The Saint Will Be Back : James Purefoy As Templar

 I was informed last night by Feed Blitz that the actor James Purefoy has been once again selected to be the famous Simon Templar. He was scheduled to do the role a couple of yrs ago but they say complications intervened etc etc . So the  filming is scheduled to begin apparently this July in New Orleans. As a minor league history guy why does this interest me , a TV movie of an old semi forgotten sleuth. Well first , I like old time detective fiction. Maltese Falcon , The Thin Man etc. My dog is named after Dashiell Hammet the author of many classics of the genre. But it occurred  to me late last night perhaps something slightly more interesting is going on , at least to me. A new James Bond novel is due out next month by Jeffrey Deaver , a new  Saint novel is being worked on by Burl Baer. James Bond movie # 23 is soon to start production and is due out in 11/12. Last and I hope not least it has been reported that Johnny Depp has signed on to do the next reincarnation of The Thin Man. The first Saint novel published in 1928 , Bond 1951 , The Thin Man 1932 I believe. All 3 authors long dead. So why do we as a segment of society keep going back to characters  such as these ?  I have actually given this topic some thought. Both in my career & life I have seen in people deal with all the changes that have been piled on in the last few yrs. As a matter of fact I myself am sick of phrases such as "you have got to embrace change". Bullshit ! I have had my share of change , liked some , dealt with some but I will embrace what I choose to embrace. These figures from the secret agent past  perhaps shows us folks a figure who despite danger feels comfortable in their skin and continue to be as they are. They do as all ways give us escape. To give a strained metaphor they are our lighted lamp post in the night we can lean against , light a cigarette ,  take a breath and continue our walk down  the troubled street ahead. I told you it was strained.

Amsler's Penny Candy Store Castleton N.Y. 12033

 I was up to the Albany N.Y. area this week finalizing travel plans to Gettysburg with my friend Marty the lawyer known affectionately as Rumpole to friend and foe alike. Anyway on the way back I could not resist a stop over in my hometown of Schodack. I wanted to take a look at a spot on the Moordeners  Kill that I have a plan on doing some exploratory work  this or next summer. It was Spring Break , kids were off from school so many younger kids were out and about in the town despite it being a rather chilly late April day. I remembered a recent conversation with a long time resident about our mutual school days and she mentioned Amslers store. Located on Ransom Street located in the Village. On one side of Ransom Avenue is essentially a couple of corner houses a Telephone Bld and the rest is parking  lot & playing fields of Castleton Elementary School. The other side essentially houses , former Ray Funeral Home and Amsler's store were located on that side of the street. Ransom is a common looking street that most Americans would feel reasonably comfortable around. As of around 4 yrs ago the old bld still stood looking much like an old garage painted a mustard brown. This was a hub of many kids and teenagers lives from the 40's to appx the mid 60's. It was sort of an old basic general store , few basic groceries , beer , cigarettes ,  newspapers , penny candy. In the evenings a few locals might have a card game going on. I have been told basic philosophy was also dispensed by old man Amsler. But I can tell you , going there as a kid was in a real sense a right of passage. When you were deemed old enough to ride your bike to that place you   had obtained a new stature. I remember going there with Steven Ennis with a dime between us and carefully selecting our candy stash. To be honest I also bought cigarettes for my Mom....Kool was her brand. There was a time there was no age limit for buying cigarettes. Kids bought their cigs there all the time. I believe it cost around a quarter a pack back then. Oddly one of my favorite candies back then still is in use in my home today. Atomic Fireballs. By the way back in those old days they were much hotter. I remember some kids essentially getting chemical type burns in there cheeks from over use. But this was our central meeting place as kids , in the summer we caught up on kid type news of who was doing what , count down to return to school and what teachers we faced in the next grade. This store was our version of our street corner , our facebook and or e-mail. Certain little rituals were created like finale soda of the summer. Steven Ennis and I became blood brothers in the back of Amsler's , a ritual many kids did involving cutting ones self and pressing the cuts together to join the blood. This was witnessed by 5 other kids with a certain solemness. Mr. Amsler died  circa mid sixties and the store soon closed. It was missed.........since I was in town I drove past the site of where it was. A small garage storage type bld now sits where it once was. One would never know what a central place this once was. Anyway I soon was off to check out an old VW bug that was for sale on Maple Hill Rd.  A Super Beetle as a matter of fact..........later in the early evening as I traveled towards  home in 11509. That area is a nice area near the ocean but interestingly all most every house has a fence around it. Few know their neighbors well and frankly probably don't want to. The local coffee shop "The Korner Kitchen" is a friendly enough place but it is a quick in and; out type shop. Very little conversation. Nobody hanging out for long , so has gone our society.

Jefferson's Birthday Today 4/13/11

We do not have Jefferson's Birthday Sales at Sears & Macy's. This day only gets a humble mention on line or on the back pages of The Times & will it be mentioned in our schools today ? Perhaps at Mr. Jefferson's School in Virginia. He was a man of contradictions , wisdom , words and he had the grace to die along with Adams on the 4 th of July. I think tonight I shall surprise my wife with some humble flowers. As a man who likes , collects and works in history I think it worthy of a moment in fast paced America. Be Seeing You.

