Newtown CT. 06470: Personal Reflection This Christmas 2012

 It has been a week since the tragic gunning down of  children and staff at Red Hook Elementary School  in Newtown Connecticut. I can't sleep , so I write this to try and bring some personal closure to these events and for that matter the year of 2012. It does not really matter if it is read by anyone or not. It's for me but feel free to read on. This Christmas season I have thought little about Jesus Christ. Actually since the shootings a biblical phrase keeps coming back to me. It comes from John the Baptist.......I am but a voice crying out in the wilderness. In my youth I with a youthful arrogance  seemed to be surrounded by much more certainty. History study is full of tragedy , societies collapsing , pain. Maybe history has caught up with me. I do feel somewhat in the wilderness , maybe because I have been in Newtown and once looked at an apartment rental there. But more likely after Sandy blew through , leaving much wreckage , recent surgery which permanently altered my voice and the small children of Newtown no longer with us or with a permanent  dark shadow that will not recede within their lifetimes I feel like I am spending time in a different space. A place of less certain civil signposts. On facebook so many people insisted this week that there are few things more comforting at times like this than the warm muzzle of a gun.  Our congress can't seem to come up with any solutions to pressing problems. Our nation is about as divided as it was in the post Civil War era.  I am a voice crying out in the wilderness. Perhaps the same wilderness those children may have felt before they were slaughtered. A voice drowned out by the distance we have placed  between ourselves , our families , our communities. I had best be careful ........that wilderness  may not bring out strength like it seems to with The Baptist.....we all might wander in this current wilderness  so long it will seem like normal and we will all drift off into a world we do not know and cannot make our way in.

The Saint aka Simon Templar Returns 2013

 After many starts and stops it has been announced that a pilot for a new series of The Saint will begin shooting next month. Simon Templar most famously played by Pre-Bond  Roger Moore  will be played by actor Adam Rayner. His on again off again love interest and fellow sleuth companion Patrica Holm is slated to be acted by Eliza Dushka.  I think this time will be the charm and the project will finally come to fruition. After the current success of the James Bond movie Skyfall  it all most seemed to me to be preordained that the man who predated Bond by more than 20yrs  would be resurrected. Perhaps it is not just 007 that has a hobby of resurrection. {See Skyfall for the reference to resurrection}.  My association with this character goes back to my aunt who knew the author Leslie Charteris somewhat in Florida and loved his work. Trust me my middle name was all most Templar. At her death she willed me one of my prize possessions . an autographed edition of The Saint in New York , perhaps his seminal work. Since I am being honest I might as well tell you that my tattoo was based on  The Saint logo from the late 1990's movie. It shocked my wife. So, anyway being the amateur archeologist that I am , it  is of interest to me that an old series has again been rediscovered. Barbara Broccoli  a current producer of the Bond films once said in an interview that her father , the original Bond film producer Cubby told her that if she ever needed help in  understanding what to do in the next Bond movie she should never be afraid to go back to the original texts by Fleming. That is where the essence of the character is. With any luck , Templar will be given a modern lift but with a careful understanding of the original by Charteris. We shall see.

Prohibition Era: Rensselaer County New York

 My hometown of Schodack New York is populated by the suburbs and rural areas. Many people now commute to other areas like Albany to work. It is located in southern Rensselaer  County in upstate New York. People go other places to shop and do their recreation. It was not all ways so , in the 1920's it was a much more self contained world. Farms , small manufacturing , small stores. It was also a much more isolated community. You stayed closer to home back then. So , it turned out to be an ideal place when National Prohibition was passed  in 1920 that this is one of the many towns that took part in the breaking of that law.  Booze may have been outlawed but the desire for that product was in some ways elevated by it's illegal nature. People were still going to drink even if it was made more difficult. So began the illegal bootlegging  trade and the making of bootleg booze. This is essentially the incomplete story of one Leroy Harris who was one of the biggest illegal distillers in the counties of Rensselaer and Columbia Counties. I trust that some of this information I have accumulated will shed some light on my hometown's more shady past. Much of my information comes from his last surviving child one M. Peters , the youngest of thirteen children. Yes that  is correct he had thirteen children living on a farm on South Schodack Road near the Columbia County border. He had many hungry mouths to feed and the farm life could only supply so much. By the way as a younger man he was a bartender and did not much like what he called "church ladies" telling him what he could and could not do. His daughter recently turned 90 yrs old and lives in Connecticut and I conducted two interviews with her this past summer. By the way I am related to her , so she finally opened up to me. So let me tell you some of what I through her and other sources discovered.

1. He made a distilled alcohol from his own  hand built still. As the 1920's progressed he hand built larger stills to keep up with demand.  He also used a local blacksmith to fashion parts.

