Celebrating Cream Cheese

 Over the weekend we went up to our former hometown of Lowville New York for one of those events that had been a well-kept secret for many years. For 13 years now this small town has been the location for what is basically a street fair.  I remember when I was volunteering at the Chamber of Commerce and we were discussing fundraisers. It was mentioned that the local Kraft plant had expressed an interest in sponsoring an activity that might showcase Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The Lowville plant happens to be the largest Cream Cheese Plant.  Contrary to what people think about Wisconsin, New York State also happens to be a dairy state. In fact, Northern New York, where Lowville is, happens to be predominantly dairy farms. 

The first year of the event we shut down the street for almost a block to allow foot traffic for the various booths and stands.  On a side street we closed the area to the park in order for children to safely attend activities there. About 500 people attended.  Each year the event grew to what is now a block and a half closed, plus the entire side street. There are two stages for performers and two areas for various cream cheese related games. I'm guessing that the turn-out in this county of almost 30,000 now seems to be closer to 5000 or more, with many coming from the nearby Fort Drum. We try to drive up for it every year.

The feature of the Cream Cheese Festival is, of course, cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake but the World's Largest Cheesecake lovingly made and served by Kraft employees. 

You know you have reached Lewis County when you pass the vast Marks' Farms.  This dairy farm currently has about 9000 head of Holstein cattle and produces about 340,000 pounds of milk daily (I got this from their website). 

Crystal Pond is located in New Bremen, just east of Lowville. It's a man-made lake that is a local swimming hole in the summer and provides fundraising for the local fire department in the winter, through the harvesting of its ice.

My alma mater, Lowville Academy and Central school, is a Preschool - 12th grade school that in 2016 had 1306 students. We used to have a grass turf surrounded by a gently sloping hill, where people sat to watch the games.  Above the hill was grass and a playground. Now it is turf, several tennis courts and two gravel playgrounds. Gone are the hill and grassy areas.  I'm not sure this is progress.

Up until a few years ago this entrance to a lobby between the high school, middle school and elementary wings was an awesome wind tunnel. You stepped into an area tucked into the buildings and the wind would whip your hair in a cyclone and the swirling leaves tried to be woven in.  So, I guess this is progress. 

Looking from the wind tunnel toward the elementary wing. This brings back so many memories.

I'm sharing this because this is the same saying that I showed a few posts ago from the entrance of my son's high school.

The front of the school, looking at the high school. Aside from the new windows, it looks the same as when I graduated so long ago.

From in front of the school, looking down the street at the Cream Cheese Festival. 

After half an hour they were slowly making their way through handing out the cheesecake. 

The slices weren't pretty, but they were so delicious!

Looking toward the crowd gathered to watch one of the bands.

Freemen's Taffy is the best taffy ever!  They are only available at the Lewis County Fair and at special events. Maybe that what makes them so good.

One of the many odd cream cheese-related games. This one is called Cream Cheese Shuffle Board. The goal is to get the cream cheese tubs through the legs of the goalie.

My son is a huge fan of the local meteorologist. She is a hometown girl and was emceeing the festival.

The son of my neighbour from here in the capital region is the drummer for the band Under Cover. The lead singer is from Lowville.  They drove up to play. If you are ever in the Capital District look them up.  They play classic rock and are really good!

Several songs later and they are still talking. 

A friend of ours caught on camera. 

Orientation and the PTA

I love volunteering. I know many people have already figured that out about me. But it's true. Last year I joined another branch of the PTA. This time it's for my youngest son's high school. They had been looking for a secretary for a while and I finally decided to step up. Part way through the year I started taking minutes for the meetings when our Secretary couldn't attend meetings any more. At the end of the year she and the President stepped down. We had a person to take over as President but she had a busy summer. As did our vice-President. I didn't want a repeat of last year and few fundraisers, so I again jumped in and scheduled a year's worth of fundraisers by the time school started. I'me still working out some fine points but other-wise we are pretty set. 

Just before school began our President sent out an email saying she was asked about the New Student Orientation. I thought that is an excellent way to promote our Organization and I know people like goodies. So I put together several raffle baskets. Some I purchased, others were donated by The Watervliet Library. I even purchased candy and a jar to get sweets-lovers over.  We did really well with a few new members and lots of folks picking up membership forms while submitting tickets for the raffle. 

