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A Christmas balloon train in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

          Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22 1947 featuring a large balloon train. 

          Local history contributor Emil Suda researched newspaper clippings about the parade and provided the cover of a Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk, showing the balloon train in Amsterdam.

          The picture shows a large crowd spilling onto East Main Street craning their necks to get a view as the engine of the balloon train passed in front of Lindsay’s Shoes.  It looks as if the train barely cleared the Christmas decorations hung across the street.

          Suda wondered if the balloon train is the same as one used in a 1948 parade in Schenectady, described in a recent Daily Gazette article by Jeff Wilkin.

          According to newspaper accounts, the Amsterdam parade in 1947 featured “inflated balloons and augmented bands.”  The parade began at Coessens Park in the East End and traveled down East and West Main Streets.

MOHAWK VALLEY DOODLEBUG

          The winter issue of Classic Trains magazine has a story about a 1929 Brill gas-electric car or “doodlebug” used by the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad (F.J. & G.) for mail and express service only.  On other rail lines, the “doodlebugs” carried passengers.

          According to the magazine article by area rail fan Jim Shaughnessy, the F.J. & G. used the gasoline powered vehicle on its traditional railroad line between Fonda and Gloversville to retain the lucrative U.S. mail contract and carry other express freight when the railroad’s trolley service ended in 1938.

          The gas-electric car was built by the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia in 1929 and sold to the F. J. & G. in 1938 after use by two other railroads.

          Numbered 340 by the local railroad, the car had operating controls at either end.  The car made three round trips six days a week between Gloversville and Fonda.

          Shaughnessy wrote that on March 28, 1946, Number 340 was involved in a fatal crash with a traditional F. J. & G. freight train near Sammonsville because of a misinterpretation of orders.

          “The express man on Number 340 was crushed to death when a coffin being transported shifted with the impact and pinned him against the wall,” Shaughnessey wrote.

          Number 340 was retired in 1958 as the F. J. & G. shifted mail and express service to trucks.  In 1960, the car was sold to a company in Winnipeg, Canada.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, December 8, 2022

The leaves are gone, the view is the same...

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T Martin Bennett, “Wounded Tiger”

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Later this month

Friday, December 23-Episode 454- Stephen Blauweiss is co-author of The Story of Historic Kingston: Featuring 950 Images and Connections to the Catskills and New York City.

Thursday

The Christmas balloon train

Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22, 1947 ...

Jim Kaplan

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, December 7, 2022

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   Cochran was the inspiration for “Colonel Flip Corkin” and “General Philerie” in Milt Caniff’s cartoon strips “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon.”

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio (Monday and Wednesday each week, part of The RISE Program)

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022   Still time: Send a check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Pearl Harbor changes

By Bob Cudmore

   Life magazine published a photo spread in its December 1, 1941 edition covering a simulated enemy air attack the previous August on the small airport in Fort Plain in the Mohawk Valley. 

   An artillery regiment defended the airstrip against six fighter planes and one bomber flying out of the airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

    A flight of six P-40 fighters took off from a temporary airstrip concealed in a nearby apple orchard to fight the attacking planes.

    Amsterdam city historian Robert von Hasseln, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S, Army, said it is likely that one of the participants in the exercise at Fort Plain was Lieutenant Phillip Cochran.  Cochran later commanded a fighter group in Burma. 

   He pioneered many innovative tactics including operating from temporary unimproved airfields, as was done in the exercise in Fort Plain.

   Cochran was the inspiration for “Colonel Flip Corkin” and “General Philerie” in Milt Caniff’s cartoon strips “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon.”

PEARL HARBOR

   An enemy’s real attack came 75 years ago at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  According to Robert Going’s book, “Where Do We Find Such Men,” the first Amsterdam casualty of World War II was William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. from a family of nine children on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939. He died at Hickam Air Field.  Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on. Every member of the ground crew was hit.

USS AMSTERDAM

   Arch D. Anderson, commander of the James T. Bergen American Legion post, contacted the Navy in 1938 to begin the campaign to get a ship named for Amsterdam. The Chamber of Commerce got behind the idea as did Mayor Arthur Carter, who knew President Franklin Roosevelt from Roosevelt’s days as governor in Albany.

   Work began on what would become the cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam in 1943.  William Hasenfuss Jr.’s mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first Gold Star Mother of the war, christened the U.S.S. Amsterdam on April 25, 1944 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” Mrs. Hasenfuss said as the vessel slid down the ways into the James River in 1944.

