Friday, October 31, 1964

Saturday, sunny, 50's.  John Law came in am and had coffee with us.  Clifton and boys put ceiling up in wood house.  Sue and I finished picking up nuts.
Comment: John Law was a candidate for office and came by "electioneering" and although I do not recall this particular visit, I do remember other candidates coming around and also Dad "electioneering" for Gilboa Highway Superintendent. Electioneering usually meant visits to homes throughout the area and the candidates always brought all kinds of candy for the kids in the house. I remember the boxes of candy my Dad bought for the purpose and that was just about the only times I remember having lots of candy around the house. I went to school with Johnny Law's children: Patty who was one year ahead and Billy who was one year behind me in school. I just had contact with Billy through Facebook.....

Sue and Mom were probably picking up "butternuts" from the large tree just at the bottom of the hill. Underneath the greasy fibrous husk was a very rough and tough shell that to crack with out destroying the "meat" inside, had to be hit with a hammer on one end....

Friday, October 30, 1964, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 30, 1964
Friday, fair and warm, 60's.  I washed in morning early then helped Clifton put insulation in wood house.  Girls didn't go to Halloween party at the parsonage.
Comment: Wonder why girls did not go to party?? Here is what Socrates Hubbard wrote about harvesting in October about a hundred years prior. He lived around Scott's patent with a view to Livingstonville: 

"In October as soon as the corne was ripe it was cut and put into stoots this was a job I rather liked, and then soon after the first of November it was drawn to the barn and set up on the Barn floore put into the stables etc. Then came the fun of husking. By this time the weather began to get cold so that in the morning especialy we were glad to sit in sun the large east doors of the barn were opened and rite in front of them we began our work throwing the golden ears into a basket until full then empty into the wagon. I generaly colected quite a veriaty of spoted red black, blew & diffirant collared corn ears. Flax was an other article we generaly raised. an half achor was about the extent. This however took a good deel of labor. Flax has to be pulled this is don by swinging the left hand around the flax as much of it as can be easily pulled at once the rich [right] is then used taking hold below the left. The handfull is spred on the ground and so in the seeds always the same way. It is shortly gethered up into bundels and set five or six in a place until the seed will thrash easily. The thrashing is don on the barn floor with frales. This thrashing was generaly don some rany day when we could not work out. I can now see the cold damp day Father Paul and myself working with the flax my part of the work was playing with the beautifull seed as it sliped from the faning mill. The stems or stalks were taken to the meddow and spred in rows left for a month or more to rot, then bound into larg bundels and placed in the barn for winter treatment. I never liked to dig potatos to tutch them sends a shudder through me and a particular smell of the vines was very disagreeable to me. my business was picking up. The Potatos were put into a large bin in an outdoor seller nearly all the farmers had such sellers on account of the extreeme difficulty of preventing the cellirs under the house from freezing. This sellar was dug into the side of a bank neer the house, was probibley ten by fourteen walls on the sides and timber overhead. An outer and iner door and ry straw in large bundles put betwen. Of cours the sellar was perfacly dark. Gethering Apples Was a holliday. The orcherd was a large one everybody had Apples so we never sold an apple. What was not put into the seller and mad into cider went to the hogs and cows. Hundreds of bushels were fed in this way. Those designed for winter use were carfully picked and carried basket after basket to the bin. More than a hundred bushells were thus stowed away. Those intended for cider were haIled generaly two milds to Chancy Hulberts who had a cider mill. The mill was a primative afare circular trough two feete wide and thirty perhaps forty feete in circumferons. The apples wer scattered over the bottom of the trough, then a ponderous wheele six feed [feet] in diameter was rold over them by a horse hitched to a windless. This arangment crushed the apples very finely. The press was two immence wood screws, we generaly made five or six barrels of cider.Three barrels was boild into one for apple sauce. The rest put into the sellar from which we drank occasionaly during the winter and when to sower for that put into vinigar."

Take a look.....from The Life And Times Of Socrates Hubbard

With a Short Sketch of the Hubbard Family

Written by Himself

Commenced the 13th of December 1856 in Quincy, Ill.

