Years Ago
This column is a revitalized weekly addition to the paper. The following moments in history are selected, researched, and edited by Skaneateles High School students enrolled in Kate Hardy’s 10th grade Honors English class. For the next school year they hope to celebrate the past and remember the days from years ago. Thank you to the Skaneateles Library and the Historical Society for providing the Press archives.
10 Years
10 years ago Stacianery, a local photography and greeting card company, moved beyond Skaneateles. In a September 2006 edition of the Press, Stacia Landsberg was celebrated for being picked up nationally. Today, Stacia’s company is thriving both locally and throughout the country. She continues to progress with the opening of her studio, built by her loving husband David Landsberg M.D., which is open to the public during the week. When asked of her success she commented, “given that it has always been my goal to be able to support my community in my own space and in my own way, I’m fortunate to have been able to realize those dreams.”
On this day 10 years ago, pictures in the Skaneateles Press show middle school teacher, Michelle Beaudet dressed as a pirate to celebrate Spirit Week at Skaneateles High School. Every year, the week of homecoming is used to show school spirit in which students and even some teachers dress up for a specific theme each day of what is called “Spirit Week.” This year, the week leading up to homecoming was celebrated with ‘Merica Monday, Tropical Tuesday, Superhero Wednesday, Pajama Thursday, and Laker Pride Friday. Ten years ago, these days were Pajama Day, Hawaiian Day, Country Western Day, Pirate Day, and Laker Pride Day. Spirit Week as well as homecoming are still important traditions for the high school, just as they were 10 years ago today.
25 Years
The German American Society advertised their ninth annual Oktoberfest this week 25 years ago. The celebration still takes place over a two day period, and is located at Gore Mountain in North Creek. Typical fall activities include helicopter rides, live entertainment, climbing wall, and German food and beer are served. This year, their 34th Anniversary is occurring on Oct. 8 and 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free!
25 years ago this week the Skaneateles School District conducted a “turn-off.” Students, teachers and entire families participated in turning off their television sets for an entire week. The district hoped that the absence of technology would help students and parents gain a new understanding of the impact that TV has on family life, and to observe the effect that it would have on academic achievement. This notion was an excellent idea at the time, but we now live in an age where technology is much vaster than owning a television set. According to the CNET Tech Industry, statistics display that there were approximately 94 million iPhones in use in the United States last year. This just goes to show how much our world has grown technologically, and unfortunately getting students to disconnect from electronics is much more difficult now than it was twenty-five years ago.
50 Years
50 years ago, the Skaneateles Press published the Skaneateles Central Schools’ cafeteria lunch menu for the following week. Some of the food items featured on the menu include: cherry cobbler, fish in bun, frankfurters, cabbage salad, tomato juice, plums, and pickles. This week Skaneateles High School students are feasting on: tacos, pancakes, shrimp poppers, tater tots, and sausage. Tasty!
Half a century ago this week, an ad ran in the Press for photos of the low levels of water in Skaneateles Lake to be used in a campaign for preventing the further depletion of the lake. These photos from the town residents were going to be used to convince the Water Resources Commission to help preserve the lake. This summer, due to high heat and lack of rain, the lake’s water level has also dropped. However, it was not nearly as drastic as in the year 1966, as shown in the photo below which was taken of the swimming area in downtown Skaneateles by James D. Grant.
75 Years
75 years ago a scare of th
e Bubonic Plague struck Skaneateles, however, the only evidence of the plague at that time was found in Southern India. The town had advertised for a modern “Pied Piper” (which is someone who plays their “magic piper” to get rid of the infected animals), to lure the infection away from Skaneateles. Eight cases had supposedly been found in squirrels and woodchucks so it was only a matter of time before it reached domesticated rats – which is one step away from humans. There was more than the average number of rats in the town at this time which added to the initial scare of the disease. Although during the 1940’s there was plague in some areas of the world, fortunately for Skaneateles, it w
as just a scare and the Bubonic Plague never made an appearance.
Cross-word puzzles have always been an important part of the paper that people look forward to each week. Recent cross-word puzzles ask for movie titles, slang words, and sports terminology, whereas some of the highlights from the 1941 cross-word are
:
Across
4- watch, chain
35- fiber of several Mexican plants
45- coronet
50- safe position of a ship in stormy weather
51- anger
Down
4- things that float, collectively
10- wolframite
25- foot like organ
29- elastic cushion
44- genus of auks
100 Years
100 years ago this week, the Skaneateles Press revealed that the number of American people who bought a book in a one year span was only one out of 7,300, a negligible percent. Today, reading is a much more popular hobby, for 72 percent of adult Americans have read a book in the past year. Back then, readers could have been deep into Robert Frost’s collection of poems featuring “The Road Not Taken.” Bestsellers of this year include Paula Hawkins’ “The Girl on the Train” and M. L. Stedman’s “The Light Between Oceans.” When was the last time you picked up a good read?
In 1916, it cost $81.10 to travel by train, via Wabash Railroads round trip from Buffalo, NY to San Diego, CA. Nowadays, it costs around $454.00 to take a round trip train from New York to California. Wabash railroads was a Midwestern carrier connecting Buffalo with cities such as Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha. The high speed train company was successful, but died in the 1960s due to merger train companies. In 1916 it took anywhere between two and a half days to three days to travel from Buffalo, NY to San Diego, CA. Interestingly, today it takes roughly the same amount of time to travel the same distance by train. The continuity of the travel times is most likely due to the fact that after advancements in airplanes and cars, trains were less used and the speed of them became less important. Though less popular today, than in the 1900s, train services still run throughout the United States, connecting major cities and providing a quality method of transportation
