Archive » December 2022 » Columns

The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer

The original depot in Knowersville still stands behind the new depot, repurposed as the Altamont Free Library.

One mid-September morning in 1863, most Knowersville residents headed up the original Schoharie Road to stand beside the shiny newly laid tracks of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad, eagerly watching for the first passenger train to come rolling through.

Their busy, prosperous little hamlet almost a mile down the road, depended on the traffic of the Schoharie Plank Road, horse-drawn traffic that would quickly be replaced by that advance in travel technology, the railroad.

First incorporated on April 19, 1851 as a rail line to connect Albany and Binghamton and link up with the Erie Railroad, Albany & Susquehanna got off to a slow start due to lack of funds complicated by expensive construction costs. Eventually the New York State Legislature came through with a government loan to complete the project.

Beginning in Albany, the proposed route cut through the towns of Bethlehem, New Scotland, and Guilderland through a sparsely populated farming area of town where what became modern-day Meadowdale and Altamont were on the route. Topographical obstacles caused delays, adding expense to the project.

It was necessary to build a grade of 70 feet per mile for two-and-a-half miles from Albany through the valley of the Normanskill where ravines created by tributaries had to be bridged. The route then crossed a plain until it entered the Bozenkill valley just past Knowersville. Beyond this, the tracks climbed another grade of 70 feet per mile for four miles with two very high embankments to be erected along the way.

Once construction was underway, the leading Albany newspapers began printing frequent updates on the railroad’s progress. In May 1862, the Albany Evening Journal reported that a telegraph company was placing poles along the roadbed of the railroad.

By June, the section of track within Albany city limits was to be laid to connect with rails already laid to Duanesburg. However,  the Dec. 18, 1862 Albany Argus noted that, by Jan. 1, 1863, it was expected that the rail-laying would be completed from Albany to the Knowersville crossing of the Schoharie and Albany Plank Road (where the tracks cross Route 146 today).

Obviously, construction took longer to reach Duanesburg than predicted earlier in the year. The Albany Argus noted that the railroad company’s rolling stock consisted of three locomotives, about 10 freight cars, several “dirt” cars, and three or four passenger cars.

Excitement was growing as frequent news of the railroad’s progress appeared during the summer of 1863. By July, it was reported all the track work within Albany city limits was complete with a depot on Broadway at Church and Lydius Streets, a location approximately where the later D & H building stood.

In mid-August, there was a dry-run excursion train carrying stockholders and their friends who were given complimentary tickets. Leaving at 9 a.m., they set off for the “once secluded and quiet village of Schoharie.”

The Albany Evening Journal predicted the trip would be a “pleasant jaunt over a section of country that has been comparatively but little traveled.” By 5 p.m., they were back in Albany. The previous day, the first freight train had rolled through on its way to deliver goods to B.F. Wood in Esperance.

 

Formal opening

Finally, the big day of the formal opening of the Albany & Susquehanna arrived: Sept. 15, 1863. There must have been such a clamor for tickets to take part in the official excursion that on Sept. 12 the Albany Evening Journal was requested to announce that, because of the limited number of passenger cars, it was impossible to accommodate all who wanted to take part.

Two-hundred people including Governor Horatio Seymour, Albany’s Mayor Eli Perry and the Albany City Council members joined the Albany and Susquehanna Directors on board the special trains.

“Elegantly festooned with wreaths and bouquets of flowers by the tasteful hand of the lady of the President of the Road and the daughter of Mr. Spencer, one of the Engineers of the Road,” the wood-burning locomotives must have been a sight to behold as it chugged through Knowersville.

All along the way, enthusiastic onlookers gathered. The Evening Journal made special mention of the welcome from the citizens of Knowersville and Esperance who greeted the bedecked trains with cheers and salvos of artillery.

The people of Quaker Street, outside of Duanesburg, constructed two arches of evergreens decorated with flowers. When several hundred school students along the way greeted the train with cheers, Governor Seymour had the train halted two or three times to speak to the children.

