00:00 Hello, this is Melissa, Hale-Spencer, the editor of The Altamont Enterprise, and I'm here this morning with an ultimate icon, George Pratt. Many of you may have noticed a man who wears a stetson hat, cowboy boots and can sometimes be seen riding a horse down a street in Altima. He was a long time Altamont police chief. He spends a large part of the year in Florida where he is a literal cowboy and he came into the office this morning as he often does to discuss politics, those who read our letters to the editor or aware of his views, which are diametrically opposed to my own, but I said, we don't want to talk about politics. We want to sit down across the table and talk about who is George Pratt. So welcome, welcome. Let's start with the beginning of your life where. Where did you grow up? I don't even know your early history here.

01:03 A little boy was born in the Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, New York. I lived until I went into service in Schuylerville New York and from then on it and I was in service in 1943 or 44.

01:24 How wait, how old were you when you went into surgery? Date? Garden at the age of 15 and a half. And what did you do at 15 and a half?

01:35 Joined the New York State Guard. Oh, the New York state national guard. Not In there. Wasn't national guard then? Nationalize it. Which to me to slide over into the navy at a relatively young age.

01:48 Okay. Tina, why were you motivated when you were just 15 to do that?

01:53 Well, back then and I would. I'm not alone, I don't know, stop bragging, but I was an adult when I was southern. How so? I was milking cows and driving a team of horses in, farming it and went to work at a wallpaper. Milan, I was 14. I think you have my history.

02:10 I know, but I want to hear it from your own mouth. You grew up on a farm where you were doing growing up on the farm I worked on before. You worked there. Okay, and then you went to work at a factory when you were just 14. And what did that consist of?

02:26 I was a bundling. Bundling rolls of wallpaper.

02:30 And you decided to join the guard because

02:33 myself and other schoolmates. Yeah, we tried it and work my wife and my mother was in the hospital at the time and she didn't realize that the paper she was signing was certifying that I was old enough and that's too long ago.

02:50 Well, it's an important part of your history. So tell us about your years in the guard. What kinds of things did you do? Who

02:58 went shooting ranges? It was a military thing. Nothing other than. No.

03:04 Did you, did the military life agree with you? Is that something? Yeah. What? What about it did you like? Our character? Honest answer is I don't recall in particular. I just liked it. I wasn't the only one. I had three or four friends. And you all got to stay together. Yeah, let's do it together. That's why I'm in the guard. Yeah. We all went separate ways after. Yeah. And so this was during World War II, was it? Or the world war? Not The civil war. So, um, were you part of that or war to war? The civil war. World War Two, of course. Ten years. Well, 10 years.

03:43 It didn't last that long. Forty 353.

03:48 And so can you tell us a little about where you were stationed or what you did or.

03:54 It's easy to. I was on five different ships. I started out on an aircraft carrier or known as the Cypass. Then I went to a cruise or a little rock, went to a cruiser, Portsmouth winter destroyer, Perry, and wound up a troop transport known as the dual which landed the first marines and North Korea. That was a long time ago.

04:20 Yeah. Yeah. So talk about living history, dude. There. Any things that stand out in your mind from all those years is particularly important or moments where you tested yourself or. No? No, I didn't think that everything.

04:39 Just the way it was supposed to be natural. I liked what I was doing. The biggest mistake I made is I didn't stay 10 years longer and retire at the ripe old age of 30 or whatever.

04:53 Yeah, it would've been nice. So when you got out of the service, what did you pursue them

05:00 private investigations.

05:02 Tell us about that. How did you become a private eyes?

05:06 Why would a company. I'm not going to use her name now, but I applied with a company that did the insurance investigations and I stayed with them until I became a police chief. And ultimately.

05:20 So tell us a little about what it's like to be a Pii. I mean, do you have gladly

05:26 because you're doing now or would you just do not pay a lot of attention? If you're asking questions, if you're an interrogator, you're going to listen obviously, but do you know where the real answer is? No, not verbally. Physically. The eyes, the expression to handle the body movement. The physical emotional reaction to a question is more of a truthful answer than verbal.

05:58 So you want to make sense? Yeah. So you became an interpreter of body language. Not intentionally, but yes. Yeah. So are now looking at you trying to see what languages your hands or your side does that mean that means you're.

06:17 That doesn't mean I'm. That means I'm not. I don't have to physically convince you that I'm doing anything.

