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Thursday, November 6, 2008

Travisano Spins Unlikely Material,
Letters Between 2 Poets, Into A Hit

By JIM KEVLIN

‘Lord Weary’s Castle.” “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” “Terminal Days at Beverly Farms.”
The titles of Robert Lowell’s poems reflect a life of manic depression, multiple marriages and infidelities, and early death.
What kind of guy would immerse himself for years studying that kind of life?
He must be dour, introspective – a little grouchy, anyhow.
Thomas Travisano – the Hartwick College English professor’s “Words In Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell,” published Oct. 28, is becoming a huge literary and popular hit – is quite the opposite.
His wife, Elsa, talks about his “wells of good cheer.”
The bounce in his foot, an impish grin and warm handshake all spoke to that during a recent visit to his State Street home, on a day where “Words In Air” was ranked the 166th best-selling along the two million books amazon.com ranks at any one time.
“I’ll read a letter I’ve read 10 or 100 times before,” he said, “and I’ll just burst out laughing. It was not a depressing experience; quite the opposite.”

We live in The World, but there are worlds within worlds most of us aren’t ever aware of.
Who’s ever heard of Richard Bidart, poet, Academy of American Poets chancellor and “Lowell’s favorite student?” An acquaintance of Travisano’s and friend of Julia Suarez Hayes, director of Hartwick’s Writing Center, Bidart was invited to read poetry in Oneonta in 1999.
Tom had just completed, “Midcentury Quartet: Bishop, Lowell, Jarrell, Berryman, and the Making of a Postmodern Aesthetic,” and when Bidart asked Travisano what he wanted to do next, he immediately replied: compile the letters Lowell and Bishop wrote to each other over 40 years.
You have to do it, Bidart replied, and within a week Travisano was sitting down with Jonathan Galassi, editor in chief at Farrar, Straus & Giroux in New York City.
Who’s ever heard of Galassi? But he was another of Lowell’s favorite students, and he not only wanted Travisano to do the book, he wanted to edit it personally.
Tom Travisano was raised in Livingston, N.J., and it was while attending Newark Academy and in his first year at Haverford College that he began to consider a career in literature, not as a poet or a novelist, but as a scholar and critic.
He went on for his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, (which is where he met Elsa, a doctoral student in another department.)
He taught at William & Mary for a couple of years, then came to Hartwick in the early ’80s; the couple has raised two children, Michael, 25, now a Hartwick student, and Emily, 18, a freshman at Mount Holyoke.
Since his time at Newark Academy, Travisano’s favorite poet has been Shakespeare, but he devoured all the classics, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, plus T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore.
“I was looking for the kinds of quality I had found in the great poets of the past,” he said, when he discovered Elizabeth Bishop – his first book was the definitive “Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development” (1988) – and, through her, Robert Lowell.
“For me,” he said, “the prime measure” – of a great writer – “is the quality of the metaphors.”
Travisano was also captivated by the “incredible gossip” in the letters about other mid-20th-century literary figures: “They had the same kind of sense of humor and, between them, they knew everyone who was anyone in the arts world.”
Lowell was in John F. Kennedy’s circle; he was quite close with Jackie. One of his letters reports on a back and forth with Robert McNamara.
While Lowell was in Cambridge, Bishop spent a decade in Brazil, but he could one-up her exotic stories with his closely observed visits to such places as suburban Philadelphia, where he spent a weekend at Swarthmore with poet Daniel Hoffman.
The letters build up to a dramatic highpoint. Bishop was six years older than Lowell and gay, but the subtext of their letters suggest the flirting with something more, a tension that peaks in an awkward and unhappy few days Bishop and her lover spent with Lowell and his family on the coast of Maine in the late ’50s.
Piecing together the story that emerges was something of a logistical challenge.
Lowell sold a chunk of his letters to Harvard in the early ’70s when he was short of cash. After his death, the oil-rich University of Texas outbid Harvard for the rest. Meanwhile, Bishop’s letters went to Vassar.
First, Travisano had to retrieve the relevant letters from Cambridge, Poughkeepsie and Austin – he has a dozen or more volumes of the photocopied originals in thick three-ring binders in the study of his Oneonta home.
Then, he had to decipher Lowell’s handwriting – he’d learned cursive at one school; at a later school, he was required to learn it differently. The result was pretty hard to figure out.
Then he had to sort the letters sequentially, each letter responding to the previous one; excruciating, no doubt, but that’s what creates the forward momentum central to the book’s vitality.
The book, which began to circulate among critics last summer, showed signed of exceptional promise from the start when Publisher’s Weekly in August gave it a star, a must-buy signal to all public libraries.
By the time of the official publication date, it was on the front cover of the New York Times Book Review – indicating the review considers it one of the 52 most significant books of the year – and had been the subject of a five-page spread in The New Yorker.
Elle reviewed it. Vogue recommended it to readers. And Oprah Magazine gushed, “the reader can’t help but feel included in an intimate bond between two lively, vulnerable and complex souls.”
A few days ago, NPR’s Jacki Lyden interviewed Travisano at WAMC’s studios in Albany.
She expanded her original concept – a simple interview – into a 10-minute production, huge in the radio business, that includes actors reading excerpts from the letter. It is expected to air Thanksgiving weekend.
Meanwhile, the first printing – 5,000 hardcover copies at $45 apiece – sold out within two weeks, and the second printing may be in progress as you read this.
Tom and Elsa aren’t buying the mansion on Otsego Lake yet, however.
First, an amount equal to that advanced to the author in 1999 must be paid to the Lowell and Bishop estates. And future revenues will be split among the publisher, the estates and the Travisanos.
That said, Travisano was open to kidding about the movie to follow. Maybe Tom Hanks as Lowell. Maybe Ellen Degeneres as Bishop.
Perhaps the movie’s plot could reveal itself through a cheerfully ruminating researcher as he’s drawn ever more fully into the interplay of two complex personalities.
Let’s have him jetting from Logan to Reagan National to wherever. Or ruminating with the Sleeping Lion in the background. Of driving up the scenic coast of Maine as he seeks to put the final pieces in place.
He’d have to wear a tuxedo in a scene or two. Get rid of the baseball cap; maybe a beret. And, yes, he’d have to smoke. Gunplay? Perhaps.
Costner’s available early in 2010.