2. He also made a form of homemade beer in the old fashioned milk cans of that era. Part of his formula still survives and was found in his wife's Fanny Farmer cookbook.  It called for well water or spring water from a nearby source. Brown sugar appx 1.5 ponds per milk can. , homemade malt or store bought malt extract. In season wild hops were also used. The rest of the formula was lost. His own notation written in pencil referred to the concoction as"piss raw beer."

3.  The children other than his two oldest sons were kept away from the operation , he also signed over the house and farm to his wife in the mid-twenties in case he was arrested so that it would be harder for authorities to confiscate  what few assets he owned. One of the jobs was to skim the beer as it fermented  and the waste was used in further brewing.

4.  As the prohibition era continued and Harris's  skill and production increased to fill the supply from the increasing demand he needed increased storage. Being caught with a  large  supply of distilled alcohol  was not good , so he dealt with other local farmers through purchase or barter for barn storage space. Nearby Graw Road was an area of storage he often used. I have on several occasions explored this area which is  still a back water road. It was not even fully paved untill the early 1970's. There are old barn foundations from Pre - 20th century barns that dot that area of  Nassau / Schodack. Being many were hay storage barns were even better , better to hide the product under .

5. How he would end up transporting his product  I was mildly surprised  by. More often by truck or horse drawn wagon he would go to nearby Schodack Landing ,so named as it was a landing for boats in the Hudson River that into the early 20th century was used to ship produce and milk to market. Barges and boats of various types would dock and load up the cargo or make anchor and have it rowed out to the boats. From there it would be transported to nearby Albany or Troy. This would often be done in the night time usually after 10:00 pm. Codes with flashlights were established  for when it was safe to begin the loading.

5. It is fairly  well known that many police did not all ways agree with  the legal structure of  Prohibition and so in late 1927 a County  Sheriff who was also a customer stopped by to alert Harris to a coming potential raid. It took three strong men to move the large still into a secluded wooded area of an adjoining property. He ended up being fined in a local court on some technical violation. Within 2 weeks he was back in operation.

6. Harris was not a man to be messed with , especially in a  business deal with lets face it not the most honest of citizens. He had a shotgun in his outbarn where he made the alcohol and when he was transporting and selling had a pistol with him. I am told by his daughter that he "did not suffer fools gladly." So it would be honest to say he could at times be somewhat of a dangerous man in an illegal activity.

7. At prohibition height he essentially distilled  24/7. The income allowed for his family to be fed better and it was said by many of his children that he never had any apologies for supporting his children in this trade.

8. By the way ......his children grew up essentially as one could say were solid citizens. They became secretaries , science teachers , carpenters , housewives , and in one case a Town Clerk. One went on to be awarded a Bronze Star in World War Two.  Ms. Peters would want me to let you know that.

 My thanks to M. Peters....J. Wilston and RP Kunicki for their assistance in my research.

Hurricane Sandy: Some Personal After Thoughts

 Well Sandy has come , gone and left behind enough damage to truly shake our technology and human faith in that technology. I can say many peoples other kinds of faith has been disrupted as well. Now that my family is safe and my home survived  which is remarkable considering I live on a barrier island at 11509. Even though I have left downstate again for a more sane visit to upstate , central N.Y. to await a more reconstructed area namely power , accessible gasoline and items like that. So , what are my afterthoughts after all that devastation.  Do you know what struck me the most well it was the look on peoples faces. Stunned , sad , angry ,  faces. Some people lost everything others inconvenienced for a few days. But there is another facial and body expression that if you look closely you will see. The look of once again being reminded that we are mortal. No one and  nothing last forever ,  be it material or of biology. The other evening residents and storm tourists walked near the ocean , commenting on the sand dunes being gone  and things like that. But with no lights on for miles and an unusually deep darkness settling over the shoreline people had that look of shortened time spans. It occurred to me that this evening was an evening that could have been experienced by our ancient ancestors , you know the ones we have no idea of what their names were or where they lived. But ancestors that survived a harsh and dangerous world to create off spring that would eventually through the generations lead to you. But as they did , we do.......we move on ever mortal as we are. One more thing........as the ocean crashed and the stars glowed  so brightly in that dark , so deeply dark sky , I realized again why the human condition often dictated the need to search for a God. Because these are the times when the universe seems to open wide and you realize just how immense this all is.

Hurricane Sandy : Odd Gifts From The Sea

Before orders to evacuate I walked the turbulent beaches of Atlantic Beach. During these times it can be fascinating to view what stuff roles up on shore the more distant parts of the ocean. Old children's pales and shovels , a ripped up banner that reads Cape Hatteris. A half deflated inner tube ,old wine bottles  lots of plastic bags and oh by the way several condoms. Nice to know people are practicing safe sex on the high seas. Refuse left behind generally.  So much junk , so little planet. Some say this could be a truly a horrible storm once the full consequences are felt and added up. They may be right , right now the sea looks like I have not seen before.....dark , all  encompassing. Going to higher ground.

