Sunday, December 1, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 1, 1963
Sunday, 20's, some snow and windy.  Roads were a glare of ice.  We went to Church, Sunday School.  All of us were at LaVerne's for dinner and supper.

Comment:  Sounds like a stark day mostly spent at LaVerne's....mmmm, no visitors, maybe because the roads were so bad.  Here is how it might have looked out of the west-facing window of the house......

Saturday, November 30,1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 30,1963
Saturday, cold, windy, snow squalls.  I ironed, sorted out some things.  Clifton cleaned out desk.  Linda Kingsley spent the day here.  Boys went out at night.  Roads slippery.
Comment:  Trip preparation continues, here is a picture of the desk Dad is cleaning out.  It was hand-made, I think, by Grover Haner and was a gift to Mom and Dad.  It was battered and beaten from hundreds of impacts and scratches from all the kids over the years.  I refer to it in one of my SongPoemStories,


 "The Milk Check Came Today"...
At his battered home made desk I still can see my Dad
As he pulled old bills from pigeon holes and paid with what he had
The checks he wrote left-handed as he shooed us kids away
Sustained the farm and family when the milk check came today.  
Take a listen by clicking the link below:


http://hubbardfamilymusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/milk-check-original-by-gerry-hubbard.html

Friday, November 29, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 29, 1963
Friday, rainy day, 42, high in am, 52 in evening.  I washed in am, hung clothes inside.  Mrs. Mayo and sister here in pm to practice with girls to sing at church Sunday.  We packed a few things.  Boys cut wood in am and closed up barn.  Did ironing in afternoon.

Comment:  Preparations for CA trip continue, attic must have been full of clothes, wonder what song the girls were practicing.....and on this day in 1963, Lyndon Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination 

Thursday, Thanksgiving, November 28, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

November 28, 1963
Thursday, mostly sunny, 50's.  LaVerne, Roberta, and  Mary Ann were here for Thanksgiving dinner.  Howard's, Evelyn, and Bonnie (Taylor) here in am and got the girl's bicycle.
Comment:  "Howards" is Howard and Lorraine Hubbard Vaughn.  Sounds like a nice day with a wonderful home-cooked turkey meal with lots of gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, and turkey, probably cooked to perfection.  I think the girls are giving their bicycle away in anticipation of their impending trip to California........Here are Howard and Lorrain and

a picture of three of Dad's five sisters:  from left, Lorraine, Evelyn, Ina Belle

Wednesday November 27, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 27, 1963

Wednesday, 40's, cloudy, turning windy.  I wrote Dougie and Marilyn.  Cleaned up the house and I went to prayer meeting at Lavilla's and took some plants over for her to keep.

Comment: Lavilla's to keep the plants for them when the family goes to California....and Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the joint session of congress with his "Let Us Continue" speech which basically said he would continue JFK's programs......here he is taking the oath on Air Force One just after Kennedy was declared dead.......

Tuesday, November 26,1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 26, 1963
Tuesday, partly cloudy, 40's.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill and Mother's for dinner.  Grandpa, Louise and Ina Belle here in the evening.  Kids went to ball game.  I had letter from Doug, he was on the way to Spain when he wrote it and said he would arrive there on the 21.
Comment:  It's Tuesday and Dad not working so it's to Cobleskill to sign

up for unemployment.....

Monday, November 25, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 25, 1963

Monday, 17 in am, cold, bright day.  Gerald came home 1 am, no school, everything closed for Kennedy's funeral.  Took Earl to Cooperstown at night to have cast changed.  Lillian and I went to see Ina Belle and Bonnie at Earl's.

Comment: And life goes on.............

