MIDDLEBURGH — Cold. Colder. Coldest. Windy. Windier. Windiest.
A small group of OMOTM arrived Tuesday morning, Feb. 18, at the Middleburgh Diner. The winter is taking its toll.
Between the single-digit temperatures, the 60+ miles-per-hour wind, some ice and snow, Florida’s promise of warm weather, and doctor appointments, you know what you get? A modest number of OFs showing up for breakfast today.
Even I was tempted to stay home on Tuesday morning. Those thoughts started to enter my mind on Monday — with the temps remaining in the single digits, the wind howling, it gets going pretty fast at the south end of a frozen north-south lake. Rule #1: Don’t live at the south end of a north-south lake on a windy day.
I was in no mood to go outside and snowblow my driveway. We didn’t get much snow from the last big snowstorm that under-performed again. The approximately two inches of snow that did arrive was horizontal what with the wind and all. I don’t know where the snow finally came to rest, but it wasn’t in my driveway.
Even if I did go out and use the snowblower on what little ice and snow there was, with the wind blowing, the driveway would just drift over again in short order. Which leads me to Rule # 2: Don’t have an east-west driveway at the end of a north-south lake
I car-pool with another OF and it was my turn to drive this week so I decided to see how my car would handle the snow-packed driveway that I had failed to clear after the last two-inch blizzard.
I started to email him to ask if he would pick me up this week even though it was my turn to drive. I can do that because Frank is way younger than I and young guys always like to show that nothing stops them and they always like to help the old guys out.
They also don't miss the opportunity to tell us it would be “no problem” and it would be “his pleasure” to come get me in his big four-wheel-drive pickup that I need a stepladder to climb into (as compared to my 10-year-old two-wheel-drive Honda CRV. He would be happy to pick me up, “anytime.”
Anyway, I decided to see how my car would perform, so I stopped writing the email to go and check it out. It was at this time that my 4 foot, 11 inch vertically challenged daughter informed me that I wasn't going anywhere.
She told me that the garage door was frozen shut! It wouldn’t open. Rule # 3: Don’t have your garage door facing north into the wind at the south end of a north-south frozen lake.
Well! Now the shoe is on the other foot! I am the father, I am Pop, I am the hero, I can do anything, and I have, many times. Once again, it is time to saddle up and ride to the rescue. Usually I have my trusty companion with me, but that roll of duct tape was frozen solid in my unheated garage.
My other daughter gave me a birthday card last year that says, “There's Nothing that Dad and Duct Tape Can’t Fix.”
One of my grandsons gave me a baseball hat that reads, “DUCT TAPE DOUG” across the front.
Ah yes, the respect that flows from our children and grandchildren, the younger generation, to the OMOTM types, the older generation, just makes the goose bumps jump out all over the place! Good thing it is always accompanied with a lot of love.
So out into the cold garage I went. I first confirmed that the door was, indeed, frozen shut. Sometimes kids are mistaken.
I then set about scientifically fixing the problem, which involved vigorously kicking the bottom of the door while simultaneously clicking the electric garage door opener. It worked.
So now that the door was open, I got in the car and drove out the driveway and turned around and drove back in, no problem. Even the small pile of snow and ice at the end of the driveway left by the town snowplow proved to be just a speed bump.
I unsaddled my horse, rubbed him down, gave him his feed bag, and went back into the house and deleted the email to the OF asking for help. That really means I closed the garage door and went into the house, bragging that I fixed the frozen door.
So I remain the hero that can fix anything. The OF will have to tell me how old I am another day. I then sat down and rubbed my toes on my right foot because they were a little sore from kicking the door.
Oh, before I go, if you really want to know what the OMOTM talked about other than the cold and wind? There was an extended conversation all about car heaters. Imagine that.
Do you know the Nash, made by American Motors, was the last car manufacturer to still offer the car-heater as an option? It was standard equipment for all the other cars by that time.
The limited number of OFs who decided to make it to breakfast this week were: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff who had to leave early to take his grandson to work (another hero in action), Frank A. Fuss, Jamey Darrah, Wm Lichliter, Pastor Jay Francis, Warren Willsey, Gerry Cross, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, John Jaz, Herb Bahrmann, and me.
DUANESBURG — We always look forward to the fine service and great food we enjoy at each and every one of the cafés and diners and the one kitchen we travel to on succeeding Tuesdays. Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner in Duanesburg where we found ourselves this week, on Feb. 11, is no exception.
Right off the bat, we are in a good mood as the days are getting longer.
The days may be getting a little longer but it is still cold and has been for quite a while. The lakes and ponds are frozen. In fact, the ice on Warner’s Lake (after checking) was determined to be more than thick enough to safely hold the motorcycles, with their studded tires, for some races out on the ice.
First, the snow was cleared away and a race track was created and then the fun began. A nice crowd of both spectators and contestants watched from shore and from out on the ice as well. The parking lot at The Maple On The Lake restaurant was pretty full of pickups and trailers and customers.
Motorcycles were not the only things running around on Saturday. There was no shortage of snowmobiles, ATVs, and cars, all out there sliding around having a good time. Even ice fishermen were out there. I don't know how successful they were, but they were there. A good time was had by all.
Adult accomplishments
Near the end of last week’s column, I mentioned the our own OF, Mark Traver, was the man who played the role of Revolutionary War hero Timothy Murphy, greeting hikers at the top of Vroman’s Nose all dressed up in buckskins, coonskin hat, moccasins, and carrying his vintage “long rifle.”
