Thursday, December 31, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 31, 1964
Thursday, old snow nearly gone, very little now.  Cloudy and cold, 25, windy with light snow.  We cleaned house all through.  I ironed, Laura here for supper and David worked all day.  New Years Eve...I'll be glad when the miserable thing is over again.  

End of 1964: A message on the back inside hardcover of the diary reads:

We fume and spout
We mumble and grumble
Our feelings get hurt
We can't understand things
Our vision grows dim
When all the we need is a moment with Him!

New Years Eve In The Catskills....7am....

Comment: Mom not too happy with the carousing....last year, she did not even mention New Years Eve. They were visiting Marilyn in California and she probably did not have to face all the drinking and partying.....

Wednesday, December 30, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 30, 1964
Wednesday, snow nearly gone, warmer, 40's, still cloudy and overcast.  Gerald had a call from Ford Motors to see them Jan. 20th.  I didn't feel good.  Did ironing.  Sue and I went to prayer meeting at church.  David went to work at 6 but didn't work, came home 12.

Ford Logo In The Sixties

Comment: I was working toward a BS in Business Education from SUNY@Albany and interviewing for high school teaching jobs for after my January graduation. In December, my Dad brought to me an ad in Time magazine about Ford's College Graduate Training Program. The ad had a clip out coupon for name, address and phone number. I was not interested but he convinced me to send in the coupon resulting in a job interview with Ford on January 20...and that's was the extent of my job search outside the education area.....and the start of a quite lucky business career......

Tuesday, December 29, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 29, 1964
Tuesday, cloudy and some fog, overcast 20's.  Clifton, girls and I went to Mothers for dinner and shopping, got Carol a sweater.  Laura here at night.  David went to work at 6 pm.

Comment: Yesterday's cards from Anita and Veda were from friends my folks met in California visiting Marilyn. From Marilyn's oldest daughter Marna Ford: "Hi Uncle Gerry, Veda is Anita Berghouses' mother. In about 1963 or 1964, Veda and her husband purchased an expensive color TV. Our family went to their house and we watched "The Wizard or Oz" on their TV. It was soooo exciting when Dorothy got to Oz and everything turned into color. I was six or seven then. "The Wizard of Oz" has always been one of my favorite movies.

I always enjoy your work on this blog and appreciate your work documenting that time. Happy New Year!"

Monday, December 28, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 28, 1964
Monday, cloudy 22, no wind, 4-5 inches of snow and ice on trees.  David went to work.  Gerald, Wayne and Clifton went to Central Bridge after Gerald's new car, home about 4:30.  Clifton home late.  Read Christmas cards from Anita and Veda.

Comment: Finally got a car again....not sure who Veda is....

Sunday, December 27, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 27, 1964
Sunday, 30, cloudy and rain freezing on trees and turning to sleet and snow at night.  Clifton, girls and I went to church and Sunday school home in pm.  Went to Chapel Christmas program at night.

Comment: The Chapel Church was on Mace Road in Broome Center and we often went there for Christmas and other programs. Dad seemed to like the church and often instigated a visit. I can't remember the preacher's name but do remember his portly and bombastic manner....here is a picture of the cemetery there.....

Saturday, December 26. 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 26. 1964
Saturday, warm, 57 high, cloudy, rain.  I didn't feel good, didn't do much.  Gerald bought a car. Salesman was here 9:30 am with a Falcon.  LaVerne took Gerald and David to Troy after Simca to tow back to Central Bridge.  LaVerne was here at night.
Comment: I finally remember the car problems with the Simca that I had driven for about two years...it broke down and I traded it in on another car in Troy when my Dad had another sales guy from Central Bridge bring the Falcon around and it was such a good deal that I changed my mind about the car in Troy...much to the pissed off chagrin of the Troy car salesman. He was hollering and yelling all sorts of stuff as LaVerne, David and I hooked the Simca up to a tow bar and towed it back to Central Bridge to trade in on the Falcon...good decision, that Falcon ran very well for several years....

