Hurricane Sandy : Odd Gifts From The Sea

Before orders to evacuate I walked the turbulent beaches of Atlantic Beach. During these times it can be fascinating to view what stuff roles up on shore the more distant parts of the ocean. Old children's pales and shovels , a ripped up banner that reads Cape Hatteris. A half deflated inner tube ,old wine bottles  lots of plastic bags and oh by the way several condoms. Nice to know people are practicing safe sex on the high seas. Refuse left behind generally.  So much junk , so little planet. Some say this could be a truly a horrible storm once the full consequences are felt and added up. They may be right , right now the sea looks like I have not seen before.....dark , all  encompassing. Going to higher ground.

My Hometown of Schodack NY My Fortress of Solitude

This past weekend I stopped by my hometown after a trip to Albany on family business. I went to a spot in a wooded area I know well. near my old high school. I needed to slow down and think. I set on a boulder and zoned out. No history research or archeology dig this time. I believe everyone needs to stop every so often and just think and sort through things. I am facing surgery on my throat and it also appears being mildly struck by lightening this past summer may have given me mild heart damage. The term Fortress of Solitude comes from The Superman Comic series. It was his hidden place in the ice of the north  where he sometimes went for solitude and solace. My occasional trips back home where I am now little known or remembered  is my place. It is where I remember where I came from. The land I tread upon when younger. The people now mostly gone who took time to give me advice or council. Sometimes it is a good thing to remember where ones roots are.....it can help keep humility in ones life. I needed the roots of my past this recent weekend  and I needed the quiet. It was time to take a deep , long breath of cool fresh air. It was time to step from the shadows that one may sometimes place ones self in. I found it at my old home area. I have found that many people in life need to take that time. You might say it is essential time for ones soul. So on the heights above the Hudson I found some quiet time and hope you all do as well.

International James Bond Day....007

I was 11 yrs old when the first James Bond movie  premiered  50 yrs ago today. Dr. No was the title. I was later that spring to see it  at a drive in movie in the nearby town of East Greenbush New York. Later in my life I would start to read all of Ian Fleming's novels. There has been tons of items written about Bond in the last few days concerning this celebration day. I doubt I can add much. This now icon of the secret agent genre has been much studied , sifted through , items sold at auction  talked about. This fictional character starting in the declining yrs of The British Empire going through the cold war and the sixties to the fall of the Berlin wall to our age of terrorist fears he has been with us. All my life. I suspect he will out live me. I guess to me he has become that mysterious uncle or whispered about relative we know from a distance. Someone who seems to spend time in the shadows. There are in reality people like this ,, like the seal teams etc. So my compliments to his creator and movie producers for the fantasy of the glamorous shadows. It's been a great run these 50 yrs.

September 18th 1969: The Day I Changed

 I don't really like talking about myself in this Blog. I prefer to more report. But  on this day I have decided to speak for a moment about a personal day long ago in my self history. On this date 43 yrs ago I returned late from an expanded summer vacation and a failed business opportunity to Maple Hill High School in Schodack N.Y. 12033. I wanted to drop out get a GED and end my relationship with this brand of formal education. Well it didn't work out I had returned home to angry  and rather frustrated parents. Through a combination of threat and  some bribery I was brought around to going back for my senior yr. So on this date I returned about two weeks late. This date if you research it has not been a day of great historical impact. But it was for me. I was to find out over  that school yr how many people conspired to  get me to return.  Martin Singer , Dr. Kimoblot my Aunt Marian etc. Singer was my guidance councilor and he smoothed the transition.  So that strange combination of arm twisting and  gentle conversation I returned to a place I had not been  to in over a yr. The previous yr I had been in a boarding school. Within a week I somehow changed or matured enough , whatever , to settle in. Through friendship and good people I  resolved to push on in a newer direction. So in an odd way this was one of the most important  days of my life.  In my future career in Human Services and Education  aware of it or not I often encouraged people to find a day of resolve and  move on and regroup and go forward.  A day like Sept 18th 1969. So I wish to simply say thank you to all those who were there for the guidance and especially friendship. A common day in America but a most uncommon one for me. The day when the gears were set in motion for a full life to come.

Graduation 1970:To Jessica and Essex

Well....as I promised to you young ladies the requested  blog  you asked me for. First , once again congrats on your upcoming High School graduation. Enjoy this it only comes once and you will have memories your entire life. This morning on this overcast day I walked along the deserted beach and wondered what I might say. I for one usually disliked graduation speakers even though I have heard ones from a Supreme Court Justice to a photo journalist. All sound similar. I have asked 2 people who I graduated with if they remember who our commencement speaker was at Maple Hill High School in Schodack NY.  some 40+ yrs ago. None do including myself.  So let me attempt not to say what countless others have said even though I am sure I will.