That prompted our scribe emeritus, John Williams, to drop me a note saying he remembered those days and enjoyed the picture of Mark as Tim. It also stirred some memories of when he was a member of the Village Volunteers Fife and Drum Corps for many years. They even formed a militia that marched with the corps. (John served as president of both.) They went all over the area performing.
That got me to thinking: What about what the OMOTM did as young adults that today's readers of this column might find interesting and may even cause them to mutter, “I'll be damned, that’s pretty cool.”
Y’all got to remember this is the bunch of OFs with many who still go riding on their motorcycles. Maybe not racing on the ice this weekend, but definitely not spending their time sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch.
I asked a few of them at breakfast on Tuesday about what they might have done in their adult life that might surprise a few people. One long-time OF told me he was still a member of a bagpiper’s organization that performs all over and in parades. As the years go by, as has been mentioned before, parts of our bodies sort of wear out a little, so he is not as active today as he once was.
Another OF was proud to recall his active volunteer time spent working on the final section of the “Long Path,” which is a hiking trail stretching from the George Washington Bridge in New York City to the Mohawk River after passing through the Schoharie Valley, including Vroman’s Nose and several Hilltown communities such as Middleburgh and Cotton Hill, before entering the state lands in Berne, and then following the Helderberg ridge.
Another OF spoke of teaching adults how to swim at one of the public baths in downtown Albany. He also mentioned, with a certain amount of pride and satisfaction, his work as a volunteer in the heart rehabilitation program at a hospital in North Carolina.
So many connections
I find it amazing to see how seemingly totally separate and distinct events can touch so many of us in big and small ways. To recount my own recent convoluted journey of how things can touch us in unexpected ways, I am interested in learning about early American history and the area where I live.
I went to a lecture on the last glacier age and how it affected the Hudson River School of Art. That's where I learned about Vroman’s Nose and the striations left behind by the glaciers 10,000 years ago. I just had to go see them for myself, so I did.
Turns out that a Vroman, Colonel Peter Vroman, was commanding the forces at what we now call the Old Stone Fort in Middleburgh. He and our hero, Tim Murphy, of the Battle of Saratoga fame and future resident in the Schoharie Valley, fought together, repelling the British and Indians in their attack on the fort. There is a museum now at the Old Storm Fort that is a bucket list item for me this summer.
Tim Murphy was part of the famed Morgan’s Riflemen during the war. After the war, General Daniel Morgan built a grist mill near Winchester, Pennsylvania where one of our own OMOTM members grew up, knowing the family and the mill very well. In fact, our OF was a member of the Morgan's Riflemen Corps and participated in many re-enactment events. He owns his own “long rifle“ and period military uniform.
So many connections to so many things right here in the Hilltowns and the OMOTM. I find it fascinating, and I have the feeling that I haven’t even scratched the surface.
Those OMOTM who made it to breakfast on Tuesday are: Harold Guest (Long Path), Wally Guest, Hon. Albert E. Raymond, Frank A. Fuss, Wm Lichliter (Morgan’s rifleman), Pastor Jay Francis, George Washburn, John R. Williams (scribe emeritus and fife & drum), Roger Shafer, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Lou Schenck (bagpiper), Jamie Darrah, Warren Willsey, Paul Whitbeck, Marty Herzog, Jack Norray, John Jaz, Herb Bahrman, Dick Dexter, Gerry Cross, Paul Guiton, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, John Dab, and me.
— Photo by Brandie Spohn
Mark Traver, one of the Old Men of the Mountain, plays the role of Revolutionary War hero Tim Murphy, greeting hikers at the top of Vroman’s Nose in Schoharie County.
DELANSON — On Feb. 5, the OMOTM headed for Gibby’s Diner at 10040 Duanesburg Road, which is Route 7 in Quaker Street, which is almost part of Delanson, which is almost part of Duanesburg. Y’all got all that? Yes, there will be a test.
And we got there on time again. We are always on time for breakfast, no matter which diner we are at that morning.
As I was among the first to walk into “our” room, I took the time to observe which OF went to what table and once there, which chair he occupied. Like I suggested a week or two ago, all you would have to do is tell any one of us which diner we are at, blindfold us at the entrance, and we could walk to our regular table and sit in our regular chair without bumping into anything.
I move around sometimes; it’s my job. As I sat at the table on Tuesday, the conversation mentioned a particular OF that we didn’t see come in, and we all looked at the table where he always sits! Sure enough, he was not there.
So, not only does the individual OMOTM know where he is going, so does everyone else! We even park our cars and pickups in the same place or area each week.
One of our OFs bought a new all-electric car a few weeks ago and it is still sitting in his garage with little or no miles on it yet. Why is that, you ask?
His answer was that he didn’t want to get it all dirty with the snow and slush and salt and sand that is on the roads. He will wait until the roads are clear, clean, and dry before he takes it out. We didn’t blame him, because we all remember how we treated our own new cars.
Then he told us how he was headed to court because of a speeding ticket he got. He then received all kinds of advice as to how to plead; did he have a lawyer? How fast was he going?
He did say he wasn't going that much over the limit and was hoping he could plead guilty to a lesser charge as he has a perfectly clean license. I’ll let you know.
He also got a jury-duty summons. He went as he was supposed to, and, when asked if he could be fair and impartial, he told the judge he would try, but he did feel that the defendant was guilty. He was dismissed.
This started a whole round of humorous jury-duty stories. One of the best of them again occurred when the judge asked the same question about being capable of being fair and impartial.
At the end of the OF’s rather lengthy answer, both the defense attorney and the prosecution attorney emphatically said they did not want our OF on the jury. The judge agreed and dismissed him.