Friday, December 25, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 25, 1964
Friday, cloudy and raining, warm, 62.  We went to Mother's for Christmas.  Gerald and Mary Ann too. LaVerne and Roberta and John came at night and we had our gifts.  David had to work.  Marilyn called at noon, so glad to talk to her.

Christmas At Grandma's 1939 or so..
baby Gerald, Marilyn and LaVerne

Comment: A balmy Christmas in Richmondville at Grandma Bessie's.....I'm sure the meal was wonderful.....

Thursday, December 24, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 24, 1964
Thursday, cloudy and warm, 45.  I washed and hung pulley line full and it broke, had to wash them over.  Gerald and Wayne went car shopping, no luck.  David was home supposed to take test for license but couldn't get truck.  Had letter from Marilyn.

Christmas Eve in the Catskill's by Del.Higgins

Comment: Wow, lot's of bad luck on Christmas ever.....

Wednesday, December 23, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 23, 1964
Wednesday, mostly cloudy, warm, 40's.  Gerald and David went car shopping.  David went to work at 5 am and came home at 8:30 am.  Clifton and Wayne cut wood.  Roberta and her Mom went shopping and left John here.  Myrtie and Otis stopped to see him.  Girls and I went to prayer meeting at church and helped clean it.
Comment:  Very warm for the season, probably no white Christmas....

Tuesday, December 22, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 22, 1964
Tuesday, mostly sunny, 30's.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill early in am.  Came home, went to Frank Leroy's funeral at 1 pm at Grand Gorge.  Clifton was a bearer.  Took milk to Louvilla's for Christmas carolers at night.  Laura here for supper, she and Wayne went after Gerald.  We went to LaVerne and Roberta's with David, Laura and Wayne and Gerald came down.

Comment:  Although I don't remember it, I must be without a car...wonder if it's the first time I saw John L.......

Monday, December 21, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 21, 1964
Monday, cloudy in am, becoming sunny and warmer, 35 high.  I washed and wrote to Marilyn.

Winter Solstice

Comment: Winter solstice, not much going on....

Sunday, December 20, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 20, 1964
Sunday, snow in am and overnight, 20's, about 2 in.  We went to church and Sunday School and program at church at night.  David worked and took Doug to Kingston and Gerald to Albany at night.  Laura was here in evening.

By Charles Herbert Moore
Winter Landscape, Valley of The Catskills

Comment: David providing great taxi service....

Saturday, December 19, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 19, 1964
Saturday, cloudy.  Doug and Wayne got tree and put it up.  They, Carol and Laura went to Albany and brought Gerald home.  LaVerne and Roberta and Johnny here for supper and we had our Christmas after.

Comment: Must be having Christmas early because Doug is home from the Navy....not sure why they had to pick me up, my car must be broke down or something, don't remember......Doug and Wayne would have gone into the woods to cut a tree......

Friday, December 18, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 18, 1964
Friday, cold and snow and windy.  Clifton, Madelyn and I went to Oneonta Christmas shopping.  Met Mrs. Mayo and Marion at book store, home at 5:20 pm.  David and Robert went to Kingston after Doug back at 8:30 pm.  Frank Leroy was killed when he fell off tractor.

Comment: Frank was a neighbor whose farm and lights we could see from our front porch and was one of the 500 or so farmers per year who get killed using a tractor.....If I remember correctly the Leroys always used Case tractors......I think he fell off and was ran over by the tractor or the equipment it was pulling....

Thursday, December 17, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diairies

December 17, 1964
Thursday, cloudy, 35 all day.  Cleaned wood house and put up decorations.  Worked on girl's dresses and made an apron.  Went to prayer meeting at church, trimmed tree and packed candy.

Comment: Beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

Wednesday, December 16, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 16, 1964
Wednesday, mostly sunny, warmer, 30.  Clifton cut wood, I got costumes ready for program and sewed on girl's dresses.  Sent more cards.  Went to church to practice 4:30.  Liz came home with the girls.  Took Clappers home after practice.  Went down to LaVerne's at night.

Comment: A busy Wednesday.....