Sunday, November 24, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 24, 1963

Sunday, colder, snow squalls, 30's, becoming colder at night.  Went to church and Sunday school then to Grandpa and Louise's for dinner and to LaVerne's at night.  The Oswald suspect in Kennedy's killing was shot and died.
Comment: Life as usual but it's forever different....the ineptness of the Dallas police force and their intense desire to wring the the last bit of PR out of the incident fosters an endless round of conspiratorial theory's and robs the world of the opportunity to know the truth....."when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn"...Pete Seeger

:

Saturday, November 23, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 23, 1963
Saturday, rainy day, 40's.  Carol went to party at Sandy McPherson's.  We went to Clifford's in pm but no one at home.  Sue stayed overnight with Melody at Louise's.  We watched T.V. most of the time about Kennedy's death.
Comment:  And again, our world will never be the same..and this is some of what we learned as we watched the drama unfold on live television:  Lee Harvey Oswald used a 6.5mm Carcano Model 91/38 Italian rifle that he bought through mail order for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.  
 Here is his post-arrest interview and as I watch this again I'm amazed how cool and collected he is.  He even sound sounds kind of innocent....

Friday, November 22, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 22, 1963

Friday, lovely day, 60's.  I washed in am.  David and Clifton got the trailer at LaVerne's.  President Kennedy was shot at Dallas, Texas 1 pm.

Comment: The trailer is for the trip to California to stay for the winter. Most of us who lived through the assassination of Kennedy remember distinctly where we were and what we were doing when we heard about it. I'm sure the same is true about 9.11. I had completed my morning classes at SUNY@Albany and headed home to get some lunch at the trailer on Central Avenue in Albany when I heard it on the radio. When I got to the trailer, I turned on the black and white portable TV we had and watched the news coverage. The picture on the TV would only stay stable for about 5 minutes at a time and then the horizontal and vertical scroll would malfunction and you could not see the picture but the sound would stay on. I watched the rest of the afternoon, turning the TV off and on so the picture would stabilize until Walter Cronkite finally declared the President dead.  


Mom's recording of the event is typically laconic in less than 10 words....


Kennedy was hated by the right-wing pretty much the way Obama and Biden are now but the hatred and lies about him did not spew into the country's discourse through anonymous emails and websites like we have today, so many people, me included, were not aware of this intense hatred. The reaction to the event was dramatic around the world, schools were let out, some TV stations stopped all regular programming and played funeral music until another news bulletin, and of course, Kennedy immediately became the most wonderful president since Lincoln in the minds of many around the world and in the words of most of the US politicians of all parties. I personally thought it was a helluva thing but his luster with me had diminished significantly with the Bay Of Pigs fiasco so I did not buy into the mindless adulation of many. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about the reaction around the world to the incident: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_to_the_assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy

Now there are several articles and opinions available from supposed experts that Kennedy may have been the worst president in the 20th Century:

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/15/was_john_f_kennedy_the_flat_out_absolute_worst_us_president_of_the_20th_century

I also think, that had he lived, he would have been rocked by sexual scandal as history has shown he was extremely promiscuous, requiring a woman every day to prevent headaches.  When reading about these exploits that the national press completely ignored at the time,  all I feel is a sense of deep betrayal that all of this was blatantly going on in my lifetime and I did not have a clue..here is an excerpt from a link:

"Finally, whatever positive legacy JFK would have been able to leave with would have been ruined by Judith Exner. Exner was Kennedy’s mistress until 1962 when the FBI told the president that they knew of the affair. Kennedy also had allegedly an affair with Marilyn Monroe and had relations with Inga Arvad, who had accompanied Hitler to the 1936 Olympic Games. We all saw how the Republicans tried to burn down Clinton when news of his presidential affair came out, but imagine the firestorm in the early ’60s when America still supposedly had its morals. Kennedy would have been demonized in every media outlet that existed. As it happened, those who knew of Kennedy’s affairs waited before spilling the details of the President’s sex life, saving him from scandal in his lifetime. However, if news of his affairs had come out during his time in office, say, the mid 60’s, assuming he won reelection in 1964, it would have damned his image as a family man. And if these allegations would have come out after his presidency (as what really happened), his legacy would have been further marred."

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago."...........