Our OF then proudly asked the rest of us around the table, “How often do you think that happens, when both attorneys and the judge all agree that they don't want you on the jury?”
But getting back to the OF with the new electric car and the speeding ticket, he just wasn’t having a very good week. In addition to those issues, he put one brand new expensive leather winter glove on the table next to himself. Just one. Not a pair.
Of course, it took no time at all for someone to ask the question, “What happened to the other glove?”
Now that is a rather simple, straightforward question. It could have been answered (and should have been) with three words, “I lost it.”
Fresh from hearing, and obviously inspired by, the previous OF’s lengthy story about getting dismissed from jury duty, we got the whole story. Just about dating back to birth of this particular cow, buffalo, deer, or whatever it was, maybe a moose or elk. (Elk gloves would be cool, hard to find this side of the Mississippi.)
Sadly, our OF only got to wear them for part of one day before he lost one.
Remember when our mothers would sew a string on our mittens with the other end sewed to our coat when we were little so we wouldn't lose them? We are not little anymore.
We are the famous, renowned Old Men of the Mountain! We do not lose one glove, and, if we do, we make up a tall tale about how we heroically lost it while saving a damsel in distress in the tower surrounded by a moat full of alligators!
Hero comes to life
Just a note to flesh out last week’s column regarding Revolutionary War hero Mr. Timothy Murphy.
Our own member, Mark Traver, was a member of the Vroman’s Nose Preservation Corps and said the corps used to have an annual hike up the Nose in September when “Tim” would show up to greet the visitors at the top.
Mark pulled double duty as he posed as Tim Murphy in a period outfit with his vintage long rifle. He sent me a couple pictures.
This morning’s attendance does not include one member who is out there somewhere looking for his lost glove: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Jamey Darrah, Jim Gardner, Russ Pokorny, Marty Herzog, Glenn (spelled with two “n’s”) Patterson, Roger Shafer, Joe Rack, Pastor Jay Francis, Mark “Tim Murphy” Traver, Lou Schenck, Gerry Cross, Jack Norray, John Jaz, Dick Dexter, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Henry Whipple, Dave Hodgetts, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Herb Bahrmann, and me.
— Photo by Sergeant Bender
A monument to Timothy Murphy stands in the Middleburgh Cemetery.
SCHOHARIE — The weatherman said there would be a short snow squall sweeping through at the exact time, 6:30 to 7 a.m. on Jan. 28, that the OMOTM would be driving to the Your Way Café in Schoharie. The weatherman was right, and the OMOTM were on their way. A little snow squall doesn’t even slow us down!
Our Scribe Emeritus, John Williams, was slowed down this past week and it was reported he spent a short amount of time in the hospital getting checked out. I think he spent about as much time in the hospital as it took that quickie snow squall to blow through.
He was heard to say something to the effect of, “All I did was sleep, and when I got home I was exhausted!”
That sounds about like our Scribe.
I have a whole bunch of good topics to write about this week. They range from jury duty stories, to a new electric-car purchase, to finally cutting the cable, to heated winter gloves, to one OF who just bought a nice pair of winter gloves and promptly lost one of them the first day he had them. I think one OF knew all about the lost glove but was waiting to see if a reward was being offered.
However, the star topic of the morning was all about a man called Timothy Murphy, a man from way back in the days of the Revolutionary War.
I was reading about something totally unrelated to Mr. Murphy when I had reason to check something out, so naturally, I googled it. In the process of that, I ran across Mr. Timothy Murphy.
The headline about him started off with, “Revolutionary War Hero.” Turns out, good ol’ Tim was an “expert marksman,” which is defined as being “able to hit a seven inch target at 250 yards.”
When the Revolutionary War started, Tim and his brother enlisted with the Northumberland County Riflemen and they saw action in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and “skirmishing in Winchester,” Pennsylvania.
Tim was promoted to sergeant in the Continental Army’s 12th Pennsylvania Regiment and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Because of his skill as an expert rifleman, Tim joined the newly formed Morgan’s Riflemen.
Subsequently, he was one of 500 hand-picked men to go with General Daniel Morgan to upstate New York to help stop General John Burgoyne at the battles around Saratoga.
Benedict Arnold, well before he became a traitor, is said to have pointed out English Brigadier-General Simon Fraser to General Morgan and said that he, Fraser, was worth a regiment. At that point, General Morgan called on Murphy to do his job and take Fraser out, whereupon Murphy climbed a tree, and at the extreme distance of 300 yards, shot and killed Brigadier-General Fraser while he was on his horse. Murphy took out Fraser's chief aide-de-camp as well.
Timothy Murphy was a major player in the lesser known, but important to the OMOTM, Battle of Middle Fort in the Schoharie Valley in 1780 (now called the Old Stone Fort in Middletown). On Oct 17th, British, Tory, and Indian forces led by Sir John Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant attacked the fort with Murphy being credited with being essential to the defense of the fort.
Allow me to quote from Wikipedia about a local hero that virtually all of the OMOTM knew about except me. But I do now!
“Having already been admired as a hero of the Battle of Saratoga, he was able to largely partake in repelling attackers and leaving the residents unharmed. As the story goes, Murphy fired upon British forces that were coming to discuss the rebel surrender of the fort.
“Refusing to be taken prisoner, Murphy continued firing upon them, disregarding orders of a superior. This action led to the decision of the British command to back off of the fort and continue onward. Much of the folklore surrounding Murphy comes from his ability as a rifleman, and his dedication as a patriot.”