Tuesday, December 15, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 15, 1964
Tuesday, 10-17, windy, cold and cloudy with light snow flurries.  David started work at Hunter Ski center.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill shopping.  I washed in am and took salad to parsonage.  Girls and I went to shower for Roberta at Celia Stryker's.
Comment: Baby shower for John L......from Wikipedia:

Hunter Mountain, Twilight (1866) by Hudson River school
 artist Sanford Robinson Gifford, showing lands
where timber resources had been harvested.

Hunter Mountain is in the towns of Hunter and Lexington, just south of the village of Hunter, in Greene County, New York, USA. At approximately 4,040 feet (1,231 m) in elevation, it is the highest peak in the county and the second-highest peak in the Catskill Mountains.

While the mountain is closely associated with the highly popular eponymous ski area built around the Colonel's Chair ridge at the mountain's northwest corner, that takes up only a small portion of the mountain. The actual summit, some distance from the ski area, is graced with a fire lookout tower, the highest in the state and second-highest in the Northeast. The former road to it is open to hikers, horses (and possibly mountain bikers in the future). It is the most popular route to the mountain's summit.

Monday, December 14, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 14, 1964
Monday, partly cloudy, windy, cooler, 20's.  I sewed on girl's dresses all day.  Mailed some Christmas cards to California.  Went to church at night to tape music for program.

Comment: And another week starts with Christmas preparations....saw this picture of Vrooman's Nose and it reminded me of how that area looks in the winter....

In searching for this picture I ran across an article about an asteroid impact crater a few miles from Hubbard Hill in the Panther Mountain area: "The impact is 
estimated to have occurred 375 million years ago, during the Devonian period, when much of what is now the Catskills was either river delta or a shallow sea. The crater lies 2,640 feet (800 m) below the surface, is 6 miles (10 km) wide, and lies directly under the mountain. The meteorite that struck is believed to have been roughly one-half mile (1 km) wide, striking with a force equivalent to 11 trillion tons (9.9 trillion tonnes) of TNT.^{[3]  Copy and paste the following link for the Wicki article.....}

 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Panther_Mountain_(New_York)&oldid=368040836

Sunday, December 13, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 13, 1964
Sunday, warm, 50 and mostly sunny.  We went to church and to Mother's for dinner and back to church to practice at night.
Comment:  Peaceful, warm Sunday.......I remember Grandma Bessie's chicken dinners...

Saturday, December 12, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 12, 1964
Saturday, rain during the night.  Cloudy and overcast with fog becoming partly cloudy in pm.  Warm 40's and 50's snow and ice all melted.  Our pump was flooded with water.  Clifton and boys worked at that and used the back hoe to cover drain in garden.  I went to parsonage at night to meet with Mrs. Mayo and Joyce about program.  Clifton and David put bathroom heater in.

Comment:  The water problems never seem to stop...

Friday, December 11, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 11, 1964
Friday, cloudy, 30's, rain and fog toward night.  Clifton and I went to Montgomery Ward and Topp's Christmas shopping, home at 5:15 pm.  Trees loaded with ice Duanesburg way.  Carol went to ball game at night in South Kortright.  Bathroom heater came.

Comment:  Here is the cover of the 1964 Ward's Christmas catalog......

Thursday, December 10, 1964 The Frances Hubbard diaires

December 10, 1964
Thursday, beautiful, clear, sunny day, 30's and low 40's.  Clifton and David cut wood.  I went to Missionary Meeting at Evelyn B's in pm.  Wayne the girls and us went to LaVerne's at night.

Comment: Cutting wood was a seemingly never-ending task....John L drawing visitors....

Wednesday, December 9, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 9, 1964
Wednesday, cloudy, snow flurries, about 20.  I cleaned and wrote Marilyn and Mother, finished ironing at night and cut quilt blocks for missionary meeting.  LaVerne was here in am, brought milk and cheese.

Comment: Sounds like a relatively quiet, wintry day......this picture kinda looks like the road just above the house connecting to the "cross" road...small maple trees lined the road.....