Labels: 11-21-08, Front Page, ords In Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, Thomas Travisano, Welcome

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:21 PM 0 comments

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High Expectations

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

SPORTS BEAT

Oneonta High School swept the STAC league honors last season, as both the boys’ varsity and girls’ varsity teams won their section.
It is almost that time again, as the basketball programs at OHS, built on pride and tradition, have high hopes for the 2008-09 season. With the talent that each team possesses, there is no reason why the community shouldn’t be excited.
Some talent to watch for on the boys’ side is the returning all STAC league player and participant in the summer’s Empire State games, Alex Mirabito. The senior shooting guard is electric and is the offensive spark that lifts the Jackets above the rest.
Also watch Monte Richardson the junior swingman. Being able to play both guard and forward, this versatile junior can pretty much do it all.
Look for Monte to put up some big points inside this year as well as to be the rebounder and defensive playmaker they need.
Nate Eastman, getting his chance to start this season, is another player to keep an eye on when watching the Jacket’s five man wrecking crew this season.
Last season, after winning their section and moving onto state, OHS had an impressive run in the state tournament as they beat New Paltz in Binder Gymnasium at Hartwick College before moving on to Pace University where they would face off against Peekskill. OHS lost to Peekskill in a lopsided contest, but Coach Jerry Mackey made sure that loss wouldn’t get the team down.
“We lost a lot of talent from last season” said Coach Mackey, “but I am looking forward to the challenge with the new guys we have. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do with more playing time... These are guys who have had to wait for their shot, and now it is here. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do.”
“The community really gets into these games,” said Oneonta High Associate Principle Thomas Brindley.
Seeing how close the community was to the Yellow Jacket football squad this season, having a statement like that be made really stands out. Basketball at OHS isn’t just a team, it’s a legacy. And legacies never die.
Oneonta Boys’ Varsity Basketball tips off their season against Main-Endwell, a league game for the Jackets but also their first game in the Drago Tourament, named after Drago Gymnasium where the Jackets play their games.
The guys’ game tips off at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. If they win they will face the winner of the game between Lawrence and The Metropolitan School of the Bronx, that game will take place on Friday, Nov. 28 in Drago Gym.
OHS has a lot of pressure on its shoulders. The target is on their back. If the young guys can step up and play with the heart and the hustle that Coach Mackey believes they have, they truly truly live up to their high expectations.

Contact Chris McSwiggin at chrism@hometownoneonta.biz

Labels: 11-21-08, Hometown Sports

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:54 PM 0 comments

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

Pre-Black Friday? Santa Claus Can’t Be Far Behind

After doing your Pre-Black Friday shopping, take a crisp evening drive up to Cooperstown on Friday, Nov. 21, and experience the Smith-Pioneer Gallery’s fourteenth annul Fiddlers Three Benefit Concert featuring Fiddlers Tom Blatz and Dick Solberg and Fiddler and Jazz songstress Teresa Broadwell. Call 547-8671 to make reservations.

‘Dr. Seuss’s Horton
Hears A What...
Pack up the kids at 9 a.m. on Saturday the 22nd and head over to the Oneonta Theatre for a free showing of “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.” The show is sponsored by the Oneonta Dance Company and guests are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the food drive.

Santa Claus Is Coming
To Town Saturday 22nd
After the last laugh of Dr. Seuss, watch Santa Claus roll into town in a horse drawn wagon during the Main Street Oneonta Santa Parade at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The parade starts on Elm St. and turns onto Main St. then to the Chestnut St. extension. Santa will be at his cottage after the parade to greet children.

New Gallery Opens Doors
Check out the art at the new B. Sharp Gallery opening Saturday, south of Oneonta at 736 State Hwy 28. The gallery will be celebrating its grand opening from 4-8 p.m. with refreshments by Brewery Ommegang and Cooperstown Cookie Company. For directions, visit www.bsharpstudio.net.

Folk Dancin’s A Callin’
Dust off your dancing shoes, it’s time for the Upper Susquehanna Contradance, featuring caller Bob Nicholson and music by Eileen Nicholson and Kathy Shimberg. Come try out folk dancing from 7:30-10:30 p.m., no experience or partner needed. Dancing will take place at the Foothills Performing Arts Center, 24 Market St.