This is just another true story about the fabulous history of our wonderful country that surrounds all of us that live, work, and play in the mountains and Hilltowns of the Hudson River Valley. Without the Timothy Murphys of our land, there would be no George Washington or Abraham Lincoln for us to honor.
I have previously mentioned that there are many surnames of current Hilltown residents on many of those headstones that date to the Revolutionary times. These markers may be found in the many family plots and cemeteries throughout the Hilltowns, and some of those families are currently represented among the OMOTM who get together each week for breakfast.
Some OMOTM roots run very deep and travel a long way back in time.
Speaking of breakfast, the following OMOTM made it through the snow squall to the Your Way Café where everyone except me and maybe one or two others already knew all about Mr. Timothy Murphy. They are: Mr. Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Hon Albert E. Raymond, Frank A. Fuss, Roland Tozer, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Joe Rack, Roger Shafer, Mark Traver, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Glen Patterson, Lou Schenck, John Jaz, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Herb Bahrmann, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Jamey Darrah, and me.
— Photo from Mike McCagg of BOCES
Alyssa Lawyer, Mrs. K’s granddaughter, is studying culinary arts at BOCES so that she can eventually run the family business in Middleburgh. “I plan to go to work for my grandmother’s restaurant — Mrs. K’s Kitchen — on Main Street. One day, I hope to take it over,” she said. The Old Men of the Mountain had breakfast at Mrs. K’s on Jan. 21 as part of their regular rotation.
MIDDLEBURGH — “How far below zero was the temperature at your house?” This was the prevailing question that opened most of the conversations around the tables at Mrs. K's Kitchen on this very cold Tuesday morning, Jan. 21.
Of course there was one OF who insisted that this wasn’t cold. The rest of his sentence started with, “I remember when, back in ’35, when it was minus 10 degrees for a month!” And the tall tales began again around the tables. The OMOTM are really good at this form of entertainment.
It also led to some age-old questions, such as, “Why is it that my snowblower starts with one pull when there is no snow on the driveway, and then my arm will fall off before it starts up on a cold snowy morning?”
Another question about the relative merits of using dry gas in a snowblower resulted in a rather complicated bunch of answers until some OFs mentioned that you should also have regular gas in combination with the dry gas. That led to a discussion of what ratio of dry gas to regular gas, etc., etc.
Here in the mountains and Hilltowns outside of the valley, the OMOTM enjoy the popular driving pastime of trying to avoid hitting things, like deer. One OF told the story of how this past week, while driving down in the flatlands, in the suburb of Guilderland, heading west just past the only stoplight and gas station, he managed to lose the game in a rather spectacular fashion.
He hit not one, but two deer at the same time! A buck and a doe.
The buck bounced off his fender and landed on its back in the middle of his hood, slid off onto the ground, got up, looked around for the doe. She had also bounced off the fender but did not fly upside down to land somewhere on his car; instead, she just had the wind knocked out of her.
She fell down, got her breath back, and continued running off between two houses. The buck saw her and was last seen chasing after her. Our OF was now shaking his head as he examined his beat up fender and dented hood.
He was heard to mutter, “I wasn’t expecting that to happen in a residential neighborhood.” (Having grown up in Delmar and Slingerlands, I could have told him a few stories, especially if some of your neighbors had an apple tree!)
Getting back to the conversations about cold weather, a few sorta related topics ensued. Thermostats and heating systems was one of these topics. When I moved into my house, I was impressed by the heating system that the previous owners had installed.
The house came with a high efficiency (plus 95 percent) liquefied petroleum gas boiler using both hot-water baseboard and radiant heating systems. I have heating zones, which I really like.
I can keep the two small guest bedrooms very cool in the winter, and my bedroom is also cool. In the loft where my computer is located, I keep it nice and warm as well as the main rooms downstairs. Programmable thermostats control these zones.
It is not a big house, just a bunch of smaller rooms that are the result of adding this or that over the years from when the house started out its life as a small two-bedroom camp on Warner’s Lake in 1952.
I have these wiz-bang thermostats that I have no idea how to program, so I am constantly adjusting them trying to save money. Looking at my latest heating bill, my efforts are not working. Not even close. With all this great equipment, my heating bills should make me the envy of the neighborhood. Nope.
Most of the rest of my OMOTM friends are in the same place as me. I think most of them have older thermostats and just leave them alone. Good idea, I’ll get there shortly, just as soon as I forget that I used to be smart about these things. At the rate I’m going, that should be sometime next week.
Silver King
A few months ago I wrote a column that involved an old farm tractor that had three wheels and was called a Silver King. One of the OMOTM, Joe Rack, gave me a very nice detailed metal image of the Silver King about two inches long by one and a half inches high.
It is like something you might put on the refrigerator door except it is not a magnet. It looks like it may have been made to hold the keys to the tractor. (I don't even know if they used keys in those days. I’ll ask.)
Anyway, I have it. Now I am wondering if Joe was just showing me what the three-wheeled Silver King looked like, or if he meant for me to keep it.
I can just imagine how he might have felt when I walked away with it. Probably thinking or muttering out loud, “How the hell did that happen? I was just showing him what that tractor he wrote about looked like, and he kept it!’”
Joe, I promise, I'll be at the Your Way Cafe next week and give it back to you if I did make a huge mistake.