Volvo P 1800 Keys Discovered

It was the last Saturday of March , I had taken a quick day trip to the 06037 region of Southern New England , in other words Berlin , Connecticut. A quick visit to my Aunt & Uncle. While there near Webster Ridge area I discovered a Garage Sale. I stopped by because as a teenager I knew the couple who lived there. The husband now gone a couple of yrs and his widow thinning out her life as she prepares for her early 80's and probably selling her home. Her older daughter Susan was helping & after a few moments she remembered me. I have not seen her in over 35 yrs so I felt slightly honored. Anyway I looked around just to be polite. Suddenly in a bowl of odds & ends I spotted them. I walked over & picked them up. Of course , Paul once owned a Volvo P1800 sports car. It all came back to me , it was red , black interior. The car of Roger Moore when he played The Saint on television. Simon Templar's car. I held the keys in my hand , looked at them and his daughter commented "oh the Volvo , Dad's mid-life crisis car." Atleast that is what she and her Mom called it. He bought new in 1968 , sold it in 1984 after many good yrs of service , later sold in the late 80's to a College Student who racked it up on the Berlin Turnpike late at night just south of Hartford. Mores the pity. I consider these cars a work of art. So of course I had found my artifact for the day , purchased them for a nominal cost and was soon after a quick good by to Aunt & Uncle off for home in the late afternoon........On the way back home I once took them out of my pocket , felt their presence in my hand looked them over again. One of the definitions of man is that he can make and use tools. We don't often think of keys as tools often but they are. They are a gateway tool for doing other things. When it comes to car keys , a defining number of things. Memories came back of my friend Ron's brothers 1800. It was Safari Yellow. He would leave it at his parents house over many summer weekends. We would work on it , keep it going , of course use it. That is where I fell in love with this model. So did Kunicki. There was just something about it , it's rareness , it's handling , it looks. It also had odd little touches , a switch on the dash activated an electronic 5th gear as an example. One memory I have is a dark and stormy late summer night in 1970. We were returning from a club called The Barrel in Rensselaer , NY. He were heading over the old grooved iron bridge towards the suburb of East Greenbush. The bridge was slick , we went into a skid on the uneven grooves. For a moment Ron took his hands off the wheel and that is all it took , the car pulled itself from the skid. Both of us somewhat intoxicated broke into a dark laughter. Saved by engineering......anyways other car related memories came flooding back back but another time. After a couple of days I traveled over to one of my research sources , Chardonas the Locksmith in Island Park. Given enough time and sometimes a fee arrangement some research is done. He went into the computer and one of his blank key books. The ignition key serial # 214315 was madein the 60's era and was smaller than most American car keys. The smallest key was a glove compartment key. Stamped made in England and Union. I was not sure about this key but glove compartment keys were apparently much more common than today. The last key a trunk key similar but different from the ignition key. The Volvo key fob was of the older variety Volvo logo. My research payment was to have a key made , costing me a hefty $8.70. The 1800 hundred blank alone took 10 minutes to find. Anyway , was now sure they were genuine. So , I had a memory but not the car. As it so happened , I did not add this to as my wife calls it my pile of junk. What I call artifacts. In the Indiana Jones , movie the Last Crusade , Jones states of an artifact that he is trying to obtain "it belongs in a museum". Kunicki's birthday is in March and so a couple of days later he received an unusual gift. By the way he is used to getting unusual things from me in the mail from around the world. I suspect this was one of his favorites , as he has the ignition & glove compartment key on his current key chain. So they found a good home that has a certain appreciation for them. Automotive memories can be some of the best.

Reverberator Discovered/Schodack NY

Helping friend clean out their Mother's garage I discovered an odd piece of automotive and radio history. It was buried under old records & old Haynes repair manuals for VW Bugs and items such as that. It was odd enough to stop for a couple of minutes and look it over. At first I had to think exactly what it was and then it came to me from a memory of the mid-sixties. Essentially circa 1964 or 1965 It was labeled a reverberator and it was once a "Hip" sort of item to have installed in your car. What it was essentially did was to create an electronic echo chamber. It made your top forty radio station sound atleast in theory "better". As a matter of fact probably the main reason I have any memory at all of this craze is that my older brother had one installed in his car. A few days later I thought about the Reverberator. A few memories surfaced . This was a time when many cars had duel antennas which people thought would give better radio reception. They were wrong but it looked "cool" anyway. FM radio existed but not yet in heavy use and most cars sold did not yet have AM / FM radios , only AM. I do remember a few cars driven by a younger crowd driving by with radios blasting and hearing the echo sound. Weird. Anyway this echo chamber era was a real short one. Probably if my memory serves me maybe a year. People began to find them to be irritating , began to turn them off and they began to go off the market. Later sixties or early seventies garage sales began to have them up for sale {CHEAP}. So anyway.....that item is now discarded in an electronic recycle bin. Farewell to a short lost era.