Clermont State Historic Site, located in Germantown, NY, has belonged to the State of New York since 1962. We spoke with Susan Boudreau, historic site manager, and Jennifer Hemmerlein, executive director of Friends of Clermont, to learn about this historic location and how it has changed over […]
If you’ve never been to Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, in nearby Orange County, NY, put it on your itinerary for this fall. Not only are the wines well worth the visit, but the winery is steeped in history. Yes, America’s Oldest Winery is indeed right here in […]
As most of us believe, we study history to determine how we arrived at where we are, and to help us determine what is working and what needs to change. The Bridge Authority has historically provided an invaluable, but mostly unrecognized contribution to the Hudson Valley and […]
Our trip to France was planned for late March 2020. My younger brother, Michael, and I needed to get over to see our mother in the Maison de Retraite that she had been transported to the previous December because her cognitive deterioration made it impossible for her to live […]
One of the most impossibly difficult aspects of the human experience is not only death itself, nor comprehending the idea that those we love will at some point no longer be with us, but how our enduring ability to love transforms death into something tragically beautiful. When […]
In 2018, when Republican Senator Kathy Marchione announced that she would not seek re-election in Senate District 43, the news immediately raised the collective temperature on a seat suddenly in play for a traditionally competitive district. But for Marchione’s eventual successor Daphne Jordan – competition is in […]
Consider the following exchange I had with “Joe,” the owner of an unnamed inn in the western Adirondacks:
It was roughly 9am, and I was waiting for Joe’s wife, who served as hostess, waitress, chef, and (remarkably, still) a charming bartender, to put the finishing touches on the […]
Mark Twain is credited with the pronouncement that “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” Truth is that the judgement was first rendered 38 years after Twain’s death … but the presumption continues. True or not, the balance to that invective might well be that Art Omi in […]
“Home is a place not only of strong affections,” Harriet Beeche Stowe once said. “But of entire unreserved.” The famous sentiment has since encompassed the entirety of the nation’s romantic ambitions for home ownership. It is not only a place we value as a “dressing room” for […]
What was your family doing 100 years ago? That’s four or five generations back. Past your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, and on to your great-great grandparents. Think about it. How far back do your family stories go? If you’re the average person who knows something about […]