September 30, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 30, 1963 

Monday,  fair and cool, cloudy in pm.  Wayne, Bob, the girls, and I went to Schoharie.  I went to Lorraine's and church at night to hear Clara Crumb.

Baptist Bible College & Seminary

Comment:  According to Google, Clara Crumb was from the Baptist Bible College and Seminary and was apparently giving a presentation.  Aunt Lorraine was of, course Howard Vaugn's wife.  Bob must have been Bobby Segeritz, Uncle Earl's step son.  No indication of why they went to Schoharie....

September 29, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 29, 1963

Sunday, heavy rain in am,  cool.  Girls and I went to church, Sunday school, and church at night.  LaVerne and Roberta here for dinner.  Wayne and Linda Mattice here in the pm and evening. 

Comment:  Typical fall Sunday following the Baptist creed:  Don't smoke, don't drink, don't dance, and don't work on Sunday.....often stated, less often followed..


..

September 28, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 28, 1963
Saturday,  55 high,  cooler, 45,  cloudy partly,  clearing 4 pm.  Carol went to Cornell.  I took her to Donna's in am.  Evelyn and Joyce here in afternoon about Sunday school.  Had letter from Marilyn.

Comment:  Not sure why Carol went to Cornell.  I'm assuming it's Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.  Coach Everett Hubbard graduated from there by the way.  I just read the Wikipedia article on Cornell.  I'm shocked by how little I knew of the school back in 1963 and how prestigious it really is.  The location by the Finger Lakes was also a region that we never visited....I thought it was a big deal to go to Coby Ag and Tech....I wonder what would have been different if I'd gone to Cornell...."The road not taken".......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University

September 27, 1963 Friday The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 27, 1963 Friday 


Friday, lovely, warm and sunny day, 68-70.  Kids came home at noon.  We all went to dentist.  I washed in am.  Men home late.  Had letter from Doug.

Comment:  Spell of nice weather continues. Finished ironing yesterday and now doing the wash, "The men do work from sun to sun but a women's work is never done" seems to apply here....wonder what our relationship is to these Hubbards......

Alice Moore Hubbard (June 7, 1861 – May 7, 1915) was a noted American feminist, writer, and, with her husband, Elbert Hubbard was a leading figure in the Roycroft movement – a branch of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England with which it was contemporary.

Born Alice Luann Moore in Wales, New York to Welcome Moore and Melinda Bush¹, she was a schoolteacher before meeting her future husband, the married soap salesman and philosopher Elbert Hubbard who she married in 1904 after a controversial affair in which she bore the illegitimate, Miriam Elberta Hubbard (1894–1985).

Her works include Justinian and Theodora (1906; with Elbert Hubbard), Woman's Work (1908), Life Lessons (1909), and The Basis of Marriage (1910). The latter includes an interview with Alice Hubbard by Sophie Irene Loeb.

The couple perished in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania during the First World War while on a voyage to Europe to cover the war and ultimately interview Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.^{[citation needed]}

September 26, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 26, 1963


Thursday, lovely, warm, and sunny day, 68.  I finished ironing most of the day.


Comment:  Not much seems to be going on, household chores.  The ironing for the whole family could be a pretty big job.  When very young, I recall her ironing with flat irons that were heated on the stovetop.  She would heat two, then use one till it cooled then exchange it for the heated one on the stovetop.  I also recall kerosene heated irons and then, of course, the Rural Electrification program brought electricity to the area in about 1946 and that changed everything.....

September 25, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 25, 1963


Wednesday, 35-68,  beautiful, clear, sunny and warm.  I did ironing.  Went to prayer meeting at night, Carol didn't go.
Comment:  Sounds like a gorgeous day on the hill, leaves probably turned to the fall colors, the scent of autumn is in the air, squirrel hunting season started September 1 with a daily limit of 6.  


In the fifties, I hunted squirrels a lot in the fall afternoons after the school bus dropped us off about 4pm.  I used a .22 pump action with an octagon barrel.  I do not know where it came from.  I would go into the Earl's beech woods just to the west of our property and north of  Hubbard Road.  There were lots of squirrels that would hide and fall silent as I walked into the woods.  I'd sit under a tree for a couple of minutes without moving and the squirrels would come out and resume their activities.  I'd slowly draw a bead  and pop one then resume my quiet sitting.  In a short while, the squirrels would come out again and I'd pop another one.  I'd usually get three or four then collect them and take them to the house to skin and butcher.  