Many decades later, Guilderland Town Historian Arthur Gregg, in writing about the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad, quoted “Webb” Whipple, an elderly man who grew up in old Knowersville.  He regaled Gregg with tales of his encounters in the 1860s, including his description of the Albany & Susquehanna.

Whipple recounted, “Me and another fellow played hooky the day the first train went through from Albany to Central Bridge. We made up our minds to do it though we knew just what we’d get when we got home. And we did get it, too.

“Besides the engine, that train was made up of flat cars with seats bolted down crossways. When it got here it was crowded with fine dressed men and women from New York and Albany. That didn‘t bother us none though. We climbed right on board.

“Most everybody on the train had brought picnic lunches and we got ourselves invited. We weren’t at all bashful and stepped right up when we was asked. It was a great trip and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything, lickin’ or no lickin’.”

There is no way to verify Whipple’s account, but Gregg took him seriously, quoting Whipple in several of his articles.

In 1863, the end of the railroad line had reached only as far as Central Bridge. When the excursion arrived there, the travelers enjoyed a catered lunch spread out in a nearby grove followed by lengthy speeches ,which took up many inches of column space in the next day’s Evening Journal.

Shortly after four o’clock, the trains left to return to Albany, “nothing having occurred during the day to mar the pleasantness of the excursion.”

 

Regular traffic

Within a week, it was reported that an average of 100 passengers were on trains arriving or leaving Albany, giving the company $100 per trip. In addition to this was income from freight traffic.

The Evening Journal forecast that, once there were two trains a day between Albany and Central Bridge, “We shall see plenty of the crinoline portion of that once sequestered region coming down here regularly to do their shopping and sightseeing.”

A notice placed in the June 23, 1864 Schoharie Unionist newspaper by M.F. Prentice, president of the Albany & Susquehanna, announced the following schedule for the two trains running between Albany and Schoharie:

The first train for passengers and express freight would leave Albany at 7:15 a.m. and arrive in Schoharie at 8:50 a.m. It would return to Albany leaving Schoharie at 9:30 a.m., arriving back to the city at 11:30 am.

The second train for passengers and freight would depart Albany at 2 p.m. and arrive in Schoharie at 4 p.m. while returning from Schoharie at 5:15 p.m. and arrive back in Albany at 7:30 p.m.

The locomotives were wood-burning and according to “Webb” Whipple’s recollection, as time went on the prices on cords of wood were driven up as high as $16 in the area.

 

Center shifts

When the trains began arriving at Knowersville in the autumn of 1863, there wasn’t much to be seen.

The Severson family’s Wayside Inn (now the site of Stewart’s in Altamont) had been put out of business when the Schoharie Plank Road opened in 1849, relocating traffic a half-mile away following a route less taxing to horses than straight up the escarpment as it had been near Severson Tavern.

While some along the way had objected to the railroad coming through their property, the Seversons were happy to give a right-of-way across their farm.

Within four years of the railroad’s opening, George Severson had built Severson House, a hotel across the tracks from the small depot that the Albany & Susquehanna had erected for the Knowersville stop.

The Severson farm and others nearby were divided into valuable building lots. A building boom began in the vicinity of the tracks with many homes and businesses going up in the next few years.

The original Knowerville, east of present day Gun Club Road, became a quiet neighborhood known as the “old village” in later years. The Knowersville post office was soon moved to the new center of population. Once the railroad began operations, the Plank Road Company quickly went out of business.

The Susquehanna & Albany was finally completed to Binghamton in l869. The late historian Arthur Gregg wrote of seeing a small yellow card on which was a timetable for the route from Albany to Binghamton, showing five trains running daily in each direction.

A train leaving Albany at 7 a.m. reached Knowersville at 8:12 a.m. This train reached Binghamton at 7 p.m. after having stopped at every tiny station along the line. In Guilderland, there was another stop called “Guilderland,” eventually renamed Guilderland Station when a post office opened there, later renamed  Meadowdale.