This motto is engraved in stone above the door of the high school where I graduated so many years ago. I feel at home here. 

My youngest daughter is my co-hort when volunteering. She normally volunteers at the library (which is how we got the items from there). It's a Mom/Daughter thing.

We were told to set the tables for the New Student Picnic and that we could decorate if we like. We opted for these beautiful yellow mums.

We reset the table outdoors for the Picnic, where we represented Shaker High and handed out school paperwork to the incoming new students. More mums, only thins time we were given them to take home after the event. 

We went home to pick up my oldest from work, since I had his van. When we got home my oldest daughter was home from work and ready to help in the kitchen. When we arrived back at school the crowd was building.

#3 in the area. It's no wonder my son loves his school so much!

A New Year With An Old Love

I can't believe another year has gone by so quickly and my life has changed so much in that time. After giving up on love and believing those who had claimed to love me, but would tell me that no one ever would, I am back with my first love.  Happier than I ever thought I could be and more in love than I thought was possible. We had lost one another for 35 years but found each other, and could only think of how we would manage to be reunited.  It took several months to figure out the logistics.

I owned my own rather large home, but was on year five of a never-ending battle to keep it, while my ex wanted it sold. My children were in a school that they loved.  But most of all, my church family meant the world to me. My entire family was heavily into volunteering there; my oldest was even their Tech Director.  However, I was never able to find a permanent job and worked a series of short term jobs. But we were happy.

My Sweetie was living a life of loneliness and working at a job he loved with the same company for almost three decades, and told me he often dreamed of one day finding me. Then I found him.

I gave up the fight for the house,  found homes for my dog, cats and remaining chicken. We packed everything we owned into storage, sent my minivan to my neighbour's home, until we get transmission work done. Two of my sons opted to live in the country with their Dad and my four remaining children traveled with us and our remaining cats, cockatiel, and dinner plate-sized red-eared slider. We downsized to an apartment in the city. Quite different from our almost 3000 square foot home and five acre property in the country.

We found a church we love; where my oldest is already involved in the tech department. Two of my kids have jobs, another changed her college plans and the younger one is loving his new school that has almost as many kids in his grade as his former school had in K-12 grades. My remaining children and I are closer than ever. We've had many  laughs and fun adventures and are taking part in all sorts of new activities.  But the best part for me is that I am back with the first boy I ever loved. My first serious relationship.  And for the first time in my life I feel like someone really loves me (besides my parents and my children).

I don't know how 2015 can be better than 2014. I can't wait to see what is next.

Road Trip!

It was a simple quest.

Andrew and I were going to take a relatively quick 5 1/2 hour road trip to the Capital District so we could get India from college for the summer. 

But someone had decided her van wouldn't make the 30° grade of the Driveway From Hell over the winter and parked it. Not in the barn on the hill, where it would be protected. Nooo.  I parked her in the driveway and let her sit - under 3 feet of snow - untouched.  Now we were facing the consequences. 

India's last class was on May 7th and so we were going to head out on the 8th and spend the night in Amsterdam but the van needed a front brake rebuild. So, off she went for repairs. Then I took her for inspection and she failed!! The back brakes needed a rebuild too. The mechanic who did the inspection offered to fix it for merely the cost of my first-born son. 

I took her back to the mechanic who did the front brakes. They told me it should make the trip but turned my rotors and returned her to me on the new departure date, promising to repair the back brakes when I returned from the trip. Next I went back to a different, non-shady, garage for a new inspection. 

One week and two hours late, we headed out on our great adventure. Braving Buffalo's rush hour traffic, singing happily to the stereo with my beloved Bose speakers and amazing bass - so the van vibrates as she rolls down the road.
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.
until
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She started making noises. Quiet at first. I had to roll down the window to hear it. But we kept rolling.

.
.
then
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.
something clunked!

I pulled over and was almost instantly followed by a state trooper. He checked her out but we saw nothing wrong so he told me to drive on the shoulder slowly. He followed me as I did. Once I pulled back into traffic, he did a u-turn on the thruway and headed back to Syracuse. 

And she clunked again!

I called the number given me by the trooper and the state police sent me a flatbed.   They took my van to a shop in Mattydale and dropped us off at a hotel under the over-pass to Route 81. So much for sleep. 

