My first personal-interview article originally published as front-page article in the local newspaper, Broader View Weekly, March 21, 2013:
“It’s all up to Mother Nature,” said Al Smith. When the days begin to get longer and stay above 32 degrees, but nights are below freezing, the sap begins to flow. And it’s then we start to see those long lines of plastic tubing snaking between maple trees in the woods as we drive by. Did you know it takes about 30 to 50 gallons of sap to make just on
Harry's Inn
308 E. 14th St. Elmira Heights NY 14903
So this review is for those that like the hot stuff!!
I think I have said before I do like to frequent the same spots so here is another Harrys review. After I recieved a huge settlement check from a robo calling company I decided to treat myself to some wings. I settled on the "Honey Garlic Thai Dirty Wings". While they pack a whole lot of flavor they also bring with them a butt load of hot.
At one point between sweati
We’ve had snowfall nearly every night --- another half to three-inches on top of our since- Christmas snow. This morning there was NO new snow. There is a slight change in the air, and some of the birds are singing spring-ish songs. I’ve heard from one or two observers that a few robins have emerged from the swamps and are out there conning people into thinking spring has come. I expect they won’t stay around long; finding worms beneath our banks of snow will be impossible. But yesterday’s
Many communities in states above the Mason-Dixon line had safe homes to assist slaves fleeing north to freedom, like Portland, Maine. A center of activity, the city was important to blacks fleeing slavery for not only safe homes enroute to Canada, but also employment in the rail and shipping industries.
Recently, I learned from friends near Portland, Maine that the city’s Underground Railroad Abyssinian Meeting House/Church, built during 1828-1831, is undergoing restoration. Noted to be
County historical and genealogical societies are another great repository of data to aid in your research. Among their resources are town and county historical books which often include brief lineages of early settlers, donated private family records, old family Bibles or transcripts of family data, transcribed census records, church and cemetery records, microfilm of various records including old newspapers, donated copies of wills or abstracts of wills, maps, rare books, donated specialty ite
When photographer Jack Delano from the Farm Security Administration came to Rumsey Hill in northern Chemung County in 1940, he photographed nearly a dozen families living there. I wrote about his documentary project here on January 4, 2021. As I mentioned in that post, I wasn’t able to find out much about most of the people he photographed, but I did learn a lot about Urho Maki and his family.
Mr. Urho Maki, September 1940
Urho Maki was a Finnish immigrant and farmer in the area o
If you haven’t been following the daily developments on the Cuomo administration’s nursing homes disaster, following are just a few highlights from the past week:
Nine Democratic members of the state Assembly, in a letter urging support for stripping Governor Cuomo’s COVID-19 emergency powers, accused the governor with federal obstruction of justice, calling it a “criminal use of power”;
Governor Cuomo responded by publicly attacking one of the letter’s signers, Assemblyman Ron Kim
As we noted earlier, most of the early conductors on the Underground Railroad were Quakers, but their early numbers steadily grew to include Methodists, Presbyterians and many other denominations, anyone interested in helping free the slaves. Both preachers and abolitionists spoke publicly despite threats against them as they made inroads into the hearts of Americans. William Lloyd Garrison was one such man who influenced untold thousands of people with his abolition work, as did others who sh
We’re quickly coming upon the time marking one year since the world was turned upside down thanks to a tiny little organism known as Covid-19 came into our lives.
I remember very well the sense of foreboding, the heaviness we all felt in the beginning. I sat our teenage sons down, one of them a high school senior, and we talked about it. I told them in no uncertain terms, “This is going to suck.” No one had been through what we were about to experience in 100 years, so we'd be making this
New York State is home to the largest salt mines in the country. They’re in our backyard. Or, possibly even under it. 1000ft underground and 20,000+ acres. Are these massive underground mines safe?
Livingston County, NY, just south of Rochester, is the location of the Retsof mine, which began operation in 1884. Mining 1000 feet below ground, they extracted salt from what was to become the largest mine in the USA. The mine remained in continuous operation until 1994 when it began to take on
Thomas Jefferson embodied the dichotomy of struggle about slavery within our nation. Acknowledged in his writing of the U.S. Constitution is the biblical premise that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with the inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…” Though he owned slaves, he struggled with how to end the institution of owning another human. He called it a “hideous evil,” yet, like others, saw blacks
Our flight from Philadelphia was at around 11 in the morning on Saturday. My wife and I said goodbye to our daughter and to our dog and also to my sister and our niece. They had come up the night before to watch over our daughter and pup. Then we hit the road, knots in both of our stomachs.
