Monthly Archives: December 2015

A New Tradition at the Rockwell

*Rockwell Museum has started a new activity that seems set fair to become a local holiday tradition, joining such perennials as Sparkle, the Bath star, and the Curtiss miniatures show.

*We took it in the exhibit of “Artful Gingerbread Creations” on the day after Christmas. Gingerbread houses have long been a part of Christmas, so why not? And to add a little spice (ho ho), all of the creations are of well-loved actual buildings in our region.

*After looking over Fox Run Vineyards (covered with nonpareils) in the entry area we moved to the third floor to work our way down, and our first discovery was very familiar to us – First Presbyterian Church from our own town of Bath! The church is world-renowned for its Louis Comfort Tiffany interior, so the makers artfully showed both inside and out – the right-hand side was open to view, with only some rafters and supports in the “flying buttress” style. This lent the church an air of archaeological elegance, with a suggestion of “bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”

*Also in this space were Elmira’s Christmas House and the South Pavilion from Watkins Glen State Park. The colorful circular shingles on the Christmas House looked to be Necco wafers, or something very similar. The South Pavilion goes back to the C.C.C./W.P.A. era, and the makers did a great job of capturing the rugged stonework. They also whimsically filled the front space with animals cavorting in the snow.

*Down on the second floor in the Family Exploration Studio was a delightful recreation of “Our Temple, Kol Ami” in Elmira, by the Goldwyn family. A tiny rabbi holds forth, wearing his tallit, and the case includes a miniature Torah scroll, not to scale. The Corning Wegman’s bakery staff put together a fine representation of their store, complete with reindeer and sleigh on the roof. Label copy tells us something we didn’t know; apparently Corning’s was the first Wegman’s to have a cafe. Live and learn.

*Also in this space, a team of three makers recreated McKinney Park in Corning… slide, tire swing, basketball court, and all… though I imagine that the path in the original is not quite so colorful.

*Walking into the Southwest Lodge area I immediately said, “There’s a DL&W depot – and I bet I know which one!” I was right, so congratulations to Amelia Sauter, who re-created the Painted Post station, now the Town of Erwin Museum. Another Corning area scene (by Recotta and Wilson) was “Centerway Bridge Sparkle,” capturing the beloved landmark (including its maze) at Christmastime, with a tree at the height of the arch and Santa Claus kayaking below.

*A team of three created “Seneca Harbor Holiday,” based on the justly famous fishing pier pavilion. (Look closely, and you’ll even find the Seneca Lake Serpent). And the Judges Choice First Place Award went to Amber Colby and family, who expertly recreated the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse. Out near the elevator the kids can use a four foot by six foot “flannelboard” to “create your own winter wonderland gingerbread people.”

*I ran into the inevitable hazard of a gingerbread show, alternating feeling extremely hungry or else feeling suddenly, well, let’s politely say overwhelmed. There was one drawback. All the labels are below waist level, and they’re all mounted perpendicular to he floor, so you’ve pretty much got to crouch to read them.

*So, to sum up, this first outing is not a really large show (it will grow), but it’s very high quality, it’s fun, and it’s spaced out very nicely so that you can enjoy the whole museum as you stroll from spot to spot – my wife has very little interest in firearms, but she was arrested by the historic examples from Bobby Rockwell’s collection as we passed through that space. I don’t know if the local structures motif will continue for future shows, but it was certainly a great idea for starting off. I understand that the show is up until January 3, so check it out. You’ll get to vote for a people’s choice award, and you’ll be able to say that you were here for the very first show, and the start of a brand-new tradition.

“Bravo” for Geva Theatre

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Soooooo, after twenty-two years of living in the western Finger Lakes, we finally made it to Geva Theatre. We were there on the Sunday before Christmas, taking in the noon matinee of that perennial Geva favorite, “A Christmas Carol.”

To take the performance first; it was loads of fun. This is a Rochester tradition – our son reminds us that he went, in middle school – so the house was packed with old and young and everything in between. Nobody was hamming it up, but production and performance were both energetic, reaching out to every age in the house. Guy Paul, playing Ebenezer Scrooge, projected his character’s aggressive misanthropy without turning himself into a cartoon.

Geva puts on part-Equity productions. Guy Paul has a lengthy list of Broadway and West End appearances. Joel Blum (Fezziwig) has been twice nominated for Tony Awards, and once for a Drama Desk Award.

But it’s also a teaching theater. The children’s parts were played by regional children with stage experience and enthusiasm. From there the players climb the ladder of experience. We were stunned to learn from the program that Christmas Past was being played by a seventh grader – we’d never have guessed. Tess DeFlyer, who delightfully plays Belle and two other parts, has a BFA from Nazareth in musical theater.

So the cast were all more than satisfactory, and so was the adaptation. (If we understand it right, Geva has performed several different adaptations over the years.)

The sets were clever, with an overhead catwalk or balcony on which some of the action takes place, a symbolic window frame that’s raised and lowered, and a huge set for Scrooge and Marley’s, which cast and crew nevertheless struck offstage and on very quickly. Scrooge’s bedstead, when reversed, became Scrooge’s tombstone – a nice touch.