 

“Railroad Wars”

In spite of being a minor railroad, the Albany & Susquehanna became part of America’s railroad history.

It had been decided back in the 1850s, when the railroad was in the planning stages, to lay the tracks with a 6-foot gauge (that is, with 6 feet between the rails) probably with the intention of linking up with the Erie Railroad also laid with a 6-foot gauge unlike most other larger northern railroads which had a 4 foot, 8.5 inch gauge.

The Erie connected Jersey City with Buffalo and in 1869 was under the control of majority stockholders Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, two financiers with shady reputations, who were manipulators of railroad stock.

Realizing the Albany & Susquehanna would link the Erie and the coal fields of Pennsylvania with the rapidly industrializing Northeast, they began to scheme to capture majority interest in the stock through stock manipulation, court cases, and even violence between Erie crews and Albany & Susquehanna workers.

While the original stockholders centered in Albany struggled to keep control, there were endless court cases eventually deciding for the original local stockholders. Finally, in 1870, the conflict over control had come to an end with the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company leasing the Albany & Susquehanna, eventually changing its name to the Delaware & Hudson Railroad.

Locally, the obscure Susquehanna & Albany Railroad played a huge role in Altamont’s history when the village developed around the small depot erected by the railroad company in 1864 on what had been empty farmland.

The easy accessibility to the outside world helped to make it an especially prosperous village.

Nationally, the conflict between the original shareholders and the two robber barons has acquired the name “Railroad Wars” and has put the otherwise obscure Albany & Susquehanna into any history of 19th-Century railroading in the United States.

We got to spend a weekend in Buffalo with one of my wife’s high school classmates. It was the weekend right before Buffalo got hit with four feet of snow, so we lucked out for once.

In case you haven’t been to Buffalo, you should try it. It’s big enough to have everything you need — great sports, culture, restaurants, etc. — but small enough to feel cozy and friendly. I like it a lot and hope to return soon.

At one point during the weekend, we were outside our lovely friends’ warm and comfortable home when the mail lady walked up. At that point, our friend yelled out, “Hey, you got any love letters for me?” I found that to be very telling. Let me explain.

Clearly, in her mind, a good day is when the mail person brings you a love letter. I will say I’ve gotten one or two of them myself, but that was long ago, when I had a narrow waist and thick, dark hair.

These days, I get excited only if the mailman brings me motorcycle parts or magazines. Anything else goes to my lovely wife to deal with.

But I couldn’t get the thought of receiving a love letter out of my mind. With that said, I’d like to make this column a love letter to you, my faithful readers.

Every now and then, I’ll be at the market, gas station, or library, and one of you will come right up to me and tell me how much you love my column. Wow, what a rush.

The fact that my writing gives anyone any kind of comfort or joy is so wonderful and amazing to me. So let me say right here that I love you very much for that. Thanks so much, and thank you yet again. I really do appreciate it.

Some of you even take the time to write me letters. Yes, believe it or not, some of you are so moved by my writing that you take the time to send me handwritten thanks and encouragement.

I love all of you who have written to me over the years. It’s really a treat to get a letter like that, but don’t expect an answer from me in the mail.

Here’s why: I once tried to sell Girl Scout cookies for my daughter in the office where I work. I did sell a few boxes, but I had one very good friend there who would not buy them.

“Frank,” he said, “there are 500 people on this floor, and if I buy cookies from you, I have to buy from them as well, and I just can’t eat that many cookies!”

So that’s why I don’t personally answer my “fan mail.” Anyone who mails me personally deserves a thoughtful, handwritten response.

The only way I can do that, because of my chicken-scratch penmanship, is to write very, very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that to answer my letters I would have to lose some of my beauty sleep to complete even one.

Trust me, if you saw me these days, you’d know I need all the beauty sleep I can get, haha. So no personal thank-yous from me any time soon, but thanks so much for writing. I really love that you took the time to let me know you like my writing, yes I do.