Thursday, November 21, 1963 The Frances Hubbard diaries

Thursday, November 21, 1963

Thursday, 40's, rainy in am and all day.  Clifton and I went  to Oneonta for Christmas gifts for here.

Comment: "gifts for here" meant that they were not going to be on the Hill for Christmas but would be in California near Marilyn so they were buying gifts for the local friends and family...Meanwhile in Texas:

JFK's Last Night:  At the Rice Hotel at Houston on Nov. 21, 1963 -- the night before his fateful trip to Dallas.

Wednesday, November 20, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 20, 1963

Wednesday, nice day, 40's and 50's.  Clifton and I went to Albany to get racks and things for the car.  We stopped at trailer to see Gerald and went to Lorraine's for supper, home about 9:30.

Comment: I do not remember this visit. Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Howard lived some place near Albany where my trailer was situated on Central Avenue. The racks and things for the car were in preparation for their trip to CA to see Marilyn. Two days till the Kennedy assassination and a U2 crash on this date will help fuel conspiracy theories about Castro's involvement in it:  "U-2 Plane Reported in Crash KEY WEST, Fla - (UPI) 

A U-2 "spy" plane believed to be on a reconnaissance mission over Communist Cuba crashed Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday, 40 miles northwest of here. Military sources in Washington said the U-2 pilot did not radio any indication of trouble before the crash and the plane presumably went down due to mechanical trouble. However they said the crash could have been the result of a Cuban attack.
The pilot of the U-2 was identified as Capt. Joe E. Hyde Jr., 33 of La Grange, Georgia." 

The pilot was declared dead a couple of days later.  Apparently this crash was suppressed by the government and was not covered in national news.  I certainly do not remember anything about it........

Tuesday, November 19, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 19, 1963

Tuesday, cloudy, 30's. Clifton, Wayne, Carol and I went to Cobleskill to Ford Mattice's funeral, took Carol to Dr. Lyons in pm.

Comment: I remember Ford as a quite heavy and rotund ruddy-faced man who was politically active in the area. Carol must be quite sick, seems to be hanging on for a couple of days. Here is a picture of Carol and Sue on a first day of school:

Monday, November 18, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 18, 1963

Monday cloudy but warm, 62.  LaVerne shot a deer in the am.  Carol, Clifton and I went down to see. I washed and hung clothes outside.

Comment: Deer season and LaVerne has got his. Deer season was a big deal in our family. If it started on a school day, we would stay home from school to hunt, as would many of our high school friends. It started at dawn and shortly after, shotguns could be heard going off all through the hills. Schoharie County was shotgun country, supposedly because there were too many people around and the powers that were, thought rifles, with their much longer range, were too dangerous to fire in that area. Following is an account of how and when I shot my first deer when I was fourteen and my last deer when I was forty and and why I have not hunted anything since the last one...:

My First And My Last Deer

I shot my first deer when I was fourteen and my last deer when I was about forty.

On the first day of deer season, the year I was fourteen, after doing the chores in the morning, my Dad and I went deer hunting in the woods south of the road.  The first day of the season was quite an event, with “city people” driving all the back roads asking for permission to hunt and a lot of the local boys staying home from school to hunt.

We walked down the road to the end of Dad’s property where Earl’s gravel bank started and,  after we had reached the southern-most boundary fence of the property, started “driving” the woods toward the east

I was about fifteen feet from the boundary fence and Dad was about fifty feet away.  We were out of sight of one another in the woods.  Dad was carrying a 12 gauge double barrel and I was carrying a 16 gauge Mossberg bolt action with a three shot internal clip with a vented choke on the barrel.  The choke could be twisted to decrease or increase the size of the shot pattern when using bird shot but since I was using deer slugs, it was in the normal 16 gauge position.

We had been in the woods moving carefully east for just a short time when I heard something to my left and a doe skittered out of the woods and stood broadside looking at me.  It was doe season so I didn’t have to worry about looking for horns.