After butchering, I'd soak all the meat in salt water overnight then fry it in butter and eat it.  It tasted a lot like the brown meat of chicken..somewhere I've heard:  "Squirrel hunting is easy; just sit out in the woods and act like a nut".... worked for me....

September 24, 1963, The Frances Hubbard diaries

September 24, 1963

Tuesday, sunny clear day,  hard frost in am, 25-60.  I washed, talked to Billie.  It was Gerald's birthday.  

 Comment:  My birthday, twenty-five years old, in third year of college.  Here is me about 24 years prior:   I'm holding a stuffed elephant that I can still remember but my memory must have been from later times.  Not sure where the picture on the grass was taken.. Maybe at the Kelsey Hill farm of Clarence Barber...83 years later, it's been quite a ride....

September 23, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 23, 1963

Monday,  sunny, cool leaves are beautiful.  David started work with Clifton at Jefferson. Madelyn went to Lavilla's with me.

Comment:  Madelyn is Madelyn Blakesley, Lavilla is Lavilla Kingsley, both very active in the Flat Creek Baptist Church.  David quit Timberland and is now working on the same job as Dad, probably a laborer.  Dad was in the Operating Engineers at the time with quite a lot of seniority and he knew a lot of folks so that might have helped.  Sounds like a gorgeous fall day....here is a view of autumn view of Hunter Mountain probably down a ski run..... no matter where I look, the Catskill Mountains always seem familiar and the views of the mountains played a significant role in our lives on the Hill.  We always seemed to be looking  to the mountains for signs of weather, for directional information, for smoke from fires and houses, the lights from houses at night and for lightning strikes during the thunder storms....

September 22, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 22, 1963 

Sunday, mostly cloudy and cool.  We went to mother's for dinner after church.  Wayne, Clifton and I went to church too.  David was at Wrights for dinner.  Girls went to church and Awana presentation of awards at night.

Comment:  Dinner at Mother's meant driving to Richmondville and entering a large Victorian type house with very tall ceilings and a dark, cavernous entry hall and being met with the smells of gravy, meat and potatoes cooking, maybe turkey or pot roast.  Norm would usually be sitting in his large chair, sometimes smoking a cigarette, raw-boned, affable and he just seemed "large" to me as a little boy.  When I was attending Cobleskill Ag and Tech, (minutes from Richmondville) Bessie would often have me over for supper.  Here is a picture of the Mom's family with us on the Hill probably around 1961 or so.  Nancy Smith was my girlfriend at the time, before Mary Ann....

Frances, Clarence Barber, Emma Tenblad, Carol, Nancy Smith,  Bessie, Gerald, Norm, Billy, Flora Tenblad, Dad

September 21, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, September 21, 1963

Saturday, cloudy,  42.  I washed in the am.  Wayne and Clifton went to look at cars again and came home with a 64 Plymouth.  LaVerne and Roberta went with us to the Masonic supper.  Carol and Sue waited on table.  Gerald and Mary Ann came home for dinner and spent the afternoon here.

Comment:  Dinner was the noon meal.....  Dad was a Mason for many years and I remember the Mason's book he had.  I think it was the new testament but was in a code and I remember my mother being able to read it aloud without any trouble at all.  She would read it to us kids from time to time for a lark but Dad never did....Here is a picture of the Masonic Emblem:

It was made of up two items:  

• The Masonic square, which symbolizes a state of moral rectitude. 
• 
  
• The Masonic compasses symbolize an implement of virtue by which Masons are taught to circumscribe (create a boundary around) their passions and keep their desires within due bounds.  

September 20, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, September 20, 1963

Friday, rainy day. I sewed, David, Clifton and I went to Middleburgh in pm to look at cars and get groceries.  Mother called to see if we were coming over Sunday.

Comment:  I think they are looking at cars to get ready to go to California to see my sister Marilyn.  View To Grand Gorge from an eroded glacial cirque.  Here is the glacial geology of the area:  Glacial Lake Grand Gorge.  Click on the link


http://thecatskillgeologist.com/2016/09/12/a-visit-to-glacial-lake-grand-gorge-2/

September 19, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 19, 1963

Thursday, beautiful warm sunny day.  I cut out Sue's blue, plaid dress and worked on it.

Comment:  Mom sewing, beautiful day, sounds like a nice quiet fall day on the hill...


In Autumn, the mountains were like purple haze that muted fall colors soaked through...

The Frances Hubbard Diaries: September 18, 1963

September 18, 1963

Wednesday, still rainy cloudy in pm, 75.  I wrote to Doug and Marilyn.  Did ironing and finished gown and white plaid dress. David quit job at Timberland.