My Hometown of Schodack NY My Fortress of Solitude

This past weekend I stopped by my hometown after a trip to Albany on family business. I went to a spot in a wooded area I know well. near my old high school. I needed to slow down and think. I set on a boulder and zoned out. No history research or archeology dig this time. I believe everyone needs to stop every so often and just think and sort through things. I am facing surgery on my throat and it also appears being mildly struck by lightening this past summer may have given me mild heart damage. The term Fortress of Solitude comes from The Superman Comic series. It was his hidden place in the ice of the north  where he sometimes went for solitude and solace. My occasional trips back home where I am now little known or remembered  is my place. It is where I remember where I came from. The land I tread upon when younger. The people now mostly gone who took time to give me advice or council. Sometimes it is a good thing to remember where ones roots are.....it can help keep humility in ones life. I needed the roots of my past this recent weekend  and I needed the quiet. It was time to take a deep , long breath of cool fresh air. It was time to step from the shadows that one may sometimes place ones self in. I found it at my old home area. I have found that many people in life need to take that time. You might say it is essential time for ones soul. So on the heights above the Hudson I found some quiet time and hope you all do as well.

International James Bond Day....007

I was 11 yrs old when the first James Bond movie  premiered  50 yrs ago today. Dr. No was the title. I was later that spring to see it  at a drive in movie in the nearby town of East Greenbush New York. Later in my life I would start to read all of Ian Fleming's novels. There has been tons of items written about Bond in the last few days concerning this celebration day. I doubt I can add much. This now icon of the secret agent genre has been much studied , sifted through , items sold at auction  talked about. This fictional character starting in the declining yrs of The British Empire going through the cold war and the sixties to the fall of the Berlin wall to our age of terrorist fears he has been with us. All my life. I suspect he will out live me. I guess to me he has become that mysterious uncle or whispered about relative we know from a distance. Someone who seems to spend time in the shadows. There are in reality people like this ,, like the seal teams etc. So my compliments to his creator and movie producers for the fantasy of the glamorous shadows. It's been a great run these 50 yrs.

September 18th 1969: The Day I Changed

 I don't really like talking about myself in this Blog. I prefer to more report. But  on this day I have decided to speak for a moment about a personal day long ago in my self history. On this date 43 yrs ago I returned late from an expanded summer vacation and a failed business opportunity to Maple Hill High School in Schodack N.Y. 12033. I wanted to drop out get a GED and end my relationship with this brand of formal education. Well it didn't work out I had returned home to angry  and rather frustrated parents. Through a combination of threat and  some bribery I was brought around to going back for my senior yr. So on this date I returned about two weeks late. This date if you research it has not been a day of great historical impact. But it was for me. I was to find out over  that school yr how many people conspired to  get me to return.  Martin Singer , Dr. Kimoblot my Aunt Marian etc. Singer was my guidance councilor and he smoothed the transition.  So that strange combination of arm twisting and  gentle conversation I returned to a place I had not been  to in over a yr. The previous yr I had been in a boarding school. Within a week I somehow changed or matured enough , whatever , to settle in. Through friendship and good people I  resolved to push on in a newer direction. So in an odd way this was one of the most important  days of my life.  In my future career in Human Services and Education  aware of it or not I often encouraged people to find a day of resolve and  move on and regroup and go forward.  A day like Sept 18th 1969. So I wish to simply say thank you to all those who were there for the guidance and especially friendship. A common day in America but a most uncommon one for me. The day when the gears were set in motion for a full life to come.

Graduation 1970:To Jessica and Essex

Well....as I promised to you young ladies the requested  blog  you asked me for. First , once again congrats on your upcoming High School graduation. Enjoy this it only comes once and you will have memories your entire life. This morning on this overcast day I walked along the deserted beach and wondered what I might say. I for one usually disliked graduation speakers even though I have heard ones from a Supreme Court Justice to a photo journalist. All sound similar. I have asked 2 people who I graduated with if they remember who our commencement speaker was at Maple Hill High School in Schodack NY.  some 40+ yrs ago. None do including myself.  So let me attempt not to say what countless others have said even though I am sure I will.

1. Let me set one thing straight.....I did not graduate with a bunch of Hippies.  By 1970 there were few and there never were that many to begin with. We may have had longer hair and may have leaned from a slightly different lifestyle as our parents but as most kids we were more conventional than we would admit. I don't care what one might see on say the History Channel or in the new movie Men In Black3......the yrs of the 60's did not last as long as people remember.