I had been in a pretty good “ready” position for hunting and only had the raise the shot gun slightly to get a bead and fire, hitting the deer just behind the front shoulder.  She bolted and ran about 20 yards and dropped, dead.

Dad had heard the shot and came running up.  He had a  hunting knife and he dropped to his knees and quickly slit the deer’s throat to let it bleed out then rolled the deer on it’s back and slit it from brisket to tail very carefully so as not to cut the guts, then rolled out the guts on the forest floor.  He cut out the liver and heart and left them in the carcass.

I can’t remember clearly how we got the deer out of the woods and have several memories of various deer being loaded on the back of the tractor and being hauled and also of one being dragged out by it’s hind legs.  I do remember however, Dad cutting a hole in the deer’s hind legs behind the Achilles tendons then placing each end of a heavy pointed stick in both the holes, then wrapping a rope around the stick in the middle and hoisting the deer up into the tree on the lawn by this stick.  We left the deer there the rest of the day to “stiffen” up, then took it inside the house in the dining room during the night so the animals could not get to it.  The next day we skinned it and Dad finished cutting up the deer.

I had hit the deer in the heart and the slug left a groove the whole length of the heart but it still manager to bolt about 60 feet before it died.  Since I was only fourteen and was not eligible for a deer hunting license until I was 16, Dad “tagged” the deer with his doe license.

Shooting that deer was kinda like a right of passage and since I was only fourteen, it drew a lot of attention from family and friends although we tried to keep it quiet because it really was illegal.  I had no regrets and was rather proud of my accomplishment even though it had all been the result of dumb luck.

My last deer was another matter.  Again, it was doe season and my brother David, had a doe permit that he wanted to fill.  I can’t remember the occasion but again, we were “driving” the woods on the state land above David’s camp.  Again I was hunting without a license.

I was moving east, following the course of a stone wall from about twenty feet away.  I carried a 20 gauge double barrel that I had bought from the “city people” who had bought the Swartz place on the cross road.  It was a sweet little gun with carrying strap and I had become pretty good at hitting beer cans and bottles that us boys would sometimes throw in the air and shoot at with bird shot.

I looked to my right and saw a deer running slowly, than faster along the other side of the stonewall.  It ran out of sight for a moment, then reappeared running faster, then leaped the stone wall toward my side.  I had been following the deer with my gun ready, waiting for a shot and just as it reached the middle of the jump,  I fired.  I hit the deer in the front shoulders, through the heart,  and it’s momentum carried it across the wall where it crumpled into a heap.

It was a beautiful young “spike horn” buck in prime condition.  By then, I’d been a “city guy” for awhile, not hunting things for probably fifteen years, mostly because it was too much trouble.

I looked down at that wonderful creature and with a great sense of self disgust,  asked myself why in hell I had just done that.  I never went hunting for anything again.

I've finally figured out why I felt so bad and it is this:  That deer was, at that time, the final, individual point of millions of years of evolution.  It's ancestors lived through ice ages, meteor impacts, endless hunts by human and pre-humans, all sorts of carnivorous predators and I, with a lucky snap shot had ended that deer's glorious lineage with a completely senseless and uncaring act.

Sunday, November 17, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 17, 1963

Sunday, mostly cloudy, warm, 52.  Clifton, Sue, and I went to church and Sunday school.  Carol was sick and stayed home.  LaVerne and Roberta were here for dinner, we went to Earl's in pm.

Comment: Earl is out of the hospital and probably sporting a cast. Typical Sunday.....

LaVerne, Roberta, with Chris And John.

Saturday, November 16, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 16, 1963

Saturday, cloudy, 40. Clifton, Sue and I went shopping to Cobleskill in am.  David worked last day.  Carol was at Mary Ann's.  Earl came home from hospital.  Earl Christiana was here in am.