Here’s the main reason I want to use this column to say how much I love each and every one of you who reads it: By reading my column in The Altamont Enterprise, you are supporting local, independent journalism. That is fantastic.

I don’t know if you are aware, but newspapers in general are having a hard go of it in the Internet Age. The only way many can make it is to cut staff to the bone and then work the remaining staff crazy hours on a shoestring budget. This is not how it should be, of course, but unfortunately how it is.

So every time you pick up a copy of The Enterprise, you are using your hard-earned dollars to say how much you support local independent journalism. I truly, really, love you for that!

Think about how much less our lives would be if we didn’t have this paper. Because of The Enterprise, we get to see how local government (mostly) works; what our friends and neighbors are up to; and the overall feel of what life in the Capital District and surrounding areas is like.

Truly, I feel enriched when I read The Enterprise, from the award-winning editorials by our wonderful editor, Ms. Melissa Hale-Spencer, to the latest ramblings of the Old Men of the Mountain, and everything in between. Where else can you find unique and interesting content like this?

I’m just waiting for a Recipe of the Month to start appearing, yes I am. I like to cook but I need all the help I can get, so start sending in your best recipes now.

Fun Fact: During the Buffalo weekend, my wife’s friend said this: “A bra can cost $40, if you buy a good brand.” As someone who has never purchased a bra in his entire life, I would have guessed they were $10, maybe $20 max.

I mean, I can buy a three-pack of T-shirts or a six-pack of socks every day for 10 bucks, so what do I know? The fact that something so ordinary and common, and that 51 percent of the population uses every day, costs so much is truly eye-opening, at least for me.

Hey, if you’re lucky you learn something new every day, so there’s that at least. I guess the TV show “The Price is Right” is not in my future any time soon, too bad for me.

So thanks for reading my column over the years. I really appreciate it and love you all. Especially, let’s all give a big thanks for local independent journalism like The Altamont Enterprise, the beating heart of this most special part of the planet that we all so fondly call home.

Thanks to everyone at The Enterprise for keeping this most excellent and appreciated publication fresh, alive, and vibrant. And for all of my lady readers, keep an eye out for when those bras go on sale. Who knows, you might find a good one, and then maybe you’ll get some love letters in the mail.

Postscript: the above was written before the devastating Christmas blizzard in Buffalo that has, as I write this, taken 27 lives and counting. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire city of Buffalo.

Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, is getting close to the end of the year and Christmas, and this year Hanukkah, then comes the New Year. It is party time, only the OFs are either too old to party, are partied out, or don’t care one way or the other.

It is another time of the year when priests, ministers, and rabbis should have their best sermons ready because it is also a time when there are more people in places of worship. On Tuesday morning, the Old Men of the Mountain did neither; they just had breakfast at the Chuck Wagon in Princetown.

A not too-much-talked-about medical situation, or maybe not at all up until Tuesday morning, was arthritis. It was found out that this aliment (or whatever it is called) is common among most all the OMOTM. This debilitating ailment doesn’t hide — it shows itself with lumps and bumps that at times hurt like a son of a gun.

Tuesday morning, it was found that, also with the ailment, there are so many cures, relief regimens, and soothing creams out there that these remedies can fill a pharmacy by themselves. This should give one pause that, if there are this many different rubs, creams, and pills, the people that don’t have arthritis yet are due to get it.

One OF mentioned that diet has a lot to do with getting the disease, but the other items filling the pharmacy are diet supplements, books, pills, and whatever other product the markets can come up with to use diet as a cure-all. Some may argue it is.

The OFs talking about arthritis have tried many forms of relief. One OF said he does the dishes because he gets relief from having his hands in the hot water. Another OF said it doesn’t work that way at his house because the dishes just get thrown in the dishwasher and, when the dishwasher is full, they run it.

Tylenol makes a pill just for arthritis but all Tylenol does is increase the amount of medicine in the pill.

