Old Bali Hai Wine Bottle Discovered

Near Clove Rd in the Town of Schodack NY   In a small wooded area just off the highway  I discovered  what appeared to be an old wine bottle. It's obscured and deeply faded label , what was left of it was of a blueish tint. It was not intact , just the upper portion of the bottle was found. After checking out the internet and looking for a corresponding  picture I do believe I know what it was. An old broken bottle of Balli Hai wine.  It did spark a memory. This wine I believe made by Gallo was an inexpensive wine or in other words cheap. Sold in pints and quarts. This was sold in the late sixties through much of the seventies. It was of the old " Pop Wine" movement to lure younger people and wine drinkers whose taste had not moved to a more dry taste in wines. Very Fruity , quite light. To use an old parlance , it was chuggable. Since yes I did partake of this variety of wine let me say it had tastes of peaches , strawberry , a hint of apple.and but of course grape. Very sweet aftertaste. It was a wine for newbies but surprisingly more adults drank it than one might assume. It was advertised on TV in the late sixties as a sort of taste of the East. Some House Parties used it as a base for an early American Waspy version of Sangria. You have to remember.......America was still in the process of discovering wine and it was not as widely consumed as it is today. There were not very many boutique wineries as there is today as well. Gallo or Taylor were the big producers. For anyone wishing to sample what it may have tasted like I have been informed that a wine called Frutezia is the closest one can come to it today. As for me my last taste was at the Powder Ridge Music Festival in July of 1970 in Connecticut. So , perhaps a quick disposal of an old bottle led to it being chucked into this wooded area that I would many years later dig into after it had become more overgrown. and three quarter buried. My thanks to Ted Franconis , a favored bartender and  Kimberly Peacock of the Tousey Winery for some assistance in writing this blog

Going Home Again Schodack NY

I really did start the day hoping to finish my short dig on Clove Rd in my home town of Schodack NY. But today after a seemly long winter and slightly late spring I decided to just drive around  what appeared to me a newly minted home town. Thomas Wolfe was essentially correct , "you can't go home again". But on this warm , sunny , vibrant , spring morning everything seemed alive and beckoning to me. Gould Orchards with it's apple trees in full flower was remarkable. Stopped by to buy a bottle of wine. Residents bushes and trees were opening up in a fragrant explosion it seemed to me. Many people were busy tending gardens and mowing lawns. Maple Hill High School which was my old high school had kids out on the track and it appeared a class was being taught on the Tennis Bleachers. People soaking up the sunshine if not learning. Near Schodack Landing what appeared to be a mangy coyote ran across the road on Schodack Landing Rd. The Hudson River lite up with mid morning light , a high tide pushing up the river. I have had a stressful week.......but my mood began to feel more on the tranquil side as I toured. My mind did wander to some past things .....how things have changed , how they have not. This final 1.6 months of High School before graduation for the class of 2015. That truly is a mixture of feelings.Todays return filled me with transcendent calm. A quiet day in an upstate New York town. Sometimes therapy can be only a few bucks of gas away. So I write this ode to you my hometown. We certainly have had our differences , but transcendent thought can make quiet this so often intense life we may lead.

Aeroplane in Castleton

 Several yrs ago I wrote a blog about the first airplane landing in my hometown in Castleton NY 12033. I subsequently discovered a New York Times article about that event. Since my traffic has increased  in the last couple of yrs I wanted to repost where to find the article. Go to Google for instance and type in Aeroplane in Castleton and the article will come up. My ancestors were there and a couple of great uncles for instance took a crayon and wrote their initials on the canvas wing. Enjoy the post about the day Castleton N.Y. became the center of aviation in atleast the USA in 1911 and inspired a great uncle of mine to become an aviator with the 73rd Aero Squadron  in World War One. James Tobias.

