ICE HARVESTING
Ice harvesting was a job for a strong man, and no weakling needed to apply,” confirmed H.L. Van Deusen in a 1940 Kingston Daily Freeman column.
Words of the valley
When I’d grown a bit older and apparently my ever-present self began to allow for more colorful observations, he might be heard to say that so-and-so was, yes, “crazier than a s%#&house rat.” To complete the “crazy trio,” an entity I believe was more happenstance than planned, my grandaddy might be heard to opine, “That boy’s crazier than a hooty owl.”
Christmas morning…hurry up and wait
JUNE RECIPE
Dutchess County Historical
In 1909, a gentleman by the name of Frank Hasbrouck edited the 1,000+-page The History of Dutchess County, New York, for which he kicked off the preface with this: “The year of the tercentennial celebration of the Hudson River seems an eminently fit time for the publication of one of the most important counties whose […]
Writers writing
“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”
– Molière
The doggies need fresh water. Was that a hummingbird? It was a hummingbird! Time to check the mail. Time to check the email. The dishes need washing. The dehumidifier in the basement could […]
Early railroading in the Hudson Valley
Above: Blue Hill Curve in Chatham, NY, is known as the sharpest curve on the Boston & Albany Railroad line.
It was half-past six in the morning when the first-ever train out of New York City was drawn by horse from Chambers Street to its starting point on 31st Street, on its way to […]
This can’t be real
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean. – Zhuangzi
What if you could see in four colors? Birds possess that ability, the capacity to see in not only the trichromatic spectrum enabled by the red, blue, and green cones that we are limited to in our human eyes, but also in ultraviolet, […]
Eatin’ Places
Caveat emptor: I’m not a gastronome, an epicure, or a foodie, although I’ve always assumed that the billions of us crawling about the planet Earth are “foodies” for the inescapable reason that we are all driven to consume sustenance in the effort to get on with this game of life.
Nossssirree, I’m the if-it-tastes-good-to-me-it’s-good chap who […]
The cranky sports fan
“Baseball’s time is seamless and invisible, a bubble within which players move at exactly the same pace and rhythms as all their predecessors. This is the way the game was played in our youth and in our fathers’ youth, and even back then … there must have been the same feeling that time could be […]
Hudson Valley agriculture
Our old Dutchess farmers may feel proud of their farms,
Producing such fine crops, having beauty that chains,
The stranger that journeys far over the state
Declaring old Dutchess stands first on the slate.
Rhinebeck farmers, of good tillage, are not afraid,
When they gather their harvest, they find they’re well paid;
Their corn, rye, and oats, such a bountiful […]