Carol Mone could rattle off a lengthy list of the concerts she caught in her teens and twenties, but two that left especially lasting impressions were The Cowsills’ performance at the 1968 New York State Fair and a show at the War Memorial Arena the following year that pinned the James Gang with Led Zeppelin.
Though she now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s fond memories like these that drew the 1973
Henninger High School graduate to Nostalgic Syracuse, a public group page on Facebook that revolves around regional reminiscence.
By the time Mone discovered the page just about 10 years ago, it had been languishing, as she put it, so she
agreed to take over as an administrator.
From there, the host of pictures she shared renewed interest in Nostalgic Syracuse, and over time it snowballed in popularity, eventually eclipsing the 30,000-member mark.
Liverpool resident Geoff Stephenson, who joined in 2015 and became an admin a year later, said the “pleasant” page appeals to local residents with stories galore about Syracuse’s weather, the off-the-clock historians who appreciate the history of the city as a transportation hub, and those who simply miss the restaurants and attractions that are no more.
He said it’s also a way for people who venture outward to keep in touch with their hometown community.
“You can take the person out of Syracuse, but you can’t take Syracuse out of the person,” said Stephenson, a 1974 graduate of Corcoran.
That scientific law applies strongly to Mone, the Facebook group’s ambassador from afar who, despite having
relocated to the West Coast in 1979, still visits Syracuse once a year if she can.
The retired software engineer said the ever-growing page she now helps to monitor relies on crowdsourcing to pull together expertise and fill in the cracks of specific memories.
She also contends that the use of the accompanying search bar, represented by an icon of a magnifying glass, will reveal more to Central New Yorkers about their area’s history than they ever learned in school.
An inspection of Nostalgic Syracuse can lead one to everything from photos taken during the Blizzard of 1966 to comment sections about both the famous people that once lived in town, like musician Lou Reed, and the names thought to deserve more recognition, like potter Adelaide Alsop Robineau, who taught at Syracuse University.
To admin Elaine Peters, a 1993 Corcoran grad, the group page brings in a balance of personal anecdotes and
objective explanations.
“History is like the canvas, and nostalgia is the color you add to bring out all the details,” Peters said.
In order to avoid the dilution of the group’s purpose, the all-volunteer, five-person administration team established a set a posting guidelines.
One of these is the daily limit of four photos or individual posts per member, a rule that keeps the feed from being flooded with one contributor.
Persistent political speech is strongly discouraged, as are references to local tragedies or incidents of violent crime, particularly cases that may have involved someone who is still alive.
The rules also prohibit the denigration of Syracuse and its outskirts—the kind of bad-mouthing that never made much sense to Peters, who continues to appreciate spots like Elmwood Park and Webster Pond as well as the old Erie Canal towpath that runs through her backyard in Jordan.
“We’re not as big as Detroit or Chicago or New York City or Los Angeles, but we have so much to offer within a small area,” she said.
During Stephenson’s younger days, back when he worked in the Lincoln Bank mailroom, he spent many a lunch hour snapping black-and-white photos of downtown Syracuse architecture, enamored by the gargoyles and lion head sculptures that graced the facades of buildings he strolled by.
Decades later, his fascination hasn’t really gone away, no matter whether some of those buildings have been
demolished or restyled. After all, his memories are kept alive through discussions on his favorite group page and his delight in posting side-by-sides of what used to be and what he sees now.
“Facebook can be a very positive and enjoyable place if you hang around in the right places, and I found that in Nostalgic Syracuse,” Stephenson said.
He added that in 20 years or so, supposing Facebook is still intact and the page is carrying on as busily as usual, it would come as no surprise if photos from this very day surface on its feed and spark their own waves of nostalgia.