Thursday, October 29, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 29, 1964

Thursday, cloudy very little rain, 50's.  Wayne stayed home from school and put new tires on the car.  He, Clifton and I went to Stamford to see Kelly Bros. about a heater.  I wrote to Marilyn.  We planned to go to Albany for electric wall heater but changed our minds after talking to Kelly Bros.

Comment: And exactly 35 years before in 1929, Black Tuesday descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began.

Wednesday, October 28, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 28, 1964
Wednesday partly cloudy 60's no wind.  Carol still home from school but felling better.  I ironed.
Comment: And from her oldest granddaughter another tribute:

Grandma by Marna Suzann Ford

Grandma...
On Hubbard Hill
Catskill Mountains hazy blue green
Sittin' on the porch
Smoke in the fresh air, cut grass
Scary well cover,
Uncles singing with guitars
Family talking
Cousins together
Musty smell of the house
Crooked floors, hand hewn beams
Cold root cellar, cuckoo clock
Family meal always with dessert

Grandma….
In the kitchen
Making fresh fruit cobblers
Pies in ten minutes
Busily planning the next meal
Working in the garden
Sweet corn, cucumbers and tomatoes
Laughing with the grand kids
Religiously attending Flat Creek Baptist
White steeple with hymns leaking out
Dry preachers, friendly people

Grandma….
Brushing out her long hair at night
Wearing short dresses with skinny legs
Farmer's wife, married 53 years
Hardworking
Her children born at home
Sending $2 for every birthday
Making my wedding dress

Grandma…..
Traditional woman's role
Center of family in Gilboa
Strong Christian Warrior
Quoting God's word
Passing on her Christian Legacy
Through generations
To her daughter
To me

Tuesday, October 27, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 27, 1964
Tuesday, beautiful day, 60's.  Clifton, Carol and I went to Cobleskill for unemployment and groceries.  We ate at Brooks.  Clifton went to union meeting at night.  LaVerne and Roberta came up and brought me a Teflon frying pan for my birthday.
Comment: This would have been Mom's fifty first birthday, all of her children and many of her grandchildren are either approaching or have surpassed this age....

"How did it get late so soon?" Dr Seuss...

Susan's Memories Of Her Mother

The Life of Frances Marietta Barber Hubbard, as seen through the eyes of her youngest daughter, Susan Frances Hubbard (Reynolds) Ciacci – June, 2005. 

Frances Marietta Barber Hubbard, born at home in the Pine Grove area of Huntersland - on October 27, 1913, the Town of Middleburgh, Schoharie County, New York, died in the hospital at Banning, California, on Wednesday, June 1, 2005. 

Frances grew up as an only child until her mid 20’s. Her Uncle Maynard Laraway, her mother’s brother, called her “fluffy” because her hair was just that, fluffy. 

Her childhood was somewhat privileged, as her father who was an only child himself inherited the family farm, which was prosperous for the times and the area. 

Frances attended and had birthday parties, and spent lots of time with her cousins, Emma and Marion. Summer weekends were spent with her parents, aunts and uncles and family friends at Crystal Lake, picnicking. 

She attended school in Middleburgh, where she would spend her weekdays with her “Grandma Barber” (her father’s mother), whom she loved and whom she described as having everything “just so”, right down to her starched dresses and collars. She was not the academic student that her cousin Emma was, but she loved geography, to draw and sketch, and later in life spent many hours reading. 

Mom’s parents divorced when she was 16 – a scandal it was – her father Clarence marrying her mother Bessie’s younger sister Mildred Laraway, and her mother Bessie Claressa Laraway marrying Norman VanTassel, another farmer and friend of the family, who had once been married to Bessie’s cousin. All four persons accompanied each other to Las Vegas for the divorce and remarriage of the new couples. 

In later years, after Mom had a child or two of her own, along came a half-sister, Judith Barber, whom Mom also loved, but with whom never established a close relationship, as she had her own family to tend to. 