2. I graduated outside in the back of our school as is and was our custom there. Every year they build a platform with stairs that assorted educators and guests sit. It was over cast and people worried we would be stuck in the old gym bld boiling hot. We made it through. Weddings and funerals and graduations all want good weather.....I suspect you will for yours. Trust me it will be fine.

3. If you look {and I have} at graduation stats and trends you will discover that since I graduated in that old yr of 1970  millions less are finishing high school. Not a good trend.....so when you graduate some of the type people I might have graduated with will not be there. Some people that did not have a positive school experience managed to hang in to get some sort of  diploma. All hail my generation.......and I am worried about you generation because of those trend lines.

4. By the way speaking of  your generation of your graduating class remember this.......you may never see many of those people again. You both as I went through grade school with your class. They will hang out somewhere in your recessed memory. Take a couple of moments........look around  and try to look at everyone. As I once said in a blog a couple of yrs ago ,  one thing I discovered I missed , was knowing that large a number of people for such a long period of time. You may very well not have that sort of extended group of citizens around you again. Even if there is a facebook world of the future. So , even if you did not like them or ignored them  or had only a casual passing by , take a quick peek. People deserve that much of a nod after all those yrs.

5. It is stated that I graduated in an angry time in America. True.....the Kent State shootings were only a couple of months before as was the first Earth Day. Our era of protest caused an anger to grow. We were divided along political ,racial educational, demographic lines. Guess what.....we still are.  To be honest I believe we are more divided , angry than we have been since Reconstruction. Just remember......this stuff does not keep it's shape. Events morph the wave we ride. Try not to be to shocked 20 yrs from now. As Kurt Vonnegut one of my generations most read authors stated more tan 45 yrs ago......The only thing history teaches us is to surprised all over again.

6. Between final exams and graduation you will be at an odd cross roads......to late to start and to early to finish. Sort of like 10:00 pm at night. So see a couple of friends , get your hair done and be prepared that once graduation is over that place you have spent so much time at  is no longer yours. When you leave the parking lot with I presume your parents that is it. You can't go back to that home again. It belongs to the next set of graduating classes. You are now history at that place of education just as I was 42 yrs ago at Maple Hill High School.

7.   What you start out as will not be what you are later on. If I could tell many of my classmates of my Human Service part of my life and especially of  my yrs as an Educator I think many would be shocked. Hudson Hawk at the head of a classroom full of people doing the teaching and training thing. So you never know. Don't be shocked.

8. My graduating class was......ready.......very white. Yours is less so. Be prepared for a more cultural blending........it is inevitable. Just look at the demographics.


9. I ended up attending my only High School reunion more than 20yrs ago. I am not sure why but a few months  later I talked with a buddy on the phone  who attended as well. We both  discovered we had the same odd emotion. We would be working at our desks , He in NYC and I upstate. An odd feeling would sort of hang over us and we would usually put down our work and daydream about the event and of high school. Sort of like an odd psychological cloud would be there. Mixed emotions. We were both glad that it did not last longer than it did. and dissipated after a time. Such is the power of memory and high school. We will die with those tattoos some where in our consciousness.

 10. By the way I received a small academic award at graduation. The VFW Gold Star Mothers Award. I have just remembered that. What a long time ago.

 So , I need to wrap this up.......I am sure that I will think of something later I should have said but this is it. After a round of graduation parties I attended with a couple of friends , one of which I still have.  Remember it was 18 yrs old drinking age then so I had a few. I arrived back home around 1:30 am. The glow of graduation was still with us. It was a warm June night and the clouds of earlier that evening were gone. It was a star lite sky. I remember noticing as I got dropped off in my driveway. We all shook hands , a final congratulations. I went inside quietly , got quickly into bed. My bed room windows were open. The night seemed quiet and easy. Off in the distance , a car burned rubber from a standing start. We were free to move on.

Stoll Brewing Company: Troy New York

 This small study of local upstate New York brewing started last fall on a small secondary road in the Town of Schodack New York in Rensselaer County.  Graw Road to be exact which is barely a one lane road in the southern part of the town near the Columbia County border. I was digging at an old burned out barn foundation once located  on that road.  The barn which was burned as part of a South Schodack Fire Dept. drill in 1975 still has foundation stones and I believe dates back to the early 20th Century. I discovered an old piece of bottle glass , somewhat charred but still  in legible condition. The glass a mild aqua color had an raised emblem of what appears to be an eagle in flight. I also discovered near by part of the bottle neck. Same color. Kept it in the bag and as time permitted over the winter I attempted to discover the origin and or use of the bottle fragment. After some Google and a search through antique bottle books at our local public library along with a trip to a dealer in the Central New York area to view a complete bottle I believe I can say with 95% certainty that this bottle was from The Stoll Brewing Company of Troy New York. Let me run down some history for you.