   On January 8, 1945 she and her husband returned to Newport News when the Amsterdam received its commission under Captain Andrew Lawton of Youngstown, Ohio.

   The Amsterdam was part of the fleet in Tokyo Bay for Japanese surrender ceremonies that took place onboard the U.S.S. Missouri in 1945.  The Amsterdam sailed back to America, after picking up battle-weary and wounded Seabees in Okinawa.

AT SEA

   James V. Hogg from Amsterdam was serving on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

   As his niece Karen terHaar of North Carolina tells the story, “In the months after Pearl Harbor, many ships in the area were ordered to maintain radio silence. The families of all crew members did not know if their fathers, sons or brothers were dead or alive.”

   Hogg’s parents, Frank and Mildred Hogg, were living on Grant Avenue in Amsterdam, as was terHaar’s mother, Shirley Hogg.

   TerHaar wrote, “The following April, about four months after Pearl Harbor, Mom was sitting on the front porch when she heard the postman’s voice. She looked up and saw him running down the sidewalk. He was waving a letter and yelling, ‘Jimmy’s alive! Jimmy’s alive!’”

   James Hogg became a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and married a woman from Australia. He later lived in California and died several years ago.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022-From the Archive- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The true story of the pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, whose life was transformed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met.

Fuming with hatred for America and a strong sense of national pride, Mitsuo Fuchida quickly climbed the ranks of the Japanese Imperial Navy to the position of top pilot, leading the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Thursday

The Christmas balloon train

Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22, 1947 featuring a large balloon train. Local history contributor Emil Suda researched newspaper clippings about the parade and provided the cover of a Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk, showing the balloon train in Amsterdam.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 6, 2022

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Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Monday, December 5, 2022

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022   Still time: Send a check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio (Monday and Wednesday each week, part of The RISE Program)

Tuesday, December 6, 2022-Amsterdam changed after Pearl Harbor.

The movie “South of Tahiti” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building. 

Wednesday, December 7, 2022-From the Archive- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The true story of the pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, whose life was transformed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Great Depression stories in the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

   Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

   “He wanted to buy up a lot of metal, because the prices were so cheap (24 cents a pound) and then sell it at a killing,” wrote Douglas in his autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son.”

   But the bottom fell out of the scrap metal market in 1929 with the stock market crash.  His father ended up selling the copper he bought with his son’s money for two cents a pound.

   Douglas wrote, “That was what the Depression meant to me, that prices came tumbling down and my father lost my savings.  Our scale of living wasn’t much different before, during or after.”

GLOVE CITIES

   Historian Barbara McMartin in her book “The Glove Cities” wrote that although Johnstown and Gloversville enjoyed relatively good times in the 1920s, workers and owners in the glove industry had to struggle, even before the Depression.

   “The Depression, though more severe, was nothing new,” McMartin wrote.  “It was not a bad decade: years at the beginning and end were poor, but 1935-37 were actually quite good years.  In Fulton County, no one starved, no one prospered, and most continued to find some work.”

SCOOPING COAL

   Arnold Wittemeier was born in 1920 in Fort Hunter where his father, Harold, owned Wittemeier’s, one of Montgomery County’s biggest coal companies.

   Coal for the family business came on the West Shore Railroad.  In the Depression, coal trains would speed through the valley to try to keep people from taking more coal from hopper cars.

   “It got so bad that cars of coal were having two tons of coal scooped off of them,” Wittemeier said.

THE NRA PARADE

   An estimated ten thousand people turned out in Amsterdam on a raw November 9, 1933 to parade for economic revival.

   Former New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had become President that year.  Roosevelt was launching his New Deal, a part of which was the National Recovery Administration or NRA.

   According to the Albany Evening News, the NRA Parade was the biggest in Amsterdam’s history (a debatable point) and featured hundreds of marching mill workers, office employees and school children. There were floats, bands and drum corps.

   Republican Mayor Robert Brumagin reviewed the line of march at a reviewing stand on Church Street.  But newly chosen Democratic Mayor-elect Arthur Carter was receiving cheers from the crowd, according to the Evening News, as Carter—a supporter of President Roosevelt--walked at the head of the contingent from the James T. Bergen American Legion Post.

   Loyal Democrat Michael J. Wytrwal was NRA chairman for Montgomery County.  Wytrwal was a businessman in the Polish neighborhood on Reid Hill.  His family operated a coal yard, drugstore and furniture store.