Comment: We are related to the Christianas through Margaret Anna Christiania who was Gamalia Hubbard's wife and mother to Elmer & John Hubbard. Anna lived in the house that my family occupied that is now owned by Jeffery & Elizabeth Hubbard. Earl Christiana and his wife Kitty, and son, Hubie, often visited from Kingston where they lived. Earl was a big hunter and always arrived with the latest hunting finery; red-checked woolen outfits, Browning automatic shotguns. They seemed very refined and well-to-do and were very soft-spoken and polite. As a matter of fact, the reason Earl C visited is because today is the first or second day of deer season, a time that brought a lot of folks to the hill, that and Thanksgiving.,.....


"Thanksgiving came with hunting season, 
Lot's of folks would find a reason
To come "up home" to join in meals and song, 
We'd gather round that old piano, 
Dad sang bass Mom sang soprano
And uncles aunts and cousins sang along.  
And the old time Christian hymns would soar and chime, 
With harmonies so sweet and so sublime,
Then all the men would go hunt deer while all the ladies helped to clear the table for the meal at suppertime....excerpt "Hubbard Hill Memories" Click link below to hear and see more:


http://hubbardfamilymusic.blogspot.com/2011/06/hubbard-hill-memories-100th-posting-on.html


Here is a post about Anna being injured by a horse and some other information.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Natura non contristur: A Horse Story

A Horse Story 

Conesville—Mrs. Gamalia Hubbard met with a singular accident not long since, which might have proved very serious. 
She was reaching in the horse manger after eggs, when the horse caught her hood and hair between it’s teeth and jammed her head against the manger with such force that her eyes were badly injured; so much so that for a short time she supposed that she had lost the sight of one eye; and they are still badly swollen and discolored.
..Gilboa Monitor, April 8, 1886 

This was Margaret Ann Christiana, (1849-1933), married to Gamalia Hubbard, (1852-1883), who died of appendicitis when he was 31 or so. She was called Anna. 

They met while both worked for Col. Zadock Pratt in Prattsville, of Pratt's Rocks fame. He started a leather tanning business in the area.

On April 24, 1882, they bought land on what is now known as Hubbard Hill. The middle part of the our homestead was the original log cabin that Gamalia and Anna lived in. Previous to that, they lived further up the mountain on the old foundation behind David's campsite.

Their children were Elmer, my grandfather, & John, who had no children. Gamalia & Anna are buried in Grand Gorge Cemetery.

She was apparently a much loved grandmother of Elmer's children and I remember my Dad talking about his visits to her. 


This incident happened about 3 years after her husband's death, when she was about thirty seven years old. Elmer, born in 1882, was about one year old when his father died and about 3 years old when this incident occured. It also must have occured on Hubbard Hill.

Interesting that she outlived her husband by fifty years....... Also interesting to think about how many of the current generation would have died of appendicitis had we been unlucky enough to have been born a hundred years earlier.

Thanks To Bea Haskin For The Information

Friday, November 15, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 15, 1963

Friday mostly sunny windy.  Sue stayed at home from school.  We had a bad chimney fire and called the Conesville Fire Department.  Carol went home with Mary Ann Campanella and to ball game at Sharon Springs.  Made apron.
Comment: Mom had cleaned the stove pipe and chimney on August 19, 1963 and apparently it needed more work. The Conesville Fire Department was the closest to Hubbard Hill, interesting that the Town of Gilboa never had a fire department in my time and I guess I don't know why.....That old house could be a dangerous place to live with wood and fuel oil stoves, the electrical extension cords running all through the house and a bunch of kids running around. There were several attic fires that I remember and several chimney fires. Here is a picture of the chimney and the attic......

Attic

Little wonder that we had some problems. See the orange extension cord running down the right side of the chimney......

The Chimney Support Was On The 2nd Floor

Thursday, November 14, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 14, 1963 

Thursday, cloudy, windy, snow flurries.  Mountains white with snow.  Girls and I went to prayer meeting at Evelyn's.  I did the ironing and some sewing.  Wrote to Dougie.

