schodack local beverage companies

On my dig into local farmers landfills last summer I found several pieces of broken bottle glass. Putting together the pieces I discovered an interesting couple of local beverages bottles. Koppins & Blenwell Beverages. Also found local bottle caps from these beverages. Grape , cola , vichy water as examples. The labels were both embossed on bottles , not paper labels. Many of the bottles were a dark green color. Both soda containers had the name Castleton NY on them one Blenwell bottle had the 12033 zip code which I surmise showed this company survived longer. In interviewing a couple of older residents I uncovered the name George Andrews who was a major distributor and home deliver of these beverages. His store room was in back of his home on Scott Avenue in 12033. The Blenwell bottle say that the vichy is made with pure spring water. The small plant for Blenwell was located I believe on winding Schodack Valley Road. That makes sense because there are several springs in that part of the town which feeds the Moorenda Kill. These and other local labels in many parts of country have disappeared. The major companies like Coke overwhelmed the small marketers and tastes changed as well. Tastes such as Black Cherry and Birch Beer lost to mass appeal. Non returnable bottles may have also have been a factor which show up above the line where these bottles were dug.

Sunday Night

The quiet of a Sunday night. Every night seems to have it's own psychology....it's own feel. I was out to mail a couple of letters yesterday evening which was a Sunday. Cold , overcast....and that anticipation of ....whatever. Church , heavy television viewing , the highest of the week. The preparation for the week ahead. Organized people get set , mothers check wardrobes , football players hit the line , and an almost numbing quiet settles over the country. I believe this to somewhat international...even in relatively secular England ....subdued Sunday. Readers of this blog may very well know what I mean....from Castleton NY to Berlin Ct . Ocala Fl to London GB that almost quiet it's to quiet feel. Perhaps it is a free floating anxiety. Many yrs ago I dealt with a professional couple......both medical doctors. Their young son , had school anxiety issues. She once referred to Sunday evening & night as the quiet scream. The week ahead overwhelmed . The mother would eventually take 14 months off from practice to deal with the problems. By the way the story ends well but Sunday retains a certain dread that has been hard for them to shake. Sunday evening is the sound of distant guns.....the rattle of early morning coffee cups for reluctant workers , the background hiss of modern industrial radiation being turned up.

You Are # 6 The Prisoner Returns

Last night I met an employee from AMC Cable Network. Bridget and I discussed the new show coming out The Prisoner. Actually it is a remake from the 1960's cult classic of the same name. Oddly the day my new Grandson was born was the day Patrick McGoohan the creator and actor in the series died. He was 80. The show was what we then called a summer replacement show on the CBS television network. It ran for 2 or 3 summers so different it was. Only 17 episodes were made. It concerned a man placed in a place called The Village. A prison for former intelligence workers. The essential theme was we will take care of you here , you must give up your individuality and fork over the INFORMATION they wanted. Everyone was assigned a number , Mcgoohan's character was assigned #6. This series was a revolution in a revolutionary time. Even to a kid from the small town of Schodack NY. 12033. My main friends Ron and John were fans as well. We would joke about how our High School , Maple Hill was similar. You know, it was. We were all assigned a number, our academic group number. It was more of an expectation number. The higher your group the better your chance at success or so was thought by the powers that be back then. I can't tell you how oppressive a place Maple Hill High School was back then. Many students from that era I have talked to have remarked as much. What you were was molded. Some might say warped. Numbers. So when this new version comes on cable I may get flashbacks to a time and place that forced a rebellion. It really did effect me in my later career as I was never as happy a jailor for omrdd in NYS service as they would have perferred. To end with a quote from that original series: I will not be pushed , filed , stamped , indexed , briefed , debriefed or numbered.....I am a free man. Now I feel so much better having said this.

Robert Jeffrey Hudson

Yesterday my first Grandchild was born. 9 pounds 10 ounces , 20 and one half inches long. As a person that often looks at the past I find myself wondering of his future. If I can do anything for him it is to show him his ancestors. You have a family that goes back to the 1600's in this country. We have come from people who were everything from farmers to mechanics , ministers , people in the political world , solders , sailors , mailmen , teachers , carpenters , car salesmen , human service people , rebels , moms & dads. Your family survived war , illness , poverty , depressions , crop ruining weather , bad schools , early death and a lack of dreams. Yet they survived to bring you forth into this new world. Many were happy........and if they could would wish you well. You come from strong stock.......as do many. Take that Robert and run with it........don't look back to often. Forward.

Past Presidents Passing

Last week all remaining Presidents of the USA gathered together in the Oval Office for the photo op with our soon to be new President B. Obama. They wished him well & success. It triggered a memory from the past. Circa Early January 1972. Cold with no snow in my Hometown of Castleton/Schodack N.Y.. Pres. Johnson had died on the heels of President Truman. There was a custom back then at the State Capitol for a twenty one gun salute at sundown for I believe five days following the death of a President. The cannons located on the front lawn of the Capitol Bld. boomed out their tribute. The sound traveled down the hudson river valley and could be heard in Castleton. I heard the echoing sound rumble as I got out of my car to visit home for the weekend. I was a college student at the time. I must say I had my differences with LBJ when he was the President but now I felt an odd passing of time. My uncle came out of the house and commented that Nixon stood alone.......we had no X Presidents left. Watching the X's on TV this week was oddly comforting. I like having some former Presidents around. Perhaps it was that cold January day......my discomfort over being pinned down on career decisions.....or just to this end we all must come. Whatever the reason is....... it is best not to go through our political discourse in isolation. Goes for life as well.

