Years Ago

by Joseph J. Norris

20 Years Ago

As has been mentioned in this very same column before, then President Bill Clinton came to Skaneateles for vacation, spending about a week here in the village. On Sept. 8, 1999, the Skaneateles Press published a small article concerning an interesting, perhaps little thought of, element of the Clinton visit. The headline reads “Residents put aside political differences last week.” Why is this headline worthy? Well, Bill Clinton was, and remains, one of the most controversial political figures in recent decades. Furthermore, he is a Democrat, while Skaneateles is largely conservative. Thus, it seems unlikely that he would receive a warm welcome. In some ways, this was true. The former owner of Johnny Angel’s, Mr. Angyal, made a Hillary Sandwich that had bologna as its key ingredient. However, many other residents stated that, while they did not agree with his political and personal policies, they respected him at least for the office he held, and acted accordingly. Seeing this heartwarming blurb on setting aside political alignments, the question was very loudly posed: What if the current president visited?

The current president’s name has become somewhat of a D-word at family gatherings, and I can attest firsthand, the discussions surrounding his decisions during his term, both political and otherwise, can become, let us say, passionate. And it has been seen that President Trump’s visits to places across the nation, especially for rallies, have been marred by demonstrations where two camps form: those who vehemently oppose him, and those that fervently support him. However, as aforementioned, Skaneateles is a mainly conservative town. During the campaign, the TRUMP | PENCE signs were not hard to come by in the area, and so you might think he may receive a more neutral, if not friendlier, welcome. I sought the hypothetical reactions to the hypothetical visit to get a better picture of what it would look like. I asked a long time resident, and she told me “We’d have the giant blow-up baby out in a second,” referring to the float used in the UK that depicted the current president as a bright orange, pear-shaped infant. However, upon asking another resident, I received an answer echoing the responses from 20 years ago. He said, “As a patriotic American, I respect our democracy and the Constitution. Therefore, I would be honored to meet the president, regardless of my personal feelings or political beliefs.” Another resident told me she’d try to get a picture. Which among the scatterplot of answers offers the best insight? We may not know—unless he stops by in 2020.

40 Years Ago

The Skaneateles Press published a single phrase: “Bookmobile Continues.” The article itself was nothing out of the ordinary—for the time, and that’s what fascinated me; that the word “Bookmobile” was once commonly used in our own paper. Me being born in the early 21st century, I had no notion of what a Bookmobile was. If I’m being honest, in my ignorant mind I pictured a vehicle stylized to look like a book with wheels. But a Bookmobile’s function is actually quite simple. It is a mobile library.

The article is simply a schedule talking about where and when the Bookmobile will stop, so in itself it’s rather mundane, but I believe in these times a mobile library would certainly seem like a novelty. After all, according to a 2018 PEW article, there are only 650 Bookmobiles operating throughout the United States, when there were 1,000 in the 1990’s. I don’t doubt that the proliferation of ebooks and Amazon have, at least nominally, contributed to this disappearance in Bookmobiles. It continues to seem as though much of the world today is growing out of touch with its literary roots, as mass media and distractions become more common every day. Contrarily, though, some libraries around the country have considered putting a Bookmobile into commission. Mobility allows for libraries to reach more readers, especially during years where their budget is meager. Also, partially because of services like Amazon, people have become more accustomed to books, among other things, being delivered directly to their homes.

Though there is another element to the Bookmobile that transcends prices and practicality. Being a mobile library, Bookmobiles often go to areas that are largely underserved by their local libraries due to their remote location, and so these brilliant buses of books are an important source of their literature. A sense of community, I feel, is also bred by a Bookmobile. It keeps people in touch, even when they may be far out, while also bringing them the invaluable gift of literature. If our very own local library considers resurrecting their Bookmobile, I would certainly support such a move.

I might even volunteer to drive the thing.

60 Years Ago

The Skaneateles Press would publish what it called a “Newsletter.” It wasn’t anything specific to a certain day. These newsletters were a weekly publication. The Newsletters weren’t confined to just Skaneateles, either. In the 1959 edition of Sept. 11’s paper there’s a newsletter from Owasco, Skaneateles Falls, and even Coon Hill.

To me, these Newsletters were in their own way amusing, because it wasn’t so much news as it was a random litany of local goings on. Here are some examples:

For the Owasco Newsletter, Mrs. Shirley Barber felt the need to include, “Mr. and Mrs. Karl Kent, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Andrews of Moravia, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Smith of Groton had dinner at the Mirbachs in Syracuse, Sunday.”

The Skaneateles Falls Newsletter, written by Mrs. Armand Seguin, mentioned that “Howard Britcher [was] confined to Auburn Memorial Hospital for illness.”