The Laraway sisters kept a close bind with each other despite the scandal, and with the rest of their brothers and sisters, and their friendships and relationships continued the rest of their lives. Their lives had changed, but they still were accepted by each other. 

But, for Mom, although she visited with her family back and forth as though all was well, she was wounded from the shame and embarrassment it had caused her at the tender age of 16, and I don’t believe she ever really recovered from that fully. 

Frances loved to dance and at about that time, it was at a dance in Livingstonville, New York, that she met Clifton John Hubbard, and soon they married, Clifton being 25 years old, Frances being18 years old . They moved to a little home in Gilboa, New York, which was recently the Gilboa Post Office, just across from the Gilboa Dam. 

The Hubbards said Frances brought life to the family. Indeed she did. She was the mother of 8 children, had 28 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren at the time of her death, June 1, 2005. 

Eventually she and Dad decided to move to one of the houses on the old Hubbard homestead on Hubbard Hill, the house Grandma Anna Christianna Hubbard lived in, where Anna raised her two sons, Grandpa Elmer and Uncle John. Frances and Clifton moved there when their family was still small. 

At that time the house had no running water, indoor plumbing, and no electricity. When asked how she felt about that move, Mom replied that it didn’t bother her one bit. She said she had all of the strength and courage in the world. 

Her life on Hubbard Hill was simple, yet busy and complex: Being married to Dad, and raising eight children, (all healthy and well, for which she as always so thankful, the boys running wild in the woods, “little devil-catchers” she would call them, with a hint of fun in her voice, and a spark in her eyes), was not an easy task, but was one for which she had tons of strength and which became most of her world.

Blessed with long arms that stretched out to her many children and grandchildren, and large hands to do the endless duties of a housewife and mother in the early 1900’s. 

At times carrying water from the barn in milk pails, hoeing a rock-hard garden, roaming through the fields and woods with her children, picking wild blueberries, blackberries, and wild strawberries to make cobblers and pies, and hulling those tiny field strawberries and making an old fashioned strawberry shortcake for her family. 

Her pies were plentiful and delicious, and sometimes a little unique, creating sour cream pies and sweet apple pies and current pies. In the earlier years, she would make a cake daily, to top off our supper meal she served to her large hungry bunch.

She kept a good, attractive house on meager finances, doing spring cleaning each year, wallpapering at least one room each year, and sometimes many, painting, washing, cooking and sewing for her children, dresses and skirts for the girls, embroidering dresser scarves, crocheting afghans for each child’s household, quilting blankets for grandchildren; canning vegetables, tomatoes, corn, fruits such as peaches and pears, preparing jams and jellies, relish, pickles, beet relish, homemade chili sauce, and French kraut, all stored in the cellar, some in large crocks, or in the old jelly cabinet that Grandma Anna used, and on the shelves in the cellar way. 

She was always afraid when company came, that she would not have enough food to eat, which was never the case, as she always had an excess of food for her occasional guests and family. 

In the winter she would stoke the fire, and make sure the heating cable was plugged in so the water wouldn’t freeze. 

She worked on the farm with Dad, milking cows, tending the chickens, replacing endless numbers of window panes broken by thrown baseballs and maybe a rock or two here and there, and gathering eggs. 

She would patch the house and porch with her hammer and nails, grow tall red Hollyhocks, drive fast to neighboring towns to shop, and told of the beautiful Nippon China set she once owned – it being broken as one of her children climbed up on top of the china cabinet for some candy, and tipping over the cabinet, breaking all of the contents – including her Nippon China! 

On Saturday morning she would be busy making her pies or cakes, rolls and cinnamon buns for her family to devour on the weekends, and in earlier years grabbing a chicken, chopping off it’s head, and dressing it for dinner the next day, as Sunday morning would be spent in church, Flat Creek Baptist, hearing the Word of God. 

Washing she did on Mondays, as most efficient homemakers did in those days, with an old wringer washer, loads and loads, first the whites, then colors, then darks, tee shirts and jeans hanging on the yards and yards of clothesline. Modest she was: When she hung up the underwear, she’d hang a washcloth with them to cover them up from the sight of any neighbors that might happen by. (All of two neighbors, the bus driver and the mailman!)