06:24 Yeah. I'm somebody that talks with my hands. I don't know what that means.

06:29 We'll take a look at television now, which is not as nice invention, but it's destroying this country. Take a look at some of the really calling hosts or whatever they closed the program, especially MSNBC. All right. See if you can recall this.

06:51 So he's gesturing for those of you who are listening and heard some pounding. Um, George was, had his fingers on the table as if they were footsteps

07:02 and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to recall. Emphasizing, emphasizing, trying to emphasize a point, not just verbally but physically.

07:17 I see, I see. I'm doing ic gesturing in order to, to draw attention to a certain,

07:25 particularly look at take many television programs, especially news programs and see it. Look at MSNBC, CNN, look at it anew. Grade little lying. So

07:40 when you were doing this investigation work, was that, a lot of it, and I have, I guess a very, um, sort of dramatic view of a private investigator, probably too many novels where you like sneaking around to watch people or you know,

07:57 we deliberately question individuals involved as to the facts and how they react, how they react to the question. Most of the time it was just 100 percent correct. Yes. It wasn't. No, it wasn't. No, I don't remember or whatever.

08:18 So with insurance cases you were trying to make sure that if they say there was a fire hit, it was really a legitimate client. Right. As opposed to someone trying to scam the system. Right. So what led you from that to becoming the ALTIMA

08:33 chief of police? I guess it was, quite frankly, I really don't know. I guess it was an accident, Jim Romer, who was the lawyer at the time and Bill Albert was my first mayor and Howard do was getting ready to retire and they didn't have anybody in mind they wanted. They were looking for a new police chief and I volunteered to go to police school and I guess general morale or thought I'd be a good police chief because I had the background as far as the ability and so you've got the credentials. He went to the delta credentials.

09:16 Tell us about the department then because people often hearkened back to that. Now there's so many different officers and now tomato, it was just you are you in an assistant.

09:28 The men involved are fine individuals and the women to woman took this has nothing to do with sex, right? Yeah. The men and women that are fine individual, but I think again, you don't want to talk about politics, but politics got involved and now you have a department of a. God knows how many men

09:52 and women. We just talk about what it was like in your day. What Day were you the only one or did you have it all? I had,

10:01 let's see. I'm trying to remember. No, yeah, I had two part time or full time, but I had access to other law enforcement age. In fact, a place the former police chief in a scary word for me part time when I needed them, such as for the Scottish Games. In other words, if we had a special event like the Ultima Fair amount for the. Again, the Scottish Games. Okay.

10:32 Because the fairgrounds attracts a lot of crowds for various crimes and it was red

10:38 and rather inexpensive and then of course there was a mother. How do you explain something? It doesn't exist. It wasn't necessary to have a lot of people I'm going to have. It puts me in a position on it. It sounds like I'm bragging. There are. I won't use their names, but there are two or three business men in the community that are highly successful and they have told my wife because they were hell on wheels. When on our kids they told my wife and she'll confirm this if you want that. If it weren't for me, they'd be convicted felons. I don't want to use it. I couldn't use her names because they deserve that. They deserve the success that they've got.

11:27 So your point is, when they were youth, you kind of kept tabs on them,

11:33 ask as many as 40 50 year olds in your circle of friends that may or may not have been good or bad or whatever. And that's how they responded to me. I got along. So what era was this given example on Halloween on kids couldn't afford 10 days and marketing things and stuff like that. And I took it away from the kids that had a lot of them are the ones that couldn't.

12:03 Oh, so you were like a robin hood of Halloween. Steal from the rich to the poor. So what era was this that you were the police chief? What? Seventy two to 92. Okay. So 20 years. And did you see things changed during that time? Um, what was the, during that period

12:25 remained relatively the same? I say, Oh, you were, you were, you.

12:32 I grew up around in that era and took place on them. What do you remember when that murder took place down on the floor? I do.

12:42 The young woman? Yeah. That was it. We weren't completely innocent as far as the area is concerned, but we got our problems, but they didn't read well. The murder was unusual. That situation was unusual, but a lot of things were would be considered unusual today and we just got along very well. So what were the major crimes in that era? Oh boy.

13:17 You got me over a barrel now because my memory is shot to hell. There was very little crime, crime

13:24 [inaudible] period because we couldn't. We didn't permit it.