Labels: 11-21-08, City of the Hills, weekend's best bets

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:52 PM 0 comments

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AROUND KITCHEN TABLES...

...There, History’s Made; Alan Donovan Doesn’t Want To Miss It

By JEANNINE BOHLER

Ask anyone. It’s around the kitchen table where life’s most important conversations take place. It’s around the kitchen table where history is made.
And thanks to WUOW 104.7 FM, it’s around kitchen tables Oneonta’s living history is being recorded for posterity.
Hosted by retired SUNY Oneonta President Alan Donovan, “Kitchen Table Conversations” is capturing the voices of the most prominent and influential citizens of the region – from Oneonta’s Sam Nader, to the Brooks family of Brooks Bar-B-Q fame, to renowned Fly Creek photographer Lady Ostepeck.
“These are conversations. It’s about people telling their own stories. This is what the kitchen table suggests,” Donovan said.
Whenever possible, Donovan meets people in their own homes, around their own kitchen tables – settings not without their challenges and surprises during recording sessions.
At Marian Mullet’s house, the buzzer on the clothes drier went off, at Lady Ostepeck’s home and studio, the lawn mower showed up.
So while shows are edited for unexpected intrusions and clarity, for the most part, they are untouched conversations. Some discussions last for an hour. Others last longer. They are history in the making.
Donovan served as SUNY Oneonta’s president for 20 years before retiring last summer. Although he has no previous radio experience, his tenure as president was rich in opportunities to talk to people and interact with broadcast media.
And it was during his presidency that WUOW saw its beginnings.
“I knew I would be retiring,” he said, “and this was a project I felt was important to do. People seemed enthusiastic about the idea, and I think it’s working.”
The program first aired on Aug. 23, with the first of a four-part interview with former Oneonta mayor Sam Nader.
Over the course of four Sunday mornings, Nader regaled listeners with recollections of growing up in Oneonta, his life on River Street, his time as a politician and his contribution to baseball.
The ensuing Sundays (and each one has been new) have included John and Joan Brooks, and Fran, Griff, Ryan and Beth Brooks; former Mayor David Brenner; Glimmerglass Opera, Orpheus Theater and Foothills Performing Arts Center founder Peter Macris; John Stevens, Marian Mullet, Lady Ostepeck and Helen Reese.
Currently the program airs at 8 a.m. Sundays. And while Donovan doubts anyone is rushing to get up and listen, the more important thing is that all of the interviews are being recorded and archived.
“I think these recordings will be a tremendous contribution to the community. It is not so much listening live that is important. It is the archival nature of the interviews that can be accessed on the web or on CD.”
Donovan credits the “Kitchen Table Conversations” producer, Mark Simonson, with much of the show’s success. As Oneonta’s city historian, Simonson said the intent is to make the recording available to the Greater Oneonta Historical Society.
Sound recording provides a kind of historical record that is often quite different than the written word, Simonson said. Listeners hear inflections and pauses in the conversation that indicate the subject is thinking things through. They hear the way a person sounds, the emotion in their voice.
Simonson has roots in the radio world, having served as a news director in the Binghamton area for years before his return to Oneonta. And while the technology has changed, the fun of radio has not.
Together, Donovan and Simonson hope to interview the most influential local people of the times, those who have made a difference or significant contribution to their communities.
Oneonta residents can listen to WUOW at 104.7 FM. The station has applied to the FCC and hopes to expand its listening area to include Milford, Cooperstown and other outlying communities.
Would-be listeners outside the city or town should visit the station’s comprehensive website. Visit www.oneonta.edu and click on the link for WUOW. Once on the site, recordings of all the Kitchen Table Conversations are available as well as program schedules, information about the station and its underwriters and recordings from other shows.
The station will celebrate its second anniversary in January. The idea was born from a new type of license developed by the FCC that allowed for non-commercial stations developed for municipalities, according to General Manager Gary Wickham.
As an National Public Radio facilitate, the station airs both locally and nationally produced talk and music programs.
“Diversity is the whole idea behind this station. We try to provide people with what they aren’t getting elsewhere,” he said.
The station is one of the few places listeners can tune in when they are in the mood for bluegrass, jazz, folk, and more. The community response has been excellent, Wickham said.
Community involvement is the number one priority for the future. An emergency system was just launched allowing for immediate, 24-hour access to local emergency broadcasting and information available both on the air and at the station’s website.
With so much to offer, WUOW 104.7 FM seems just the right station to tune into while sitting around the kitchen table.