The next day at around noon, they finished the rear brake rebuild (for half what I was quoted by the local mechanic).  Andrew and I headed back out on the road. Once we relaxed, we went back to singing and laughing. 

We finally got to India, where she almost knocked me off my feet when she jumped into my arms. I took India, Andrew and India's friend Samara to the mall in Rotterdam while I popped into my dear friend, Ken's office in Albany to say visit for a while.  I had lost touch with him for 30 years and it was so good to see him again!

Back to the hill they call Amsterdam and we went to meet up with Samara's family and loaded the van with India's futon and other items before heading to the hotel.

The next day we headed back home.  

Our return trip was uneventful. Aside from India driving me crazy with her kicking my seat as she tried to use it for leverage in her attempt to push past the cargo and recline her seat. 

And she kept getting text messages that interrupted the playlist on the cell phone. I could only take having my singing stopped a few times before I beat her at a rest stop. I have to say, the fear in her eyes when I threw the door open was beautiful!

In payment for all we went through to get India, we went grocery shopping a few miles from home and finished packing her in.  She was just over-joyed by the time we got home. 

But at least she was home.

Memories of the Blizzard of '77

It's raining.  A change from the last week when we got over two feet of snow in just four days.  My kids were excited by it since they had a day off from school. India was frustrated by it since she was stranded on the wrong side of the state from college.  Matthew had to keep snow-blowing the driveway so the build-up wouldn't get too deep for the push-behind snow-blower. I was watching the weather with much more interest.  The strong winds, the white-out conditions along with the snow falling so quickly reminded me of the biggest blizzard I have ever seen.  A blizzard that became notorious.  When the winter snow turns to blizzard conditions I always wonder, is another one coming...

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January 28th, 1977 was just another winter day.  We had several feet of snow built up from the snow that had fallen since October - when the first snowfall fell that winter, after an extremely rainy summer.  Like so many people in Northern New York State, I had just gone about my day.  

I was 13 then and in 8th grade.  It had been a long day at school and I was eager to get home but as the clock on the wall slowly ticked away, everyone was unaware of what was about to strike.  If we knew, perhaps things would have ended up differently for so many people. 

Like this winter, our temperatures so far the winter of 1976-1977 had been bitterly cold and Lake Erie had frozen over early.  Further up north, in the Lake Ontario Region, we never saw a frozen lake.  Ontario was much too deep for that. The cold was so widespread that even Miami reported snow that winter. In Lowville Academy everyone was used to the snow by now. It had snowed almost every day since Christmas. 

Down in Western New York (where I now live) Lake Erie was covered in a deep layer of powdery snow.  With the lake frozen there was little moisture in the snow and this would make driving conditions nearly impossible. Earlier that day a wall of snow, similar to the one in this photo, had made it's way across Lake Erie and was traveling across Western NY, Ontario Canada and as far south as Erie, Pennsylvania. 

School was going to be letting out in just a little while when the sky went dark.  Everyone turned toward the windows as we watched the darkness be taken over by unrelenting snow, like we had never seen before.  People crammed against the windows to watch and the announcement came over the PA system that the buses would not be running.  Only children living in town were allowed to go home and they needed to do so right away.  other children in our K-12 school of around 2000 students would be sleeping in the "Big Gym" and the school would be feeding them.  I lived the next block over from the school.  A quick 3-minute walk any other day of the year.  My walk home took me around 20 minutes that day and when I arrived home, my Mom told me that my sister's mother-in-law had called and wanted us to bring her 12th grade son to our house.  So Mom sent me back to school.  

West Port Colborne North St. Catharines,
Ontario, Canada

By then the sidewalk was gone and the mailbox marking the corner of the intersection was in the process of being buried.  After crossing the street, I had four houses and a stretch of parallel parking to get past before reaching the first door in the elementary wing of the school. I couldn't see!  The snow was coming so fast and coating my eyelashes, making my eyes too heavy to open.  My nostrils were frozen and the 49 mile an hour wind gusts were taking my breath away, making breathing almost impossible.  40 minutes later, I arrived at the breezeway door. I was frozen and had to take a few minutes to re-group so that I could walk down the hallway to the big gym. When I got there, most of the kids were gone. Other people had come and taken all but a handful to their homes.  Ken was nowhere to be found.  I finally found out that he had gone home with the high school music teacher, who lived with his wife behind the school. 