Comment: Routine day, but, this was the day of John F Kennedy's last press conference where he talks about bringing 1000 troops home by the end of the year. Take a look.

https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-press-conferences/news-conference-64

Napalm In Vietnam

Wednesday November 13, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 13, 1963

Wednesday, 30 to 35.  Clearing partly in pm. Light snow a few times.  I did some sewing.  Wayne went to Dentist in pm.

Comment: Winter coming on. Here is Wayne as he looked in 1965 at my wedding...

Tuesday, November 12, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 12, 1963

Tuesday, 35 high, light snow in am, becoming mostly fair in pm, cold.  I washed and hung white clothes out and rest inside.  Did mending in pm.  Wrote to Marilyn and sent her $100.00 for rent, lights, etc.  Doug left Virginia for the Mediterranean. on USS Denebola, to return on Dec. 23.  Clifton went to a union meeting with Bob Loux.

Comment: They are getting ready for a trip to see Marilyn....

Monday Veteran's Day, November 11, 1963, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 11, 1963

Monday, Veterans Day, rainy in am, some sunshine in pm.  Kids home from school.  I finished Sue's white dress and made Carol's.

Comment: No veterans in my Dad's immediate family, Merel, Earl, and Dad all got farm deferments from WWII. All the boys except Wayne in the next generation were in the service as was my sister Marilyn but we all escaped combat. I and Laverne were in the Army, David was in the Army National Guard, Doug was in the Navy, and Marilyn was in the Marines. While all veterans will be aggrandized and the military glorified on this fitting remembrance day, it is well to keep in mind that there were and still are completely despicable members of the military hierarchy that are a major part of our military history as well. An excellent example is from WWI: November 11, 1918. 

"The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M, yet in the final hours, they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered–more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion"....from the book,  "Eleventh Month, Eleven Day, Eleventh Hour"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XU4TCM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

A more recent example is the Pat Tillman debacle where his death by friendly fire was covered up by nine officers, including four generals, to cover their asses and was also cynically used as a recruiting tool by the military hierarchy.  

Keeping in mind the complete bastards in our military history enhances the honor of all of those who did serve selflessly and courageously in our nation's service, many times in spite of their leadership....

Sunday, November 10, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 10, 1963

Sunday, 40's, partly sunny.  LaVerne's, Grandpa, Louise and Doug here for dinner.  Doug fixed to leave 2:30pm.  Gerald at Mary Ann's and they went out to dinner.  Mother called, they were at Billie's.  Girls and I went to Church at night.

Comment: Lots of family contact, (dinner is the noon meal), Doug heading for the Med..Here is a picture of me and Mary Ann about that time sitting on the front porch of her house at 25 Division Street in Gloversville.....

Saturday, November 9, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 9, 1963
Saturday, 40's, cloudy, rainy.  I washed for Doug and Gerald and baked in the am.  Clifton and Doug went to work at 7 am.  Marilyn called 1:15 pm and told us she had a house for us.

Comment:  They must be getting ready to visit Marilyn in California...I bring my laundry home from the travel trailer I'm living in in Albany...she may mean David went to work with Dad because Wayne  picked Doug up at 1am in Albany, not likely he was going to work at 7am.....Here is a picture of Marilyn and Marna probably a few years earlier than this post......for the adventures of Me And Marna go to this link and learn how Marna and I survived being thrown out of a car at about sixty miles an hour in 1958....
http://hubbardfamilymusic.blogspot.com/2011/05/me-and-marna-talking-blues-my-own.html

Thursday, Friday, November 7,8, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

November 7, 1993 
Thursday 50 cloudy rained all day.  Lavilla went to dentist with me had front tooth filled.  Clifton, David didn't work.  Sue and I went to prayer meeting at night.  Earl had operation on his foot.


November 8, 1963
Friday 48 rained all day.  I washed and hung the clothes in the attic.  Cut out Sue's olive green dress and got it partly done.  Grandpa stopped in pm and told that Earl had operation on his foot.  Wayne met Doug in Albany at 1 am.  Clifton and David didn't work but home late.