Those OMOTM who didn't make a mistake about getting together at Mrs. K’s Kitchen were: Wally Guest, Harold Guest, Ed Goff, Hon. Albert E. Raymond, Jamey Darrah, Michael Kruzinski, Roland Tozer, Frank A. Fuss, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Glenn Patterson, Wm Lichliter, George Washburn, John Jaz, Gerry Cross, Jack Norray, Herb Bahrmann, Dick Dexter, Lou Schenck, John Williams, Russ Pokorny, Warren Willsey, Jim Gardner, Bob Donnelly, Elwood Vandererbilt, Dave Hodgetts, John Dab, Paul Guiton, and me.
MIDDLEBURGH — The OMOTM traveled to the Middleburgh Diner on Jan. 14 and I enjoyed my waffle with one egg over easy and two link sausages and plenty of good hot coffee. I waited a whole week for that waffle, and it did not disappoint. Ordering the waffle did start another conversation about “real” maple syrup and the “other” maple syrup.
That conversation started me thinking about asking one of the proprietors of one of the several establishments here in the Hilltown area that make, or rather, produce “real” maple syrup to join the OMOTM for a free breakfast and give us a short talk on how the process works.
Just for my own information, I asked my old friend, Mr. Google, what do you call a place that makes maple syrup. To quote Mr. Google, “A place that makes maple syrup is called a sugar house, sugar shack, or sugar cabin. The process of making maple syrup is called sugaring.”
I know that early each spring, this industry gets its act together and goes to work and that several of them are open to the public for tours or at least encourage the public to visit to learn about the maple-syrup-making process and by the way, they will even sell you some new maple syrup fresh from their own “sugar shack.”
I even thought I might revive an old OMOTM custom of an occasional field trip, and visit the sugar shack of our speaker when it is in operation this spring. We shall see.
The Beer Fridge
A topic of refrigerators came up at one of the tables. Not new ones. Old ones that still work but are no longer able to handle the requirements of a growing family or maybe it is just time for a model that has an ice maker.
I don’t mean just four or five ice cube trays that don’t even match, I mean a real ice-cube maker, or how about a cold-water dispenser, or maybe you are tired of looking at that 25-year-old avocado-colored refrigerator that just keeps working and will not die.
Maybe you would just settle for a new frost-free refrigerator, painted in a new modern color, that you don’t have to manually defrost anymore.
Whatever the reason, you now have an old refrigerator that still runs and you just can’t bring yourself to throw it out. What to do with it?
Give it to the kids? That's a good idea. But sometimes they are not too excited about your 25-year-old avocado refrigerator that once held baby pictures of them, held on the door with magnets. Don’t get mad or upset with your daughter or daughter-in-law when you find out that they are not bashful about expressing their negative opinion, in a polite way, of course.
So, in the meantime, the old fridge has been relegated to the garage and somehow, some way, magically and thoroughly mysteriously, a six-pack of beer has appeared inside, and it is cold! Soon after, a couple six-packs of soda and three more six-packs of beer are in there to replace the original six-pack that didn’t last long.
Thus, The Beer Refrigerator is born! Soon that extra milk is there. Leftover turkey from Thanksgiving finds its way to the Beer Fridge in the garage. Some frozen food also arrives in the top freezer.
When you can't find it, or any food item for that matter, someone is going to use the new household phrase, “Did you check the beer fridge in the garage?”
Now, some beer refrigerators are found in the basement next to the workshop or washer and drier, where, if you are exceptionally lucky, the colors match!
Now that old refrigerator you couldn’t give away, has once again risen in stature to the prominence it once held, albeit, it is now in the basement or garage. It is indispensable! You can’t live without the old beer fridge. Then, the inevitable happens, it dies. Finally.
It is now a crisis! You are not going to buy another new refrigerator. The new one is still new. But you have to act promptly. Maybe someone, who doesn’t know the value of a beer refrigerator, has an old, perfectly good refrigerator they want to get rid of fast.
Just give them a couple of bucks and go take it off their hands and put it right where your old beer fridge was. Who cares if the door opens the other way? You can fix that. Yeah, I know, the color is wrong, but nobody cares! It’s a beer refrigerator! We are back in business. Life is good.
I did a quick survey of the OFs present at the Middleburgh Diner on Tuesday morning to see how many had a beer refrigerator. I was surprised to find the ratio was around 60 percent to 40 percent against having a beer refrigerator.
I was expecting a ratio of about 80 percent to 20 percent in favor of having a beer refrigerator. Could this be a phenomenon that we age out of? Could be. Food for thought. Another column, another time. I'll ask my friend, Mr. Google; he knows everything. I'll let you know.
All this talk about beer has made me thirsty. I think I’ll go out to the garage and open the beer fridge and see if I can find a beer behind the extra milk, lettuce, potatoes, soda, etc. Those OMOTM joining in this discussion Tuesday morning were: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, Hon Albert Raymond, Roland Tozer, Frank A. Fuss, Marty Herzog, Jamey Darrah, Wm Lichliter, George Washburn, Russ Pokorny, Frank Burns, Jack Norray, Herb Bahrmann, Gerry Cross, John Jazz, Dick Dexter, Lou Schenck, and me.
DUANESBURG — Tuesday morning was just what we would expect for a Jan. 7 morning in the Hilltowns outside of Albany. It was dark and cold (single digits) with snow flurries.
What we didn’t expect was the wind. It howled all day right through the night into an equally dark, and cold rest of the week. Except for the wind, welcome to a January winter in the mountains and Hilltowns in upstate New York.
The OMOTM gathered at Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner at the appointed hour for our usual good fellowship, good hot coffee, and great food. I was all set to order a waffle, with an egg and link sausage when Chris announced that the waffle-maker machine was under the weather and therefore there would be no waffles today. So I settled for my usual order of a cheese-and-sausage omelette with an English muffin.