I was dreading the walk back home but I didn't have to worry. When I walked out of the gym I saw flashing lights and one of the teachers told me to go out the door where the police car was parked.  Uncle Clarence had come to get me and take me home. My Mom was worried that I hadn't come home and had called Tante Clara.  Tante Clara was my Mom's sister and she also lived in our hometown where my Dad had recently retired as Chief Deputy Sheriff. But Uncle Clarence was still the Sheriff , until his own retirement the next year.   

And you thought you had a hard time finding your car in a parking lot?

I made it home and stayed there for the next week.  Schools were closed and people were stuck in their homes, unless you were lucky enough to live in town, or had a snowmobile. 

The school buses left out were all buried. 

Western NY got relatively little snow, but the blowing snow off the lake made conditions terrible.  Northern NY was dumped on with continuous snow until January 31st, when the blizzard finally let up.  The Lake Effect Storm covered our Tug Hill Plateau with almost 100 inches of snow. 

Volunteer firemen clearing off the roof of a house in Depew, NY. 

Thankfully, we never had our electricity go out and we had the fireplace going in the den, so we could shut ourselves in there to get away from the draftiness of our old house. The windchill was well below zero.

Many people made tunnels to get into their homes.
My cousin cleared out a tunnel from the road,
up an angle and onto our front porch.
(this is not my photo)

Uncle Clarence kept us up-to-date on what was going on around the county. So we heard when Camp Drum (now Fort Drum) brought out 14 Amtrak vehicles to help.

C-130 bringing in badly needed supplies.

There were so many people stranded, and buried, in Montague and throughout the rest of "The Tug" and New York State. 

Because of the sudden onslaught of the snow, people were stranded on the roads.  We heard about a police car that was parked next to a stranded car when an Army vehicle came through and ran them both over. 

A front-end loader is trying to clear Furhmann Boulevard.
You can barely see the buried car.

29 people died during the course of the storm, including nine who were found frozen to death in their cars. Most of the deaths were in Western NY. Five lives were lost in Northern NY.

Roof collapsed by weight of snow.

Red Cross volunteers searching for  trapped people

QEW between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie

Snowmobiles became the only means of travel for those without a military track vehicle available to them. While the highway department tried to keep even a single lane open for traffic.

Miser Hill Road, Town of Rutland, Jefferson County

Of course, you had to find your car first. 

There was a full-size van under there.

When the Blizzard finally ended on January 31st, a State of Emergency was declared and traffic was banned except for essential vehicles. While the clean-up continued. 

Buffalo wasn't the only place hit by the storm - this was in Watertown, NY. Jefferson County had snowdrifts that were 'only' 18 feet high.

Rt.177 in Barnes Corners

Snow plow coming up road ...

After things calmed down, people ventured out to explore the damage. Cars were towed out of the roads in the hopes that their owners would find them. 1,900 stranded travelers in Northern NY were allowed to leave on February 1st because supplies were running out.  The dairy industry lost $8 million as a result of the storm. Northern NY is a dairy region and the farmers had to dump their milk. They also had problems getting to their barns to feed their livestock, while several barns collapsed under the heavy Lake Effect snow. 

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Rt. 11 looking south at the Rt.177 intersection maybe 200 feet away

The utility poles were almost buried. 

I thought it was so cool how we could actually walk up to the stop lights. 

I used to have the game, but lost it in a divorce.  The game was more based on Buffalo but it was still fun to reminisce while playing. 

The blizzard was such a hard thing to endure - even living in town. But what I will remember the most about this terrible time in so many lives will be the people.  Everyone cared so much about others.  Not just the many, many highway crews and military from throughout the United States who came to help us.  We were blessed to have this happen in a time when people cared for each other.  If you needed to have someone checked on, you simply called the local radio station and told them the address you needed someone to go to and a complete stranger would go there and let you know if your friend or relative was alright and give them any assistance they might need.  Neighbours would check to see if you needed anything before they would brave the storm to go downtown and pick up supplies. People in even the smallest homes filled them with stranded strangers. With the inside scoop from my Uncle we heard so many stories of people helping people. The show of compassion was often overwhelming but this is my strongest memory of the Blizzard of '77.