Comment:  Doug home for the weekend before he ships out. Must have caught a train out of Virginia to Albany.  Rainy, fall days, kinda chilly, the mountains must be all grey and mist covered, probably not that pleasant but still starkly beautiful....sounds like David and Dad may have had a couple of beers together somewhere....

Frances Hubbard Memories Of Hubbard Hill Segment 2

https://gerryhubbard.tumblr.com/post/2601965124/segment-2-frances-marietta-hubbard-interview-2002

Clifton, David John, Frances, Wayne On Her Lap, Douglas about 1947

Segment 2
After you got out of high school, what did you do?
Well, we got married before too long!
How did you meet dad?
At a restaurant, at a dance in Livingstonville
What kind of a dance?
A square dance at Hasses—Hasses had a boarding house right there and they’d take boarders and some and of course have dances, and of course
my folks went to it, and of course, I had to trail along.
What did you think of him when you first saw him?
Well, I don’t know, he was alright.  I liked him, yeah,
Do you remember the first time he asked you to dance?
I don’t remember.
How did you get introduced?
I don’t rermember
Did he have a car at the time?
Oh yeah. 
How old was he, then?
Well, he was 5 yrs older than I was.  I was 16, he must have been 21.
What did he do? Do you remember what he was doing? Working?
I guess he had trucks then, dump trucks.
Even back then?
Yeah.
Was that the old stone fort where they had the dances?
No, it was right in the village.  You know where the hotel was right on this side, they were over on this side.
So you met dad at a dance in Livingstonville.  How old were you then? You were 16.  So that must have been 1929.  So how long did you go with him?
Well, we got married in 1932.
So you went with him for like three years…
Where did you live?
Where did I live, before I got married?  Well, I lived with Mother Norm, cause they lived right there in Livingstonville… in quite a big house.
Where did you get married?
Oak hill.  Not the Oak Hill Albany way but the Oak Hill Greenville Way.
What do you remember about your marriage?
Well, we  just one evening, we could get the license right across the street, and We went and got it and went down and got married.
Did you have anybody at the wedding?
Yeah, we had to have two witnesses
Do you remember who it was?  Who were they?
Neighbors.
So where did you live after that?
Well, We didn’t live anyplace.  See, we was married the 21st of December
and stayed at mother norms or up to his folks til the spring, and then we rented that nice little house in Gilboa, you know, what its a post  office now, they’ve fixed that all up, Betty’s boys have got it and their fixing it all up.  and so we lived there for five and a half years, until you were born, til just before you were born.
Renting it?
Renting it, it was paid 15 dollars a month.
To who? Buels?
Yep.
So Laverne was born in 1934, Marilyn was born in 1936 and I was born in 1938.
So you lived there from 1932-1938 roughly.  And then what did you do?
Well, then we got on the farm, we bought that, with your grandfather.
And how much did you pay for that?
800$ after awhile.  Hundreds of acres.  And like I said, he’d just give the money back to us.
Did you go up there before you bought the property?
Well, We’d been there to see his grandmother, see his grandmother lived there, Anna Christiana hubbard lived there til she died.
So what was the house like when you first moved in!
Sieve… 
What does that mean?
You could see right through the siding in places.
Was it as big as it is now?
Yeah, well, no, we built on the dining room, and the bedroom we made bigger.
And where the bedroom is there was a little tiny pantry, so we made them bigger, a little bigger.
When did you do that, do you know?
I guess before we moved in.
What was it like around there, at that time, 1938
Well,  you didn’t see anyone go by.  You know, the school bus, the mailman, Otis and Myrty Hall,  and the milkman.  That’s about all you’d see go by.  Hardly ever see anybody else go by.
So it was a dirt road?
Yeah.
And, you didn’t have any power did you?
We did not have any power til 42.
We had kerosene lamps and washing machine with, See, when we lived at gilboa I had a nice washing machine, electric washing machine, a Maytag, a good one and Lita DeWit had a power one, you know, a Maytag and So we kinda swapped washing machines, of course
She got the better bargain, mine was well kept and her’s wasn't 
So when you say power what’s that mean?
Electricity.
That’s what you had in Gilboa.
Oh yeah, we had everything in Gilboa.  That was a nice sorta place. 
So how did you do your washing up on the hill?
Well, with that power washer.
And how’d you do it? What was it, gasoline?
Yes.
Gasoline engine on it.  Hmm.
So, when did you first start having cows, and how did you get them, do you remember?
Well, I think we had cows when we first moved up there.  Laverne could tell you a lot of these things better than I could .  I’m sure he could. I think we had cows, we used to get cows, oh a guy up towards Stanford who dealt with that, you know, sold cows
Was it welch?
No
And then we got cows from somewhere else, that was welch and I don’t know.