Labels: 11-21-08, Alan Donovan, City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:44 PM 0 comments

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Art Rising

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

Cruise along Market Street in Oneonta and you’ll find yourself asking if you have entered a time warp to Ancient Greece. In the seeming wasteland that has been the construction site of the Foothills Performing Arts Center these past months, rise multiple steel girders suggesting the pillars and pediment of a classical temple, majestic, stately, reverent.
They are the skeleton of the 618-seat theater that is projected for completion, along with 8000 square feet of civic space, in the summer of 2009. If they are not the framework for a temple to Dionysus or Athena, they are nonetheless being erected in service of Art, a pretty darn good center of focus for a temple in my book.
The shell of the whole imposing edifice is due to be completed by January 1st so that work can continue unimpeded by hostile conditions during the winter months. What was once an abstraction (“a performing arts center will one day be built”) is rapidly becoming reality.
Not that you’ll have to wait for the completion of the facility to enjoy what the center has to offer. The existing Production Center, completed in 2005, has long been generating all sorts of activity.
Several plays have been produced there in the past two years, including a follow-up to the “Big Read” with a full production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in October. “Sleuth,” presented by a visiting company from Rhinebeck, had a successful weekend run earlier this month. Most recently, Orpheus Theatre mounted a hilarious and extremely polished dinner theater production of Neil Simon’s “Rumors.”
There have been concerts, and dances, and operas, and films, and symposia, and lectures and conferences. On Election Day, some voters went there to cast their ballot. Coming up this weekend there will be an evening of vigorous footwork with the Upper Susquehanna Contradance. Story Laurie and Ira McIntosh will present their unusual mix of country music and folk tales in early December.
Closer to Christmas, Patrick Calleo, the indefatigable impresario of Westville, Cherry Valley, and New York, will present Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the third time this perennial family favorite will grace the Foothills stage.
Oh, but there’s Thanksgiving to celebrate first. We wish you the happiest one possible and on a peaceful afternoon during the break, why not have a gander at the architectural excitement on Market Street?

Sam’s column on arts in Delaware and Otsego counties appears weekly.

Labels: 11-21-08, Art Beat, City of the Hills, Columns, Sam Goodyear

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:42 PM 0 comments

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An International Evening

EVAN JAGELS

NIGHT LIFE

Outside the Hunt Union at SUNY Oneonta last Friday night, November 14, I overheard some people debating over which language was easier to learn, Cantonese or Japanese. Inside was the International Student Organization’s (ISO) Asian Night of Paradise. On the other side of campus was the Indian Cultural Club’s Indian Night.
Needless to say, I am neither sheltered nor a polyglot – I am still in the process of perfecting English and, occasionally, trying to master new and exciting ways to order drinks or ask about someone’s favorite music in Spanish or German – yet I was greatly impressed by both the cultural diversity and eagerness to share heritage displayed by the several hundred students, faculty, and community members attending and running these two events.
My first stop was Asian Night, not out of preference, but rather available parking. The last time I was in the ballroom was for the Catskill Symphony Orchestra concert featuring Frank and Geetha Bennett. This past Friday, it was packed with people waiting in line for various Asian dishes, provided by an Asian chef on campus, getting their name drawn on poster board by artist John Yu from Flushing, Queens, or listening to music by the Hong Kong Band and Mother McCrees. Many people were wearing their traditional Kimonos of Japan and Qipaos from China.
Public Affairs Officer of the International Student Organization Fam Chao told me, “We are showing our campus that we are celebrating East Asian Culture.” The ISO successfully promoted the event at the high school, on the radio, in newspapers and through posters around campus and on Main Street.
After grabbing some sushi, I went over to the Center for Multicultural Experience (CME) and talked with Priya Tauro, president of the Indian Cultural Club. Priya is a junior music major at SUNY Oneonta and originally from Bombay, India. To say the least, she was ecstatic about the night’s turnout, with over 300 students, faculty members, and community members, a New York-based dance troupe, a performance by Dhum (the college’s only international band in which Priya also sings) and a guest of honor in SUNY Oneonta President Dr. Nancy Kleniewski, not to mention the best Indian food I have had outside of lower Manhattan.
The crowd in attendance was just as large and diverse (both in age and nationality) as Asian Night. Priya also assured me that volunteers received credit for both diversity and community service.
After finishing my Tandoori chicken, I rushed back to Hunt Union in time to see a performance of the Lion dance by a branch of Yee’s Hung Ga International Kung Fu Association.
Head instructor Sharif Bey, who has practiced martial arts since the age of five, explained that the Lion is a mythical creature, emblematic of good luck and prosperity with the power to drive away negative influence.
Once the dance began, I easily saw how the dance is such an integral part of Kung Fu training both for physical conditioning and cultural history. The dancers held equal weight under two massive lion costumes, mimicking the movement of the great animal while Bey provided a steady, booming beat from a timpani-like drum and two of his students crashed symbols on either side of him with an almost march-to-war quality.
The simple yet powerful percussive ostinato consisted of one quarter note followed by two eighth notes, another quarter note, then a quarter rest and could be felt in the stomach as the giant costumes danced with intimidating physical command yet intricate attention to detail and precision on the ballroom floor.
In all, I greatly enjoyed both of the events and was impressed by the work of their planners, performers, and chefs – although it was unfortunate that they were at the same time and in different locations. The night was truly greater testament to the fact that a college with a diverse and achieving student body can positively affect a community, sharing with it a taste of what is home to them.