1. Let me set one thing straight.....I did not graduate with a bunch of Hippies.  By 1970 there were few and there never were that many to begin with. We may have had longer hair and may have leaned from a slightly different lifestyle as our parents but as most kids we were more conventional than we would admit. I don't care what one might see on say the History Channel or in the new movie Men In Black3......the yrs of the 60's did not last as long as people remember.

2. I graduated outside in the back of our school as is and was our custom there. Every year they build a platform with stairs that assorted educators and guests sit. It was over cast and people worried we would be stuck in the old gym bld boiling hot. We made it through. Weddings and funerals and graduations all want good weather.....I suspect you will for yours. Trust me it will be fine.

3. If you look {and I have} at graduation stats and trends you will discover that since I graduated in that old yr of 1970  millions less are finishing high school. Not a good trend.....so when you graduate some of the type people I might have graduated with will not be there. Some people that did not have a positive school experience managed to hang in to get some sort of  diploma. All hail my generation.......and I am worried about you generation because of those trend lines.

4. By the way speaking of  your generation of your graduating class remember this.......you may never see many of those people again. You both as I went through grade school with your class. They will hang out somewhere in your recessed memory. Take a couple of moments........look around  and try to look at everyone. As I once said in a blog a couple of yrs ago ,  one thing I discovered I missed , was knowing that large a number of people for such a long period of time. You may very well not have that sort of extended group of citizens around you again. Even if there is a facebook world of the future. So , even if you did not like them or ignored them  or had only a casual passing by , take a quick peek. People deserve that much of a nod after all those yrs.

5. It is stated that I graduated in an angry time in America. True.....the Kent State shootings were only a couple of months before as was the first Earth Day. Our era of protest caused an anger to grow. We were divided along political ,racial educational, demographic lines. Guess what.....we still are.  To be honest I believe we are more divided , angry than we have been since Reconstruction. Just remember......this stuff does not keep it's shape. Events morph the wave we ride. Try not to be to shocked 20 yrs from now. As Kurt Vonnegut one of my generations most read authors stated more tan 45 yrs ago......The only thing history teaches us is to surprised all over again.

6. Between final exams and graduation you will be at an odd cross roads......to late to start and to early to finish. Sort of like 10:00 pm at night. So see a couple of friends , get your hair done and be prepared that once graduation is over that place you have spent so much time at  is no longer yours. When you leave the parking lot with I presume your parents that is it. You can't go back to that home again. It belongs to the next set of graduating classes. You are now history at that place of education just as I was 42 yrs ago at Maple Hill High School.

7.   What you start out as will not be what you are later on. If I could tell many of my classmates of my Human Service part of my life and especially of  my yrs as an Educator I think many would be shocked. Hudson Hawk at the head of a classroom full of people doing the teaching and training thing. So you never know. Don't be shocked.

8. My graduating class was......ready.......very white. Yours is less so. Be prepared for a more cultural blending........it is inevitable. Just look at the demographics.


9. I ended up attending my only High School reunion more than 20yrs ago. I am not sure why but a few months  later I talked with a buddy on the phone  who attended as well. We both  discovered we had the same odd emotion. We would be working at our desks , He in NYC and I upstate. An odd feeling would sort of hang over us and we would usually put down our work and daydream about the event and of high school. Sort of like an odd psychological cloud would be there. Mixed emotions. We were both glad that it did not last longer than it did. and dissipated after a time. Such is the power of memory and high school. We will die with those tattoos some where in our consciousness.

 10. By the way I received a small academic award at graduation. The VFW Gold Star Mothers Award. I have just remembered that. What a long time ago.

 So , I need to wrap this up.......I am sure that I will think of something later I should have said but this is it. After a round of graduation parties I attended with a couple of friends , one of which I still have.  Remember it was 18 yrs old drinking age then so I had a few. I arrived back home around 1:30 am. The glow of graduation was still with us. It was a warm June night and the clouds of earlier that evening were gone. It was a star lite sky. I remember noticing as I got dropped off in my driveway. We all shook hands , a final congratulations. I went inside quietly , got quickly into bed. My bed room windows were open. The night seemed quiet and easy. Off in the distance , a car burned rubber from a standing start. We were free to move on.

Stoll Brewing Company: Troy New York

 This small study of local upstate New York brewing started last fall on a small secondary road in the Town of Schodack New York in Rensselaer County.  Graw Road to be exact which is barely a one lane road in the southern part of the town near the Columbia County border. I was digging at an old burned out barn foundation once located  on that road.  The barn which was burned as part of a South Schodack Fire Dept. drill in 1975 still has foundation stones and I believe dates back to the early 20th Century. I discovered an old piece of bottle glass , somewhat charred but still  in legible condition. The glass a mild aqua color had an raised emblem of what appears to be an eagle in flight. I also discovered near by part of the bottle neck. Same color. Kept it in the bag and as time permitted over the winter I attempted to discover the origin and or use of the bottle fragment. After some Google and a search through antique bottle books at our local public library along with a trip to a dealer in the Central New York area to view a complete bottle I believe I can say with 95% certainty that this bottle was from The Stoll Brewing Company of Troy New York. Let me run down some history for you.

