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.

Beer Archeology Schlitz and other brands

Having done many a dig and finding a wide variety of stuff over the years it dawned on me recently that I have struck more than a few old beer cans and bottles. Bud , Genny , Iron City . Miller etc. It can making dating an area a little easier because I essentially know when the light beer trend began....gabblingers was I believe the first lite beer circa 1968. A beer that was once popular can disappear rather rapidly as taste change. One example is Ballentine Beer and Ale. Once popular in the 40's 50's etc then disappeared from the landfill record circa 1963 or so. Another such an item is Schlitz....known to many from that era as the beer that made Milwaukee famous. Established in 1849 it was perhaps the most popular beer in America for appx 50 yrs. I have found remnants of Schlitz beer cans and bottles going atleast into the 40's. Found perhaps the most Schlitz than any other. I even remember the decline and fall of the Schlitz Empire. It began around circa 1972. The company for some bizarre production reason changed their brewing method perhaps to produce more, cheaper is an often quoted reason. That along with a bungled ad campaign sent Schlitz tumbling.....people left in droves. One of the icon products of the 20th Century ended up being sold off and production ceased somewhere in the mid to late 70's I believe. I have noticed this rapid end in the landfill record. Bud & Miller became even more of a mainstay. Then I noticed early 80's a change of trend....Lowenbrau , Molson , Heineken became a a cast off item. The beginning of the small designer beers were on their way.
As sort of post script I can report that Pabst who owns the Schlitz name is making an attempt to restart that old label. Just to demonstrate how quickly things can become lost in time that had to piece the formula together from old brewery notes and interviews with retired brew masters. It is mainly restarting in the midwest but is brewed in the eastern half of the nation. You can buy it in the 11001 area code. Sometimes the senses can be a form of archeology as well. Recently had one......Brought back memories.....the taste that ancestors knew and enjoyed going back to the 19th Century. Revived from the ashes and landfills and the memories of old brew masters from the past.

Maple Hill High School 1970 ...The Great Soccer Challenge

As I look out over many a playing field the single biggest change since my playing days is simply the fact that females so often dominate the softball and soccer fields of today. It was of course not always so....there was a time when women 's sports were down the list......Men's basketball , soccer baseball , football followed by anything men wanted to do was the norm. The ladies had field hockey within the school.....but little of that.
On a recent trip I stopped by MHHS. As I walked the track my mind traveled back to the school back then. It has not changed that much. The field hockey goals are gone , the ball diamond looks slightly overgrown. The soccer field looks much the same , of course there is now a track around the edge. There was in the senior class a movement to give women a more prominate role in activities. A great plot was hatched in the sports area. The senior girls vs the senior boys in a Thursday afternoon game with the school invited. After much cajoling the match was set. The mens captain was one Ronald P. Kunicki.......womens captain Elizabeth Eckert who's father at the time was on the school board , which was a great help in the OK being given for this game. I was the goalie.
Much of the school turned out.....classes let out early.....a fairly good size event for that time. I wish I could tell you a great sports upset story but alas men 8 women 0. They held us well into the second quarter even a couple of shots on goal but eventually the men won.
The point was however made that spring afternoon. Sports on the High School and College level were soon about to change. All of my three daughters played soccer in High School. School budgets formed along new laws and guidelines. But there was that moment when many yrs ago a game was played to send a signal that things would not stay the same for much longer.

Blimps Along the Hudson with Jets and Sonic Booms

The other day I heard a low rumble off in the distance. Looked up and spotted The Goodyear Blimp passing nearby. Their hanger is located in Long Island. It is much more of a unique sight than it used to be. Blimps regularly patrolled the Hudson River channel into the early 60's. Stationed out of Albany and I believe Lakehurst NJ. On a quiet day you could hear their low engine rumble as they slowly passes by. The Navy I am told used their blimps to patrol for Subs in the fifties in the Atlantic region. Living in Schodack area the opportunity to see blimps was common. It was part of life to be along flight paths from Albany County Airport. Propeller aircraft from TWA , PanAm , Mohawk Airlines flying the river route to NY and Philly etc. The planes flew lower in those days and it was easy to spot their logos on the tail wind. It was also not uncommon to see low flying military aircraft B52's etc fly directly over the village of Castleton and parts of Schodack. Showing the tax payers what they payed for. As a child I remember this well , the Communist scare was alive and well then. Bomb drills in elementary school , fallout shelters ect, A sound my children have never heard I believe is a sonic boom. Trust me , not an uncommon sound back then. When the sound barrier is passed in a rapid speed the boom can be heard for hundreds of miles in many cases. You could be in class and a sudden boom with window shaking was an accepted part of life then. The rapid move from the propeller to the jet engine was rapidly underway......from a blimp on patrol to Atomic bombers. You could see it all if you looked up from my home town back then.

