Election Day Tradition: Clam Chowder Is Served Schodack NY

There are a great many traditions in America. Many families have traditions within their homes. My hometown area of Schodack NY and surrounding region had an  Election Day tradition that still is going on to this day. Having a clam chowder lunch. It was usually held in churches back then , the Methodist church or the Reformed church held them. I have traced this back as far as the 1920's. Manhattan Clam Chowder was the chowder of choice. There was even a goofy slogan said back then...'if you want things to go your way , eat your chowder come election day. Trust me , most Pol's ate a bowl of chowder if they were running for office that year. Including my Mom & Dad and me. As a matter of fact that is a Hudson Hawk family tradition to this day. The ladies of the churches would start around 6:00am to prepare and by 11:00 be ready to serve. So in a recent visit back home I rediscovered that old tradition. Now a days the luncheons are usually served in the Fire Houses. Sometimes with a bake sale. From South Schodack NY to the hamlet of Valatia in Columbia County and beyond the tradition holds and yes it is still good and warming and brings back old memories. With the rancor currently in politics , it was a moment of sanity in a rural part of the world. Sanity on Election Day , a quiet peaceful lunch. Somewhere I know there is a lesson in that simple traditional moment. ......My thanks to Marian Peters for Charlene Harris for their help with this blog.

Fault

I have not written in a while , but this time I am writing to one person. James , listen to me. Sometimes when there is trouble at home or one finds oneself in an abusive relationship , sometimes there is this all to strong a tendency to begin to think every thing is your fault. If only you.....fill in the blank. That is a burden that all to many people allow to be put onto themselves. From all my life experience and  career knowledge I need to tell you this important lesson I myself had to learn. IT'S NOT. It is not your fault , it should not be this wilting burden......to carry and warp a life. Self imposed guilt  from those that carry lives as burden is not yours to darken your own potential. I think the 2 most important words in the Bible are......"fear not". So , this is my request , deep breath , face your humanity with all that  is ahead of your young life and remember it is not your fault about everything. That is a structure that does not free you. Peace and love do.

The Atomic Bomb : A Nations First Thoughts

 Beginning in my senior year of high school I first asked a question  which I would ask probably 300 plus times over the next years. Unfortunately , I never kept careful notes on all my responses , it was just a question that I was curious about as I had grown up in what we used to call 'The Atomic Age'. My question was a simple one. What were your first thoughts after you heard we had dropped something called an atomic bomb ? It was one of those time periods that people remember where they were when a a major event happened. Like 9/11 or President Kennedy's assassination. I would guesstimate that  upwards of 80% first thoughts were it will end the war. Simple as that. From discussing this time period with people I discovered that it was quickly associated with the one scientist most people had heard of. Albert Einstein. He is still a man known by all most everyone. Soon on radio and the newspapers an equation was loosely associated with the event E equals Mc 2. Ever wonder why so many people from cooks to science teachers have heard of this piece of math. It appears that it was from this event. It became branded on our collective conscious as a nation and in the world. Some people had other thoughts . As my uncle finally told me his thoughts about a week before he passed away. He was on the Pacific airbase where the Enola Gay had taken off from. He knew like everybody else on base something important was going on with that plane and you dared not even think about going near it. On the early morning it took off he like many other airmen were awakened because word had gotten out it was being readied for take off. He watched it take off and went back to bed. It was at least 17 hrs before he was informed by his commanding officer that this awesome new device had been dropped on a place called Hiroshima. His first thought.....I hope we killed a lot of the bastards. Such was and is war. The only other thing I will mention is this .....World War II ended  in August of 1945. Places like my home town of Castleton N.Y. had a VJ parade and a huge celebration as did the nation. It was over with a lot left to be done. The  A-Bomb and it's power were still not widely understood by the general public , but soon Labor Day  arrived and a relieved nation began to return to what would be called the cold war. But this war was over and we demobilized and returned to a more peacetime world. Children returned to school and school teachers and science teachers began the new school year and discussed what happened over the summer. School children began  to learn new facts about the age we were now in and came hold and told their parents about this new and frightening weapon. It then truly began to dawn on our war weary nation just what was unleashed and we would never be allowed to go back to that home again.