Another OF said he has tried all those topical creams and none of them work, but he has found one that cuts the pain way down to just a minor hurt. That is a cream called CBD 600 [600 milligrams of cannabidiol], and the stuff really works, at least for him.

 

Travel plans

The OFs at our end of the table continued the discussion of Kitty Hawk, not so much going there as to when to travel. Travel off-season for the OFs looks like the way to go. The rates are less expensive, and the venues are less crowded.

The Kitty Hawk traveler said that, at the museum, their group had a tour guide almost all to themselves. The OF mentioned that there were only 12 people in his group instead of 300 to 350 people during the season.

One thing the OF mentioned that was a little unusual was that everything was open. Generally, in an off-season, many of the restaurants are closed as are the shops, and other things to do. But, as OFs, a good place to visit is one that has a few good restaurants open, plus the venues the OF planned on seeing. As far as this OF was concerned, all the other tilt-a-whirls, pool halls, and miniature golf courses can close down.

It is good to plan your travels when you are younger. The OFs say maybe in your sixties and early seventies. Once the eighties come along, so do a lot of aliments, one of which is mentioned above.

This really cuts down on the ability to move about with ease. This in  no way means that, if the OF is on a ton of pills and using a walker, the OF should stay home, just be ready because the mind may say the OF can still jitterbug, or go horseback riding but the old body is not going to let either of those things happen.

 

Staying warm

One of many things that happen as the OFs age is the need to stay warm. That is why the Southwest and the Deep South are loaded with old people. It is hard for older people to keep warm.

The OFs who hang around in mountains during the winter are looking for ways to keep the ole homestead warm without having to jack up the heat. The price of heating oil, propane, gas, and electricity is climbing faster than the retirement plans and Social Security.

So that prompted a discussion on how to heat the cabin this winter. One OF said he is shutting off rooms and moving downstairs to close off the whole upstairs. Steps like this will help some.

This brought up the discussion on heat pumps. One OF was quite familiar with this method of heat because he uses heat pumps to warm his home. This OF discussed how they function and what different types there were.

One thing he did say was these types of units are not cheap. Another OF was keenly interested because they are in need of a new heating unit. Like many on the hill this OF lives in an old farmhouse. Any one in his situation has a lot to consider the way the economy is right now.

Those Old Men of the Mountain who are attempting to keep warm this winter and hang out in the Helderbergs just so they can go to breakfast with the Old Men of the Mountain were: John Muller, Jake Lederman, George Washburn, Robie Osterman, Doug Marshall, Roland Tozer, Bill Lichliter, Frank Dees, Russ Pokorny, Roger Shafer, Jake Herzog, Rev. Jay Francis, Elwood Vanderbilt, Dave Hodgetts, Bob Donnelly, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Paul Whitbeck, Marty Herzog, Jim Rissacher, Dick Dexter, Frank Weber, John Dapp, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Herb Bahrmann, and me.

We’re all pretty familiar with the Big Lie stemming from the 2020 election and we all know how absurd it is. But here in good old Builderland, New York, we’re the victims of another equally insidious and just as harmful big lie, and it’s been shoved down our throats for decades.

That one is simple: Constant development is good for everyone and great for our town.

My answer: Horse hockey (tip of the cap to Col. Potter).

Look at what really happens when we allow land developers (aka land destroyers, flim-flam artists, land speculators, or builders) to grab and destroy every square inch of green space they can get their greedy little claws into.

We have diminished environmental quality, increased traffic, reduced air quality (due to more vehicles), higher stress on an already stressed infrastructure, and each year our taxes go up anyway, despite a supposedly larger tax roll. And we won’t even get into wildlife living in our garages and competing for our jobs due to their natural habitats being destroyed.

In Altamont, the village of hard, high-pressure water, continued building has caused another well or two to be drilled and the water quality is even worse. Can you say manganese?

At the exact same time, our sewer and water bills are so high, SEFCU is now offering sewer and water loans for folks on fixed incomes. And yet, with all the new houses that keep going up around the village, making it less and less small and green, neither our taxes or fees have gone down despite the vaunted bigger tax roll.