Truly, some days the only people she saw with the exception of her beloved children’s faces, would be the mailman – Wally Stryker, and the school bus driver, Claude Castle, who drove each one of her eight children to Gilboa Conesville Central School, where we all attended kindergarten through 12th grade. 

Burning the trash was sometimes a memorable event, as on at least two occasions, Mom “set the field up back on fire”. While burning the trash the wind picked up an ember from the burn barrel and carried it into the huge field behind the house. Brooms and shovels, and daughter Sue, among others helped beat out the fire, which one time burned acres of field, which necessitated calling the Conesville Fire Department to assist. But, by the time they arrived (15 minutes later) the fire-fighting Hubbards had it all under control! 

Mom’s religious experience as a child and teen was at the Dutch Reformed Church in Middleburgh, which, she would say in later life, “didn’t amount to anything”. As she raised her family she had a longing for something in her life and soul, and began reading “The Sword of the Lord” newspaper and attending Flat Creek Baptist Church and finally found the longing of her heart – her Lord Jesus Christ. 

Her faith grew and she became an active member at Flat Creek, teaching Sunday School, active with the ladies Missionary Meetings, Donation Suppers, and Vacation Bible School, teaming up with Lavilla Kingsley or Evelyn Bailey to teach. She was faithful at Sunday Night services and mid week Prayer Meetings as well. Her purpose on Earth was being fulfilled. 

She told us that in her younger years she could “swear up a storm”, but that all changed as her heart was touched by the transforming love shown to her by her Savior. 

She played the piano some and would accompany Carol and me as we practiced to sing at church services on Sundays, or when the rest of the family would gather around an old piano with missing ivories, and out-of-tune keys, and sing old hymns or old songs from sheet music she stumbled through at the keyboard.

I had the privilege of witnessing one Sunday Evening Church Service, when sophisticated Pastor Hiltsley giving his sermon said something about egg yolks and Mom gagged, and her close somewhat impish friend Lavilla Kingsley sitting with her in the pew, gave out a snicker, and the two Flat Creek Baptist women in their mid-fifties, got to laughing so hard, that the sophisticated preacher had to stop his sermon! 

Mom was very attractive and slender, 5’3”, small to medium framed, with long dark brown hair she pinned up on her head and striking bright blue eyes. Except for her persistent migraine headaches and undiagnosed scoliosis, she possessed good health. 

She was somewhat proud, and always conscious about her looks and her hair, and would whip up a dress or apron for herself (in earlier years from feed sack cloth) in no time. I used to call her a fabric addict. She loved going to the fabric store to buy cloth. 

When meeting others, she would seem aloof, but not because she thought herself better than others, but that she was a little unsure of herself. But, as her few select true friends got to know her, they saw the rich quality of this selfless person. 

She was embarrassed sometimes though, I believe, around the Barber side of the family of the disheveled shape the farm became during the 40’s and 50’s, and dreaded telling her mother (who had only one child) that “she was pregnant again”. 

She wasn’t one to have long labored conversations with the neighbors or anyone really, pouring out her heart. She would just say what she had to, and then get on back to work – doing something – getting something accomplished. One saying of hers, among many, was “never put off ‘til tomorrow what you can do today”. She loved to work. It defined who she was – her accomplishments.

And she told me once, “never tell anyone what you don’t want the whole world to know”. She was also discrete. 

But Mom secretly wished to be a man, (Go figure! Can you imagine that?!! With all of the demands as a wife, mother, and woman with a large family and her migraine racked head), and to be a carpenter. She loved a hammer and nails. I’m sure the nails that were driven in her Savior’s hands and feet were especially meaningful to her. 

Of all of her prayers that went up to heaven every day for her family, the most important one to her was that they would all be “saved”. She became very concerned and grieved at times over certain couples of her family, as marriages failed and divorces became final, but would always accept a new spouse as one of us. 