This was not a normal trip. This was not a vacation and this was not for a wedding. This was a mission; a mission to get our daughter, who was currently resting comfortably in the womb of our surrogate,
Albany at the moment may best be described by a few lines from All The President’s Men, “It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook. There’s more.”
In fact, there was a lot more at the State Capitol last Thursday night when reporters from the New York Post dropped a bombshell scoop detailing a secret virtual meeting of top legislative Democrats and members of Governor Cuomo’s inner circle.
The Post obtained an audio recording of the Democrats-only meeting and the story quotes one of th
In researching your ancestors, you will hit brick walls – guaranteed! When you do, think about who the most recent known ancestor was. Remember that we discussed previously how the Dutch used a specific naming pattern. Each child was named after the grandparents, alternating back and forth to include each of the child’s grandparents, great-grandparents, then aunts, uncles and parents, the parents' names, etc. Other ethnic groups, including the Germans, often used a similar pattern, but did n
PART I - Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We are determined to work and fight until justice rains down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Paraphrasing the Biblical book of Amos 5:24, King did just that with God at his side to challenge us to seek justice. Sadly, slavery is still a profitable venture around the world, including in our nation under various guises. It flourishes in over 100 countries with India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and North Korea topping
Happy Birthday to my turning-seventeen today granddaughter!!! We’re sending virtual gifts of joy and delight, courage and wisdom and wish we could send a yummy birthday cake!
It is also, according to the Monday Morning Epistle from the Burdett Presbyterian church, “White Tee Shirt Day” “Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk Day” and “Peppermint Patty Day”. And elsewhere I heard it was “Make A New Friend Day”. So this is obviously a day worth singing about!
Hasn’t February been fun so far? Of
by Annie Holmquist
With mass homeschooling becoming the new norm starting early last year, one might easily assume that parents have by now adjusted to their new roles as teachers and work-from-home employees, in addition to their parenting responsibilities. That may be true for some, but I tend to think those people are in the minority.
A piece in the Irish Times confirms this notion. The article consists of several testimonials from parents trying to adjust to the faux homeschooling
It turns out my column’s headline last week -- “Attorney General report a beginning, not the end” – was quite an understatement.
In fact, the AG’s report has sparked nothing short of a firestorm since its release on January 28. It revealed, among many findings, that the Cuomo administration was underreporting COVID-19 nursing home deaths by potentially as much as 50 percent – and the findings were based on a review of just ten percent of the state’s nursing homes.
After requests for mo
There is something truly special about the love of a friend… something to treasure and be thankful for! The bond that develops is hard to break… especially when tested by time and circumstances in all of life’s ups and downs.
A friend shows empathy and genuine concern for another’s well being. A friend understands the other’s need of a quiet respite for a time when life comes hard against them. A friend reaches out in those difficult times to say, “I’m here… whenever you need me. I wo
Let me start this review by saying I am ashamed of myself for waiting so long to give this place a try. You voted for it (mail-ins not accepted) and after a few months I am giving you my review of The Starlite Room.
Right off the bat I knew I would like the place. They offer online ordering and in my opinion everyone should offer it. I can stare at the menu for hours customize my meal and I don't have to sound like a tool on the phone.
So now down to business. My meal tonight wa
Thirty feet below Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, there’s a tomb of stone. Its story is of a steam locomotive suspended in time, a man with a vision, and a city that holds all the keys.
The world’s first subway tunnel was nearly forgotten until an urban explorer located it 120 years after it was sealed. The question is, did he also find a locomotive buried under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn?
In 1844 the Long Island Rail Road chose to bury a section of the line under Atlantic Avenue in Broo
We are already at the end of January!!! It has been a month of astonishment, disbelief, grief, relief and, for some, continued fears --- many conflicting emotions as the world turns and our country goes through another stage of growing pains. As someone pointed out to me, we are really only a bit over 200 years from living under a monarchy. While 200 seems a lot of years to me, on a historic time line, that isn’t very long. We are still learning ---- and developing ----- and growing ---- and
To summarize where we stand in our months-long effort to better understand the tragedy that is New York’s COVID-19 nursing home crisis -- and the Cuomo administration’s response to it – we now have a report from the state attorney general.
It arrived last week after months and months of repeated requests -- from legislators (including myself), Democrat and Republican, reporters, watchdog groups, and from family members who have lost loved ones in nursing homes – for the most basic of inform
