Friday, September 7, 2007

Friday

Garbage Day!

It's 66.6 degrees


  • Today: Hazy sunshine and very humid. Record heat. High near 90.
  • Tonight: Partly cloudy and oppressively muggy. Low near 70.
  • Saturday: Warm and humid with some sunshine and clouds. Scattered thunderstorms. High: 80, Low: 61
  • Sunday: Rain likely with a chance of thunderstorms. High: 74, Low: 57
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From the O-D website: "Rt. 12 Contruction to start in 2008" describes improvements to be made at Chuckery Corners, Summit Road.

I just got this E-note from Sharry Whitney of "Mohawk Valley Living, " who wrote: " I don't know how little Waterville did it, but they are currently our second-most watched video. Our current champion is Ilion, but their episode was 6 months ago. Waterville just aired a week ago and is already gaining on them!
We had fun in Waterville and we are so glad we returned -downtown looks so nice. We've even had people from Waterville tell us they didn't know about the library's gardens!"

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(Click to Enlarge.)

A view we've never seen.


Summer on Barton Avenue.


The "Bamboo" is blooming, again.


Planning ahead, I see!

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Boys' Soccer lost to Herkimer, last night, 2 - 1
Boys' Varsity Football will be in Richfield Springs, tonight, at 7:00.


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A few days ago, a local gentleman asked me where I got the name "The Huddle" for the blog. I think that he'd grown up in Waterville, but had never heard the story of "How Waterville Got it's Name," so I dug out this - probably the most accurate of several versions of the same:

From Pomroy Jone's 1851 "Annals of Oneida County."

"In the year 1808, the Sangerfield Post Office which had been previously located in this village, was removed to the Centre.

In this year or the year preceding, the village, which from its first settlement had no other local name than the Huddle, received the name of Waterville. In the fall of the year, on a certain evening, Doctor Sherman Bartholomew, Josiah Bacon, Reuben Bacon, Isaac Terry, and John Williams, Esquires, were together in the tavern kept either by Eli Hotchkiss, or Pardon Keyes, now the dwelling house of Doctor E. A. Munger*, and among other topics, the name of the village became a subject of conversation, and it was unanimously agreed that the village deserved a more dignified name and that it should have one. After the suggestion of a variety of names, Doctor Bartholomew proposed that of Waterville, to which they all assented, and by that name it has since been recognized. It was not however generally known by that cognomen out of the village, until the Waterville Post Office was established in 1823. The name Waterville was selected, because not only agreeable, but a very appropriate one. The writer would not, like a certain lady author, intimate, that Whiskeyville would have been more appropriate, believing that pure water is more congenial to the tastes of a majority of its citizens than whiskey.

I've added the rest of Jones' remarks about Waterville because they're the sort of bits of basic history that are good to review, now and then, and which newcomers may find interesting.

In the year 1806, the village had thirty-two dwelling houses and stores, and 300 inhabitants. It has now (1851) a bank with a capital of $100,000, five large dry good stores, an extensive drug store, a large grocery and provision store, a large tannery connected with the boot and shoe-making, for foreign markets, an extensive copper, sheet iron, and tin manufactory, and organ manufactory, which employs many hands, a large woolen factory, two grist and flouring mills, a distillery for the making of pure alcohol, three furnaces, two machine shops, two taverns, and three houses for public worship.

There is now constructed a plank road from this place through Clinton to Utica, and another to Utica, via Paris Hill, as also the Earlville and Waterville plank road, on the east side of the swamp. It has a select school for young ladies, and an excellent district school. The village contained on the 1st of January, 1848, 1014 inhabitants, nearly one half the whole number in the town.

*That building was moved to Babbott Avenue, a long time ago, and is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Pesto.

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An E-letter from Brian Tuttle, in Montreal certainly got my attention:
Have you ever used www.wikipedia.com - the editable online encyclopedia? When last I checked, the entry for "Waterville, NY" was pretty meager. There are so many people in Waterville (such as yourself, Louis Langone, and the Falks) who know the history that it is a shame that the entry is so small. I encourage you (or someone else) to expand on this entry!"