Compoz : That Gentle Blue Pill

 After many yrs in pursuit of my history/archeology , which has meant everything from digging in a burned out basement in Troy NY to digging into old farmers landfills long forgotten. It also means finding interesting items along the way a garage sale or even helping a relative clean out their home as she thins out  items of her life. Such is the case with several pocket medicines I discovered while  "helping out". Pocket tins of medicine were common 35 plus yrs ago. Usually aspirin or a product called Anacin for headache or muscular pain. There were about 20 of them , filled with buttons she kept for sewing. A couple pocket tins were of a popular product in the 50's and 60's. It was called Compoz. I looked briefly at the ingredients. This pharmacological compound had interesting sounding names attached to it. Extract of Passion Flower and Valarian root. It was essentially an OTC tranquilizer. You can google an old compoz commercial from the early 60's. It talks about a mother becoming a raging stranger to her children or a man who's career is in trouble because of"simple nervous tension."  Back then they referred to it as "that gentle blue pill."  The radio commercial had harp music playing in it which I suppose sounded soothing. It was also billed as a mild sedative for relief of simple nervous tension. Back then it appears the term sedative and tranquilizer were used as the same thing. Back then we also had  and still do sleep aids that use Diphenhydramine , which is a first generation antihistamine that has among other qualities the ability to make one feel tired.  Nytol was one of the most popular back then in the 50's 60's. As best as I can research some of the ingredients of compoz was that they had mild sedative affects with mild muscular relaxation properties. By the way extract of passion flower as an example can still be purchased in health food stores. When this formulation was finally taken off the market circa 1970's most of those sort of herbal medicines were taken up by health type of  stores in this country and Europe.
 So what does this little find suggest. Well , it once again shows that societies have for thousands of yrs self medicated. Whether through the cultivation of hops for beer of grapes for the fermentation of wine to the discovery of poppy plants we have searched for something to make an attitude adjustment or relax or kill pain. Ancient Greek doctors had women during the child birth process suck on willow branch. We derived aspirin from willow bark. Patient medicines were sold widely into the early 20th century , some had morphine or cocaine in them. It also suggests that the good old days may not have been so "good" for as many as some think. The 20th Century was filled with war , economic depression , the move from a more rural to urban / suburban world. The need for higher amounts of education increased  as the century moved on. Social pressures did mount for those of all  socio-economic groups. From my interview with a retired Albany College of Pharmacy graduate Compoz was a big seller. According to him especially among females. He suspected women often bought them for their husbands as well. What began to lessen the sales of this and similar OTC preparations was what the research drug companies began to pour their research dollars into. In reality  as the fifties and sixties rolled on psycho pharmacology began to pay big dividends for the Drug Companies. According to my interview the drug that really set the pace was Diazepam known better as Valium. Marketed in it's initial sales as more of a mild muscle relaxer it began to be seen as a major boost for a relaxed state. It became I believe the most  widely used prescription of the 60's into the 70's in USA and Europe. These sales started a research revolution  which has led to a revolution in the treatment of various psychological disorders and  difficulties. Prozac and other drugs for ADHD being one of the most famous and perhaps overused. drugs in the last 20 yrs. So Compoz has given way to other prescription medications unless one goes on line or visits a "health food store". But it's popularity was a sign post of what the 60' s and the next 50 yrs would  be searching out. A continuation  of thousands of yrs for that gentle blue revolution. My thanks to Paul Reinhardt for additional information on that era.

