Christmas 1970: Be Careful What You Pretend To Be

Well , for me I had finished my first semester in college. As happens , the great return home. People returning for their first real back home time in months. I find this time an interesting psychological moment in ones life. One has transitioned away from home or high school , things have changed even though often to Mom & Dad your still their kid. You feel one must act differently now.....show your new self ....your new gestalt or whatever. And so it was with my hometown crowd. One of the things that fascinate me as a man that likes history and archaeology is how quickly our societies artifacts age in our American culture. I remember people discussing how our bedrooms looked different. Not quite the "cozy" place it once was. As for me I remember my desk I set at during my previous yrs at MHHS no longer appeared to fit like it did. Odd. I also noticed people I had known for yrs were assuming the new role. Kurt Vonnegut once said "Be careful what you pretend to be , because you are what you pretend to be". We were pretending to be a new something. Psychologist , teacher , architect , insurance salesman , sailor , minister.....college student etc etc. We had said our goodbyes & now attempting new hellos. We told our version of war stories , drank a few , talked about who is where and in some cases who had bombed out in their first version of freedom away from high school. I believe this is somewhat universal. As I write this , kids have returned home to a different world they must make a new reality of. OK enough of the shrink. Anyway I had returned to what was to be the final Christmas with my Father who would die the following September. The artifacts of my teen yrs began to be subtracted , new artifacts added. Some of what my wife calls my junk , personal & otherwise. Oh well. But I write this personal piece of history all most as a reminder of Vonnegut's quote because what I was pretending to be was in actuality what I was becoming. Perhaps this reminder of that long lost Christmas vacation should be chiseled into some of our public blds...................... PRETEND WELL.......................

From Darkness To Light To My Liberation: The Beatles

Today marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon being shot to death outside his apartment in NYC. So once again my mind tripped back to another era. Let me not dwell on the sadness but set a historical mood & moment. A historical centerpiece from which I believe much cultural & historical life was struck by a lightening in an early 60's soup which we still live with today. Kennedy was murdered November of 63. Much has been written of this time so for my purposes let me simply say a semi darkness fell over our nation. A sort of national mild to moderate political / social depression of sorts. Flags half staff , and so were many peoples emotions. Even as a preteen I felt it , relatives , teachers etc. A noticeable gloom. A national question perhaps was being asked "what were we"? Then a new music hit our conscious late that year and burst onto TV early the next yr. The Beatles hit our shores. For my generation at this time it was as if we just had taken in a full deep breath of cold fresh winter air. The The odd quirky early evening of our nation was for many atleast broken. My life for one was never the same for soon I as well as many began to have new perimeters in life. I myself now had the Beatles to add to 007 and I enjoyed this new rush. The beginnings of a less stiff secure life & into a vision of myself beyond Schodack NY my hometown. For this I remain still grateful , for I was on a road set by family that would not bring much satisfaction. This couple of months would be in a way all most spiritual , darkness but I could see . To my kids who read this, trust me, I was far from being alone in this. Some of what you liked most of your father was in small part born at this time. As Lennon once said Love & Peace are Eternal.

Old Farm Sign Uncovered/Schodack NY

On a quick trip upstate a couple of months ago I uncovered an old farm advertisement sign buried in the Funk Rd area of Schodack Landing region. I used a metal detector to discover the item. After time sitting in my garage I got around to attempting to restore it enough to get an idea what it said. After some research and careful cleaning I believe it to read THIS IS AN IH FARM. The IH standing for International Harvester Company. The oddest part of my research found a copy of the sign on e-bay. It was on a fridge magnet sold out of Chino , California. I also discovered to my shock that there is an international refrigerator market centered in the US , England , Hong Kong , and Bangkok Thailand. They sell all sorts of stuff. Anyway back on topic. Many farms did and to some extent still do put up signs that advertise an aspect of their farming. Funk's Seed Corn , IH tractors , Agway as examples. The sign and equipment probably came from Benny Funk's farm equipment company near Chatham NY. The same family for which Funk Rd was named. This dealership supplied farmers in a 3 county area. He died just a few yrs ago shortly after selling off his large supply of old cars and equipment he had taken in trade etc. RIP. So a small piece of farm history from a rusted out old sign dug out of the ground and semi restored enough to tell a small story.