The 2022 Historians Podcast fund drive needs your lift!  To donate click, https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or dispatch a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Much Obliged

Remembering Amsterdam with Mike Mancini

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History  

   Battalion Chief John Michael Mancini served over 37 years with the Amsterdam Fire Department and added many anecdotes to my local history stories over the years.  We knew each other because both of us worked in local radio at WCSS and WVTL.  A resident of Northville at the end of his life, he died last month at age 80.

   Mancini said there were three fires in the city’s history he couldn’t forget, including one in which he almost lost his life.

   That nasty blaze destroyed the Speedline Warehouse on Front Street in the 1990s.  An overhead door had burned off giving Mancini and other firefighters access to the building.  As they moved forward, a propane tank exploded.

   “Three more steps and I would have got it,” Mancini said.  The blaze was so intense that burning debris ignited nearby buildings.  Mancini said the cause was arson.  The case took four years to prosecute but a conviction was finally secured. 

   Mancini recalled great loss of life in an Amsterdam blaze in 1955 long before he joined the fire service when a tenement with no clear exits burned on Schuyler Street.  Twelve people perished and their bodies were lined up outside the building awaiting removal by funeral directors.  The cause apparently was a kerosene heater.

   The third fire that saddened the community took place on February 21, 1967 at the Guy Park Avenue home of Tony Greco, Amsterdam schools athletic director.  Greco was not home but his wife and children died.  The Greco home was behind Engine #5 on Division Street.  Mancini became a firefighter later that year.

   Mike’s father operated a funeral home on East Main Street.  Across the street was Boggie’s Fourth Ward Hotel.

Tomorrow, Monday, June 13, 2022-The story behind the story recounting-Mike Mancini’s Amsterdam memories "7 Minutes"

   Mike’s great uncle founded the establishment and his uncle and aunt, John and Eva Boggie, ran the restaurant and hotel for many years.  Kirk Douglas’s father Harry Demsky lived in the hotel for a time, as did my grandfather, Harry Cudmore, and my uncle Percy Cudmore.  The Boggies were English and Italian and the restaurant featured pizza.

   Mike said his parents enjoyed ground coffee at the Van Dyk restaurant farther west on East Main and young Mike would have tea.  He put cream in his tea from little glass bottles with cardboard tops.  The Van Dyk closed in 1954.

   After tea and coffee, the Mancinis often crossed the street to the Federal Bake Shop where the family would buy a jellyroll.

   Mike attended St. Casimir’s Elementary School through eighth grade.  He was a graduate of Wilbur H. Lynch High School in 1959.

   Mike and his father John were among those at the Columbian Community Center, a social hall on East Main Street, when Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and his wife “Happy” enjoyed a musical performance by the Mohawk Valley Chorus during the summer of 1970.

   Rockefeller told the bartender to buy everyone at the bar a drink.  The Governor then told Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson to take care of the tab. 

   According to Mike, Wilson said he frequently paid for Rockefeller’s largesse in that the nation’s richest governor seldom carried cash.  In future years the Mohawk Valley Chorus received substantial grants from Rockefeller’s arts council.

   In addition to hosting a local radio talk show for 20 years with Sam Zurlo, Mike also played 1950s music on the radio.  He liked attending county fairs.  He liked cars and boats and in his later years took part in competitive go kart racing.

. Mike received the Firefighter of the Year award twice, once for the rescue of a child, and the other for his commitment to public safety education.

Day Two Sunday, June 12, 2022

American Revolution Conference in the Mohawk Valley 

https://fortplainmuseum.org/viewevent.aspx?ID=1062

The conference will take place at the Fulton-Montgomery Community College Theater, 2805 NY-67, Johnstown.

Sunday morning the conference resumes at 8:30 am with Christian McBurney discussing Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade.

Up next is David Head - George Washington and a Very Mysterious Business: Tracking Down the Newburgh Conspiracy

The final speaker is Robert Selig - The Road to Yorktown: Moving the Army from Newport, Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, June 12, 2022

https://dailygazette.com/

https://www.recordernews.com/

Leader Herald

FULTON COUNTY, JOHNSTOWN, LOCAL NEWS, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, THE GLOVERSVILLE LEADER HERALD

https://www.leaderherald.com/