1. Stoll was founded by a Jacob Stoll in1855 and it was in operation until 1920 at the time Prohibition was enacted. They made a soda called Stollo for a time but closed circa 1923.

2. The Stoll name goes way back in America , the first mention seems to be when a Stoll landed in New Amsterdam in the 1650's.

3. This brewery was typical of America in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Numerous small breweries doted the landscape. In the New York capital region alone back then one might find Stanton which served a bock seasonal bock beer and a half & half. Wagner Bros beer and a Mahoney's Creme Ale.and in Albany Dobler just to name some.

4. At least into the early 20th century they got their hops from central New York. Delivered on the Erie Canal waterway. Cooperstown was a major hops growing region untill a crop disease wiped out much of the production around the turn of the 20th century. I have found hops growing wild in the Canastota and Skaneateles region of central New York which may very well be from that era of  cash crop farming.

5. Beer was brewed in local areas mainly because most beer does not age well. Fresh beer was best when it came from a local brewer.

6. Now the question arises , what kind of beer did the Stoll family brew. For this I have a first person  source. Peter Stoll who was an English teacher in my home town  of Schodack NY at Maple Hill High School from circa 1968 to  1975. He was a great grand nephew of the brewing family. I and a couple of high school friends knew Peter on a semi friendly basis and even knew him somewhat socially in the summer of 1970. If my memory serves me correctly he told us that they brewed a classic German Pilsner. It had  more of a hop taste  because extra hops were added in formulation as a preservative. Remember refrigeration was mainly from ice in that time period.

7. Upstate NY had a fairly large number of German and Slovak immigrants and breweries often served their cultural tastes. Schenectady NY had a taste for instance for a more Polish or Slovic beer with companies like General Electric hiring these groups.

8. The brewery was located at 42 Spring Street in Troy which according to my GPS is now Spring Road. I have traveled there in early March. It is now a tree lined area with no sign of foundations.or building.

9. The bottle has an eagle on it flying over a beer barrel. The barrel has an S embossed on it. The words The Stoll Brewing Company is embossed over the eagle and Troy NY  under the barrel.

10. Stoll like the majority of breweries never came back from Prohibition. Their brew master had died in the late twenties and the exact  formulation has no doubt been lost to time. Even recently the formulation for brewing Schlitz beer which was once the most popular beer in America in sales was lost and had to be reformulated after only a few yrs of non-production.
  Generally speaking  , mainly the larger brewers came back Anheiser Bush being a prime example.

11. Of course we have come full circle in a real sense. Now in America  we once again have many small micro breweries. Serving a diverse taste of the public. From The Brooklyn Brewery to The Pump House Brewery in Albany a distinct  and diverse beer or ale is being created. We have returned.

 So my thanks to Peter Stoll  wherever he is. R.P. Kunicki for his Brooklyn Hops growing knowledge. Canastota NY county historian.

The Beatles: A Day In The Life: 1967: WPTR Radio Bootleg Story

 Last Sunday while watching the latest episode of Mad Men which takes place in 1966 they finally play a Beatles song....Tomorrow Never Knows. News reports say Lions Gate Productions payed one quarter of a million dollars for the rights to use this song. The song was perhaps the most radical and different of  any of the Beatles song book. But hearing that song for the first time in yrs sparked a latent trivial memory from a distant adolescence. It was circa February 1967. Music rumors of a new and very different record album being produced. in England by the Beatles and George Martin. At that time no one really can remember from whom came a bootleg copy of a long and unusual Beatles production.....It was called A Day In The Life. About 7 stations in America obtained this copy. One such station was a major 50,000 watt AM station WPTR in Troy NY. Without much fanfare it began playing primarily in the night time hours and then filtered down to occasional day play. It seemed odd at the time that no one else was playing it. But it was The Beatles. And it was a different R&R song. A taste of something to come from lets face it the most important  group of the second half of the 20th Century.  After about two weeks of play it suddenly disappeared as quietly as it had appeared. What I was to discover later was The Beatles and more importantly their lawyers had discovered the bootleg was being played on select stations. Cease and desist threats issued and the bootleg rendition was gone. Of course the song would be on Sgt. Peppers issued in June of the same year.  My thanks to H." Skip" Peters former DJ for some additional information on this subject. A happy trivial memory of time past and when The Beatles ruled much of popular music.