And for those of you sweating with the thirst to know some of what was going on in the Coon Hill area 60 years ago, Mrs. Paul Lader reported “Alfred Stevens and Webb Stevens [had] entered several head of holstein cattle in the New York State Fair.”

Looking back, I have decided to commemorate the tradition of publishing such stories by making my own General Newsletter, an amalgam of random events taking place in the lives of several Skaneateles residents over the summer.

It should be noted that this particular section was written on Aug. 13.

Joseph Norris had his wisdom teeth removed on Aug. 12, a Monday. His left cheek was much more swollen than his right cheek.

From Sunday Aug. 4 to Saturday Aug. 10 many runners on the Skaneateles Cross Country team attended Aim High Running Camp in the Adirondacks. Many of their voices were thrashed after several fun activities.

On June 26, the last day of school, Mr. Karl Norris of the chemistry department played golf in a teachers’ tournament. His team won the competition.

Mr. Kevin Cox and his son Colin left on July 8 for St. Andrews, the home of golf, where they played at least 18 holes.

The Persampieri family hiked up and down Mt. Marcy for a total of 16 miles on Sunday, August 11th. It is the highest mountain in New York State.

80 Years Ago

On Sept. 11, the then Skaneateles Democrat dedicated a sizeable space on one of its pages to recognize and raise awareness of Newspaper Boys’ Week, lasting from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30. This section the Democrat praises the integrity of newspaper boys, the hard, honest work that they do, calling it as “American as pie…” and “…pork and beans”. Furthermore, there is a certain pride among those who were once paperboys, as the Democrat explains that many successful men around the country and locally were once paperboys and would say so proudly. And this pride does seem to make sense. My own grandfather was a paperboy, saying “At the time it was a pretty good job,” explaining the hard work involved. He had to deliver 60 to 70 papers, while his brother Jim delivered around one-hundred. They even worked in the cold: “Winter was unpleasant,” but they delivered anyways, because it was “One of the big ways we got our news.” Few would want to peddle papers in an Upstate New York winter, but the paperboys buttoned up their coats to keep people with the times (the Watertown Daily Times, in my grandfather’s case). This dedication created trust, and to have been a steward of this trust would fill anybody, rightly, with pride.

However, according to a 2008 article by NBC, the paperboy has since “gone the way of the milkman”. At the time the article was written, 81 percent of the mail was delivered through anonymous drive-and-toss. It’s likely that this number has grown. Due to afternoon papers declining in popularity, a general shift to centralized delivery, and earlier times of delivery, adults in cars are now the majority of newspaper carriers. With money now being even more available than it is today, young teenagers such as the ones depicted in the Democrat would rather work jobs that don’t require them to get up at 6 a.m. and ride a bike around for some extra money. It may be a bit of a leap to say that this has led to an overall loss of community, but I do wonder what it says about this shared idealistic vision of small-town America, a vision where the dedication of the paperboys would flow through the streets like the bicycles themselves, where relying on one another was part of a daily routine, much like reading the morning paper.

So, for paperboys of the past like my grandfather, and for what paperboys still pedal in the present, I tip my metaphorical cap in admiration.

100 Years Ago

On Sept. 8, the Democrat printed an especially quixotic, and yet paradoxically solemn, headline, reading “DESPONDENT PONY SEEKS DEATH IN LAKE.” The blurb beneath then relates the story of Babe Hart, the “pet and slave of fifteen-year-old George Hart and his twelve-year-old brother Freddy…”, painting a forlorn picture of the pony’s life. Poor Babe’s trouble included a lack of oats, sugar lumps being off the market, carrots being “out of sight”, and George and Freddy weight, that grows with each passing day. He sought an end to his troubles in the waters of Skaneateles Lake. Freddy had unhitched Babe after an arduous drive in the heat along the lake shore, and the pony took his chance, loping to the water’s edge and jumping in. Luckily, a nearby coast guard came to the rescue, and it was when Babe was pulled from the lake that his problems were solved. After the close call, George and Freddy pamper Babe, giving him myriad oats and carrots and sugar lumps. Then the writer closes the column describing a “bolshevist glitter” in Babe’s eyes as he lays in his stable, having fooled his masters into giving him what he’s always wanted.

Now, after reading the conclusion painting the pony as a diabolical mastermind, it is clear to see that the article was meant to give the reader a chuckle to brighten their day. It worked for me partly because the story was framed as a suicide attempt, when the horse most likely had less grave reasons for leaping into the lake. I asked a resident who owns horses why they might want to go for a swim, and also conducted other research. The horse owner told me simply that horses have bigger stomachs, and, as they are bigger animals, obviously need more water, and it had been a hot day, purportedly. Furthermore, horses are fairly strong swimmers to begin with, so it’s entirely possible Babe simply wanted to cool off, and seeing the chance, took it…

…but really, we’ll never know. Maybe he was a master manipulator.