I havn't done anything about it, but - after looking at the wikipedia entry - I agree that someone should! (It says that Waterville was named for Waterville, Maine. I don't think so!)

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Also online:

History of the Hop Industry from Amos O. Osborn's "History of Sangerfield", 1886.
And then read an aricle about the Hop Extract Works by the late M.L. "Pete" Peterson.

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From the
Historical Society Archives.


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It's too late to go to the New York State Fair, but you can get a schedule of events at the EXPO-Center, right here!

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Have a great weekend!








It's too late to go to the New York State Fair, but you can get a schedule of events at the EXPO-Center, right here!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Thursday

Stock Photo from the internet

THEY'RE COMING!!!!!

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It's also Recyclables Day!

It's 60 degrees, and WKTV predicts:
  • Today: Becoming mostly sunny and much warmer. High in the mid 80s.
  • Tonight: Mainly clear, warm and humid. Areas of fog likely. Low in the mid 60s.
  • Friday: A mix of sun and clouds. Hazy, hot and humid. Near record warmth. High: 91, Low: 66
  • Saturday: A mix of sun and clouds, warm and humid. Afternoon thunderstorms possible. High: 85, Low: 61




Yes! We certainly do need rain!

Yesterday I saw a bean picker in a field next to Route 12 at Daytonville Road.


One truck-load of beans looked pretty full, already.


The blog's late, this morning, because I've been hunting for these two pictures, taken (the notes say) by Dante Tranquille for the O-D back in the late 1950s.


My, how times change!

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And looking ahead .....


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I spotted Dan Maine and he spotted me just as he was finishing a new railing on the balcony at the corner of Stafford and W. Bacon.



Suzette's put a new Fall-colored wreath on her Madison Street door.


Fr. Tom's been growing his doorway decorations!


There's even a nice flowerbed near the entrance to the Waterville Cemetery.

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Of some local interest:

If you loved going to "Kitty's on the Canal" for the setting, Bob Esche's new restaurant, "Aqua Vino" opened yesterday!

Also from WKTV: The Oneida Nation will NOT have a liquor license in time for the big PGA event.

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Have a good day, everyone!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

wednesday

TRASH PICKUP

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FARMER'S MARKET
in the Park this afternoon.


It's a sunny but shivery 45.9 degrees.


  • Today: A mix of sun and clouds. A slight risk of a brief early shower south of U.S. Route 20. Pleasant. High in the mid 70s.
  • Tonight: Partly cloudy to mainly clear. Low in the mid to upper 50s.
  • Thursday: Mostly sunny and warmer. High: 83, Low: 61
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This is what Lynn Curtis had spotted:

What a good sign it is!

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Tomorrow!

Did you know that this little stone building at the foot of Bogan Road was once a schoolhouse?

One of the many who taught there was Kate Loftus Welch.

"My days at the stone schoolhouse were filled to overflowing, a constant muster of all my resouces, the training of thirty-five pupils of five or six grades. Her contract had read, "Miss Loftus, You may have the position of teacher of our district school at $3.30 per week." Later on, she became one of the area's most well-known writers for her weekly column in The Waterville Times.

I, personally, don't believe that teaching has ever been an easy thing to do!

In Abner Livermore's 1851 "Recollections of Sangerfield," he described teaching in The Huddle back in the early 1800s.


"More than one hundred names from four or five to four or five and twenty years of age in a small school house. (The house stood a little west of the meeting house and is now, 1886, the home of Mrs. Barton). The management of this school was the hardest winter's work I ever did. I did not have the pleasure of knowing they had improved in education as well as when I had taught in Terrytown, in Whitestown, in Paris (Capts. Simon Hubbard's district,) as each of the others had in my opinion done better than this Huddle school."

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These "sandwich boards" have appeared up in Paris .......



.... along with a sure sign of Autumn at the Pryputniewicz Potato Farm.

