Retro in Time-Going Back to 1969/1970

  I realize this will sound ...well...weird. One of my most fascinating points of history is appx July 1969 to about July 1970. I believe this was a major change point in time. The transition from the turbulent 60's to a different time which I believe leads in a meandering way to our dysfunctional  present political and social state. So what am I planning. Well......I am sure you know of  reactors who dress up in say Civil War garb and  refight various battles etc. Well I plan to in a way go back to that 1969 era to see if I can understand it better and see if I can recharge my history muse {if I can find her}. How do I plan to do this , well I will borrow a 68 VW beetle to drive for a couple of days. I have purchased a Schick adjustable razor circa 1970's from ebay. I plan to drive roads and highways only available that year. So I am planning this out. So one more reason why. I am now so far a cancer survivor. Finished up radiation in July for throat cancer. This September shortly after Labor Day the class of 2015 will enter Maple Hill High School for their senior year. Just as I did in 1969 some 45yrs ago. When one has cancer I have begun to realize that life is short or atleast shorter than I may hope. So who knows if I will make a 50th anniversary. So better now to try my experiment rather than later......don't worry I will write a blog about some of my impressions. So if you live in the Schodack NY area especially , and you knew me back then say hello , I would love to talk with you on that era. I may even be wearing a tie dyed T shirt. I told you it was going to sound odd.

Early Automobile Map Discovered

 A few years ago I purchased a book at a Garage Sale. Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill. Inside this musty old book I discovered an early road map of  Rensselaer County and Columbia County in upstate New York. It was only a partial part of the total map. I surmise this map is circa 1920's. What I have been wondering about off & on for a couple of years is why certain parts of the map are circled in pencil. All circles are next to a body of water. Along the Hudson River and  three streams are high lited. One spot which is located in the now Schodack State Park has the notation" easy turn off." One spot along the Moorenden Kill stream has the same notation. I think after some research and visiting some of the sights I may have an idea what this map was used for. Obviously, for navigation , route 9J was once a major road to NYC area. I believe the notations show places where one could pull off into the water and cool off ones tires. You see back in those days tires were rubber based , it would be several years before they would not be made of pure rubber. Ford Motor Company  had their own rubber plantation in South America. Rubber was an important product in those days. The biggest problem with pure rubber tires is they could heat up to be as hot as the roadway and in some cases burst. From late spring to early fall . this was a problem. By driving your car into a stream or river could cool your tires off and give you prolonged tire life. This map , probably used as a book mark is rapidly deteriorating. Once exposed to air it has greatly faded. Time for it to fade into history.

That First Sound of Spring on the First Warm Friday

 This has been a tough winter.....one of the harshest in several years. Grounds keepers in places like Detroit are having a difficult time getting fields ready for opening of baseball with deep permafrost. So people seem left to wait for their spring experience to happen. I discussed  this experience at a dinner party. It of course differs between people , for some the first sighting of a Robin. Others it is opening day of baseball season or the first early barbeque. Mine is perhaps more esoteric. It is the first reasonably warm day after spring arrives on a Friday afternoon. High School gets out or classes are done at a local college , in my case Union. People may leave work early. There is a sudden increase in traffic speed. The local pulse seems to quicken. Then off in the distance one hears tires burn a little rubber. I have heard this happen from Lake Placid NY to Atlantic Beach NY to Washington DC. I first noticed it in my hometown of Schodack NY. Probably because I was doing it myself with a couple of friends. That first warm Friday afternoon.....the weekend ahead....Spring in the air finally. You want to go out and just drive a little extra , take the long way back home , take that tight turn a little faster. Trust me , it's a collective thing that really happens. I trust you all hear it soon. At the dinner party a few people especially the guys showed a certain recognition. It's coming..... be listening

Namath Till Now

As I write I am in the middle of moving back to the Albany New York area.....you never know how much you got till you move. Luckily , I can move up slowly over a three month time frame so it has not been so hectic and stress inducing. But I am taking some time to answer a question recently asked of me at a House Party we gave on January 1st of this year. Why in hell am I a Jets fan. This was asked  by an obnoxious Cowboys fan that populate the Globe. OK....but a fair question. The decisions of youth can sometimes haunt  one throughout life and this is a small example I presume. So here is the answer......Joe Namath. It was 1965 and I was sort of a Giants fan. I watched YA Tittle in the early sixties. The great 50's 60's Giants quarterback. But 1964 season and you can look it up was a disaster. Tittle who was in the NFL championship game the year before was old suddenly and the team had dissolved. He was in his late thirties and retired after 64 to his Insurance and Financial Services Company. That Giant era was over. I lost interest in the game and did other things in my early teen years like become involved in The Beatles era. I however did watch one college game , The Orange Bowl with a talented wise ass quarterback named Joe Namath. He won and there was something about him. The Jets signed him for 1965. The old AFL seemed a proper fit for the brash kid from Bama. Suddenly he was all the news....he was introduced  at the old Toots Shores in NYC and for you trivia fans received his physical in Toots Shores bathroom. REALLY! The next couple of his days were consumed by his one of many knee surgeries. Suddenly the poor brother of the Giants was news. Back in those days the Jets  did not even get that much television coverage , often one had to listen to them on the radio and they played often on Saturday night to not compete with the Giants on Sunday.  All of a sudden , the station in Schenectady WRGB was going to broadcast  their games. People were interested in a team that played then in the old Polo Grounds along with the then lowly METS. They had a new home at Shea Stadium and they had Namath. I a burgeoning 60's wise-ass took to this new guy and the fast paced AFL. Broadway Joe and the sixties were a great fit. It seemed the right fit for me as I progressed through  my teen and early twenties. Oh and Joe leading them to their to the only Superbowl appearance and actually won was an addition narcotic to keep me a fan. The following years have not all ways been kind to a fan of this team. Sometimes damn painful. But I have stuck with them. In retrospect , I think it some of it has been loyalty, But maybe it is youthful hope and ambition that I once felt still flickers within me and stays this course to remind me of the bashful and brashful kid. I watch on waiting for a spark of youthful magic. I suppose we all do in one way or another.

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.