Tuesday, December 8, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaires

December 8, 1964
Tuesday, partly cloudy, 20's.  I ironed in am and finished in the evening.  Clifton went to Cobleskill at noon.  He worked on tractor in am and finally got it started but didn't run good.  I cut out blocks for quilt Missionary Meeting at night.  Took check to Frisbie Hall for Gerald.
Comment: Dad signs up for unemployment and takes check for me to Coby Ag and Tech, probably for transcripts for my job applications at Ford and other places.....a little history about "Coby Tech" as we used to call it:  

SUNY Cobleskill was chartered in 1911 and opened in 1916 as the Schoharie State School of Agriculture with one building, five faculty members and eight students, all young men desiring post-secondary education in agriculture.

By 1928 the College consisted of four main buildings, now known as the quadrangle, with Frisbie Hall being the headquarters for the teacher training classes, an out cropping of the home economics program which had been started for young women.....

Monday, December 7, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 7, 1964
Monday, mostly sunny and clear, 5 - 20.  I washed, hung white clothes outside.  Clifton worked on tractor nearly all day to get it started, but no luck.  David took Gerald's car to Grand Gorge for tires, oil etc.  Girls went to ball game at school.  David and Mary Briggs too.  Wayne took Gerald's car into him and brought it back.

Comment: Not sure what's going on with my car...it's always something.....if it's not water, it's equipment or car problems.....Mary Briggs shows up in the diaries for the first time. Here she is about 14 years later holding her fourth child Tara, in 1978.....

Sunday, December 6, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 6, 1964
Sunday, little light snow overnight.  Cold, mostly cloudy, 20's.  Clifton took the girls and me to church and Sunday School.  Roads quite icy, no church at night.  We went down to LaVerne's again, Renz's were there.  We didn't stay long.  David took Doug to Kingston.  Got Gerald's car at Audrey Tompkins 6:00

Comment:  Wintry day but everybody's traveling...don't remember which of my cars was being repaired but do remember Audrey Tompkins garage...looked a lot like most of them did at the time...tools and parts scattered all around and lots of grease and oil stains.....

Saturday, December 5, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 5, 1964
Saturday, foggy, rainy, 35 ice all off the trees but roads still icy and bad.  David picked Dougie up at Kingston and home at 6 am.  Roberta came home from the hospital with the baby.  We went down to see them in the afternoon.  Ice storm very bad in Albany, Schenectady  Troy, Saratoga etc.  Thousands without electricity.

Comment:  Kinda like Rosemarie's baby, John L arrives and all hell breaks loose weather wise....hmmmmm....is correlation causation??.......

Friday, December 4 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 4 1964
Friday, cloudy, foggy, freezing rain, 25.  Bad ice storm, lights went out 3:30 pm and telephone too.  No school.  Clifton, David and Wayne worked out in storm all day at the water, got pipe buried and finished.  Lights came on 5:30 pm.  Wayne and David went out at night.  LaVerne came up at night (3 am) and said Dougie was in Kingston.

Comment:  Sounds like tough day on the farm...Doug stranded in Kingston.....

Thursday, December 3, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 3, 1964
Thursday, cloudy, 32 high.  4 inches of snow. David and Clifton worked on water.  David ran back hoe.  I got Marilyn's package ready and sent it.  Ironed nearly all pm. Started crocheting Roberta sweater.  No prayer meeting because of icy roads.

Comment: Tough day on the hill working in the snow......

Wednesday, December 2, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 2, 1964
Wednesday, warmer, 17 to 20, cloudy, about 4 inches of snow at night.  Did some ironing and went over to see Roberta and baby at night.

Comment: First snow that sticks...John L one day old....

Tuesday, December 1, 1964 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

December 1, 1964
Tuesday, 4 above early, bright clear and cold, 17 high and windy.  We went to Cobleskill in pm.  I finished shopping for Marilyn and family.  Clifton and David worked at water.  LaVerne and Roberta's baby boy born at 6 pm.  LaVerne called at night and told us.  We called Marilyn and I wrote to Dougie.  Baby's name John LaVerne.

Comment:  Water problems continue and a new member of the family.....John L in the middle, Christopher on the right in Florida, copped from John's Facebook page.....