Evan is a music major at SUNY Oneonta

Labels: 11-21-08, City of the Hills, Evan Jagels, Night Life

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:31 PM 0 comments

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Letters to the Editor

Seward Vows District Needs Will Be Met

To the Editor:
I want to take this opportunity to thank the voters of the 51st district for their overwhelming support on Election Day.
I was gratified by the well wishes I received on the campaign trail, and extremely pleased with the results.
I am confident that when all of the votes are counted the margin of victory will grow, and show that I received nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Not only is this a mandate in regards to the work I have performed, but also a clear endorsement of my vision for the future and the change we need.
The voters have bestowed a sacred trust in me, and I won’t let them down. Even though the state is facing tough fiscal times, I will continue to work for the good of the people. My goal is to make sure local taxes aren’t affected due to our state financial woes.
We have worked together in bipartisan ways to find solutions to many issues. Together, we will work to advance the upstate region, and ensure that New York is truly the Empire State once again through economic and job growth.
Once again, I thank the voters for their support, and want to assure them that I will do my best to make sure the needs of the district are met and exceeded.
JAMES L. SEWARD
State Senator, 51st District
Milford

Pay Attention: Save Beauty All Around Us

To The Editor:
Loren Eisley is credited with saying: “If there is magic on this earth, it is in water.” My father explained his love of fly-fishing by saying that trout always live in the most beautiful places; and indeed they do.
Whether by necessity or aesthetics, we are drawn to water. Watching it whip around rocks in a stream or breakers hitting a granite ledge on the coast of Maine, it fascinates and mesmerizes.
When John D. Rockefeller built the carriage trail around Long Pond in Seal Harbor, Maine, he built it into the meadow far above the pond because he believed that the view of a body of water is enhanced by seeing it from a height rather than on the flat.
Locally, anyone who travels the northern section of Otsego County Route 31 will be rewarded with an elevated view of the Glimmerglass that really feeds the eye.
This is special. The lake is special, and having a place for the public to absorb its tranquility and enduring, uncomplicated beauty needs to become a priority.
This is not the same as having a beach – for many reasons.
Brookwood Point should not be lost during this time of difficult dialogue.
Michael Whaling
Sharon Springs

Editor’s Note: Whaling’s letter refers to consideration of selling lakeside Brookwood Point, which was placed in a trust for perpetual public use in 1985.

Labels: 11-21-08, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:24 PM 0 comments

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
We happened at the railroad shops on Tuesday while the pay car was there. It was a sight worth beholding to see the employees as they crowded into the office-like car of Paymaster Warde to receive their wages for the month. It takes but a comparatively short time to pay off the three or four hundred men who receive their wages at Oneonta, so rapidly is the work performed by the quick-fingered paymaster. The chink of gold as it was jingled by the men on their way out of the car sounded not at all unpleasant. A great share of the money paid here monthly in the natural order of things, goes toward sustaining the business interests of Oneonta.
November 1883

100 Years Ago
At the trustee meeting Tuesday, Alva Seyboldt in behalf of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis Rutherford Morris, presented a deed for 75 acres of land adjoining the Susquehanna river, the same being intended for a park for the city of Oneonta. Mr. Seyboldt read portions of a letter from Dr. Morris relative to the extension of River Street, and suggested that a local Indian name, if adopted as a title for the park, would please both himself and wife. The conveyance is made for park purposes only, but portions of the same may be leased for baseball, tennis, or other athletic sports, the rentals received being applied to the maintenance of the park.
November 1908

80 Years Ago
In one of the most dramatic battles ever fought between the Oneonta Yellow Jackets and the Cooperstown White Helmeted Warriors, traditional rivals on the gridiron, Oneonta prevailed 13 to 6 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown before a large crowd Saturday afternoon. The field was very muddy and this gave Oneonta a slight edge due to its heavy line. In the first quarter, Cooperstown’s Adams broke loose on a wide end run for 60 yards before being downed by an Oneonta tackler. A double pass in the backfield in the second quarter followed by a long pass to Reynolds paved the way for Cooperstown’s first and only touchdown. After Kraham missed the kick, the score stood 6 to 0 for Cooperstown at the half. Line plunges and end runs in the third quarter led to the first Oneonta score and Hall made the kick to give the Yellow Jackets a 7 to 6 lead. Oneonta’s second touchdown came on a forward pass from Hall to Pondolfino on a fourth down play.
November 1928

60 Years Ago
Thanksgiving Proclamation – On this Thanksgiving Day, the bins of our storerooms and the shelves of our cupboards are heaped with the fruits of the harvest. We have labored this year in peace. In this fortunate moment, we give thanks that we have been free to work and to gather a fair reward for our endeavors. In a world struggling to repair the ravages of war, our country is still a land of plenty. We recognize that a sound and strong American economy is the cornerstone of world peace. We give thanks that we have become the most productive people in history and we give thanks for the opportunity of our generation to go on to create an even higher standard of living.
November 1948

40 Years Ago
A fierce nor’easter swung up the east coast Tuesday last week dumping eight to 12 inches of snow in Otsego County in the worst November snowstorm on record. Oneonta’s airport weather station reported snow to a depth of 12 inches through Wednesday morning. As the heavy snowfall accumulated through the day Tuesday, garages and service stations were jammed with motorists wanting snow tires and anti-freeze. Minor traffic jams developed on hills where motorists slid across highways and into ditches in vain attempts to drive up them. Police agencies reported very slippery highway conditions all around the county. Although no serious accidents were reported many dented fenders and frayed nerves were noted.
November 1968

