottle glass. Putting together the pieces I discovered an interesting couple of local beverages bottles. Koppins & Blenwell Beverages. Also found local bottle caps from these beverages. Grape , cola , vichy water as examples. The labels were both embossed on bottles , not paper labels. Many of the bottles were a dark green color. Both soda containers had the name Castleton NY on them one Blenwell bottle had the 12033 zip code which I surmise showed this company survived longer. In interviewing a couple of older residents I uncovered the name George Andrews who was a major distributor and home deliver of these beverages. His store room was in back of his home on Scott Avenue in 12033. The Blenwell bottle say that the vichy is made with pure spring water. The small plant for Blenwell was located I believe on winding Schodack Valley Road. That makes sense because there are several springs in that part of the town which feeds the Moorenda Kill. These and other local labels in many parts of country have disappeared. The major companies like Coke overwhelmed the small marketers and tastes changed as well. Tastes such as Black Cherry and Birch Beer lost to mass appeal. Non returnable bottles may have also have been a factor which show up above the line where these bottles were dug.

Sunday Night

The quiet of a Sunday night. Every night seems to have it's own psychology....it's own feel. I was out to mail a couple of letters yesterday evening which was a Sunday. Cold , overcast....and that anticipation of ....whatever. Church , heavy television viewing , the highest of the week. The preparation for the week ahead. Organized people get set , mothers check wardrobes , football players hit the line , and an almost numbing quiet settles over the country. I believe this to somewhat international...even in relatively secular England ....subdued Sunday. Readers of this blog may very well know what I mean....from Castleton NY to Berlin Ct . Ocala Fl to London GB that almost quiet it's to quiet feel. Perhaps it is a free floating anxiety. Many yrs ago I dealt with a professional couple......both medical doctors. Their young son , had school anxiety issues. She once referred to Sunday evening & night as the quiet scream. The week ahead overwhelmed . The mother would eventually take 14 months off from practice to deal with the problems. By the way the story ends well but Sunday retains a certain dread that has been hard for them to shake. Sunday evening is the sound of distant guns.....the rattle of early morning coffee cups for reluctant workers , the background hiss of modern industrial radiation being turned up.

You Are # 6 The Prisoner Returns

Last night I met an employee from AMC Cable Network. Bridget and I discussed the new show coming out The Prisoner. Actually it is a remake from the 1960's cult classic of the same name. Oddly the day my new Grandson was born was the day Patrick McGoohan the creator and actor in the series died. He was 80. The show was what we then called a summer replacement show on the CBS television network. It ran for 2 or 3 summers so different it was. Only 17 episodes were made. It concerned a man placed in a place called The Village. A prison for former intelligence workers. The essential theme was we will take care of you here , you must give up your individuality and fork over the INFORMATION they wanted. Everyone was assigned a number , Mcgoohan's character was assigned #6. This series was a revolution in a revolutionary time. Even to a kid from the small town of Schodack NY. 12033. My main friends Ron and John were fans as well. We would joke about how our High School , Maple Hill was similar. You know, it was. We were all assigned a number, our academic group number. It was more of an expectation number. The higher your group the better your chance at success or so was thought by the powers that be back then. I can't tell you how oppressive a place Maple Hill High School was back then. Many students from that era I have talked to have remarked as much. What you were was molded. Some might say warped. Numbers. So when this new version comes on cable I may get flashbacks to a time and place that forced a rebellion. It really did effect me in my later career as I was never as happy a jailor for omrdd in NYS service as they would have perferred. To end with a quote from that original series: I will not be pushed , filed , stamped , indexed , briefed , debriefed or numbered.....I am a free man. Now I feel so much better having said this.

Robert Jeffrey Hudson

Yesterday my first Grandchild was born. 9 pounds 10 ounces , 20 and one half inches long. As a person that often looks at the past I find myself wondering of his future. If I can do anything for him it is to show him his ancestors. You have a family that goes back to the 1600's in this country. We have come from people who were everything from farmers to mechanics , ministers , people in the political world , solders , sailors , mailmen , teachers , carpenters , car salesmen , human service people , rebels , moms & dads. Your family survived war , illness , poverty , depressions , crop ruining weather , bad schools , early death and a lack of dreams. Yet they survived to bring you forth into this new world. Many were happy........and if they could would wish you well. You come from strong stock.......as do many. Take that Robert and run with it........don't look back to often. Forward.

Past Presidents Passing

Last week all remaining Presidents of the USA gathered together in the Oval Office for the photo op with our soon to be new President B. Obama. They wished him well & success. It triggered a memory from the past. Circa Early January 1972. Cold with no snow in my Hometown of Castleton/Schodack N.Y.. Pres. Johnson had died on the heels of President Truman. There was a custom back then at the State Capitol for a twenty one gun salute at sundown for I believe five days following the death of a President. The cannons located on the front lawn of the Capitol Bld. boomed out their tribute. The sound traveled down the hudson river valley and could be heard in Castleton. I heard the echoing sound rumble as I got out of my car to visit home for the weekend. I was a college student at the time. I must say I had my differences with LBJ when he was the President but now I felt an odd passing of time. My uncle came out of the house and commented that Nixon stood alone.......we had no X Presidents left. Watching the X's on TV this week was oddly comforting. I like having some former Presidents around. Perhaps it was that cold January day......my discomfort over being pinned down on career decisions.....or just to this end we all must come. Whatever the reason is....... it is best not to go through our political discourse in isolation. Goes for life as well.