Waterloo, N.Y., claims the official title as birthplace of Memorial Day, but down South, a feud about the holiday’s origins still simmers.
Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Birthplace Bragging Rights
May 28, 2012Nugent Hardware
May 27, 2012
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Waterloo, New York
This business hasn’t traveled far since opening in 1887 – it started two doors up the street from its current site, according to owner William B. Velte Jr. It moved to this spot in 1932.
Velte bought the store in 1965. Apart from a 28-month stint in the service, starting in 1950, he’s been a steady presence. “I love to fix screens and windows,” he says. Velte started working in the store in the winter of 1948, right out of high school, earning $26 a week. The first thing his boss told him: “If we have another Depression, you’re gonna have to take a cut in pay.”
Velte says the secret of his success is simple. “Work. 60 hours a week. I clean the streets, I clean the parking lot, I don’t take coffee breaks.”
Though he appears to sell everything in his store, it’s not quite the case. At one point his daughter (who began working at the store when she was a 4th grader) came by with a customer. She told her dad, “He’s looking for a propane fogger.”
Not even bothering to look up from the screen he was repairing, Velte replied, “That’s not us.”
Leesville Toll Marker
August 8, 2011
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Leesville, New York
Leesville, New York, was one of the most western posts on the First Great Western Turnpike, built as a toll road from Albany, the state capital, to the frontier town of Cherry Valley in the late 18th century. Commerce didn’t come cheap – drivers (of a different sort) paid 3 cents per dozen to move their sheep and swine along the road. No tolls were collected from people going to or returning from church or the grist mill, or from those who were on military duty or on journeys within the town where the tollgate was located.
Heading Downtown
July 27, 2011
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Waterloo, New York
Three blocks away from the excitement of Main Street.
Through Albany
July 17, 2011
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Albany, New York
This is as urban as it gets along Route 20 in New York, as it passes through the state capital of Albany. Here it runs along the Empire State Plaza, home to the offices of state legislators and executive branch agencies. More compelling, perhaps, is the egg-shaped structure called, appropriately enough, The Egg, a performing arts center that descends six stories below ground level.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Modern-day Albany is a far cry from its early days. It was first settled as the Dutch trading posts of Fort Nassau (1614) and lays claim to being the longest continually chartered city in the United States (chartered in 1686).
Patriotic Spirit
July 4, 2011
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Auburn, New York
This girl must be in her mid- 20s by now. Surely she’s performing on stage, wherever she is.
Shaker Village
June 22, 2011
© jan albers | all rights reserve
Mount Lebanon, New York
A settlement designed to fail. Which it did, in 1947, when the last seven members of the community left this site.
It’s Show Time!
June 3, 2011
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Seneca, New York
The end of one road, at least: 20/20 Vision: Travels Along America’s Accidental Highway opens tonight at the Carnegie Center!
Drummer, Memorial Day
May 27, 2011
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Waterloo, New York
Surplus Bride
May 21, 2011
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Westfield, New York
Those who live in the Chautauqua region of New York point, with justifiable pride, to the area’s charm and beauty, the Finger Lakes wineries, the Chautauqua Institution…. Certainly they’re not lacking in a sense of humor, either.
The Accidental Highway 