She “preached and harped” as my brothers would say, at her family of her convictions and the things she thought were wrong with our lives. She would have her little scripture verse, or religious saying posted on the wall next to the door, so that when members of her beloved family went by the doorway, they couldn’t help but glance at it. Right there, staring us in the face – warning, pleading, encouraging, inspiring. 

She had very few luxuries in her life compared to a lot of other women, and certainly nothing in comparison to what we have today, including leisure time. And some days her migraine headaches would rage, and leave her sick in bed for hours and recovering for days. 

But I only know of one time when she didn’t/couldn’t get out of bed in the morning when Dad did to fix him breakfast, and send him off work and start her day. 

Frances grew to hate the consumption of alcohol of any kind, by any one. She left Dad a time or two as well, as his disposition from drinking was too much to bear. 
But you know, she returned and fulfilled her commitment to her husband. 

I’m told at the beginning of their marriage they loved each other, and I have to say in the last years they found comfort with one another. But I think they had several years when their relationship was a struggle, and displays of affection toward each other are absent from my recollection growing up, but that wasn’t the custom of that day anyway. This would have been a topic never discussed back then.

Her luxuries were trips across country to California, Ohio, Niagara Falls and Florida to see her children and grandchildren; the Sundays after church, as she prepared huge, delicious meals for her family as we would all gather upon the farm with our spouses and our children, and the joy of her heart was that (with the exception of Dear Roberta) we were all well , and that we were there to spend some time with her and each other - these were her blessings. 

Mom loved each one of her grandchildren, step grandchildren, and great-grandchildren –each one being naughty, and unique. She would “baby sit” the ones near by and the bond between grandmother and grandchild was great. 

Among the multitude of things Mom taught me, she taught me to drive, and to sew. She sang nursery rhymes to me as a child when I was lonely or sad, and when I was eight years old, while tucking me into bed one night, told me that Jesus died on the cross for me, so that I could be forgiven of my sins, and someday to go Heaven to be with Him. 

She was lots of times my best friend, and some times the last person in the world I wanted to know something. 

Frances’ mother, Bessie Clarissa Laraway Barber VanTassel, whom Mom loved dearly and was devoted to, lived the remaining five or so years of her life with Mom and Dad, Mom “seeing to” her aging Mother. 

During that time Dad had a stroke and for 10 years was a partial invalid himself. 

Grandma Bessie died, Dad died, and Mom remained on the Hill ((some say the God-Forsaken Hill), but to her it wasn’t God forsaken. 

She found God there, while sitting on the porch, looking at the majestic view of the mountains and valley, watching and feeding the birds, peering out the back windows at the deer and wild turkeys, seeing the autumn colors of the woods, watching the weather move in from the West: snow storms, howling winds, pouring rain, and dark sunless days, seeing rainbows and so often a breathtaking sunset. 

It was her home – where she found consolation from her hard work, rest, comfort, sometimes loneliness, but mostly contentment and peace. She also renewed her friendship with Aunt Ella & Maude Haskin to the point where they were called the "Three Musketeers" by some of locals. 

Until she could not be alone any more, and the same courage and spirit that took her to Hubbard Hill, took her to California to live with her daughter Marilyn where she lived five more years. And the sense of contentment she learned on Hubbard Hill saw her through to the end of her life. 

She lived the last three years in a nursing home, her little body increasingly weakening, in California, far away from New York, still contented at her existence even though she became a total invalid in her last months from osteoporosis, an immensely enlarged heart, lungs laboring often with pneumonia and finally failed kidneys. 

She died on Wednesday, June 1, 2005, at age 91. 

Oh, I will never be the strong woman my mother was. I can never tell of the positive influences she had on me, her family, her neighborhood and the world. 

This world will be less of a place – Hubbard Hill will never be the same – after having women like Grandma Anna Christianna Hubbard, Grandma Agnes Haskins, and Frances Marietta Barber Hubbard walk those fields and hills, and now, having them absent from it. 

But Heaven is richer. God has another of his Chosen with Him now. 