And one other thing is the issue of affordability. Has anyone around here seen any new affordable houses? Anything under 1,500 square feet? Nope.

As the saying goes (among builders), bigger is better. So of course, at a time in history where resources are dwindling, it makes perfect sense to build 5,000-square-foot ego palaces that are as energy efficient as an Escalade.

Another issue is services like fire and ambulance. According to a story here in The Enterprise, volunteers have dropped some 20 percent over the past few years, making it much harder for our volunteer ambulance and fire companies to be adequately staffed. This is an issue all over the state and the country.

But here in Altamont and Builderland, we see more calls each year but fewer volunteers. Eventually, the volunteer companies will simply not be able to keep up with demand and people will suffer, die, and houses will burn. The developers don’t mind though; many don’t live here, for the most part.

In both Builderland and Altamont, another huge issue is traffic. My wife has lived in Altamont for more than 60 years and remembers when Route 20 was a two-lane road with nothing on it but a gas station and farms. Nowadays you have to check the signs to make sure you’re not on Wolf Road.

Crossgates has grown like a cancer, killing off the Pine Bush and yet, somehow, building and zoning boards just keep on approving more building. And Route 20 is now a daily nightmare despite being almost as wide as the Northway. You have to schedule your errands to avoid morning and afternoon rush hours.

In Altamont, the constant building of houses and neighborhoods around the village core has added a large number of cars to our small roads and made walking, biking, and pushing strollers a lot more hazardous. Granted, the village has added a decent number of new sidewalks, but we have a long way to go on that front.

We need sidewalks going all the way to Bozenkill Park, to keep kids and families safe, and if we’re going to keep the Altamont Police, they need to focus even more on speed control and traffic safety. The folks roaring through the village and ignoring crosswalks pose a hazard to all living things. I just saw a black bear wearing a safety vest, for goodness sakes.

Many people say they love the village and live here because it’s not like the endless rolling acres of nondescript burbs that make up the vast majority of Builderland. Sunday’s ACT WinterFest, the Fall Festival, the PTA garage sale in May and the Memorial Day parade all highlight what makes Altamont special.

But for developers, Altamont is just another land parcel in need of paving. Imagine what builders see when they look at the fairgrounds. Endless rows of McMansions, or acres of condos? They certainly don’t see the history. What was once a quaint, self-sufficient little village is going to turn into a burb and the people making a huge profit on it don’t even care about our history or community.

Like many things in our late-stage capitalist society, constant development benefits only a very small number of people. But, like corporate conglomeration, they sell it to us like the next great thing.

I say it’s time to stop with the big lies on our ever-shrinking planet. We’re not making new open spaces (except parking lots) and we’re not making more untainted water or fresh air or reintroducing extinct species. We’re just watching as it all dwindles away.

With their bloated egos, developers think they’re leaving behind a legacy of beautification and enrichment. In reality, they’re leaving a legacy of destruction, cheap construction, and desecration.

Personally, I’d love to see a law passed that prohibits building any new home or retail space while there are vacant homes or stores available. I would also like to see the state or county offer landowners more tax breaks for keeping vacant land undeveloped.

Guilderland does have such a program set up through the state, but it’s still in its infancy and needs lots of expansion. It covers only town taxes for landowners who join. Imagine a future where landowners are rewarded across the board for maintaining vacant land. Now that would be very cool. But, we have, at least, made a start.
Editor’s note: Michael Seinberg says he has lived in Altamont for nearly 30 years and has seen too much development by far.

The daylight hours are getting shorter; this means some of the Old Men of the Mountain are starting out in the dark. This Tuesday was Nov. 29 so for a few more weeks it will be darker still.

(Scribe’s comment: Just like we can’t make cold, we also can’t make dark. All we can do is take away heat for cold, and light for dark. What has that got to do with anything — hmmmm?)