Now for an OMOTM love story.
The room had quieted down, as it always does, while we attacked our breakfasts. All except one table. They were rather noisy the whole time with much laughter.
This particular table held some pretty important OMOTM in the form of our Scribe Emeritus John Williams, two other long-time OFs present were Pastor Jay Francis and Harold Guest and the fourth member at the table was Wally Guest.
This love story is about how Harold met and wooed Arline, his wife of 65 years.
Harold was 17 years old and Arline was 16 years old. They both went to Middleburgh High School and were in the same class.
Arline’s family lived in the town of Broome in Schoharie County while John also lived in a small town also in Schoharie County, Huntersville I think. As fate would have it, Arline’s family home was destroyed in a fire that fall and the family subsequently ended up moving much closer to where Harold lived. So now they were in the same class in the same school and lived pretty close to each other.
Not only did Harold think Arline was pretty nice, but so did his older brother. So Harold had to fend him off while he pursued Arline. He was successful in discouraging his brother.
Exceeding six feet, Harold is a substantial man today and I am sure that very few boys would want to be on his wrong side back in those days, even a brother!
As the holiday season approached, Harold wanted to give Arline a Christmas present she would never forget and would never forget who gave it to her. Keep in mind, this was a 17-year-old boy trying to buy a special gift for his 16-year-old girlfriend while they were in high school.
There was a department store in Middleburgh at that time called Strongs. Harold, having made his decision as to what he wanted his gift to be, went to the store and talked to a lady (the owner?) about what he wanted.
She said she had exactly what he wanted and off they went up to the ladies’ department on the third floor. Sure enough, they picked out the perfect gift and the lady even gift-wrapped it for him! Good thing she did because, if Harold had wrapped it, it probably would have looked like a small version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree wrapped with two miles of scotch tape!
Arline’s family included a married older sister whose husband was a bit of, in Harold’s words, “a live wire,” sort of a fun guy to be around with a great sense of humor. In fact, I think that knowing Harold and his son Wally today, both the families were blessed with a fine sense of humor. Good thing.
The gift.
It is now Christmas morning and everyone is opening their presents. The moment of truth has arrived. With all eyes upon her, Arline opened Harold’s special gift.
It was — wait for it — a very large pair of panties! Way too big for a 16-year-old girl!
So the “live wire” future brother-in-law put them on himself over his own clothes (I told you they were rather large!) and to the delight and laughter of everyone, spent most of the rest of the day walking around wearing Arline’s Christmas present!
I remind everyone again, this was a 17-year-old’s present to his 16-year-old girl friend!
So what happened? It worked! She never forgot the present and more importantly, never forgot who gave it to her.
They dated throughout high school. Got married, and for the next 65 years loved each other as they raised a family of six kids, and had a few laughs along the way. In fact, when Harold told that story at the OMOTM breakfast on Tuesday, we all laughed one more time and shared the moment right along with him.
Those enjoying breakfast at Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner, with or without panties, were the man of the hour himself, Harold Guest and his son, Wally Guest, Ted Feurer, Jake Lederman, Jake Herzog, Michael Kruzinski, Wm Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Hon Albert E. Raymond, Jamey Darrah, John Williams, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, John Jaz, Bill Bremmer (visiting from Kansas City), Henry Whipple, Herb Bahrmann, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Warren Willsey, Frank Dees, Roland Tozer, Glen Patterson, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Pastor Jay Francis, and me.
DUANESBURG — On this last day of the year, with the weather still holding on to temperatures in the mid to low 40s, the OMOTM arrived at Gibby’s Diner on time as usual. I noticed as I walked in to take my regular seat, so did everyone else.
Pretty much all the OMOTM not only sit at the same table at the diner we are at, but we sit in the same chair! I bet you could blindfold us and just tell us which diner we were at, and that we were standing in the doorway, and we could walk to our chair at our table without hitting anyone or any other table!
We OMOTM are a very special and talented bunch of nice guys, except when someone sits in our chair at our table! Talk about instant grumpiness!
Party memories
New Year’s Eve. Brings back memories for all of us. Mostly party memories.
Parties are at the top of that list of memories regarding New Year’s Eve. Parties in high school at someone’s house when we were not old enough to drive. Then we got a little older, not a lot older, just a year or two and the world of where we gathered to have a good time and have a party changed considerably.
We had some really good times. Some good memories. Life goes on and then we have our own families and the responsibilities that go along with those families.
The parties became a little less enthusiastic, not much, but a little. The locations changed as well, maybe a live band and perhaps a little more dancing, a little less drinking.
Evolving resolutions
The idea of making New Year’s resolutions has been a constant part of the new year as much as the parties. These resolutions seldom stood the test of time.
I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to be an “A” student, sort of morphs into resolving to be a better boss, or employee, or stopping smoking (still going to lose weight), gotta save money for college for the kids, save money for retirement.
Now we are part of the OMOTM and our resolutions are very few in number. Staying healthy is right at the top of all of our lists.
The most popular resolution of losing a few pounds has given way to staying healthy, which is expressed most commonly as, “I just want to see what 2026 will bring,” or “I want to put this *!#% COVID in the rearview mirror!” (My older sister and her husband both had to deal with mild cases of COVID this Christmas, which really messed up their holidays.)
Midnight
A few of us still stay up and watch the ball come down. Then we will kiss our better half, and in honor of all those parties past, we pop the cork on a bottle of champagne and drink a toast to each other and all of our friends, past and present.