20 Years Ago
The Otsego County Board of Representatives heard reports from several sources at a recent meeting. Alfred Bleich, a member of the Otsego County Fire Advisory Board, said the county must supply fire companies with the proper equipment because individual districts cannot afford it. “No department can afford all the things it needs,” Bleich said. Bleich cited smoke-producing equipment needed to train firefighters as an example. A mobile communication system is also needed at a cost estimated at less than $50,000. Gerald A. Ferris of Oneonta told the Board that it could pay for Bleich’s request and more by reducing the county highway department back to 1974 levels. If the highway department were cut back to 15 core members the $5.8 million highway budget could be trimmed to $2.3 million.
November 1988

10 Years Ago
Otsego County District Attorney Jack Gibbons registered disbelief over recently released statewide crime statistics that show a regional reduction in violent crimes. The figures on murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault as released by the FBI and New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services show that the cumulative total for all violent crimes in Otsego County for 1996 was 101, down by 8.2 percent from the 1995 total of 110. Murders increased from 1 to 2 and rapes were unchanged at 13.

The lyrics to a parlor song from a century past read: “I wake up in the morning and dust off my wits; I grab the newspaper and read the O’bits.’ If I’m not there, I know I’m not dead – so I have a good breakfast and go back to bed.”
November 1998

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library.

Labels: 11-21-08, Columns, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:23 PM 0 comments

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Hall of Fame Takes Best Of A Tradition And Looks Forward

George Aiken famously said about Vietnam, “Let’s declare victory and go home.”
Jeff Idelson took a page out of Aiken’s book, but he’s done the Vermont senator one better.
“Nothing lasts forever,” the National Baseball Hall of Fame president eloquently told a press conference Monday, Nov. 17, in Cooperstown, “but for every ending there’s an opportunity for a new beginning.”
And so the Hall and the MLB Players Alumni Association, turning their backs with regret on the 69-year Hall of Fame Game tradition, have put together a promising replacement.
There’s no guarantee the Hall of Fame Classic, to be played for the first time Sunday, June 21, will become near and dear to fans’ hearts the way the Hall of Fame Game did.
But in putting together the weekend, Idelson and state Sen. Jim Seward’s task force did plug into strains that make Cooperstown near and dear to people who love baseball.
•
One, what a nice idea to build the weekend around Father’s Day. And what a master stroke, to arrange things so dads and sons, and grandfathers and grandsons, can play catch in venerable Doubleday Field.
It’s such an American thing. Dad comes home and his boy is waiting with the mitts, bat and ball.
Talking is hard for many dads and sons. But the act of catch, the back-and-forth rhythm, is communication, on a crisp afternoon in the late fall, hour after hour as the hill in the distance glows brighter and the sun goes down.
I care, the dad is saying. I love you, the boy is replying.
•
The Hall of Fame Game – Hall of Fame Weekend, for that matter – was coming to reflect the unpleasant money-grubbing that characterizes Bud Selig’s MLB, with millionaires extracting $50 and $75 and beyond from kids for an autograph.
Again, the Hall of Fame Classic reaches back to a more innocent time. Throughout the game and for the rest of the afternoon, Hall of Famers and retired Major Leaguers will be signing fan memorabilia – for free. Imagine that.
A popular feature of the Hall of Fame Game – the popular hitting contest beforehand – will be preserved, and an MLBPAA skills clinic for youngsters will be added.
•
Idelson’s goal, he said, is to make Cooperstown “the ultimate Father’s Day Weekend destination.”
That’s a great concept. Simple. Powerful. Brilliant.
While today’s Major Leaguers were coming to Cooperstown grudgingly – imagine that! – the Hall of Famers and former Major Leaguers aren’t under contract to anyone.
They’ll be coming here because they want to.
Congratulations to Idelson, Seward and HoF Chairman Jane Forbes Clark for closing a rancorous chapter, with regret but emphatically, and turning the page to what may very well be a brighter one.
Let’s make it work.

Labels: 11-21-08, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:16 PM 0 comments

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Hometown People

Oneonta DAR Chapter Honors Marie Lusins’ Accomplishment

Marie Lusins has received the Oneonta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Community Service Award for 2008. She attended the Nov. 8 ceremony at the Masonic Temple with her husband, Richard McLaughlin, and son Carl Lusins.
Ms. Lusins in her fifth term as Town of Oneonta councilwoman, served as president of the state Association of Towns and received national recognition for the town for her 1994 project, Accessible Playgrounds for Oneonta’s Children.
She has been president of ARC Otsego and of the advisory board of the SUNY Center for Social Responsibility and Community. She founded SHARE, to help feed the needy in the area, and founded the Community Connections food bank.
A Rotarian since 1990, Ms. Lusins has been the Rotarian of the Year, president of the local club and hostess to numerous exchange students and visiting Rotary groups. She has traveled to India and Ghana on behalf of Rotary International health programs.
She is currently involved in an effort to provide free computers to 50 low-income local families.

Greater Plains Teacher Cited By OfficeMax

Kim Velasco, special education teacher at Greater Plains Elementary School, was recently honored as Office Max Teacher of the Year, part of the company’s “A Day Made Better” event.
The objective of “A Day Made Better” is to bring attention to the fact teachers spend their own money on their classrooms. OfficeMax recognized over 1,200 teachers in 1,200 schools across the country on the same day.
Velasco was given $1,000 worth of classroom supplies from Office Max, and the company donated a colored printer to her classroom, as well as gave each of her students a gift..
In nominating her, Greater Plains Principal Timothy Gracy, said, “Although I have a building of exceptional teachers, Mrs. Velasco’s BLS (Basic Life Skills) class is a model for identifying student’s strengths and creating instruction that challenges each child to thrive.”