The Oarsmen Society : Secret Society

 I like to explore a number of topics , one area of interest I have worked on in the last seven yrs has been discovering more about a small college secret society called by the deceptive name Oarsmen Society. . Deceptive because it has little or nothing to do with the sport of competitive rowing. I do have a family member who is associated with the group and have been able to dig from that point. There are a number of such societies the most well known and most speculated on is of course Skull and Bones of Yale. Past Presidents and captains of industry have been members. Shrouded in secrecy it goes on as have others with names like Scroll & Key. So what follow are a few basic facts I have uncovered by my various searches.

1. It was started by 3 students and a couple of facility at post war Cornell University circa 1947.

2. It was an essentially a brotherhood designed to give aid  and underpinnings to a selected student body of essentially post war GI's and others entering on the GI Bill after the return from the recent war.

3. It provided a support type environment and as the small society evolved a philosophic base for ones life actions.

4. All most all the original group had Masonic or similar ties within their family ties.

5. What evolved after 3 or 4 yrs was a small compact society with a ritual for entering and various social forms for continuous membership while attending college.

6. One of their social events is a monthly dinner usually held on a Sunday.

7. You enter in your Junior yr and continue into the Senior or post graduate yrs.

8. Somewhere in the later 1950's their general outlook of living was codified. The Book as it is sometime referred to was written oddly by a long deceased actor  named Jack Carson. He is perhaps best known for being in the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He played Paul Newman's older brother. For a good fee he codified a basic philosophy on conducting ones life. A functional take on life and potential conduct. I have not seen it all but it has lines in it such as"that distant sound you hear is the onrush of time." I was told it was about 25-30 pages.

9. At some point in the early 60's they expanded by facility from Cornell to select other colleges or universities. This has ebbed and flowed over time but the best I can fathom is there are chapters at St. Lawrence University , Mount Holyoke College with a few members at Williams and at one time Colgate.

10.  They were all male into the late 70's when females began to be admitted on an on again off again basis for a few yrs.

11. They ran into recruitment problems in the late sixties and all most ceased to exist but with a financial gift from 2  members they were able to continue. A trust was set up by a C.C. Nott at the Bank of New York upstate division in Albany which in some form exists today. Nott it is rumored is a Bonesman.

12. Ones membership is apparently lifelong , once an Oarsmen all ways an Oarsmen. 

13. There are upon occasion reunion type dinners held about every 3 yrs usually in NYC.

14. Oarsmen may very well have ties to other groups such as S&B.

15. One small "suggestion" that members carry on is that on the second Thursday evening in February during the dead of winter between 10:00pm and 1100pm ones takes a small moment to review the past yr and their lives. Contact a former member , have an honest talk. Or just spend some quiet personal time thinking it all over.

16. They acquired a Latin Motto somewhere in the 1950's probably from Jack Carson. Simply....Animo non Astutia. They also have a symbol which is 3 circles in a triangle shape , it was apparently based on a DeMedici family symbol They also apparently borrowed a number symbol from Skull & Bones 322. It goes back to Greek legend it is told.

17.. Membership roles are held closely but it is a strong rumor that one member is Erin Burnett currently of  CNN. Apparently there is atleast one current member of congress that maintains a quiet membership.
 
 So that is what my research has turned up , a slow but interesting journey. My thanks to my nameless sources  , you know who you have been.

Archaelogy of Conversation

 One can dig up a variety of items or research a topic that can help one piece together what life and a society was about. Even in a short time frame like 30 yrs a culture can turn over and forget quickly what was once important. So I have come to a moment that now puzzles me. I was talking with a woman today who was manning an information booth at our library. It was funded by a local hospital and was handing out literature about having family dinner time. The actress Jamie Lee Curtis among  others have done public service announcements on this topic. You can Google this area , there is a large body of research on this simple but important social topic. The basic message..........sitting down to have family dinners is important to develop everything from language skills to being less prone to drug abuse. It appears from talking with the nurse manning the table that this simple function has become a lost American art. Busy lives etc has caused a large decline in this once common ritual of American and for that matter developed world life.  Fascinating. And as I think more about it  , I seem to remember a richer more complex conversational life. I have commented on this topic in the past. Honestly I had better conversations in my Junior and Senior yrs in a place called Maple  Hill High School than I often have now. I have begun to genuinely feel that a certain beauty has slowly left my life. Decent conversation , a talk that makes me think anew or gains me a new in site into a problem. Now it seems to have spilled over into society that numerous studies from universities from Yale to Syracuse  have researched the topic in depth.  What this research might not show is I think some people really miss those now more rare moments. Dinner with ones parents or conversations in high school.. And I must say there were people once in my life that I had strong differences with THAT I LOVED. Uncles , aunts , cousins , friends. I truly wish I could take my tools of archaeology and   rediscover lost conversation. It would shine a light on what was and the difficult road my country is now on. I realize this is one of the blogs I write which will receive little attention compared with several others I have posted the last couple of years. Sometimes one blogs because one needs to say something to feel better and I now do.