Then we put the cork back in the bottle and go to bed.
In the morning, we will make mimosas. A good way to kick off the new year.
Not one of us will resolve to lose weight, and we have all stopped smoking a long time ago, so we will look forward to next Tuesday morning and seeing our OMOTM friends at one of the five great diners we meet at for breakfast.
Ice fishing
The last couple of days of this year’s January thaw in December have arrived. The snow is all gone. The lakes are still covered with ice (about an inch thick at most) but no ice fisherman’s shanties are to be found on any of the lakes yet. Ice fishermen are many things; stupid is not one of them.
These men are a hardy bunch of individuals. It takes a special breed of men to stand around a hole in the ice, stamping their feet, drinking hot coffee, hot chocolate, sometimes even a cold beer, waiting for a small flag (I think they are called tip-ups) to spring to life, signaling a fish is down there, waiting to be brought up. A hardy breed indeed.
There are fake ice fishermen however. If I were to indulge in this ice-fishing endeavor, that would be my classification.
I wouldn’t be hard to find. Just look for a pickup truck towing a large shanty out on the ice. The pickup would have a small quiet generator in the bed with enough capacity to provide enough power to heat and light the lights in the shanty, with enough power left over to handle the small TV and laptop.
I would have a couple of comfortable chairs and a small table for the snacks and the beverage of our choice. I may even have a small camping propane stove so I could warm up some chicken-noodle soup or brew a fresh cup of coffee.
I would not go outside to drill a hole in the ice. The shanty would be big enough so I could drill the hole inside the shanty (located under the table so no one would accidentally step in the hole) and I would have windows so I could watch the real ice fishermen out there stamping their feet, trying to stay warm.
I would be smart enough not to ask them to move further away while stamping so as to not scare the fish away from me. Like I said, ice fishermen are not stupid, not even fake ones.
New Year’s Eve found the following OMOTM enjoying breakfast at Gibby’s Diner: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Michael Kruzinski, Jamey Darrah, Frank A. Fuss, Albert Raymond, Marty Herzog, Warren Willsey, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Frank Dees, Jake Herzog, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Roger Shafer, Joe Rack, Pastor Jay Francis, Scribe Emeritus John R. Williams, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, John Jaz, Gerry Cross, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Bob Donnelly, Elwood Vanderbilt, Dave Hodgetts, Alan Defazio, and me
The Old Men Of The Mountain wish each other and all of you who read about us in The Altamont Enterprise, Happy New Year!
MIDDLEBURGH — Above freezing temps plus snow on the ground equals fog. Driving across Cotton Hill Road proved to be a bit of a chore on Dec. 10; these OMOTM eyes don’t care too much for the bright lights of approaching cars. But we made it to the Middleburgh Diner in time to join our fellow OFs at the long table for a fresh cup of hot coffee.
I expected to hear Christmas preparation stories, but instead I sat down to a discussion of how nice and warm and sunny it was on the beaches of Florida while the rest of us enjoyed the last couple of weeks of cold and snow.
One OF did talk about his daughter who is visiting for the holidays. This is a common phenomenon that occurs in the lives of some of the OMOTM.
I believe it is one of the graduate courses taught at parent school when we were a lot younger and just learning about this thing called “Parenthood.” Some of the OFs either missed or skipped that “Coming Back” chapter or didn't believe it would ever apply to them.
To borrow a line from the movie, “Pretty Woman”: “Big mistake!”
The OF was talking about how his daughter really missed having a nice big, beautiful Christmas tree all decorated with her favorite ornaments. The OF patiently explained how he hadn't had a Christmas tree in nearly 20 years.
He had downsized his house, but, like all OMOTM, hadn’t particularly downsized the amount of furniture he still has. There simply was no room for a tree.
But then, also like all OMOTM, he started looking around and said to himself, “If I take that chair (that nobody ever uses) and put it in the spare bedroom, scrunch this and that a little, and make the decision that we don’t really need the full width of that doorway, and if I bought a small tree — it might just work.”
He then wondered about what had happened to the price of a Christmas tree over the past two decades. How bad could it be, if he bought a really little tree? Pretty bad.
He said his little tree costs more than twice what he paid for the big tree that they used to have in their big house with the vaulted ceilings.
And, as for the string of Christmas-tree lights, again he asked us to recall how it was that all those lights that were working just fine when we packed them away last year, had suffered some tragic losses over the course of one year. Imagine the body count of Christmas-tree lights that would/could occur over 20 years!
Well, you are all aware of the classic Christmas movie, “Miracle on 34th Street.” We now have our very own Miracle of the Hilltowns: The lights all worked! No fatalities.
Now the last thing the OF wanted us to try to imagine was how his little Christmas Tree that Could, would look when decked out with enough lights and all the special ornaments from the big trees in his past.
He said it looks like the best Christmas tree he has ever had. He and his daughter will share this memory, of this Christmas, and this Little Christmas Tree that Could, forever.
I think our OF and his daughter just gave each other one of the very best Christmas gifts they possibly could.
Driving to Florida in the fast lane while Mom sleeps
It seems like whoever returns from some well-deserved vacation time to a warm climate just has to announce to one and all exactly how warm and nice it was where he was, as compared to where the rest of us were. I suppose some of us are going to hear this story repeated over and over in one form or another, from now until spring.
This particular conversation morphed into a general discussion of Florida, specifically, on how long it is. It really is a long way to travel from Jacksonville in the north to the tippy end of Key West. It was compared to driving the length of the New York State Thruway from New York City to Buffalo and on to the Pennsylvania state line.