1. Stoll was founded by a Jacob Stoll in1855 and it was in operation until 1920 at the time Prohibition was enacted. They made a soda called Stollo for a time but closed circa 1923.

2. The Stoll name goes way back in America , the first mention seems to be when a Stoll landed in New Amsterdam in the 1650's.

3. This brewery was typical of America in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Numerous small breweries doted the landscape. In the New York capital region alone back then one might find Stanton which served a bock seasonal bock beer and a half & half. Wagner Bros beer and a Mahoney's Creme Ale.and in Albany Dobler just to name some.

4. At least into the early 20th century they got their hops from central New York. Delivered on the Erie Canal waterway. Cooperstown was a major hops growing region untill a crop disease wiped out much of the production around the turn of the 20th century. I have found hops growing wild in the Canastota and Skaneateles region of central New York which may very well be from that era of  cash crop farming.

5. Beer was brewed in local areas mainly because most beer does not age well. Fresh beer was best when it came from a local brewer.

6. Now the question arises , what kind of beer did the Stoll family brew. For this I have a first person  source. Peter Stoll who was an English teacher in my home town  of Schodack NY at Maple Hill High School from circa 1968 to  1975. He was a great grand nephew of the brewing family. I and a couple of high school friends knew Peter on a semi friendly basis and even knew him somewhat socially in the summer of 1970. If my memory serves me correctly he told us that they brewed a classic German Pilsner. It had  more of a hop taste  because extra hops were added in formulation as a preservative. Remember refrigeration was mainly from ice in that time period.

7. Upstate NY had a fairly large number of German and Slovak immigrants and breweries often served their cultural tastes. Schenectady NY had a taste for instance for a more Polish or Slovic beer with companies like General Electric hiring these groups.

8. The brewery was located at 42 Spring Street in Troy which according to my GPS is now Spring Road. I have traveled there in early March. It is now a tree lined area with no sign of foundations.or building.

9. The bottle has an eagle on it flying over a beer barrel. The barrel has an S embossed on it. The words The Stoll Brewing Company is embossed over the eagle and Troy NY  under the barrel.

10. Stoll like the majority of breweries never came back from Prohibition. Their brew master had died in the late twenties and the exact  formulation has no doubt been lost to time. Even recently the formulation for brewing Schlitz beer which was once the most popular beer in America in sales was lost and had to be reformulated after only a few yrs of non-production.
  Generally speaking  , mainly the larger brewers came back Anheiser Bush being a prime example.

11. Of course we have come full circle in a real sense. Now in America  we once again have many small micro breweries. Serving a diverse taste of the public. From The Brooklyn Brewery to The Pump House Brewery in Albany a distinct  and diverse beer or ale is being created. We have returned.

 So my thanks to Peter Stoll  wherever he is. R.P. Kunicki for his Brooklyn Hops growing knowledge. Canastota NY county historian.

The Beatles: A Day In The Life: 1967: WPTR Radio Bootleg Story

 Last Sunday while watching the latest episode of Mad Men which takes place in 1966 they finally play a Beatles song....Tomorrow Never Knows. News reports say Lions Gate Productions payed one quarter of a million dollars for the rights to use this song. The song was perhaps the most radical and different of  any of the Beatles song book. But hearing that song for the first time in yrs sparked a latent trivial memory from a distant adolescence. It was circa February 1967. Music rumors of a new and very different record album being produced. in England by the Beatles and George Martin. At that time no one really can remember from whom came a bootleg copy of a long and unusual Beatles production.....It was called A Day In The Life. About 7 stations in America obtained this copy. One such station was a major 50,000 watt AM station WPTR in Troy NY. Without much fanfare it began playing primarily in the night time hours and then filtered down to occasional day play. It seemed odd at the time that no one else was playing it. But it was The Beatles. And it was a different R&R song. A taste of something to come from lets face it the most important  group of the second half of the 20th Century.  After about two weeks of play it suddenly disappeared as quietly as it had appeared. What I was to discover later was The Beatles and more importantly their lawyers had discovered the bootleg was being played on select stations. Cease and desist threats issued and the bootleg rendition was gone. Of course the song would be on Sgt. Peppers issued in June of the same year.  My thanks to H." Skip" Peters former DJ for some additional information on this subject. A happy trivial memory of time past and when The Beatles ruled much of popular music.