Reaching Back To Older Hero's

 Had a long week. Returned to my hometown of Schodack N.Y. to attend a funeral. My cousins husband. A simple funeral , at his request he was buried with a pack of cigarettes {that's hard core} and little talk of God at the funeral , also at his request. If he was one thing he was consistent. But he left me something. He knew of my interest in history and archaeology. He left me an odd piece from the past. A plague from the late forties or early 50's. On it was something called The Lone Ranger Creed. A cereal box prize. I guess he wanted to leave me something of how he actually thought. I will not bore you with it's substance , if you want you can Google it. But this must have meant something to him. The Lone Ranger was a hero of old time radio and for the most part the black & white TV era. He was a good 20 yrs older than me so I suspect this was from the radio days. So , later as I drove back home to 11509 a bit weary  I thought about this keep sake he left me to ponder. He knew I like playing detective with objects and artifacts I find along the way. Well......as of late we have detoured a bit in society towards some of the older style of hero's. The revival of Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey and Jude Law. Johnny Depp is currently filming a remake of the Lone Ranger for Disney. After that Depp is scheduled to play the detective hero of the 30's and 40's The Thin Man. Yes Nick and Nora Charles will be back on screen in a couple of short yrs. The latest 007 flick is being filmed  as I write this. A friend of my daughter told her of seeing some of the filming in London. Bond started out in the early 50's.  Of course a personal favorite The Saint is in the process of being revived for a new TV series and or movie. Personal favorite because the author Leslie Charteris knew my aunt socially in Ocala Florida. The Saint goes back to 1928 the rest  , the 1930's or for Holmes 1890's. So , some hero's are hard to kill , there was even a Green Hornet movie last year though not well received. The Hornet goes back to the 30's.  So does this piece of cereal box history mean something other than an e-bay item for the collector. Well.....?  Well considering that old geezers are not the demographic movie makers are going for maybe it says that these characters are the cultural template from which we all have sprung. Some may feel at home or easy with this template. It may also simply say a good story is still a good story no matter how distant the cultural references may be. But what ever this trend may or may not mean.......I will be taking my older Grand kids to see the Lone Ranger , will attend for over the 20th time a James Bond opening night this November. Drag the long suffering wife to see the The Thin Man because she is all to well aware of my enjoyment for that genre of detective flick and await the return of a man known for a halo over his not all ways honest head. The gift is now in my file cabinet among some of my other collections of  various artifacts. It will be there for some time to come.

Amsler's Ice House Castleton N.Y. 12033

 One of the problems one can come up against when researching various history topics is you run out of time. All the people that remember ice houses as a going concern are long gone. People that even remember where such shells were located  have declined greatly as well.  Such is the case with Amsler's Ice House located off Ransom Avenue in my hometown of Castleton N.Y. So with what I know from brief interviews and personal observation this is what I know. Amler's Ice house was located off Ransom Avenue next to the land bought for the Castleton Union School , now the Castleton Elementary  School. It was a smaller ice house and served the uptown section of Castleton above the Hudson River area. It was built inside of a hill which gave it a sunken appearance.  The Amsler family had a small store across the street from the ice house. It had 2 doors one facing Ransom Avenue the other a side entrance. As a kid we hung around the old barn looking structure , as remembered by various people inside were collapsed old pallet type structures. The earth inside had a dusky chalk type feel , probably from old saw dust used as a basic form of insulation for the ice. It was torn down in the late 60's or early 70's because it was considered by the Town Fathers to not only be a danger from collapse but rather ugly. As old barn type structures built from that era it was not easily wrecked. Once down it provided more room for the phone company bld  expansion which was located directly in back of that piece of property. It is now a landscaped piece if property where one would not guess an ice house once stood. The Ransom Avenue  school driveway runs next to where it was. Families like the Amsler's and the Hudson's made a good living from this piece of old technology. General Electric's first refrigerator was built circa 1911. Ice slowly lost it's hold on kitchens across America and as well memories of Ice Men making deliveries from these old structures.My thanks to Beverly Ingalls of Clifton Park and Checker Block of Schodack Landing N.Y. for their memories.