And there's a sudden smattering of small posters, here and there, meaning ....

something good!

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Have a great day!







Abner Livermore's Recollections - 1851

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Tuesday

It's 52.9 degrees.

It's GARBAGE DAY!

That may go for the weather, too, for after a perfectly beautiful Labor Day weekend, a few clouds will be moving in.


It's that sort of sunny, dry weather that we've had makes hops look like these - at Pete Kane's on Bogan Road.

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WKTV forecasts:
  • Tuesday: Partly sunny. High 71
  • Tuesday night: Clear and cool. Low 45
  • Wednesday: Mostly sunny. High 73 Low 57
  • Thursday: Partly cloudy. High 83 Low 63

If you're doing business in New Hartford, today, you should be aware that "Milling and paving operations will begin in the village Tuesday," according to the O-D. "The roads that will be affected are: Paris Road, Pearl Street, Hartford Terrace and Allport Place."

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Do you remember that, a week or so ago, we had some cyber-conversations about the "mess" at Bailey Lake? Well - I received this E-mail, on September 1, that explains a bit of it:

"My wife and I went to Bailey Lake on Aug. 22 or 23 me to fish and her does her cross stitch. We saw the trash that was there. While I was out fishing a car pulled in and a mother and her young son got out and started to pick up the trash. They picked up both sides of the road ending with 3 bags of trash. The mother told my wife she thought it was good for her son to do this. I don't know who they were. They left towards Gordon Lake. I would like to thank them for doing this. I hope they don't have to do this again. Charles & Pat Gaffney, Sauquoit."
(And Thank you for writing!)


A new GREEN roof on the expanded, "Touchless Wash" bay at the Car Wash!

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If the O-D is right, there won't be any shortage of Apples for the Teacher, this year: "Apples Abound During Tremendous Season."

The 1872 School Building that replaced the one built in 1815. I erred, however, in saying that the earlier school was at the corner of White and South Stafford: at that time, "Stafford Avenue" was - I gather - called "Academy Street."

This building was demolished about 7 years ago and five years ago the new Municipal Hall opened in its place.

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Football Season has begun. Unfortunately, Waterville was bested by Sauquoit in their opener, 43 - 6. You can check the latest High School Football Scores on WKTV.

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I'm doing a bit of painting - both art and woodwork varieties - so may not be out and around as much as I usually am. Please let me know if you spot something that I should be aware of!

Lynn Curtis phoned me, yesterday afternoon, to alert me to something special: I'll take a picture of it first thing this morning!!! You'll like it!

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Monday, September 3, 2007

Labor Day

Good Labor Day morning!

It's 55 degrees and bright and sunny! Another great day!

I wasn't going to do a post, today, but not only do some people think that if I don't post I must be really sick or have left town, but there really are a couple of things that you'd like to know about!


It was all quiet out at the corner of Putnam and Conger early Saturday morning .....


....but in the center of the village? "Hap's" opened at 7:00 and by 7:05 the diner was full! (You'd think that we'd all been deprived of coffee and muffins and pancakes for a year or more!)

Operated by Theresa Davis (above) and her sister Angie, the establishment is named for their father, "Hap" Davis, who passed away three years ago. His guitar and favorite hat hang on the wall.


Angie's usually in the kitchen, but around 10:00 she took a break and came out to say "Hello!" to everyone while someone else manned the grill. Rushing back and forth, non-stop, were waitresses Michelle and Kellie and also helping out were two young men whom I didn't recognize. I just know that I had fun chatting with everyone and that my breakfast was wonderful!

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Also on Saturday, and a little ways East on Main Street, Bill Getman was washing the 1863 Bank Building.


Action began early Saturday morning: the move was on!

The Treens worked all day yesterday, too, and ...

The all new Home Shoppe opens tomorrow!

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The 1815 schoolhouse, at the corner of (then) S. Stafford and White Streets.

Later this week ...................... School Starts!

(Did I hear someone shout "Yea!!"?)

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Have a great day!