Schodack NY Kunicki Pond

I like the mystery of discovering the past by piecing together what is left behind. Such is my status as a "Pot Finder" archeologist. Sometimes it is the geography of an area that also leaves behind clues. Such is the case of an all most lost location , Kunicki Pond. This pond was located on an older town map circa late 50's early 60's. It is located off Graw Rd on the southern part of the town near the Columbia County border. It seems to have disappeared during the intervening yrs. No one has heard of the pond and I have not seen it on more recent maps, can't find it on Google mapping. What happaned to it ?
If one travels this rather isolated road there are hay fields , old barn foundations and a few homes. The road itself is about a mile and a half long and ends with the connecting Dingman Road. The road travels up a hill and at the top of the hill is a house set off near a wooded ridgeline hill . This house was built by a Theodore "Ted" Kunicki where an older home once stood. The remainders of the Kunicki family is where I gain the information that began to solve the puzzle. The land was purchased from a Mr. Payne during the fifties. The original home on that property and the newer one was built over a spring. The excess water was channeled down the hill by a clay pipe. Mr. Payne desired what was called in older days a swimming hole for his kids etc. He had a pond dug out at the bottom of the ridgeline. It was not created for cattle though was used by deer and other animals and have seen reports of a higher deer population in that area. I explored this area and found what I would describe as remnants of a larger pond. I found pieces of clay pipe and old nails with my metal detector. The pond area has over the yrs filled in. Leaves , dirt , much less water has caused only a slight wet land area to survive.
So when the map maker named the pond area he named it after the owners of the property at the time. Oddly Graw Rd was known by locals as Kunicki Rd. How it ended up with the name Graw I do not know. Mrs Lillian Kunicki a former Town of Schodack official still lives on Graw Rd on property further up the road. Ted Kunicki was a successful Housing Developer in the area.

Farmers Landfills in Schodack NY 12033

This past summer I have excavated 4 landfill type areas in the Town of Schodack N.Y.. Following are a summation of my findings and various thoughts I have on them. Schodack NY was a small industrial and farming community located in the southern region of Rennselear County bordered by the Hudson River to the Columbia County to the south the foothills of the Berkshires to the east. There is still some farming and small time manufacturing. What it has become since the 1960's is much more of a suburb of the Albany & Troy areas. What it was in previous days was a fairly sleepy semi isolated small town.
It was not an uncommon part of farming or rural living in past days before large waste disposal companies and Town landfills for people to create their own. Using their own property in a secluded section to dispose of no longer useful items. Getting permission to search such areas of property now is of course not easy. Who wants a dump discovered on their land. Anger or strange looks are not uncommon. I managed by hook and crook to gain some entrance to areas. I shall not reveal exact locations.

1. Funk Road Area
2. Graw Road Area
3. Green Avenue Area
4. South Schodack Area near Columbia County Border

First of all old tires , Atlas , Firestone , Montgomery Ward etc. Large old tractor tires were not uncommon. They always are at the top of a landfill or dump. The lack of tread shows that they were used as long as was possible. A favorite find was old junked cars. I came upon an old Nash from circa 1956. severely rusted body and frame in the Green ave site. In another was 3 old Ramblers used as parts cars. At the Rambler site was also an old IH truck circa 1958. The odometer read 267,000 on the IH truck. IH stands for international harvester. Buried on the Rambler site found by metal detector was an old tractor engine. I am told by property owner that engine was from a Furguson tractor circa 1953. My digging revealed many fascinating items , atleast to me. Many old Montgomery Ward items such as 1 gallon oil cans , tools , kitchen items . washing machines etc. This is not surprising. In Menands , NY there was a large 3 or 4 story bld that was all a Montgomery Ward Department store. This was a mega store for the time and served a large geographic area. This brand name usually meant that I had dug to the early fifties or sixties. Now glass items were usually broken , one metal and glass item I discovered puzzled me. After searching and asking I believe was an old sediment bowl used in cars and tractors before the wide use of gas filtration devices, It tended to allow sediment in gasoline to settle in bottom of bowl before it reached the carberator. It would be cleaned out often. I believe it also allowed for air to mix with the fuel as well. I found 3 toys one remnant was a toy blimp which I believe I can date to atleast the 1940's. In the Graw road area I found several old gears most likely from old farm equipment. Remnants of an old hay combine lay nearby so the gears may have come from that type of equipment.
My major conclusion is simple. This was a frugal life lead by these people. Items were used for as long as they could be or were broken beyond repair. Occasionally , items became obsolete such as an old wringer washing machine circa 1930's. I have reason to believe it was used well into the 1950's. Tire tread was at the minimum in many tires found. People fixed what was broken when possible , hence , the use of parts cars for instance. Use old cars to keep one car going. This was not a disposable community for the most part. Through good times and bad one was careful of money spent and what one had.