Monday, October 26, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 26, 1964
Monday, beautiful, warm, sunny day, 60.  I did big wash.  Carol home from school sick.  Clifton called at Oneonta and they accepted loan.  He went to Schoharie in pm to get papers up to date.
Comment: Not sure what the loan is about..."but always short of money, couldn't by most things for cash

And there always were a lot more days than dollars in our stash"....The Milk Check...

Sunday, October 25, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 25, 1964
Sunday, lovely day.  Sue and I went to church.  Gerald, Mary Ann, Doug, LaVerne, Roberta, Mother and Norm here for dinner.  Took Carol to Dr. Palen 4 pm.  he couldn't find anything wrong.  Sue went to church at night.  Wayne and Laura took her down.  Heard Mr and Mrs. Seabury had been killed in Utah Saturday night.

Comment:  The family gathered because Mom's birthday is on the 27th....vaguely remember the car accident that killed the Seaburys....went away on a trip and never came back....here is a picture of Frances in 1954, to her left Aunt Madeline, to her right Winifred...the half a kid is Rudy Earl Blaksley, Winifred's oldest.....

Saturday, October 24, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 24, 1964
Saturday, cloudy, cool.  Carol still not feeling well.  Wayne and Clifton cut a load of wood in the am.  The girls, Clifton and I went to Prattsville in pm after a few groceries.  Boys went out at night.  Gerald stayed at Mary Ann's.  My stomach some better.

Comment:  Busy weekend.......the wood cutting never ends.....from Hubbard Hill Memories:

In the winter it was cold as hell and every week the boys as well
As Dad would go to cut some firewood
With that old Farmall and Mall chainsaw
We'd find a tree and make a fall 
And cut it up as quickly as we could
Cause the winter wind and chill was bearing down
As we struggled in that cold and muddy ground
Then we loaded up a  half a cord and shivered while the tractor roared and took us tired half-frozen homeward bound.....

Friday, October 23, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 23, 1964
Friday, cool, snowy.  I washed and hung clothes in attic.  Nurse from school called for us to come and get Carol because of pain in her side.  Doug called 8:45 pm. Wayne and Laura were here and they went after him.  Gerald came home for supper.

Comment:  Doug on leave and I home for a  home cooked meal...you can go home again......here is a view from the tower looking west....

Thursday, October 22, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 22, 1964
Thursday, cloudy and warmer.  I did some ironing and helped Clifton put
tar paper on the back of the house.  Wrote to Marilyn.  Stomach still bothering me.
Comment: Trying to keep the old house warm from the winter winds....lots of memories of winter mornings in that old house, click on the link below to take a
listen....Winter Mornings On Hubbard Hill

Wednesday, October 21, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 21, 1964
Wednesday, cool. I washed and didn't do much.  Had pains in my stomach and side.

Comment: Mom still sick...homestead from the "cross road"......

Tuesday, October 20, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 20, 1964
Tuesday, cold and windy.  I still didn't feel good.  Cold some better.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill in pm.  Wrote to Dougie.

Comment: Sounds like a dreary day on the hill.....

Monday, October 19, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 19, 1964
Monday, cloudy and much cooler, 40's.  I had a dreadful cold in my head.  Wrote to Dougie, called Billie to see how Ella Mae was. They went down Thursday and she was better.  I didn't do much all day.

Comment: Mom sick, probably a tough day....here she is in better days as a baby.....

Sunday, October 18, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 18, 1964
Sunday, beautiful day, 70's.  Clifton, girls and I went to church in am.  Lorraine, Howard and Earl here for dinner.  Rudy and Clifford's came in pm and here for supper.  Girls and I went to church at night.

Front Row:  Earl, Agnes, Elmer Merel
Back Row:  Ina Bell, Madeline, Winifred, Clifton, Lorraine, Evelyn

Comment:  Mom sure feeding a lot of people....Elmer's children gathering.....here is the whole clan when younger......as I look at the picture I'm struck by how old Agnes looks in comparison with Elmer and the others.....