13:28 I do remember a quote you want said there wasn't a crime announcement because I wouldn't allow it. So it was more community policing and kind of preventative intervention. I was a cop

13:42 24 hours a day. They would call me at home at night if they needed me and it was accepted. It was just part of the thing, but no, I don't know. Things have just gone. They don't.

13:56 So what made you decide to retire? You're in your 91st year now? So it was 19, 69,

14:02 92. I decided to retire because I had an opportunity to go to Florida and I knew what I was gonna do. I was going to get involved with the cattle ranches.

14:11 That's what we want to hear about to your other life. Tell us how you got involved in the cattle ranch is and what you do. Looking back, it was easy. I met a man.

14:22 He is now deceased, kill getting thrown off a horse. His name was Matt Condo. He was a nationally recognized or Rodeo rider, but he was also a rancher and we met in a bar and he says, how would you like to put you right in your experience? Because she was familiar with what I did up here with. I turned over the cities montages.

14:42 Junk, junk. I want to take a little side trip. We'll go back to Florida. No, I'm taking a side trip. How did you get to be a horseman? How. How did that happen? What was raised on a farm? I liked horses. I had, I just liked horses. Yeah, and so you've written everything on my own and and how did you come to train the mounted police in Albany? How did it goes way back.

15:09 They were getting ready. They sent a couple of people out and myself, I think his first name, last name was purcell. It goes with the port police, but anyhow we took a couple of Albany sees officers and proceeded to train them in how to handle a horse and traffic and all that.

15:34 Well, I've seen them doing crowd control when there have been protests that I've covered downtown and it seems like a very effective way to manage a crowd because.

15:46 And just apply it to anything. A man on a horse, voices the fairgrounds because that's where I used the horses here, a man on a horse in a multifamily occupied parking lot. Hundreds of cars can see more, do more and do it more rapidly than a man on foot.

16:12 Yeah, and you're very visible. It really kind of a powerful here too and I think you can maneuver better. The crowds where I've been with the police on horses, they, you know, they can go places. Cars couldn't. Yeah.

16:24 Seeing the parking lot, there was a lot of fluff from automobiles and on the back of a horse, as you just mentioned, you can see, you can see it happening and you can get there immediately. It's too simple.

16:42 So you were at the ground level of helping the Albany police force start with there. They went up too much beyond that. I have, they used them quite a bit. So now we're going to go back to Florida. I'm sorry, I just wanted to take that detour. So this man, I forget his name that you met in the bar. Yeah. Um, he said, why don't you come down to Florida? That's kind of a big leap. Just someone you met her. I just knew I went to that particular area of Florida and this is central tells where Florida, Fort Meyers. Okay.

17:27 I knew what was going on down. There was cattle country and I bought. I accidentally got started a ranch. It was an accident. Well tell us about that. He took me to a blue head ranch and I can, I'll never forget the Guy Don David for that, Matt. So John, I got her ride or from New York state are like to go to work or could go to work and dig for it so that I'm not hiring a damn Yankee. But obviously he did and then they retired and I still worked there and I went through many form and then just, it's simple.

18:09 Well, it's not simple to somebody who's not part of that culture. I, I didn't even realize, I think a lot of easterners Yankees, as you call them, um, you know, think of Florida, probably the coastal areas. And I was really amazed when I saw one of the movies you've produced, just that there's this whole ranching culture there. So just tell us about life on a ranch. What kind of stuff do you do?

18:34 Church calls are not carbs or channeled because calls are female. Yeah. It worked in the pen is spraying for mosquitoes disease and you round up four for $500 moving from the rye grass to the pasture land. So at the va or from the passionate lands with as the fat and I'm up to get them ready for sale. It's just you're continually moving. You're in the saddle from dawn till dusk and you're still doing this in your first two years. Until this year. It was a physical problem. It was part of the reason we didn't get back down there.

19:14 But you did it up through age 99 as you. Yeah. So how, how do you.

19:22 I'm still doing it. I'm working two horses and so my own place.

19:28 Well tell. Tell us the secret to your youth. Like what, what, how, how are you managing this with a lot of people your age or

19:36 you know, wheelchair bound by apply what has been yanked over television for the last several years. A body in motion. What happens to it stays in motion. You just answered my question

19:53 now, but most of us, our bodies as they get older seem to be doing less. And you let it, you're pushing your body to do more.

20:01 Well, I don't have to push because I want to, but if anyone does lessons skills I choose.

20:08 But what keeps you at it? Why are you motivated to do?