AMBASSADOR: Megan Walley of Oneonta and her mother, Jennifer, oversee a sale to benefit the OHS People to People Student Ambassador program Saturday, Nov. 15, at Southside Mall.
The program promotes international amity.

PROMOTED: Salvatore Fiore from Oneonta, serving with Headquarters Troop, 2-101 Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition) has been promoted to the rank of specialist, state Adjutant Gen. Joseph J. Taluto announced.

Labels: 11-21-08, Hometown People, Oneonta

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:05 PM 0 comments

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IN THE CITY OF THE HILLS

CITY BUDGET: Alderman Paul Robinson, who chairs the budget committee, presented a 2009 tentative budget to Common Council Tuesday, Nov. 18, that calls for a 7.3 percent hike in spending and a 3.6 percent increase in property taxes.

IN THE HALL: John Insetta, who recently retired from the Oneonta Public Transit, was inducted into the State Public Transit Hall of Fame last week at the 25th Annual Public Transit Convention in Albany. Oneonta is the only city in New York to have two Hall of Fame members. The other is Edmund Schultis, Jr. who was inducted in 2002.

SIREN TEST: SUNY Oneonta will test its new emergency-alert siren system 12 noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, After the initial test, weekly tests will be conducted at noon Sundays.

WHAT’S GOING ON: The City of Oneonta, Main Street Oneonta, the Oneonta Centennial Commitee, and Sweet Home Productions have launched a city calendar Web site. Check out www.theoneontacalendar.com

GIVE THANKS: St. Mary’s Church will again be serving Thanksgiving dinner 12:30-2:30 p.m. at the parish center, 30 Walnut St. to any community members, free of cost. For reservations or delivery, call Aileen Farago, 433-1571. To volunteer or contribute baked goods or supplies call Mary Southern, 988-7434.

LOUNGE LATER: Latte Lounge has extended its hours to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. You can also check out their new retractable red awning on Main Street.

TREE PLANTING:
Sixty trees were planted around town on Nov. 12 by the City of Oenonta. Many of the new trees were planted along East Street to replace trees which were otherwise damaged. The SUNY Oneonta Baseball team could be found volunteering to help plant the trees that day.

Labels: 11-21-08, Front Page, In The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:46 PM 0 comments

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Medical Coach Helps Citizens Of 110 Nations

By LAURA COX

Anything could be happening in that unremarkable cluster of warehouses in the midst of 94 acres of farmland southeast of Emmons.
Looks can be deceiving.
Medical Coaches, which earlier this month unveiled Bassett Healthcare’s long-anticipated $1-million Mobile Cancer Screening Unit, is anything but unremarkable.
For the past 59 years, it has manufactured more than 400 “doctors’ offices on wheels” – that’s how founder Ian M. Smith liked to think of them – to 110 countries around the world.
Presided over today by Geoffrey Smith, the founder’s son, the company is making a life-saving difference in the availability of healthcare to rural populations everywhere.
What became Medical Coaches began in a boy’s imagination decades ago, when young Ian Smith would go along with his grandfather on visits to parishioners in rural communities in Queensland, Australia, around Rockhampton.
“He saw parishioners asking questions about medical conditions and he kept thinking, ‘Why doesn’t a doctor put his office on wheels?’” Geoff Smith remembers his father recalling.
In the mid 1930s, Ian Smith moved to the United States, became a citizen, and when World War II came along, he was drafted. Fighting overseas, he continued to share his dream of putting doctors’ offices on wheels with the other soldiers.
After the war, the OSS – the Office of Strategic Services, the Central Intelligence Agency’s predecessor – called.
A fellow soldier, then an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, had shared Smith’s idea with Cuban President Carlos Socarrás, who had promised to deliver healthcare to rural areas.
Smith visited Cuba, talked with government officials there, and returned home with an order for 36 mobile health clinics. He located an Oneonta company that built the kind of coaches he would need, and in 1949 founded Medical Coaches in an old dress factory off Oneida Street.
In the beginning, many of the company’s units were aimed at combating tuberculosis. Customers included CARE and UNICEF, as well as various missionaries. Medical Coaches also specialized in ambulances, although it has since shifted its emphasis elsewhere.
In the early 1970s, Iran was the company’s biggest customer. Today, many of its customers are in the Middle East, South America and developing countries.
Ian Smith passed away in 1976 at age 60. By then, son Geoff had been with the company for four years. Six years ago, a third generation came into the business: Chad Smith, Geoff Smith’s son, joined the company as marketing director.
Mobile Coaches is the preferred manufacturer for Seimens, an electronics and electrical engineering developer in the healthcare sector, building coaches for its mobile MRI medical equipment.
“It has been a great relationship for both of us,” said Geoff Smith.