Seeking Some Voices From The Past 69/70

 It's kind of weird but I know what I was doing 45 yrs ago this past weekend.  Not that it was of any great importance. I was at an Aunt and Uncles home installing a TV antenna on their roof. How do I know this.....well in looking over a set of old mail and postcards from my Mom's old home before they get thrown out I discovered an unopened envelope with my name on it. I opened it and found a five dollar bill and a note from my aunt thanking me for putting up the antenna and watching over their house while they were vacationing in South Carolina. By an odd coincidence I remembered it was exactly 45yrs all most to the date that I did the job. Didn't know I got payed and like I said kind of weird  to have discovered it. So let me tell you of that memory and you can judge if it sheds any light on to that late 60's , early 70's time. So here goes my memory quirk. It had been a miserable week. My father was in the hospital with a heart procedure. Maple Hill High School in my home town of Schodack New York seemed to suffer a mini nervous brealdown. One junior was expelled from school for selling cigarettes out of his locker that his uncle brought up from the somewhere in the south. Three kids expelled for one day for smoking in the bathroom. One kid it was rumored did not because he apparently {turned states evidence} against the junior selling untaxed cigarettes to minors. There was a major fight between junior high school kids. One child got his nose apparently mildly broke. Again an expulsion. Someone had set a tire on fire in the back parking lot in the wee hours of the morning of 3/25 which was a Wednesday. From talking with a couple of people from that time it was an overall bitchy week between students and teachers as well.  Maybe it was from a version of cabin fever  but  the town itself was on edge as well.  Some arrests on our old Main Street from brawling outside the bars. two major car accidents   Finally......as I  stated before there was a palpable tension within the school. A teacher was letting it be known he was not getting tenure and was expressing his angry views to his students and this would boil over within a month to a nasty protest which all most got several more students expelled. Peter Stoll an English teacher there at the time confided to a couple of friends and myself that our principal Larry Davis was ready to pull his hair out. As he apparently  confided to some teachers  and school board members.....{when the hell are things going to go back to normal in this Goddamn world.} In actuality he didn't have  long to wait before things would settle down. The sixties were after all , over. Just the lingering after shocks were remaining. Principal Davis loved order like he had in the Navy in WWII.
 Other stuff was going on in the world and at home but I think I have set the stage for our small community. That Friday , after   school I was dropped off at my Aunt & Uncles. My Mom was going up to the hospital to attend to my father at the medical center. I had my list of chores and it was agreed I would spend the weekend there puttering around. It was gloomy , misty rain , chilly. My friends and I all agreed that no one was going out on this Friday because we were all bushed. Because I did some amateur radio my Aunt suggested I install their new antenna  , so for the next 2 hours that is what I did and it was cold on top of that house on top of a hill.  But it worked and because it was on a high vantage point the TV could also pick up stations out of the a immediate area  , namely channel 8 New Haven Ct and WTIC.  channel 3 in Hartford Ct.  I thought a job well done. But I had no place to go. Made dinner or should I say a prepared TV Dinner. So now what to do? It was dark , I had a certain senior year fatigue about me. So I did what I probably needed to do , something I have all ways sought out during various times of my life. I  decided on solitude. I also decided on a couple of Schlitz beers from the downstairs fridge. called up Kunicki , he was vegging out as well. Made plans for Saturday night. Now I jacked up the heat , pulled the Lazyboy recliner to the living room window , opened the window slightly , yes I smoked but one of my quirks is I like fresh air as well. I know ,  makes not a lot of sense. Lit up a Benson & Hedges Deluxe {you can guess where I got them and no I did not turn in the kid.} Anyway had my portable radio with me with shortwave ability. Turned on the BBC from London. Even then I liked to pay attention to the news. Usual bad news , protests in Paris , war in Vietnam.etc. They also spent a fair amount of time discussing the rumors that The Beatles were splitting up. Which in reality they soon would. One economist talked about how it might effect the economy in England. Imagine that. I then set in silence and let my mind wonder. I believe I realized that a major era of my life was ending , that being high school. My older and ill father , my strained relations with my brother who only a few short months before had returned from Vietnam.  My teenage insecurities along with a deep desire to escape Maple Hill High School. Before I knew it it was around 10:00 PM. I switched on a NYC radio station. Gene Shepard doing his radio show. You may know him as a writer and narrator of A Christmas Story. Could that man talk....for two hours five nights a week he would just do these flow of consciousness stories. I wrapped my mind around his voice and let him take me for a ride. I believe he talked about a date he had in a rich part on town in his early adulthood. It was then he said he more fully realized what was out in other parts of the world and he might get a piece of it. From there I listened Long John Nebel's talk show on WNBC. Discussion of the publishing industry and the hoax book Naked Came a Stranger. I truly do feel that there was a higher level of discussion back then. After 1:00 AM I simply went back to my wandering mind. What rich part of town might I visit or would not. I puzzled over  these matters I am sure Teenagers of this generation have these moments as well. One thing I don't think we had to deal with quite as often was what we wanted to do in our adult life. If you didn't know  , one had Liberal Arts. Figure it out down the road. Of course back then you could leave high school and often find a decent job with benefits. This does not happen often today. Somewhere in the night I drifted off to a reasonable sleep.  Wow , it was suddenly 11:00 AM. Got up ,  fixed a quick breakfast , checked the chore list twice and  started moving on it.
 Night would again fall , a non adult house ,  friends with transportation , I threw a small but respectful party. Cards , darts  , drinking , a few girls dropped by as well. People escaping for who knows where or what..Our major discussion point was Vietnam as it was in much of the nation. One slightly broken window which got blamed on my cousin later and broke up around 1:00 AM..  I can still hear those voices today. From Gene Shepard to high school whats their names. But I can honestly say I and we needed that weekend......sort out the cobwebs and prepare for June and some supposed new destiny that adults kept telling us about. We were a fairly subdued group that night. Seem to fit the psychology of the week.Coming to the end of an era in ones life can sometimes make you that way.
 Next day I opened every window in the house......cleaned up the place , dumped the empties with Kunicki who disposed of them. Showered , shaved , looked presentable , Mom arrived after noon. Did an inspection and off to home again. Another week at MHHS awaited  and I had a planning meeting for a new day called Earth Day we were acting on.