Special effects included two ghosts lowered from above, silhouettes through the scrims, fog, and projections. We had second row seats, at the extreme stage left, which was great except that we were right next to the loudspeaker, which was fine except for the bells and the thunderclaps. The house itself was very comfortable, and easy to get around in, and easy to get in and out of. Performances continue through Christmas Eve.

Growing up in Rhode Island we had ample access to high-level theater. Top road companies came through with Broadway Theater League, or in the round under “the tent” of Warwick Musical Theater. Rhode Island College and Brown University put on their own first-rate productions (Viola Davis is a RIC alumna), and hosted professional performances. We had a very strong regional company in the Trinity Square Repertory, and good community groups such as Cranston Players.

All of which reminds us what a regional treasure Geva is. In action since 1972, and in its downtown Rochester Woodbury Avenue home since 1985, Geva seats 160,000 audience members A YEAR, including 16,000 students.

That last figure should get us all dancing in the streets. We read years ago that the worst play is better than the best movie, and while that’s hyperbole there’s nothing in the world like a life performance. Sixteen thousand should be just a starting point.

And without taking anything away from Geva we also have our own offerings closer to home… Clemens Center, Keuka Lake Players, the colleges and universities, even the high schools. When the lights go down we join millions of other playgoers running all the way back to when young master Shakespeare took his place in some courtyard at Stratford. We can’t wait to see what happens next.

Baby Boom Christmas — Do YOU Remember?

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Christmas is a lot of things to a lot of people, but for almost everyone Christmas includes nostalgia and memories. Sometimes they’re very profound, and sometimes silly and trivial… but even those can be heart-gripping.

Not too many of us actually remember the one-horse open sleigh days, but even memories from “modern times” can seem like another world. For instance, back in the Baby Boom of the 1950s and 1950s…

*You might have gone shopping at M. Cohn & Sons on Liberty Street in Bath, where “Kaynee Pigskin Parade Coordinates rate a rousing cheer” for scoring “another fashion goal with the boys!” These Coordinates were “ivy-neat,” and indeed the young lad in the ad looks like he belongs at Princeton, with jacket, flat cap, and knife-cut creases on his slacks.

*You might find a Dacron blouse and tweed skirt for $12.98 at Mary Kirkland Shoppe in Painted Post, and you might hope that they made you look as elegant as the ecstatic lady in the ad.

*To get the most from your new blouse and skirt you might need Spirella Foundations, custom-made for each individual, measurements taken in the privacy of your home by Mrs. Bertha Crippen of Bath. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, don’t worry about it. You probably weren’t there anyway.

*You might be getting a new hi-fi phonograph from W. T. Grant (in Bath and elsewhere), with four speeds, two speakers, and a hefty price tag of $49.95 (but with convenient terms and no down payment).

*You might be heading out to shop A&P for Holiday Foods and a Wide Selection of Festive Money-Savers, including Butterball and Blue Ribbon oven-ready turkeys at 36 cents a pound.

*You (or your mother) might be playing the Acme Cross-Out Game, with 3500 prizes worth $35,000! Mrs. Doris Doloisio of Cortland and Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson of Canandaigua each won mink stoles!

*If you saved up a hundred dollars in your Christmas Club account, you could make your Christmas “the merriest ever!”

*You could be financing your Christmas shopping by saving Triple-S Blue Stamps from Grand Union (turkeys 39 cents a pound), or with S&H Green Stamps from Cohn’s.

*You might be hoping for a Western Flyer bicycle from Western Auto… maybe accessorized with a Cadet speedometer advertised in “Boys Life.”

*You might be enjoying “the light refreshment” of soda (In glass bottles! Made with cane sugar!) from Pepsi-Cola Elmira Bottling Co., Inc.

*You might be shopping at Rockwell’s in Corning, or at Iszard’s in Elmira, or at Agway almost anywhere.

*You might be arranging special gifts for the milkman and the paper boy.

*You might be haunting the newsstand for “Archie’s Christmas Stocking,” or for the annual Christmas issues of Uncle Scrooge, Dennis the Menace, or Sugar and Spike.

*You might have ordered “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens from the Arrow Book Club, and you might be sweating out a delivery before school lets out.

*You might be hoping to start vacation early with a snow day, and guarantee a white Christmas. What do YOU remember?

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and a Busy 50 Years

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” had its first airing fifty years ago on December 9. I watched it! And so did a lot of you. Back on that day

*Lyndon B. Johnson was president. Nelson A. Rockefeller was our governor.
*Vatican II had officially ended the day before. The Voting Rights Act had only recently been passed. The New York World’s Fair had just ended. Malcom X had been murdered earlier that year.
*Eleven Americans had gone into space. Three of them were there at the moment.
*Computers were expensive huge machines owned by corporations, government, and large institutions. Most of them did less than the one you have at home.
*Besides “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” you probably watched “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
*You got your news from Walter Cronkite (on CBS) or Huntley and Brinkley (on NBC).
*Corning Community College was eight years old. Its Spencer Hill campus was two years old.
*The first stretches of the Finger Lakes Trail were just being carved out.
*Bill Clinton (Georgetown), Hilary Clinton (Wellesley), John Kerry and George W. Bush (both Yale) were college students.
*Barack Obama was four years old. Michelle Obama was almost two.
*The Taylor Wine Company and Penn Yan Boats were major employers. Corning was very much an industrial town, thanks to the extensive factories of the Corning Glass Works.

