Pondering wind, jobs reports, and the changing nature of sports
NEW SCOTLAND — On Tuesday Morning, Dec. 30, the Old Men of the Mountain traveled to one of their most distant eating establishments — the Window Box Café in New Scotland.
One of the discussions of the breakfast, at a few of the tables at least, was the wind. With just a tad of snow (by our standards) on the ground, when that wind got into it and blew it across the roads in spots, some of the OFs ran into a few surprises on their way to the restaurant.
Most all of the OFs are retired, and in the beginning of the OMOTM were from the Hill and the small country schools of Berne-Knox-Westerlo and Schoharie. Both schools handled kids from hardscrabble farms of the Helderbergs, and a few from the valley floor of Schoharie.
Now the OMOTM is a group of OFs who share breakfast from all over — not many farmers left. This led to a discussion with an OF who has been retired for only three years, so he is a “young-un.”
The job he retired from was one that many of the OFs wondered about at times. That was, where does the number of people working or not working that comes out each month come from? The “Jobs Report?”
Well, this recently retired OF is one of those who collected and analyzed the information that generated this report. There is a lot that goes into it and it is not some guy at a corner desk throwing darts at a graph on a wall. It is apparently worked on by many, and though in the end it is still a guess, it is a darn accurate guess, and at times can be right on the money.
Sports out of hand
Some of the OFs (believe it or not) were young at one time, and in their youth played sports. In the days the OFs were playing sports, the professionals were also playing sports and the salaries were nothing like what they are today.
The OFs at our table talked about how things may have gotten out of hand, like stadiums: What stadiums are like today and the teams demanding not necessarily larger, but better stadiums. The part the OFs don’t understand is they want us to pay for them.
Then an OF said, after our taxes pay for the stadium, some charge an arm and leg to go see a game so that the professional sports are only for the rich. That was the basis of discussion.
However, a stadium and team or teams are big draws because they encourage the growth of restaurants, motels and hotels, stores, and more police and firemen. The stadium is now an industry like a cement plant or steel mill. A football player is like a chunk of clinker, or a billet of steel.
Mourning Doug Marshall
A topic that was at most tables was the sudden passing of our scribe, Doug Marshall. From what the OMOTM understood in the beginning was that Doug would come out all right after the removal of the tumor in his bladder … Apparently that was not the case and we lost Doug to the heavens on Christmas Day.
His family will receive visitors at the Applebee Funeral Home in Delmar on Saturday, Jan. 17, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Those OMOTM who made sure the tank was full, the tires up and traveled to the Window Box Café in New Scotland were: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, Frank Fuss, Robert Schanz, Al Schager, Pastor Jay Francis, Lou Schenck, Bill Bremmer, John Jaz, Frank Dees, Chuck Batcher, Russ Pokorny, Warren Willsey, Gerry Cross, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, Elwood Vanderbilt, Dave Hodgetts, Bob Donnelly, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Alan Defazzo, Jake Herzog with his daughter and son-in-law as guests, and me.