   The most visible Amsterdam public works project during the Depression was the municipal golf course, named for Mayor Carter and partly bankrolled by FDR’s federal government. 

BLUE PLATE

   Orsini’s Royal Restaurant at East Main and Liberty streets in Amsterdam offered a blue plate special.  The special cost 35 cents and included meat or fish, mashed potatoes and vegetable.  Coffee was an additional five cents.  Orsini’s also offered a meal ticket for $4.50 in the Depression that was worth $5 in food.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 5, 2022

Increasing clouds, with a high near 45. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

A slight chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. East wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

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"But the bottom fell out..."

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Sunday, December 4, 2022

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  You may give anonymously and no contribution is too big or too small.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio

Today in The E edition (Regional section) of The Gazette

Lafayette

Bob Cudmore Focus on History

(This story posted next Sunday, December 11, 2022 here on The Historians)

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Great Depression stories in the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

   Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

   “He wanted to buy up a lot of metal, because the prices were so cheap (24 cents a pound) and then sell it at a killing,” wrote Douglas in his autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son.”

   But the bottom fell out of the scrap metal market in 1929 with the stock market crash.  His father ended up selling the copper he bought with his son’s money for two cents a pound.

   Douglas wrote, “That was what the Depression meant to me, that prices came tumbling down and my father lost my savings.  Our scale of living wasn’t much different before, during or after.”

GLOVE CITIES

   Historian Barbara McMartin in her book “The Glove Cities” wrote that although Johnstown and Gloversville enjoyed relatively good times in the 1920s, workers and owners in the glove industry had to struggle, even before the Depression.

   “The Depression, though more severe, was nothing new,” McMartin wrote.  “It was not a bad decade: years at the beginning and end were poor, but 1935-37 were actually quite good years.  In Fulton County, no one starved, no one prospered, and most continued to find some work.”

SCOOPING COAL

   Arnold Wittemeier was born in 1920 in Fort Hunter where his father, Harold, owned Wittemeier’s, one of Montgomery County’s biggest coal companies.

   Coal for the family business came on the West Shore Railroad.  In the Depression, coal trains would speed through the valley to try to keep people from taking more coal from hopper cars.

   “It got so bad that cars of coal were having two tons of coal scooped off of them,” Wittemeier said.

THE NRA PARADE

   An estimated ten thousand people turned out in Amsterdam on a raw November 9, 1933 to parade for economic revival.

   Former New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had become President that year.  Roosevelt was launching his New Deal, a part of which was the National Recovery Administration or NRA.

   According to the Albany Evening News, the NRA Parade was the biggest in Amsterdam’s history (a debatable point) and featured hundreds of marching mill workers, office employees and school children. There were floats, bands and drum corps.

   Republican Mayor Robert Brumagin reviewed the line of march at a reviewing stand on Church Street.  But newly chosen Democratic Mayor-elect Arthur Carter was receiving cheers from the crowd, according to the Evening News, as Carter—a supporter of President Roosevelt--walked at the head of the contingent from the James T. Bergen American Legion Post.

   Loyal Democrat Michael J. Wytrwal was NRA chairman for Montgomery County.  Wytrwal was a businessman in the Polish neighborhood on Reid Hill.  His family operated a coal yard, drugstore and furniture store.

   The most visible Amsterdam public works project during the Depression was the municipal golf course, named for Mayor Carter and partly bankrolled by FDR’s federal government. 

BLUE PLATE

   Orsini’s Royal Restaurant at East Main and Liberty streets in Amsterdam offered a blue plate special.  The special cost 35 cents and included meat or fish, mashed potatoes and vegetable.  Coffee was an additional five cents.  Orsini’s also offered a meal ticket for $4.50 in the Depression that was worth $5 in food.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, December 4, 2022

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"It's an off-topic Thing"

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Saturday, December 3, 2022 

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  You may give anonymously and no contribution is too big or too small.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio

Instructor Diana Carter reports on archaeological digs along the Mohawk River and in the Stockade section of Schenectady done by the Community Archaeology Program at Schenectady County Community College. A 29 minute conversation

Environmental educator Anita Sanchez is author of Meltdown: Discover Earth’s Irreplaceable Glaciers And Learn What You Can Do To Save Them.