Hai Karate: A Visit With The Past

 When one does a blog which often concerns itself with the past I have sometimes been given suggestions or various items which people think might make an interesting topic. These range from an interesting looking rock that looks like a duck to a recent gift from my cousin , a bottle of old Hai Karate aftershave { pronounced High Karate} discovered in a discard box in her garage. Yes this icon from youthful memory. This aftershave was made from appx the late 60's to early 80's. Made by as it says on the bottle , the Leeming Division of Pfizer Corporation zip code 10017. Yes the same people that brought us Viagra brought us this green liquid. Most likely some that used this aftershave back then use Viagra now.It's that old.  Anyway I have not yet opened it , so that is what I am going to do now.  Be right back................still holding.............................................................BLAU...............OK , what to say? I did not like it for one. A base tone of aluminum with some citrus is how I best can describe it.  It is quite possible that the age of this aftershave has altered the experience , circa late 60's bottle after all according to my cousin. The question also arises , did I once smell like this. Yes , I received a bottle for Christmas in 1969. Memories have come flooding back. My last High School Christmas in my hometown , the 60's ending , a wedding attended in March of 1970 which I had no memory of until just now.  High School graduation has just come to mind and an old high school flame as well as Donna Blasch my college sweet heart . This budget aftershave bought by my parents probably in a drug store in or near Castleton NY has stirred a few memories. It also reminded me of my mother who hated the 60's and could not wait for them to be over and for her son to get a hair cut.  One of her self improvement gifts this no doubt was. At least , I did not smell like Old Spice I remember was one of my reactions. Yet for some , this is probably an Icon from the past. I imagine Brut or Jade East is the closest hangovers from that era if you wish to indulge in memories induced by smell. As for this bottle , it is being donated to an animal league in the 11509 zip area that deals with the feral cat problem in our area. They have an ebay account that they use to fund their activities and have told me they welcome this gift that really sells well on ebay. Amazing!  If you wish to indulge further you can Google the name and see some of the old commercials. But to those that might obtain this or another bottle I can only repeat the words of the commercial..........Hai Karate.......Be Careful How You Use It.

Collecting Tidbits Along The Moordener Kill

I have been attempting to take advantage of the warmer late fall early winter weather. This has been extremely above average in temps and weather. So recently I was exploring along The Erie Canal near Canastoda NY and The Moordener Kill George in Castleton NY area. I managed to fall into both. Sometimes I fear that I am becoming somewhat of what Kurt Vonnegut remarked about himself in Slaughter House 5......"an old fart with his memories and his cigarettes." Anyway , did not find much this time out except junk. Discard from past lives . Even though archaeology thrives on left over stuff left behind to tell what was I spent much of my time picking up discard. An old stereo speaker circa late 80's early 90's. An old tire , glass beer bottles perhaps left by a careless fisherman , a busted cell phone and an old  Stetson aftershave bottle as well as an old fishing reel  as examples. Some of this stuff may well have come down from when Irene came thundering through last summer and caused ample flooding. So , my clean up of the gorge made a decent sized pile. I built a small fire along the rocky river bed  shore to warm myself. No one was around so I enjoyed the peace and quiet as I set on a log. Because my wife Beth was over 140 miles away I sneaked a smoke. Ah. Anyway , nothing remarkable about what I had in front of me. The beer reflected modern trends , Coors Light , Sam Adams Cherry Wheat ,  Newcastle Brown Ale.  The cell phone , a flip phone , large buttons pre -app type. Been here for a while. It is amazing how fast technology changes. The phone 10 to 12 yrs ago was state of the art the stereo speaker , appx three ft  tall by one foot wide could once hold a multi watt signal. Now Bose can make a speaker one tenth the size with better fidelity. These tidbits do tell a tale. A need to get rid of junk , fast moving technology,  careless discarding. But they don't belong in this beautiful gorge. I fed  my last starter stick into my flames. Took some notes of some possible sites above the gorge for future exploration as I enjoy this area. My basic archaeology hobby is often being a collector of as I call them Tidbits. Small little items that serve as an evidence trail of where I and others have come from. You as well.  So anyway I ended up trucking this stuff  out of the gorge , into my car , and stopped by the dumpster at the back of Maple Hill High School. Sorry tax payers you footed the disposal fee. Soon I will be off on another project. Be seeing you.

Hudson Daniel Bader

 Born on January 4 , 2012 my third grandchild. , that's right his first name is Hudson. The same as a favorite blogger I know. All 8 pounds 9 ounces arrived yesterday at around 2:00 pm in Crouse Memorial in Syracuse NY. Anyway , Hudson you have arrived here in the USA at a rather angry time. We are a nation politically split and I must admit I wanted a better world for you to come into. Kinder , gentler as former President Bush once remarked. But you have alot going for you  , good parents that really wanted you , proud family surrounding you and of course your long background. You are descended from English , Dutch , Irish , Slovak and German peoples. Just remember if you ever read this that you had people survive hundreds of years ago to help create the you of today. So take it and run with it. Use those talents all of my grandchildren I am sure possess. Oh and by the way.....Happiness is not over rated , so keep some of that in your life.