Comment: The temperature variation runs from the mid forties and frost a few days ago to now 75 which is something I don't seem to remember well.  Snail mail communications, wonder how the communication would have been with email, texting and Skype back then, probably the same as it is now.  David says can't remember why he quit Timberland, might have been the rotating shift factory work, or just young and foolish.  Glad I never made a decision for those reason...."Too soon we get old, too late we get smart" comes to mind.  
Of course, making charcoal, even in a modern factory, was not a helluva lot of fun and still included some activities similar to those in the picture.  When I was delivering the damned stuff, my body and clothes would be completely black even when unloading sealed bags and boxes.....

Here is a SongPoemStory performed by my son David that I wrote about those days driving truck and working for Timberland, hauling bark and charcoal......


http://hubbardfamilymusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/0-plays-truck-driving-ive-hauled-bark.html

September 17, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 17, 1963

Tuesday, rainy day. Gerald went to school for good.  Louella and I went to the dentist in Schoharie in pm.

Comment:  Louella is ringing a bell but I can't come up with her name.  SUNY@Albany starts for me. 101 years ago from this date was the bloodiest battle in U.S military history as Union forces stopped the Confederate invasion of Maryland in the Civil War battle of Antietam with nearly 23,000 killed, wounded, missing, or captured.  Americans fighting Americans:  "We have met the enemy and he is us"  (Pogo, Walt Kelly), and he still is in 2021.

 

September 16, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 16, 1963

Monday, partly cloudy,  clear,  no wind,  40’s.  I washed.  Gerald took a load of cloths etc. into Albany to their trailer.  David was home and worked on his car.  Had a letter from Doug.  Robeta called and asked me to go to East Greenbush with her in pm.  Returned home 8:30.

Comment:  Me getting ready for SUNY@Albany, David sure works a lot on his car.  Not sure why Roberta and Mom went to East Greenbush, probably something about the mail routes but not sure.  Very few pictures of Roberta, here is one with her and sister Carol at the 1978 Hubbard Family Reunion on Hubbard Hill.

September 15, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 15, 1963

Sunday, sunny,  windy,  cool . Girls and I went to church and Sunday School.  Rev. Harelman preached.  Clifton, the girls and I went to Lyle's in pm for Lyle's birthday,  about 40 there.  Went to church at night.

Comment:  Lyle and Madelyn Blakesley lived on Blakesley Road just below the corner of Hubbard Road (County Route 17) and Blakesley Road.  We used to buy eggs from them.  Lyle and Madelyn were very active in the Flat Creek Baptist Church.  Here is a picture of Madelyn on  the far right with Maude Haskin on the left, and Alice Lewis in the middle...

Saturday, September 14, 1963

September 14, 1963

Saturday, 30, first frost. Sunny and warmer.  Girls, Wayne, Bob and I went to Albany shopping. Wayne got and jacket and I a coat.

Comment:  Getting ready for winter.  Because of the rather constant winds coming from the west, the Hill could be pretty chilly in the winter and the old house had lots of cracks and spaces for the drafts to come through.  Here is a  SongPoemStory I wrote:  "Winter Mornings"

We boys slept in the attic on that Catskill Mountain Farm
And though the rain and snow blew in it seemed to cause no harm
We’d get up winter mornings, shake the snow off of our beds
Then grab our clothes and run downstairs where that old wood stove was fed

We’d dress as fast as young kids could, we pulled on several layers
And “Sword Of The Lord” from the radio blared out those Baptist prayers
Mom would bake some pancakes, fry up some ham and eggs
Then we brushed our teeth in the kitchen sink from the brushes hung on pegs

The only running water from the hand pump by the sink
We used to wash ourselves and cook and fill the pail to drink
We finally put a bathroom in when I was seventeen
But with ceiling low, you had to squat to get remotely clean

When younger, all us kids would group around the kitchen stove
And huddle by the oven, as smells of wood smoke wove
All through the house and smells of ham and pancakes filled the air
I close my eyes, recall it all, it’s like I’m standing there

Marilyn fell flat-palmed one time upon that sizzling iron
And burned her hands with blisters while the rest of us looked on
She couldn’t balance, put her hands down several times at least
Till Mother finally grabbed her and salved her hands with grease

Those winter mornings come to me in Ohio winter’s cold
And seem to keep their clarity even as I grow more old
And the fireplace that burns with gas in our modern family room
Sure a hell beats that old stove on that run-down family farm.