The Sunday Read

Sunday, December 4, 2022 Great Depression stories from the Mohawk Valley

Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, December 3, 2022

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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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Not to get in front of ourselves but this Sunday, December 4, 2022

The latest Bob Cudmore print story from The Daily Gazette 

Great Depression stories from the Mohawk Valley

(from the Great Depression an era  between 1929 and into the 30's, not a story about how you feel when starting a new day, not every day but from time to time)

The story starts..

Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929...

The Historians with Bob Cudmore from Radio to The World Wide Web starting in 2014 "450 Podcasts on-line" (and still on Local and Public Radio)

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Link updated Wednesday, November 30, 2022

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U.S. Mail

Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Month #12  

Thursday, December 1, 2022, From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—-Christmas memories 2007 

          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.

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, Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Leader Herald

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Several readers have recollected a time in the late 1950s when the city held a Christmas Festival at Coessens Park in the East End.  Thomas F. Gregg, mayor from 1958 to 1960, organized the festivities. Down the page...

The Historians with Bob Cudmore from Radio to The WWW starting in 2014 "450 Podcasts on-line" 

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Link updated Tuesday, November 29, 2022

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The first heavy snow of the 2022-23 Winter season will likely tip this box over

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Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Christmas memories

By Bob Cudmore

          Alberta Zierak Fondacaro’s aunts lived next door to Kiddo’s, then the family tavern, on Reid Street in Amsterdam.  The tavern was named for Fondacaro’s father, Albert Zierak whose nickname was Kiddo.

          In the 1950s, Fondacaro, now of Rotterdam Junction, used to spend Christmas Eve with her aunts in their home, keeping the traditional Polish vigil with an elaborate meatless feast.  Always, there was an empty chair at the table.  Fondacaro’s father, tending bar next door, would send people who were alone on Christmas Eve from the tavern to the house to enjoy the ongoing holiday meal.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL

          Amsterdam this year was home to two major holiday light displays, the Noteworthy Christmas Center and numerous musical performances.

          Several readers have recollected a time in the late 1950s when the city held a Christmas Festival at Coessens Park in the East End.  Thomas F. Gregg, mayor from 1958 to 1960, organized the festivities.  Santa Claus talked to children and animals were brought in from an Adirondack tourist attraction. Gregg was a butcher who operated a shop on what was then Railroad Street.

CHILDREN’S HOME

          Shirley Spurles Baroody, now of North Carolina, recalled Christmas at the Children’s Home at 81 Guy Park Avenue where she lived for 11 years in the 1940s and 1950s.

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

A COLD CHRISTMAS

          Richard G. Ellers, now of Ohio, recalled a cold Amsterdam December in 1943 or 1944.  Ellers said the snow crunched underfoot, adding, “That crunch is linked in my memory to walking to Christmas midnight mass at St. Michael’s from our home, an apartment on East Main Street downtown.”

          Ellers could hear the Salvation Army bell ringer on the street below. There was only single pane glass on the windows in the apartment 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.”

WORKING CHRISTMAS

          Jacki Vogel’s parents, Alphonso and Catherine D'Alessandro, owned the Gift & Hobby Shop at Lark and East Main Street in Amsterdam.

          Vogel wrote, “I vividly remember Christmas Eves when others were gathering to celebrate the holiday.  My dad would still be in the store, awaiting people coming to pick up their layaways. They always went the extra mile to try and locate a special toy that someone would want for a child.”

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CUDMORES

          When I was young, we usually went to a candlelight service Christmas Eve at the long gone First Methodist Church on Division Street.  I was always impressed that the choir managed to march in holding a hymnbook in one hand and a candle in the other while singing Joy to the World.  No one ever tripped and started a fire.

          One memorable holiday our cat did knock over the Christmas tree.  My grandmother was sitting nearby and simply stretched out her hand and grabbed the tree trunk before it hit the ground, holding it until my father could get the tree upright again.

          We sang a lot on Christmas and, as the favored son, I had way too many presents.  Dinner was always good and, after visiting my aunt and uncle and their three sons, we came home and somehow managed to eat yet another meal.  

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Julia Sweig is author of “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight” that draws on diaries kept by Lady Bird when her husband Lyndon was President from 1963 through 1968.

Thursday, December 1, 2022, From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—-Christmas memories 2007 

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, Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Leader Herald

Hochul announces $10M DRI projects
Twelve Gloversville Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects announced; Gov. Hochul announces from Glove Theatre
GLOVERSVILLE – Twelve Downtown Revitalization projects were announced Monday for Gloversville by Gov. Kathy Hochul at the Glove Theatre.

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