Cigarette Smoking Archive

 I have not written much lately but I have been doing some collecting. My 87 yr old Aunts out barn , a musty old basement in Schenectady N.Y.  Discovered a milk bottle from the H Wilson Crounse Dairy in Altamont N.Y. probably from the 1930's or 40's. That was my brother in laws Christmas present cause he collects as well. My wife was a Crounse as is he. So a piece of family history was discovered. Anyway , what I ended up discovering was alot of old cigarette stuff. Mainly in my Aunts old out barn/storage area.

1. A pack of Kent from the 1950's. It had an atomic mushroom cloud on it. Back then I discovered they were marketed  as the atomic age cigarette. The filters had a slight blueish tint. So , I attempted to discover if what I heard was true. Asbestos , was contained in that generation of Kents. I took out my old scalpel from high school biology class and  cut one filter open. put it under my mini microscope. Yes indeed it appeared that those were asbestos fibers I observed. Nicotine , tars and carbon monoxide on top of asbestos. Wow , were those deadly.

2. A crumpled up empty pack of Chesterfield 101's. You can Google their 60's commercials. When Benson and Hedges came up with the concept of 100mm cigarettes  to keep up sales post Surgeon Generals Report Chesterfield  launched their new filter cigarette as a 101mm. Sales Gimmick......but it apparently was not very successful as that brand did not last long. Lets face it 1 mm was like a tenth of a puff.

3. Found in the back of a cupboard in my Aunts  a full pack of Benson & Hedges Deluxe. Green in color , long box with a wood paneled look. Purple writing on the cigarettes. Unopened. My departed uncle used to smoke them after he switched from Lucky's. I smoked a few in my youth. Many ladies smoked them as well as the extra long box fit in a purse much better than a shirt pocket. Well......to be honest as an experiment mind you I rehydrated this pack using refrigeration and a heavy humidity container for over 10 days. Even though my smoking days are supposed to be behind me I tried a couple. Though this exact package and blend has not been in stock for probably over 25 yrs , it was a  taste from the past that was familiar and rather good , despite the age.