September 13, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 13, 1963

Friday, cloudy, windy and cold in am, 38, becoming mostly fair around noon.  I did a big wash. Picked tomatoes, corn, shell beans and onions. Afraid of frost.  Had hard frost.

Comment:  Did lots of garden work because of imminent frost.  Today was David John Hubbard's birthday.  David John Hubbard, Born September 13, 1944

September 12, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 12, 1963

Thursday, cloudy, thunder showers in am,  windy, 60.  Earl moved trailer for Gerald and Roger.  I wrote to Marilyn.  Linda came home with Carol. Clifton and I went to North Blenheim to turkey supper. Thunder shower, hard wind and rain, at 6 pm lights out for a 1/2 hour.

Comment:  Uncle Earl had an old travel trailer on his lake and let me and Roger Cohn  have it to live in while we attended SUNY@Albany.  It was small and kinda rough around the edges but it worked for two school years.  I watched the Kennedy assassination news on a 12 inch black and white tv that I had to shut off every couple of minutes because the picture tube got too hot and would shut off.....this is kinda how it looked....

September 11, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 11, 1963

Wednesday, sunny,  clear and warm, 70,  becoming cloudy toward night.  I picked cucumber and beans and 150 ears of corn and put them in the freezer.  Bonny and Glenn here at night a minute to borrow our truck to move Barry.

Comment:   Major vegetable harvest, lots of sweet corn.  I think Barry was moving up to a small house on the Bush road after he was married.  I don't have a picture of Bonny but here is a picture of the Taylor family when Barry and Glenn were little.....

Thirty-Seven Years Later: September 11, 2000:  I was on a bicycle and was hit by a car and was in the hospital for 21 days:

Thirty-Eight Years Later: September 11, 2001:  I was on an exercise bike in our local YMCA still recovering and my home nurse, after hearing on the car radio about the attack, got scared and came into the Y to be with people.  She saw me and we spent the next hour watching the towers come down....

Fifty-Four Years Later:    On September 11, 2017, I was released from the hospital on this day after a triple by-pass operation but was not checked for a bowel infection so I went to the emergency room and spent the night pretty much in agony till the infection cleared my system.

In 2021, I'm not leaving home.

September 10, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 10
Tuesday, beautiful day 60’s.  I cut out brown and white dress and got it mostly finished.

Comment: Not much going on.  The dress was probably for her but not sure.  She made a lot of clothes for herself and the girls and for all when we were smaller.  And on this day in 1955, "Gunsmoke" premiered on CBS and ran for twenty years, one of the longest-running dramatic shows in history, (The Simpsons ran for 32 seasons), and the bartender Kitty, was the model for many of the female bartenders at the time, including Katy Conroe who ran the Ren De Vous above the dam where 990v and Rt 30 come together...

September 9, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 9, 1963

Monday, cloudy in am,  clearing around noon and real nice warm 70’s.  I washed.  Wayne, David and Bob looked for cows.  Ella came home from hospital at night


Comment:  Damned cows gone again, Betty thought Aunt Ella might have had pneumonia from cleaning products.   

Here is a picture of the O'Hara s and Hubbard s together for the first time in years.

This was in 2011 on this day just after Irene.

September 8, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 8, 1963

Sunday, lovely, warm day 75.  Girls and I went to church and Sunday School . We drove down to LaVerne's and saw their new carpet and furniture.  Girls and I went to church at night. Ruthe said Ella was in hospital since Friday night, first I knew of it.

Comment:  Triple church Sunday.  Picture of Flat Creek Baptist in its younger days.   Ella still in hospital but Mom apparently forgot because she mentioned it yesterday.  LaVerne remodeling the Gilboa house.  Ella was probably in the Margaretville hospital.  There was a Doctor Palen that Merel and Ella liked and he worked from there.  I went there with appendicitis when I was sixteen and still have the massive scar........

September 7, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 7, 1963 - Saturday, lovely, sunny, clear day.  Wayne cleaned wood house.  I picked cauliflower and made pickles.  Picked corn and put in freezer.  Marilyn called at night.

Comment:  Cleaning the wood house meant clearing out all the wood chips and general detritus of farm living by loading it in the manure spreader and taking it over in the woods and dumping it.  The manure spreader served as general hauler as well as for what it was designed for....The woods across the creek had piles of junk accumulated over many years and included old cars, pickups, hay loaders, various glass jars and tin cans.  LaVerne and I picked up scrap steel and iron from this type of farmer's dumps and made some money in the spring of 1949 when the prices for scrap were at their highest.  Here is a SongPoemStory about that experience.  