Saturday, October 17, 1964 The frances Hubbard Diaries

October 17, 1964
Saturday, cloudy, rained a little toward night.  Girls and I went to Grand Gorge in am to wash and shop.  Clifton and Wayne got water running.  I baked in pm.  Girls and I went to church at night.

Comment:  Water back, finally..still they had to go to Grand Gorge to do the washing.....the well is just in front of the tractor in this old pic....

Friday, October 16, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 16, 1964
Friday, beautiful day, 80.  I cleaned house, washed windows, did mending cleaned up outside, cut flower stalks etc.  Clifton got home about 5 pm.  Girls and I went to church and heard Jewish speaker.  Lorraine called in am.  Clifton finished work at Eagle Bay.
Comment:  Sounds like she got a lot done, no mention of the water.  Seems like a lot of social contact with family and friends calling and visiting almost every day.  I don't seem to remember that amount of contact......and on this day 50 years ago:  AP Highlight in History:  On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.  Here he is meeting with his advisors....I remember the time and recall I had a deep sense of foreboding that did not, however, seem to intrude too much on my daily activities.....

Thursday, October 15, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 15, 1964
Thursday, beautiful day, 75.  I ironed nearly all day.  Helped Wayne with water at night.  Changed pump to spring lot, still didn't get it running.  David went out.  We didn't go to prayer meeting.  Brakes went on Opel.  Clifton called at night and Louise too.

Comment: Uh oh, sounds like the Opel is on it's last legs..was a great car. Louise probably lonely with Elmer gone. Dad up north on a construction job keeping in touch..still no water.......

Wednesday, October 14, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 14, 1964
Wednesday, beautiful clear day, 60.  I cleaned house all day.  Louvilla spent the day with me.  Laura Koerner was here at night.  Wayne couldn't get water running.

Comment: Still no water, been about 4 days now.....view from the house to the west.....

Tuesday, October 13, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 13, 1964
Tuesday,cloudy, no wind, 40's, but warm, very little rain in pm.  Wayne stayed home from school to work on the water but didn't get it running.  Cleaned wood house and had a big rubbish fire and potted plants.  Clifton called at night and said it was raining hard up there.  I wrote to Marilyn.  Wayne got 2 front tires on David's car.  David drove Opel to work.

Comment: Still no water and life goes on. Wayne very active in getting things done...here he is in his prime youth...pretty cool looking guy.....

Monday, October 12, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 12, 1964
Monday, beautiful warm day, 60's.  Roberta went to Grand Gorge with girls and me to wash in am.  We stayed at Roberta's for lunch.  Clara and Mary were there too.  Wayne worked on water.  Buzzy and Randy were here and helped him.  Didn't get it running but drew from the opening and dumped in well.  Clifton called at noon and Roberta at night about water.  Had letter from Marilyn.
Comment: Water supply problems consuming everyone....major lifestyle upset without water....Buzzy is Buzzy Scutt and I think Randy is Randy Blaksley but not sure...

Sunday, October 11, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 11, 1964

Sunday, chilly, girls and I went to church and Sunday School.  LaVerne and Roberta here for dinner. Clifton worked on water nearly all day.  He moved pump to front of hill but it  didn't pump up here good.  Sue went to Westerlo with Mayos at night. We didn't have church at night.

Comment:  It's was always something....seems like we were always struggling with the water supply....but we had it better than these folks.....Wilder TN in 1942....the only water  supply....

Saturday, October 10, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 10, 1964
Saturday, cold, cloudy, snow flurries. Clifton worked on water and got it running and Wayne cut a load of wood in am.  Doug and David went to Grand Gorge.  Carol baby sat with Mayo children.  Sue and I went to Evelyn's after eggs in pm.  Earl was here for supper.

Comment: Winter on the way...frost on the mountains around Richmondville....

Friday, October 9, 1964 The Frances Hubbard diaries

October 9, 1964
Friday, beautiful day, warm, 60's.  Louvilla went with me to Grand Gorge in the am and we did washing and shopping and ate lunch at the diner.  I put plastic on the back windows and tar papered around bedroom in afternoon.  Boys went out at night and picked Doug up in Kingston at 10 pm.  Clifton came home around 12:30.