Labels: 11-21-08, Front Page, Medical Coaches, Oneonta

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:42 PM 0 comments

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WWII Veterans Visit Memorial Honoring Them

By LAURA COX

Freedom? Priceless. But the price paid by veterans is too little appreciated.
The Leatherstocking Honor Flight, an affiliate of the National Honor Flight program, is doing something about it.
Wednesday, Nov. 19 – in the second such outing – plans were to fly 20 World War II veterans from Otsego County out of Albany International Airport to Washington, D.C. They were to spend the day at the monument built in their honor on The Mall – it opened in spring 2004 – and return that evening.
Four World War II veterans from Oneonta were on that airplane: Rev. Ken Baldwin, William (Bill) Davis, Alfred Hubbard and Charles Shader.
“I am 85, I am in good health, I dance, I play golf, and I never happened to have visited the World War II Memorial,” said Rev. Baldwin, an Army combat engineer who built bridges and portable airfields in the Philippines. “I would like to see it – and this is a great opportunity.”
“I am looking forward to looking at the monuments,” said Bill Davis, a B-29 radio operator in the Army Air Corps during the battle for Okinawa. “I haven’t been to Washington D.C. in a long time, and I haven’t ever seen the World War II memorial.”
Baldwin and Davis were among 20 gentlemen who gathered in the basement of the Milford American Legion building Saturday, Nov. 15, to meet fellow passengers and their chaperones. Among the well-wishers present was county Rep. Steve Fournier, R-Milford, who welcomed them and expressed support for what the flight is doing.
The Leatherstocking Honor Flight provides everything needed: airfare, food, transportation and chaperones, even a disposable camera.
The Honor Flights include at least one chaperone for every three veterans – one on one if participants need particular assistance. The chaperones – several of the 10 on this trip were trained EMTs – pay their own way.
The veterans were scheduled to leave Oneonta at 8 a.m. for Albany. Their flight was scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at 1 p.m. A bus was to meet them and take them to the memorial, dedicated in 2004.
The schedule allowed for a couple of hours to view the memorials on The Mall, a brief tour of the city, and then dinner before the 6:45 p.m. flight back to Albany and home.
“This is going to be one long day,” said Charles West, one of the local Flight’s coordinators.
On the first Leatherstocking Honor Flight – on Oct. 22 – the veterans were greeted by U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, who was injured fighting up Italy’s boot during World War II with the famed 10th Mountain Division. Dole was a driving force behind the World War II Memorial.
The Leatherstocking Honor Flight is planning more trips for this coming spring. Any local World War II veteran interested in making the trip should call Charles West at the Richfield Springs American Legion, (315) 858-9924. Anyone interested in supporting the effort may send contributions to Leatherstocking Honor Flight, Box 686, Richfield Springs, NY 13419 or by calling Mr. West at that same number.

Labels: 11-21-08, Front Page, Veterans, World War II

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:40 PM 0 comments

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Paintfest

Revellers at the first Paint Fest, organized by Oneonta World of Learning (OWL) Saturday, Nov. 15, at ARC Otsego, includes (top photo) Cadence Love, Westford, whose mom Jamie works at ARC Otesgo, and Mayor John S. Nader, who transformed himself into a human canvas just for the fun of it. It was OWL’s first event; the organization is seeking to generate interest in an Oneonta children’s museum.

Labels: 11-21-08, Front Page, Paintfest

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:17 AM 0 comments

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25 Years Of L-O-V-E

The Goal: To ‘Make Life Easier’ For Our Neighbors Facing Life-Limiting Illness

Editor’s Note: Here are remarks Lola Rathbone of Milford, interim executive director of the Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, delivered at the gala marking the organization’s 25th anniversary Saturday, Nov. 15, in SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom.
n April 30, 1981, two Oneonta area ministers, Gene Umberger and Pat Haven, gathered a group of individuals together to discuss their concerns for local terminally ill patients and their families.

They continued monthly meetings, sharing ideas for starting a hospice program. Later that year, they invited Dr. Yoshiro Matsuo to join their group for input on the medical needs of these patients.
A volunteer movement evolved. And in 1983 a name was adopted: "Lots of Volunteer Effort" – the L.O.V.E. Committee. These tireless volunteers learned how to care for people who wanted to live out their final chapter at home.
They ran errands for the families, provided companionship and emotional support, made sure their spiritual needs were attended to, and most of all "loved" their patients.
For the next five years the Volunteer Director, Ann Platt, and the Board of Directors worked to transform the L.O.V.E. Committee into a Medicare Certified Hospice – Catskill Area Hospice.
When Catskill Area Hospice was incorporated in 1988 there were patients, volunteers and employees. The territory covered included Otsego and northern Delaware counties.
In 1990, Lesley Delesky, one of the original Board of Directors, was hired as executive director. She immediately expanded our reach into southern Delaware County and Schoharie County. In 1998 the name was changed to Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care to reflect an expansion to serve patients who might be in need of our services but not quite ready for Hospice.
Twenty years later in 2008 there are 180 patients, 130 employees, 140 volunteers and the territory covers all of Otsego, Delaware, and Schoharie Counties – 3,100 square miles.
Over the past 25 years we at Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care have been blessed to be welcomed into the homes of thousands of our neighbors to accompany them on one of the most critical journeys of their lives.
We have also been blessed with communities that continue to pour themselves out to us as volunteers, donors and board members to assist us in this crucial mission.
The L.O.V.E. Committee’s work lives on. We will always keep at our core our founders’ original intention: to "Make life easier" for our neighbors who are facing life limiting illness.