Me, LaVerne & Franklin Brown

The first five bucks I ever earned was for selling scrap iron with LaVerne that we hauled in a 1919 Model T
Me, LaVerne and Franklin Brown searched farmer’s dumps all over town and picked up every piece of scrap we’d see

Franklin Brown smoked cigarettes when just a kid but I forget which brand of those damned cancer sticks he chose.
At three am he’d come awake and grab that pack and then he’d take deep drags and you could smell it in his clothes.

His dad had driven my dad’s trucks and one day had the tragic luck to ditch a truck with a full load of cement.
The load broke loose and hit the cab and crushed the chest of Franklin’s dad on the steering wheel which wasn’t even bent.

We worked the spring of forty nine, I close my eyes and see those times and the memories we picked up just to sell,
Worn out plows and sickle bars, tractor wheels with rotten tires and every piece of scrap had tales to tell.

Of farmers dreams and farmers dreads as they worked their lives out in those sheds and hay fields in the shadow of those hills,
Getting by on hope and sweat and doing all they could to get the family fed and pay the monthly bills.

Milking cows and cutting corn, till old and sick and bent and worn and living every moment just on will.
Shirley Richmond comes to mind, all stoved in and face all lined, he worked that farm on the road to Manorkill.

I’ve made a little money since, in the third world I could be a prince, but I still can feel and smell those crisp new bills,
My brother paid to Frank and me beside that black old Model T in 1949 on Hubbard Hill.

September 6, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 6,  1963 - Friday, cloudy and cool, 60's and 70's, light shower in the afternoon.  I washed in the am and went to Middleburgh and Cobleskill with Gerald and David.  Took girls to the parsonage for fellowship supper at night.  Ella taken to the hospital.

Comment:  Not sure why we went to Middleburgh and Cobleskill or why Ella went to the hospital.  Here is a picture of Ella and Frances.  I think this was at the 1978 family reunion.  They were the best of friends.

September 5, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 5, 1963 - Thursday, mostly cloudy.   I finished the ironing, picked corn and beans.  Sue and I went to prayer meeting.


Comment:  Thursday is prayer meeting day and Mom and the girls rarely missed it.  She has been ironing and picking vegetables for two days now.  Both girls now in school.

September 4, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 4, 1963, Wednesday, cool, cloudy, and little rain.  Wrote to Dougie and Marilyn.  I ironed most of the day, picked corn for supper.  First day of school.  Frank Wyckoff bus driver.

Comment: Vegetables still coming in from the garden.  Another school year.  Gilboa Central was a Class E school at the time which meant that it had less than 50 boys in high school for sports.  Girls sports were restricted to cheerleading and girl's basketball which was kinda like a half-court game apparently designed for the lady's weaker physical attributes.  No Title Nine stuff going on.  The small school meant that many boys could experience the high school athletic experience without having to be super talented and many played the four sports available:  baseball, cross country, basketball and soccer.   In 2011,  the whole school district was devastated by Hurricane Irene with the towns of Prattsville and North Blenheim pretty much ruined....here is the school in 1956.....

September 3, 1963. The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 3, 1963. - Tuesday, cloudy, 60 in am, becoming sunny, 75,  and clouding up late pm with rain at night.  Girls and I went to Stamford in am, came home, and did a big wash.  Gerald went to Albany.  Sunday school teacher here at night.
Comment:  I must have gone back to SUNY@Albany to start school again.  I spent '61 and '62 at SUNY Ag & Tech @ Cobleskill then to Albany.  In Albany, I lived in a small travel trailer given to us by Uncle Earl.  Roger Cohn, an ex-Army paratrooper from Cobleskill, lived with me.  I was working as a grill man at Carrol's, a 15 cent hamburger joint on Latham circle.  I can't remember where Roger worked.  I was driving a 54 Opel and Roger was driving an MG that was hard to start in the winter.  It was there I learned of the Kennedy assassination that would occur 49 days hence.... 

September 2, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

September 2, 1963

Monday, beautiful, clear, fair day, low 70’s, no wind.  Rudy’s, Howard’s, LaVerne's, Mary Ann here for dinner.  Earl and Bob over at night.

Comment:  Lots of Monday visitors.  Rudy and Winnie, Howard and Lorraine, LaVerne and Roberta, Mary Ann, here for dinner then Uncle Earl and Bobby Segeritz at night.  

 I must be chopped liver, not even mentioned..ummhh.