Great Depression stories from the Mohawk Valley posted this Sunday, December 4, 2022 (Bob has more in today's back and forth)

 Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Thursday, December 1, 2022 https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022 U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

2007 memories of Christmas

The Globe wrote, “(Cook) has been cook for the boys at Yosts (across the river from Randall) since the war broke out and 14 of ‘her boys’ are in France and seven more are in training camps. She has mothered them all and the boys look to her for smiles and other necessities as well as for their meals.

By Bob Cudmore

          Christmas always has been hard for people separated by war, whether it is today’s war on terror or World War I, when my grandmother was alive.

Margaret Cook was a widow living with her three small children in Randall, supporting herself by feeding soldiers who guarded Lock 13 on the canal against saboteurs.

One of the soldiers was Private William J. Allen of Fonda, a member of Company C, Second Regiment, New York Infantry.  Allen wrote to the Saturday Globe of November 22, 1917.  Grandmother saved the clipping.

The Globe wrote, “(Cook) has been cook for the boys at Yosts (across the river from Randall) since the war broke out and 14 of ‘her boys’ are in France and seven more are in training camps. She has mothered them all and the boys look to her for smiles and other necessities as well as for their meals.

“The boys in France who have boarded with her she does not forget but sends them cigarettes or money to buy them. She is now sending Christmas gifts. Her constant thought is to keep the boys happy and contented with army life.”

LIGHTED TREE

          One of the popular sights in Amsterdam during the heyday of carpet manufacturing was the lighted outline of a Christmas tree installed on the front of the Clock Building, then the headquarters of Bigelow-Sanford.  The building is still there.

          If snowbanks seemed bigger when we were young, it could be there was more snow.  But those approaching the century mark in age have told me another reason is that years ago in Amsterdam the snow was plowed, but not removed.

CROWDED CHURCH

Amsterdam native Donald Isburgh recalled Christmas Eve services at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church on Division Street years ago.

“This was in the years before other local churches had their own Christmas Eve services, and the church was so crowded that the ushers had to set up extra chairs in the center aisle to accommodate everyone,” Isburgh said.

SINGLE PANE GLASS

Frequent contributor Richard G. Ellers who now lives in Warren, Ohio, has memories of Christmas in Amsterdam in the 1940s.

In the cold weather, Ellers said the snow crunched underfoot, “That crunch is linked in my memory to walking to Christmas midnight Mass at St. Michael’s Church from our home, an apartment on East Main Street downtown.”

In the apartment, Ellers could hear the Salvation Army bell ringer on the street below. There was only single pane glass on the windows and Ellers said, “I can still hear the clink-clink-clink of snow chains on cars driving below. Occasionally every third or fourth clink would be counter pointed with a double thunk, which was the sound of the ends of a broken chain slapping the underside of a fender.”

CHILDREN’S HOME

          Shirley Spurles Baroody of Greensboro, North Carolina, spent 11 years of her childhood at the Children’s Home at 81 Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam.  The home closed in 1957.

In December, the matrons asked each child for a list of three things wanted for Christmas.  Baroody remembered getting paper dolls, perhaps, or white socks. The women’s clubs of Amsterdam put on a big Christmas party every year for the home.

Tomorrow, Posted Early on The Historians

Friday, December 2, 2022-Episode 451-Environmental educator Anita Sanchez is author of Meltdown: Discover Earth’s Irreplaceable Glaciers And Learn What You Can Do To Save Them.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, December 1, 2022

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