This also means that, while driving to these early breakfast meetings, we see some autos coming toward us with white lights that are either not set right, or not dimmed. The OMOTM complain that, when meeting these vehicles in the opposite lane, they are blinded by these lights. Not all — just some.

On the way to the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh, the OFs feel it is a good thing this diner is in the country because not too many of these bright lights are met by the OFs.

In talking around the tables at home, the OFs are finding out it is not only the OFs who have this problem, it is the younger folks too. One OF reported that one of the young folks mentioned in conversation that he wonders how many accidents have been caused by these lights and it has been hushed-hushed.

Over and over, the OMOTM start harping about hearing aids. In the circle around this scribe sat five OFs (not counting the scribe himself) who either don’t wear their hearing aids in a crowd or try to hear over the noise that all the other chatter creates.

In the car, the OFs say, they hear the car, not the conversation. On the boob-tube, when watching sports, the OFs with the aids hear the crowd noises and not the commentators.

In a room with a fan or air-conditioner running, the OFs hear those appliances and not the conversations. Music sounds completely different. One OF said that, when he goes to the bathroom to tinkle, it sounds like Niagara Falls and he knows with his prostate problem this is not true.

What an invention the senses are! Sight, sound, touch, taste, and we can help some but certainly can’t duplicate them.

One OF added the word “yet.” He is a true optimist.

 

The cat’s meow

There was a discussion on cats, not the play but the animal. Most of the OMOTM have or have had cats.

Those on the farm had “cats” with a lot of plural esses. A couple of these made house cats and were pets with a question mark; the others were barn cats.

There was not much of a difference in who was in control between the house cat and the barn cats. The house cat could be petted if the cat wanted to be petted.

One OF said, “We don’t pet a cat; the cat lets us pet it. There is a difference.”

The barn cats for the most part could not be touched; there were a few at times that they would let the farmer do that but not many.

These cats were not mean, just really independent and, as long as these felines got their warm milk twice a day, they were really welcome to stay in the barn.

Some cats liked the milk squirted right from the cow to the cat. The cat would close its eyes and have milk dripping all over its face and the farmer could almost see the cat smile.

This scene has been mentioned before but was mentioned again at Tuesday’s breakfast, and that is the feeling of having one of the pleasant sensations on the farm in an early cold and frosty morning.

Upon opening the manger door and having the warmth and aroma of the barn greet the farmer, the cows would slowly stir awake and, from the hips of some of the cows lying down, a cat would also stir, stretch, and jump off the cow and then the cow would get up.

These cats would come from the manger, or the milk house, wherever the others hung out and then gather around the old milk-can covers waiting for the first splash of milk. Did the farmer mind all this?

Of course not, because the farmer did not have to deal with any rodents. The cats were pretty good workers and all they got paid was a quart of milk.

 

Toppers

The Old Men of the Mountain do not have any rituals or uniforms or anything like that, but they do have hats. The hats just have OMOTM in black letters across the front.

On Nov. 29, a few OFs wanted new hats, and some of the newer OFs wanted hats. Talk about inflation (and we do); the price of the hats has really gone up.

One OF said his hat was getting pretty grungy and he was thinking of getting a new one but, when hearing the price of the new one, he thought better of it, and said the hat can get grungier.

Hey, like an old pair of worn-out shoes, all scuffed up with no shine left fits better than any new pair that squeaks when the OF takes a step, the same sensation goes with a hat; an old comfortable hat wears better than a new one anyway.

One OF said, “I wish my wife would see it that way. Her motto is: Wear it once or twice or, if everybody has seen it, put it in the closet and get something new.”

Those Old Men of the Mountain who arrived at the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh in their shiny new shoes, and new jackets (NOT) were: Doug Marshal, Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Roland Tozer, Paul Nelson, Rev. Jay Francis, Bill Lichliter, Robie Osterman, Russ Pokorny, Dick Dexter, Frank Dees, Gerry Chartier, Jake Herzog, Marty Herzog, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Herb Bahrmann, and me.