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.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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.
Monday, December 3, 2012
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.
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.
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