Plimpton : The Movie

 I wanted to take a few minutes out from a somewhat busy time with a few projects I am juggling to speak of a new Biographical movie I saw this week in Manhattan. It open on May 22nd and will open on Los Angles on June 7th. The movie Plimpton starring George Plimpton  is a movie exploring the life of I must confess one of my hero's. He was an editor of Paris Review which was the sort of the literary magazine that introduced  such authors as Philip Roth , Terry Southern  and many others to the post war literary arena.. He was of the Ivy League , he could trace his ancestry back to the Mayflower. He spoke  with a rather upper crust , upper Manhattan accent one does not really hear anymore. So , why did I a country / suburban kid from Upstate New York have him along with Phil Hill the race car driver  as my early hero's. Well......I guess it is because of what else he did. and inspired a much younger me. He referred  of himself as a participatory journalist. He would actually do what others did so as to have a then unique perspective on a topic , often sports. He was a reality show before that term was coined. He boxed Archie Moore , pitched against Willie Mays , was a Lion Tamer and perhaps most famously was last string quarterback for preseason  Detroit Lions. He wrote one of his books Paper Lyon based on that experience. It was later made into a movie starring Alan Alda. I well remember coming out of a movie house in Saratoga NY thinking what an interesting perspective he had. The next year in my senior high school year as I began to {reform} my thinking it was kind of like he traveled along as well. on that journey. The reality that my life might be rather pedestrian rather than 007 exciting hung over me as it begins to with all most all adolescence young people. My mildly depressed outlook on the then world  was eased quite a bit when I was struck one day that if Plimpton could do interesting stuff while being an editor of what I then thought of as a stuffy journal maybe along life's way maybe I could be a Walter Mitty in a reality world as well.  So along life's way I have explored a number of topics and areas. They range from archeology , history , rebuilding a VW air cooled engine with a master mechanic that let me work with him , taking a faith healing course with The Episcopal Church. No I don't really do that. Once I volunteered at a Pirate radio station run by RPI guys off an old tug boat located near Troy on the Hudson River. They helped me build a special antenna that I used with a souped up radio to pick up electromagnetic signals  from Jupiter deep into the morning. Yes you can really do that. I have been given by my patient wife a gift of three laps around a track in Connecticut in a  vintage Jaguar. I have  helped form a battle line at Saratoga to recreate the Revolutionary War battle there.  Hot day , hot uniform. I may only do these things once and have done other things on other  occasions ,  even write about some of them. But this spice to my sometimes mundane life has upon times come with a price , trust me I rocked climbed only once and never will again.I guess this tribute has been to  make a few more people aware of George Plimpton who died from a heart attack in 2003. Intellect , explorer , writer , sometime actor and occasional inspiration. Faking it can be interesting , try it sometime.

The New Saint 2013: A New Ride For An Old Hero

 Oddly with over 150 blog entries one of the ones that keep on getting hits is whenever I blog about an all most forgotten fictional hero......Simon Templar.....The Saint.  This is true especially in France where many people seem interested and stop by to inquire. Hello France. Anyway the new series of The Saint is now in post production and I am sure will be on at least a cable network  within a year or so I suspect . You can view the new promo for it on The Saint Blog. It has just been released. As a matter of fact you can read a treasure chest full of history about this character if so inclined on this blog. So now the question arises , can an old character first published circa 1928 arise in a new century. God knows many elements of Templar have been copied over the years including a certain British figure known  by three numbers.  But can Templar be revived  or end up in the dustbin of fictional sleuths like Bull Dog Drummond.{ how many reading this have heard of him.} As the old saying goes the proof will be in the pudding. The new Saint Adam Rayner seems well  familiar with  the character. His humor but also his potential for cold blooded thinking and cold blooded actions as well. So we shall soon see a TV show that may transcend decades of  writing and rediscovery from  Vincent Price to Roger Moore to Adam Rayner. By the way Roger Moore known best as James Bond  speaks a interesting line in the story and I quote....."The world needs a Saint."  I agree , oh and by the way an interesting subplot appears in  this adventure the search for a special Templar ring. Oddly it reminds of a ring I own that was specially made for me by my nephew  Jason  Stinson a jeweler in the Albany NY area. Odd coincidence , perhaps , but you never know.

Storming The Castle

 As I recover from surgery , and actually looked death in the face for a few moments and discovered such things as I had a silent heart attack and did not know it. I have been doing some personal rehab like getting back in shape by walking and chewing alot of nicorette gum and using electronic cigarettes. It has been a rather long process but getting better. I now have some of my voice back which has been nice. But on my walks around local neighborhoods and the beach I have been doing some thinking. My wife Beth who enjoys correcting me, likes to tell me that when I use the expression that the Barbarians are at the gate I am wrong. She tells that the barbarians run the castle .....we are ones storming the gate. She is correct on many issues and she is probably on this one as well. The forces of stupidity and brute force and hate often hold the high ground bolstered by such people as Ayn Rand. Their weapons are such items as gerrymandered Congressional districts and large amounts of cash and the ever present lobbyist with fists full of influence. Then there are  those that wish for a kinder and gentler America as former President Bush once put it. Ones that hold education and science and basic human decency in high regard.  Those that remember the slogan {peace & love}. How quaint of us. But as John Lennon once said peace and love are internal. You know there are many people that still look to improve what we see or feel in the reverence within us.  Sometimes we do take our battering ram and crash the gate or take the high ground. Sometimes by even doing simple things like putting a couple of bucks in the Salvation Army kettle those that hold the castle are set back or made less comfortable by the presence of those outside their expensive well guarded gates. So with the realization at hand I move on to what time I have left and who knows may upon occasion grab the battering ram with a few others with names Ron and Robin and John , Sandra , Beth , Kendall , etc and hit against that gate a couple more times.