4. Finally an in person event. So I can continue my rehab and keep getting back in shape  post heart attack and cancer I belong to  the Ciccotti Family Recreation Center. A retired professor  and folk singer who once taught at Skidmore College and I struck up a couple of conversation over time in the weight room. Turns out she was the singer who sang the background song for Benson & Hedges TV commercials. She used the money for Post Graduate education. You can Google the commercials  and hear her lilting tones. So before she moved to South Carolina to be closer to her daughter she gave me a present. A Benson & Hedges ashtray shaped like a bent 100mm cigarette which was sort of one of their logo's.

 So ,  a couple of  finds I bring to you and will now dispose of. Probably , sell the ashtray on e-bay.

Spending Time in 1969 Part Two

 Frankly my experiment in going back to a moment in  history , namely 1969 has lost it's luster. A year that had 2 great highs  so to speak. Our first moon landing in July 1969 and a different kind of high Woodstock the next month. But in my 15 plus interviews and various travels in my hometown and other places I think I solved my original question.. How did that era seemingly end , culturally , politically etc so quickly. It really did by the way. August of 69 looked much different from August 70. So, quickly let me give you my $00.50 opinion. It fell apart from it's own rather heavy weight. The upheaval of the 60's simply wore people out. I remember New Years Eve in 1970 when we stumbled out of the 60's.  When we left that decade we left a time when many thought changed the world for the better. Well , we may have spoken of Peace & Love but in my opinion we are more divided than ever. Case in point......when coming up from Charlotte , North Carolina I passed through an open carry state. After I got gas I stood in line at the convenience store  behind a man who was big , had body odor , scruffy beard and was caring his pistol on his hip. Not much of a desire for peace and love there. Trust me you could tell  without much esp. So as I enter News Years Eve Night.........let me say I do miss that younger Hudson Hawk , you know the one with the longer hair and is not so wore down by recent illness and  cynicism. So off we all go to a new year.

Spending Time in 1969 Probably Part One

 As I wrote a few months ago , I am exploring the year 1969.  As of this writing  that was 45 yrs ago.  I am sort of exploring some issues of how the 60's ended.. But let me write down some initial observations. I have done over 15 interviews , grew my hair longer , drove a rented VW aircooled , spend a fair amount of time in my hometown. My hair drove my wife crazy ,  so I have now cut it.  But this is kind of a few things I noticed. I took roads that existed in 1969, trust me it took longer to get places. Many of the interstates were not completed , the 9J overhaul had just begun. Driving down Albany's Central Avenue is a chore compared to zipping down an express lane. But you see all the old business districts that no longer are vibrant. In my hometown area of Castleton NY is all most dead. I would not be surprised to see tumble weeds blow down Main Street. Houses boarded up , business mostly gone. We have become used to our quick communication society , cell phones , the Web , a wide variety of Apps.  Living in 1969 was  very different. I stopped and used a pay phone to call my wife.  A throw back moment , not convenient. But , I enjoyed the lack of interruption. Oh.....no cable news....for a few days watched the NBC Nightly News and read the Times Union newspaper. You had to spend more time being an informed  citizen. I could not manage the diet well.......we were not a society that ate all that well. It was beginning to happen , but we were still a drinking , smoking , high fat society for the general population. Nobody had heard of non smokers rights. However , I think the one revelation I had was that P.J. O'Rourke was right. He once said in one of his books that there is a limited amount of types of people in the world and you met all of them in High School. Rooting around in the past and being in the present , interviewing people about the end of the sixties , it struck me , that the same personality types keep coming up. I graduated High School with everyone of them.....really. From the crazy liberal to the crazy conservative and the middle of the road guy.  The English major type to the carpenter. The back slapper to the shy guy to the lady's man. They all wandered   the corridors of Maple Hill High School.  So.....that is what my first impressions have been. Still working on it as 45 yrs ago winds down.