20:12 I don't know. I like it. I get bored. Easy tool. Yeah.

20:19 Well tell us a little about producing the movies. What led you to do that?

20:23 I'll tell you exactly. It's easy. Victor. Milt is the director. He was John Wayne's director. He came to floor for the purpose of making a documentary. So we contacted the historian and the historian knew me and introduced me to a mill and of course I was working for blue head ranch. So what he did, he came out to the ranch and that also it was a study that you didn't have to create because it was something that was being done day in and day out. If you saw them, if you. Yeah. You said yourself.

21:10 I did. Yes. You were here in the village hall.

21:13 They didn't want or what's your song is just a day to day routine. There was nothing. He didn't create anything.

21:21 It, it almost seemed like a bygone culture that he captured. But you know,

21:26 was, it was, uh, becoming a bygone culture. That is why I think, and I can't be sure of this, but I think he was asked to do it by a high level of government in Florida. I don't know that, but in any case he did it and was very successful.

21:46 He had a lot of scenes on the ranch, but he also had scenes interviewing the very wealthy landowners.

21:53 He said that was the other boy. He cracked her. If you've interviewed a lot of land owners, all that sort of stuff. He did a few words. The documentaries, the documentaries. Only 35 minutes long. The movie, I forget, but it was two and a half hours. Crackers. You saw that today?

22:11 Yeah. Tell us crackers a like a code walk colloquial term

22:15 for what does he used the term cracker because that's what residents of that area were considered Florida crackers

22:28 and it was like a put down term. Yeah. He used it in a way that kind of elevated it and made you understand that

22:36 there were. These are crackers, what you saw from the picture. They. Some of them are well to do. Intelligent.

22:47 Yeah. I remember a scene with a little kid even that was in a cowboy hat and involved in the culture and it gave you a whole sense of was a different way or with pride and passing on traditions through generation for where your life. Yeah. Because I know you frequently talked about and written letters about how you feel the younger generation is too involved in

23:11 screens, you know, in like handheld phone. Do you know any seven year olds to drive a team of working horses or milk by hand? Do you know? I do not. Do you think you ever will at the rate, we're going to be lucky to be able to do it when they're 20,

23:33 but tell us what you think the value is of those kinds of skills for a very young child like yourself milking a cow at that age or some of these kids on the ranch. What? What does that give a kid? They don't get responsibility.

23:48 Some responsibility and a willingness to want to do something constructive other than play.

23:58 So our half an hour has gone really fast. Do you have any kind of parting thoughts for people either just because of your age, which often gives people wisdom or insight or because of the kind of life you've lived? Do you have any kind of parting advice or thoughts for our listeners?

24:20 I don't know to tell anyone because I was probably a rare example. Don't stop.

24:31 That's good advice for any age, isn't it? Yes. I mean sometimes people we had betty's Pinero who just turned 100. You Know Betty, right? Yeah. Well her thing was played Bingo. Which for her is the same thing. Don't stop, but I need. In terms of your routine, what you eat

24:49 kind of stuff to each kid in a lobby because it used an expression in all the ground's hard one. I come up in the morning, I don't know that expression. The ground's hard when I come up in the morning when I come up in the morning. Could you explain that one to me? Okay. Does that mean the ground is nothing? There's nothing you can do if you put your mind to it, but the ground is hard. When I come up in the morning, so that means each day when you get up, you're facing a new challenge or does it need to go down and hit the ground? Hit the ground many times, go tossed off a horse.

25:32 Have you ever been seriously hurt?

25:35 It hurt, but it didn't break. Nothing broken. In fact, I just got came off a tractor yesterday. I fell off a tractor and a damn thing ran over my leg after I hit the ground. So you're still active on your own land with the tractor even though I don't have as many now because I gave up the long haul and I gave up the boarding. Not entirely, but I just don't have as many horses. So how many have you got,

26:02 but you do? Occasionally. We stopped at our desks when we hear the clip clop on this street. See how force of yours riding through the village

26:13 we did greg tension, not the father of the two girls. Father, their grandfather brought him over to the farm when they were five years old, five or six and they liked horses and I taught them how to ride. And they're still riding. You see him? Where? Where is your farm? Haven't you ever gone by the old Kevin on the way to the ultimate orchard on the left hand side? It's a real low cabin. The log on the outside is the same piece of wood that's on the inside. Nice. Unreal. That's the difference. You're real well. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really enjoyed it. I hope so.