OPEN CHANNEL D

 I was sent a small gift by my aunt which arrived a few days ago. She is aware of my hobby of archeology and thought I might find this  of interest. It is an oddly thick pen with the NBC Logo which is a peacock with in small letters NBC. Written the side are the words Open Channel  D. Aunt Marian wrote in her letter it was given to her son Bill  by a neighbor who worked for I believe the Hartford Connecticut television station WTIC. The phrase on the pen jogged an old  , meaning atleast 40 plus years , memory. Open Channel D , so after a little Google action I discovered  that it was an oft used phrase on the old spy show The Man From Uncle. If memory serves me well , it was the phrase that agent Solo {Robert Vaughn} used to activate his  communication device. He would say those words into his pen radio and within a few moments he could talk with UNCLE Headquarters in New York City. As he once said it takes a couple of seconds  the signal has to bounce off the Telstar Satellite . My best speculation is that this was one of the little gifts given out at affiliate meetings usually held in NYC. I believe WTIC was at that time with NBC. So after a trip to Staples and a new refill purchased I now have a working pen  with a trivial phrase on it. One more memory of the sixties era recaptured by this gift.

Odds and Ends of Various Finds 2012

In my various searches for the interesting find and therefore a hopefully interesting blog entry I have come across a few odds and ends that may not be blog enough material but I thought I would share. North of Canastota NY 13032 on a side road I came across an old graveyard. The last person buried there was 1910. graves went back to 1790's. In this wooded area I spotted a small shadow like figure within the trees. It was a cloudy cold day in early November and it had a spooky look to it all most. Well....it was a Lawn Jockey , holding a lantern. An old one at that. African American with large lips and  features that one might describe as racially insensitive today. This one  probably was a lawn ornament in the 1940's or 50's. It was weathered.  Then I noticed deeper in the woods was something else. Upon a few steps further in and I realized it was 2 pink flamingo stuck in the ground.  Oh my God someone choose to use this area as a graveyard of old lawn art. Stuff often referred to now as tacky but in the past was a popular form of some sort of artistic expression I suppose. Google lawn jockey if you want to know more. Last summer near the Dutchess and Columbia County border left next to a now abandoned old home was a small piece of car history. A junked Opel fastback car circa 1967. GM imported these cars in the 1960's  till early to mid 1970's. All the windows were broken or shot up as I am certain this old heap was used for target practice. As a matter of fact I dug out what appeared to be a 22 caliber bullet out of the passenger seat. A tree was growing through the back seat area through the open window. A maple to be exact. I did harvest one thing , the emblem off the hood. A circle with a sideways lightening bolt through it. Perhaps to use for later research. These were at one time an inexpensive car that competed with the VW brand. But they had several weaknesses that finally caused the Buick Division  to end the import. GM still owns majority interest in Opel in Europe. Finally during a walk along Pre - Super Storm Sandy beach last winter with my dog Dashiell an interesting item came in on the waves that shook some cob webs loose of old popular memory. It was a laminated photo still well preserved. It was a publicity type picture. It was 2 actors. Robert Vaughn  and David McCallium. Both known in the 1960's as The Men From Uncle. A TV spy show that was made during the early James Bond craze. Vaughn is still seen in TV shows and McCallum is the all wise pathologist/ autopsy  doctor in NCIS.. I was a faithful watcher for many years. How it ended up as refuse in the ocean one will never know. How a lawn jockey or a junk car ended up  as they did only warrants a moments speculation. But then again that is the stuff of archeology. Happy New Year by the way.