In the fifty years since then
*Men stopped wearing ties.
*Girls got to wear slacks to school.
*Kids fell in love with “Sesame Street.”
*The draft ended.
*America conducted wars in Indochina, Panama, Iraq (twice), and Afghanistan.
*The industrial Glass Works became high-tech Corning, Incorporated.
*A great flood ravaged our region, and killed nineteen of our neighbors.
*Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were murdered. George Wallace and Ronald Reagan were shot.
*J. Edgar Hoover died. Nelson Mandela was freed.
*Incensed at Civil Rights advances, millions of white southerners became Republicans, and soon took over the party.
*The Soviet Union collapsed, along with the Cold War and European Communism.
*Superman died (repeatedly… but it didn’t take).
*The Rockwell Museum and the National Soaring Museum were created. Curtiss Museum moved to spacious new facilities. Corning Museum got major rebuilds. Benjamin Patterson Inn Museum was created, and grew into Heritage Village of the Finger Lakes.
*Steuben County transitioned from a Board of Supervisors government to a County Legislature government.
*Corporate consolidation, and the Boutique Winery act, wrought huge changes in that industry.
*Farming reduced dramatically, though hat drop was offset to some extent by the influx of Amish and conservative Mennonite farmers.
*Average glacial thickness dropped by 10 centimeters. The Arctic icecap shrank by well over 30%.
*Computers became so portable, so cheap, and so easy to use that they became commonplace.
*Card catalogues disappeared.
*Broadcast television as we knew it came to an end, but we were left with a tidal wave of choices anyway.
*Movie attendance plummeted as we got to watch them at home. Newspapers dwindled as internet, TV, and radio brought the news in quicker.
*The voting age was dropped to eighteen. Abortion became broadly legal during the first trimester. Homosexuality was decriminalized, and gay marriage became legal.
*There were two impeachment crises. One president was exonerated, while the other resigned in disgrace.
*Thanks in large part to that Immigration Reform Act in 1965, the nation became much more ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse.
*We met Garfield, Doonesbury, Han Solo, Downton Abbey, Angry Birds, Mario Brothers, Fred Sanford, and Indiana Jones.
*Walt Disney died, but Disney World opened. Annette Funicello died.
*We went to the moon, then stopped going to the moon.
*Pet Rocks came and went… so did Rubik’s Cubes, spiked hair, bell bottoms, Mao jackets, Nehru jackets, “Laugh-In,” “All in the Family,” the Monkees, the Cowsills, the Carpenters, Betamax, and eight-track tapes.

*Charles M. Schulz died, and hours later the final “Peanuts” strip appeared.

Native American History Goes Very Deep in Our Region

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I recently saw an otherwise-excellent documentary, discussing Native American life in our area, which stated that Native peoples had farmed western New York for a thousand generations. Even conceding a generous rate of a new generation every twenty years, this would put that farming back 20,000 years. Since that was the middle of the Ice Age… the same Ice Age whose glaciers gouged out our Finger Lakes… farming must have been a little tricky.

It’s unlikely that human beings were in the New World at all 20,000 years ago, but by around 11,000 BCE it’s evident that Paleo-Indians were in New York, at least in small numbers. This was still a nomadic, hunting-and-gathering stone age lifestyle.

By 4000 BCE local people had settled communities, and were engaging in agriculture… although they still depended very heavily on what the forest and field brought forth on its own. (They had also, in classic human style, finished off the mammoths and mastodons.)

These folks engaged in extensive trade and travel, adopting and adapting elements of the moundbuilding culture that they visited in Ohio and points west. They brought up squash, beans, and corns of varieties that been developed in Mexico or further south.

By the tenth century CE the “Longhouse People” who later became the Iroquois were securely settled in New York, leaving their mountainous homeland in the American southeast. They had technology, social structure, and political organization that were all more sophisticated than those of their new neighbors, and quickly came to rule New York (where they lived roughly from Lake Champlain to the Genesee Valley), but also to dominate most of what’s now the northeastern United States and nearby Canada.

Around the same time that Columbus was invading the Caribbean the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) formalized a federation or league, making themselves into a superpower. In the 1600s European power began to eclipse theirs, but with skilled diplomacy and a considerable military they still kept themselves independent… despite European lust for Iroquois land… until after the American Revolution.

Our particular area was under Seneca rule, though the population was more mixed. The main Seneca cities were at the north end of the Finger Lakes, near what we today call Victor and Canandaigua. Refugees being driven from their homes by white aggression were allowed to settle in our area, forming a military frontier and a sort of “distant early warning” system for attacks from Pennsylvania.

This of course is only the sketchiest look at Native history in our area. But on Friday, December 5 Cornell Professor Kurt Jordan will be giving an illustrated presentation on the archaeology of Native American life in Central New York. It’s a free Steuben County Historical Society program, 1:30 in the hall of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bath. We’d love to see you there.