As many men my age can relate to, I used to drive my mother down to Florida for the winter, first on the East Coast then on the West Coast before she settled on Sanibel Island.
The only quick story I'll pass along about those trips was about the time she fell asleep for a couple of hours and when she woke up she asked where we were. I told her and gave her the odometer reading.
She did the math and all at once exclaimed, “Douglas! Do you know how fast you were going?”
(As a son or daughter, we always knew when we were in trouble when our parents used our full given name!)
I think I must have said something clever like, “I was just going along with the traffic.”
That line never worked with the police either. Everyone knows how I-95 is famous for being such a slow road in Georgia in the late morning. Anyway, I did move over to the right lane. For a while.
Those OMOTM who gathered at the Middleburgh Diner were Harold and Wally Guest, Ed Goff, George Washburn, Wm. Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Miner Stevens, Jamy Darrah, Roland Tozer, Jake Herzog, Frank Dees, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Lou Schenck, (last week I left the “S” off his last name, sorry about that), John Jazz, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, Gerry Cross, Herb Bahrmann, Warren Wilsey, and me.
All of us, theOld Men of the Mountain, not only wish each other, but all of you at The Altamont Enterprise and the readers of this column in particular:
A Merry Christmas and
Special Holiday Season to All.
DUANESBURG — The OMOTM met at the Chuck Wagon on Tuesday morning and it certainly felt like a December morning in the Hilltowns. Snow on the ground, temperature in the teens, cars that took a little longer to warm up (love those seat heaters!) but the coffee that follows us to our seats was hot and fresh as usual, and welcomed.
After missing a couple of breakfasts, I was welcomed back and was looking forward to the usual sparkling conversation to be heard around the room at the different tables. Right off the bat, the tone was set by our own resident poet laureate, Jake, who, when asked if he was a hunter and, if so, was he successful this year?
He responded in the affirmative to being a hunter as he has spent his life hunting for “Truth” and “Peace and the Meaning of Life.”
The table fell silent at that answer, but only for a moment before another OF produced a picture of a nine-point buck that insisted on remaining still long enough to have his picture taken.
That same OF, who definitely is not prone to watching football on the TV on the weekends, also showed a couple of other pictures of a couple of big, 24-inch northern pike who also took the time to pose for pictures while he was fishing in Lake George this past weekend. I think we should call him Daniel Boone from now on.
We all signed a get-well card for Pastor Jay Francis who underwent a knee replacement operation this past week. All is well and we look forward to welcoming the pastor back as soon as possible.
Two of our OFs wore their big furry fox hats today. I probably got that wrong, but the tail didn’t look like what I would think a coonskin hat should look like. I’ll take a picture next time. They sure looked warm however, and big!
It’s Just a Game
A while back, we talked about high school sports and the fact that there are programs out there that make it possible for athletes that age to train and practice and play that sport the whole year. We made it clear that these are additional programs and not part of any particular high school’s curriculum.
It was in addition to what a school could and would offer. I made my view clear that I thought, at the high school level, kids should enjoy different sports, go out for different teams, and have some fun while they are at it. Make new friends, enjoy being a kid.
It doesn’t last very long. When you are just 15 or 16 years old, you are still growing; time enough for 24/7/365 training later.
What I did want to emphasize were the lessons young people are being taught at every level of every sport every day. If you are on a team, for any team sport, the concepts each athlete will learn stay with them throughout their life. The concepts of fair play, competition, doing your part for the betterment of the team, of losing gracefully or, and this can be even harder, winning gracefully.
On the other hand, if your talents or interests lie in an individual sport like swimming, or golf, or the marching band, singing with the glee club or barber shop quartet, you are still contributing and competing to be part of a team. The same lessons are taught, just being applied to a different arena.
A friend of mine and fellow OMOTM, and also the current president of the Kiwanis Club of the Helderbergs, Frank Dees, has always been involved in sports. The Altamont Enterprise had a wonderful full-page editorial a dozen years ago about Frank and his work in high school sports.
Frank started a not-for-profit called It’s Just a Game. Frank deals with head injuries and concussions, I love the name. It represents what I have always thought; this is high school sports for goodness sake. It’s just a game.
I am not making a case against football or any other contact sport. I also played football in high school and college, but I am trying to emphasize the positive aspects of high school team sports and athletics in general. Some good life lessons can, and are, being taught at the high school level.
There are some real downsides to taking it too far. High school kids are not pros; let kids be kids. The idea of trying out for the marching band, glee club, or barber shop quartet, it’s all the same.
The same lessons are all there to be taught and learned. It is all the same, to be part of something bigger than just you, it’s a good thing. I have talked with many of the OFs at the OMOTM breakfasts, and to a man, they agree.
They all have fond memories of when they were young and played on their high school teams. It was important then, and is important now. Simpler times then, and while times change, the lessons do not.
The high schools do a great job in their physical education programs while teaching the many lessons that the world of sports can provide. Remember, it may be high school athletic programs, but we learn a lot. It’s Just a Game, and so much more.
Tuesday’s OMOTM who enjoyed good hot coffee and great food at the Chuck Wagon were: Wally Guest, Harold Guest, Wayne Gaul, Ted Feurer, Jake Lederman, Frank A. Fuss, Ed Goff, Jake Herzog, Warren Willsey, Jim Gardner, Frank Dees, Russ Pokorny, Roger Shafer, Joe Rack, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Lou Chenck, Marty Herzog, Jamey Darrah, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, John Dabb, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Alan Defazio, Herb Behrmann, Paul Guiton, and me.