Wednesday, November 6, 1963 The Frances Hubbard diaries

November 6, 1963
Wednesday, cloudy and warm, some rain.  I wrote to Doug and Marilyn, did the ironing. LaVerne and Roberta up in the evening.  Doug called and said he was on ship and would be home over the weekend then Tues 12 to the Mediterranean back on the 23 etc.
Comment:  Doug getting ready to ship out...he was on the USS Denebola AF56,  It was built in Portland, OR, and was a refrigerated provisions stores ship  The ship is named for a star, as are other ships of this type.  Denebola is a second magnitude star in the constellation of Leo the Lion.  In fact, the name "Denebola" comes from the Arabic for "Tail of the Lion."   

Tuesday, November 5, 1963 The Frances Hubbard diaries

November 5, 1963
Tuesday 40 - 50 cloudy.  I put plastic in 2 dining room windows and cut out blue dress and made it.  Carol, Clifton and I went to vote then down to LaVerne and Roberta's a few minutes.  Sue went home with Diana Cornell.
Comment:  Election Day.  Our family always voted mostly Democratic in a sea of surrounding Republicans except for the Democratic machine in Albany. 
Dan O'Connell 's Irish democrats dominated the Albany and New York City areas from about 1920 to 1977 and helped Truman beat Dewey in 1948 in a very close election.  Major newspapers published articles of Truman's defeat that were proved erroneous after later returns from Albany and New York came in.   Here is an article about Gilboa Democrats written by brother LaVerne and he writes of Dad's tied election in 1947.  I clearly remember that incident.....

"Gilboa Democrats (1930s–1950s)

There were three polling places in the town of Gilboa during 1930s and ’40s:

• The one-room schoolhouse near Route 23 in South Gilboa
• The town hall on old 
  Stryker Road (where our family voted)
• The Jackson law office in Mackey on Mace Road

The school in South Gilboa is still there—the Forks-in-the-Road schoolhouse. The town hall (and its next-door neighbor, the United Methodist Church) were moved out of the flood plain up Route 990V: the town hall is the home of the Gilboa Historical Society’s museum, and the church again serves the parishioners from the top of that hill. The law office was also moved, and is now on display at the Old Stone Fort complex in Schoharie.

Party politics in the town of Gilboa has remained much the same over 

many decades, with only a few Democrats winning office, most as a result of 

the Democratic sweep of 1933: Democrats Elmer Hubbard, Supervisor; Sidney Keyser, Justice; Emmet Becker, Assessor; and Maurice Hager, Collector all won. 

The next Democrat to win was in 1943 when Clifton Hubbard won the office of Superintendent of Highways, defeating the incumbent superintendent 

Louis Kingsley. Hubbard won again in 1945.

But in 1947, Emmett Souer (brother of Jesse Hamilton, a member of the State Republican Committee) was nominated to run on the Republican ticket. The result was a tie, with each candidate receiving 257 votes. This was resolved with the compromise that Hubbard would continue for the first year of the two-year term, when Souer would be named Highway Superintendent for the second.

After this election, I believe the only other Democrat to be elected in Gilboa 

was James Lafferty to the position of town justice in 1956."  By Clifton LaVerne Hubbard, Gilboa Historical Society, Fall 2011