This is London

My recent trip to G.B. was enjoyable....saw some of the usual sites...Windsor Castle ....Big Ben ... Abbey Road...Hyde Park etc. My most enjoyable time was spent in the House Of Common and Lords. My Daughters friend was doing an internship there so we got a personal tour. Commons is only about the size of 3 and one half American living rooms Looks much bigger on TV. Local elections were being held in G.B. the next day...Labor was about to take a bath and they looked liked the rainy English weather. There are three pubs in the basement of the bld so many were half in the bag at 11:20 when I met acouple of M.P.'s.
The one thing that struck me the most was how much of London I knew from fiction.....James Bond drove by this park Simon Templar had a violent encounter on that corner of this street. Odd how much one may steeped in history how some things stay with you.
The weather sucked....rain chilly....no wonder my English ancestors left....a warm decent day is a rarity. My fathers side left a place called Rise England in the early 1820's. To my disappointment I discovered there is very little left there...no quaint little village type stuff. Just tracs of farm land.Guess we left in time. Oh well.
BE SEEING YOU.

Hard Cider Making In The Schodack NY Region

My most recent archeology type of digging has found The Hawk looking into old farmers dumps. It was common practice for centuries to have a family landfill on ones property. I plan to write about more of my findings this fall. The pieces of one artifact I have discovered appears to have been the remnants of an old hand crank cider press.
Cider making on a small scale was common for much of the history of this country. The tools and knowledge were common throughout Europe. Hard cider drinks are still served in Pubs in England...enjoyed them on my recent visit.
Apple orchards still dot the Hudson River Valley. Many small farms had a few apple trees on them and the older varieties such as the pippen were quite durable to our weather changes. Now the need for excape from the drudges of life are as old as man. A hard cider fermented could sometimes provide such relief. This was common practice and as moonshine is of the southern regions of America cider was to us.
The remnants of the press was uncovered in Columbia County but these often hand made devices were from what I have been able to ascertain quite common. I know of atleast 3 cider makers now deceased from the Schodack NY region. All brewed their ciders during prohabition in the 1920's & early 30's. Apparently a common practice back then was what can be referred to as in the ground fermenting. Make the cider in late summer early fall put in proper container such as an earthen jug , bury in ground atleast 1.5 feet and allow to simmer. Dig up when the ground is cold and test and enjoy. As can be guessed , the in the ground method also provided for refrigeration.
The Schodack landing area was a hotbed for such activity. Alcohol Tobacco and firearms agents
did go after such activity. Small scale selling of product was not uncommon. As a matter of fact , one of my ancestors was busted for such activity circa 1931.

1968 Schodack N.Y.

The Town of Schodack is a small town south of Albany N.Y. on the opposite side of the river from the Capitol. As the crow flies it is about 5 0r so miles south. It has been a town often gone through or bypassed on the way to somewhere else. A small village of Castleton is by the river and a rural suburban composition is the rest of the town. If the reader has read my other blogs you can say history passed through as well. Did not stay long. 1968 was a tramatic year for the country , riots , political unrest , counter culture movement , war. The changes that would effect the nation would touch Schodack as well. I wanted to stop by 1968 in that sleepy town and what was Schodack of the time atleast some impressions.
Schodack was alot dirtier then. As sited by State Study and a 1967 NYT magazine article the biggest pollutors in the Hudson River Valley per capita. Paper Mill from the Fort Orange Paper Company and the Anti Corrosive metal plant poured tons of industrial waste into the river. Open sewer pipes to the river were common. Farming runoff was still common. Large fish kills were not uncommon , 100+ fish could wash up on shore in or near Castleton , making life less pleasant.
You never quite forget that dead fish smell. The environmental movement was just beginning , the first Earth Day was 2 yrs away.
Schodack was less suburban than now , farming was still a common occupation. The smell of manure , common. Outhouses were more common than one might think , I could count atleast 23 that I knew were in use. The Chatham Farmers Coop still in business. The buying and selling of cattle was not uncommon in Schodack.
Our one semi rock star was long since gone....Buddy Randell was a temporary resident of Castleton and was married there. The group was called The Knickerbockers...they were known as making songs that sounded very much like the Beatles. It was said he often used notary public services instead of copyrights. L. V. Hudson often was his notary.
The town was affected by the 60's , it had angry elements....the town voted overwhelmingly for Richard Milhouse Nixon for President. Law & Order was a common phrase heard back then. Of course the 60's had reached the hamlet of Schodack...Drugs , drinking , political unrest amongst the younger residents. From talks with people , many of the young looked forward to leaving and coming back rarely if at all. Not uncommon for small towns , even today.
Several young men left for Vietnam , some came back to resume a quiet life some never quite were whole again. Arguements among families concerning the war was common. It split people apart as it did the nation.
The sleepy little town moved on as all places do , it some ways it is a better place. For me more a place of archeology...left behind memories.