Comment:  Getting ready for winter and Mom is trying to prevent the drafts from the pretty much constant winter wind.  Family gathering for the weekend.....looking north toward the tower.....

Thursday, October 8, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 8, 1964
Thursday, 28-50, cold in am, but becoming warmer, clear.  I finished Sue's dress for school and cut Carol out a skirt.  Went to Mrs. Mayo's to Missionary Meeting in afternoon, had donations.  Went to prayer meeting at Mayo's as night.

Comment: Back into the Church "groove"......

Wednesday, October 7, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 7, 1964

Wednesday 25-48 clear and coo,l I finished ironing.  Started a red dress for Sue.  LaVerne and Roberta came in evening and Clifton came home.
Comment:  Not much going on......

Tuesday, October 6, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 6, 1964
Tuesday, fair and clear but cold, 25 - 50.  Hard frost.  I ironed and did mending and cleaned the house.  Clifton called at noon.  Lorraine called in pm.  Boys set up other pump outside.

Comment: Water problems again, seemed to be a constant problem.....this is Wayne helping me fix my bike and the well is to the right middle, hand-dug and not too reliable. In the background is our old Allis Chalmers C Tractor that we had for a very long time.....

Monday, October 5, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 5, 1964
Monday, 40's, cool and cloudy, some wind.  I washed, received a lovely picture of the last supper from Dougie.  Wayne worked on Opel.  Carol went to Coxsackie with Kingsley's.  No school, very cool at night.

Comment: Must have given the Opel to Wayne. Not sure what happened to it...Carol in high school.....

Sunday, October 4, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 4, 1964
Sunday, fair and cool, 50's.  Girls and I went to church and Sunday school.  Boys went out and we went for ride to Carlisle, Cooperstown, Oneonta and home.  Earl went with us.  Girls and I went to church at night.  Gerald was home and had to leave for a wedding at 12:30.  Strike ended and Clifton was called to come to work Monday.  He left at 3 pm.

Comment: I think the wedding was of one of Mary Ann's friends in Gloversville. I was born in Carlisle in a farmhouse inhabited by Grandma Bessie & Norm, the last kid to be born outside a hospital. Here is Uncle Earl and Lillian when they married.....he would die about 4 years later in 1968.....from an untreated heart attack...

Saturday, October 3, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

October 3, 1964
Saturday, fair and windy, 50's and 60's.  Home all day, did some baking.  Girls and I went to Church to business meeting at night.  Girls went to Stamford with the boys in pm.  David bought some clothes.  Gerald came home at night.  Dad worked on back door of the wood house.  Boys cut wood.

Comment:  Busy Saturday....getting ready for winter.....me with my '54 Opel in that era, bought that car for $87.50 and drove it about three years...best car in snow I ever had until now and my 4WD Outback.....notice the white socks, am I cool or what......

Friday, October 2, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 2, 1964
Friday, cloudy and little rain toward night.  I washed and Clifton and I went to Cobleskill shopping and ate dinner at Mother's.  Planned to go to Jersey but called Ella Mae and she was sick so we didn't go.

October in The Catskills

Comment: Mom and Dad always had a very close relationship with Ella Mae...not sure why.....October in The Catskills

Thursday, October 1, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 1, 1964
Thursday, nice day, 50's.  I put tomatoes in freezer.  Cut Sue out a white blouse.  Clifton came home at 1 pm.  Engineers on strike.  Sue and I went to prayer meeting at night.
Comment: On this day in 1908, the year my father was born, the Ford Model T was introduced to the public, and was the first car that was affordable and reliable for the ordinary citizen of the United States. Known as the "Tin Lizzie," . The Tin Lizzie was the first car built using mass production methods and when first introduced cost $850 seating two people, and by the time it was discontinued in 1927, nearly 15,000,000 Model T's had been sold. In the late forties, LaVerne and I and Franklin Brown hauled scrap iron with a 1919 Model TT truck....and here are my memories of it....talking blues style