Hoosick Township Historical Society

Transcription

1 Hoosick Township Historical Society August 2015 Newsletter Louis Miller Museum Editor: Phil Leonard Director: Charles Filkins ***************************************************************************** The Old Country Store During the early 20 th century, every rural town had a general store where you could buy most everything you needed. An increase of mobility with the popularity of the auto caused the general store to disappear in very rural areas. In the Town of Hoosick every hamlet had its own store. Gradually they disappeared in the 1940s and 50s as the bigger stores became a way of life. The Buskirk General Store and Post Office was closed in Pictures of three general stories in the area: Eagle Bridge, Potter Hill and North Hoosick.

2 Local Boy Makes it on Broadway and Beyond by Corinne Eldred Ellie and Harry Fink were very active in the Little Theater Group in Hoosick Falls during the 1960 s. Their son, Paul Aaron, also joined in on the drama which later would prove to be the beginning of a successful career. A number of stage plays including Curious Savage, The Two Mrs. Carrolls (a murder mystery), See How They Run, and The Teahouse of the August Moon were held at the Hoosick Falls High School Auditorium. The cast who made up this group established their talents locally, and were the envy of neighboring players. In one review by The Standard Press in May, 1962, the writer commented, Paul Fink and Ron Badgeley have both proven they can act as well as direct. Paul lived with his parents on the corner of Richmond Avenue and Main Street. He graduated from the Hoosick Falls High School in 1961 as president of his class. The Times Union reported that Paul was also the recipient of a NY Regents scholarship and a member of the National Honor Society, and he had been accepted at Brandeis University at Boston, MA. Furthermore, he was one of a dozen students in the country selected by the Institute for Jewish Youth Leaders, to represent the US in the following year abroad, living for five months in Jerusalem with 100 other young Jewish leaders throughout the world. This opportunity also included a formal education period, followed by three months of travel throughout Israel, and a two month tour of several other countries. It s not known whether he accepted this offer or not. In November, 1964, Paul was still involved in the local theater group while attending Bennington College on a Drama Fellowship. A year and a half later, it was curtain time for the Little Theater Group, which a meeting was held at the Fink household to dissolve the organization due to a lack of local support. Following college, Paul went to Los Angeles to become the Casting and New Programs Director for the Mark Taper Forum. At some point, he became known as Paul Aaron (dropping his last name). At the same time, he founded an actor s workshop and directed several plays, including a critically acclaimed production of The Three Penny Opera. He was brought to New York to direct the successful, off- Broadway rock musical hit, Salvation, featuring, among others, the then-unknown Bette Midler.

3 According to his online bio, Aaron had been creating successful productions since he began his professional career. In 1978, he made and impressive switch to films with the sensitive and critically acclaimed A Different Story, starring Meg Foster and Perry King. This film, which appears regularly on cable TV, is said to have become a cult classic. Soon after moving back to the west coast, Aaron directed the immensely successful The Tenth Man, starring Richard Dreyfuss. He was awarded the Los Angeles Drama Critic s Award as best director of the year for this presentation. His second feature film as director, A Force of One (1979), an action-thriller starring Chuck Norris and Jennifer O Neil, was a tremendous box office success. Paul s next challenge was to direct the classic, The Miracle Worker (1979), starring Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert. This NBC Special Event not only garnered some of the network s highest ratings for the season, but also won Paul a number of distinguished awards, both here and abroad. It was nominated for four Emmys and won three, including one for Patty Duke as lead actress. For his next project, he chose to direct the CBS movie, Thin Ice (1981), starring Kate Jackson and the venerable film star, Lillian Gish. He followed this with a return to Broadway, directing Claudette Colbert in A Talent for Murder, an original suspense-comedy that turned out to be her last work on the stage. The movie, entitled Maxie (1985), starring Glenn Close and directed by Mr. Aaron, was produced in association with his company, Elsboy Entertainment and was released by Orion Pictures. The list goes on and on. In the early 90 s, Paul decided to leave the rigors of running a full-time management company to concentrate on his writing and producing. The first project he sold was a three-hour mini-series for HBO, entitled Laurel Avenue (1993), which he executive-produced, co-created and wrote with Michael Henry Brown. It aired in 1993 and was called a golden moment in the history of TV, by a Pulitzer prizewinning critic of the Washington Post. In 1994, Paul returned to directing a film for the Lifetime cable network. Based on the book, One Child, by Torey Hayden, it recounted the extraordinary true story of her work with special education students in the public schools. Again, in 2000, Aaron and Brown hooked up together to write Land of Opportunity and Shadowman, based on the popular comic book, both for New Line Pictures. Their original screenplay, In Too Deep (1999) was made into a major motion picture by Miramax Films which Paul also produced. In 2005, he produced the feature, Looking for Sunday. And, to think he got his start on the stage at Hoosick Falls! Paul Fink Yearbook Picture 1961 Not much has been discovered about Fink s personal life or what he has been up to since then, but it is known that he was married for a short time to Patricia Taylor, mother of Keanu Reeves and Kim Reeves. For more detailed information on his many accomplishments with stage production and film, go to the website imdb.com and type in his stage name, Paul Aaron.

4 Harvesting Hay Charles Filkins Hay seems to be a simple process: Cut the hay, let it dry, bunch it up for loading and store it where it will stay dry. The first consideration is that you may need up to two days for the hay to dry. If you get a wad of green plants that didn t dry could start a fire. Hay was the energy for horses, oxen and mules before tractors. Tractor companies advertised that the acres to provide hay for the horses, oxen and mules could be providing more hay for cattle or sheep if you switched to a tractor. When European settlers arrived they brought horses, cattle and sheep. Since they had to have hay to keep them alive during the voyage, some hay varieties were brought incidental passenger seeds. One plant was the favorite of Timothy Hanson. That grass found in most of Europe was called Timothy in America because of his support for the plant. left to dry, then raked with a wooden hay rake, loaded by hand onto a wagon. The wagon or cart was then taken to a barn or covered storage where it was unloaded. Starting in the 1820s, inventors designed machines to replace hand tools such as the scythe above. Early mowing machines used early cutter-bars which did not fold. Above are wooden hay including a hay fork and a rake. In the early 1800s hay harvesting was hand work. Hay was cut with a scythe,

5 By the mid 1850s the two wheeled mower arrived replacing combined haygrain machines. In the early 1870s mowers had iron frames replacing wood and a folding bar that went vertical for travel and storage. There were two hay loader designs with companies selling both desigtns. W. A. Wood s Folding Bar Mower A dump rake bunched the hay after it dried. The curved teeth could be lifted up to leave a pile of hay. A replacement was designed to rake the cut hay swath into a windrow. This design was called a side delivery rake. The upper loader used sheet metal and long poles with spring teeth with every other pole at the opposite place. The lower hay loader was lighter with small wooden pieces across the machine and clothes line held in place by little staples. In either design a man still had to be on the wagon to arrange the hay, but these machines lifted the hay up from the ground to the wagon rack.

6 Our volunteers have added a new greeter at the entrance to the museum. We have a great deal of older clothes and they took advange of our stored collection. Stop off and say hello to our new volunteer.