Friday, 31 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 31 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
I did a big wash, canned tomatoes, got Gerald's clothes ready for school.  Wayne, the girls and I went to Middleburgh at night shopping in the new Grand Union.  Stopped at Marilyn's, Carol stayed down.
Comment:  I'm heading for my last semester at Coby Tech....Marilyn as a cheerleader in 1952....

Tuesday, 30 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 30 August 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Doug, Wayne, girls, and I went to Oneonta after school clothes.  Grandpa and Louise called a few minutes in the afternoon.  David went with Gerald to Poughkeepsie and Rome with charcoal.
Comment:  Stamford to Poughkeepsie to Rome and back to Stamford...probably about 350 miles and we had to manually unload the damned stuff...probably a 14 hour run at least..... Sister Sue in first grade 68 years ago......our granddaughter Else looks like her.....she is third from left, the first row....

Wednesday, 29 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 29 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy in am, hard rain in pm.  Marilyn, Jim and the kids here for dinner.  Marna stayed and I took her home after prayer meeting.  I picked beans and shelled them and Marilyn had some of them.  Boys had all new tires put on our car at Whitbeck's.
Comment:  I think Whitbeck's was Raymond Whitbeck who was a "hired man" for Dad in the mid forties and also rented the Hubbard Hill farm in the late forties for a couple of years.  Here he is in the 1936 Gilboa yearbook as president of the alumni association...some other well-known names from my childhood are there also.....His brother Alton also stayed on the farm and worked for us....

Tuesday, 28 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 28 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Did some ironing and cleaned the house.  Clifton was home early because of the rain.
Comment:  When I was working construction I always hoped for rain after we showed up because the union contract deemed we would be paid 4 hours "show up time".
My 8th grade class ten years earlier...time flys.....me, second from right last row.....

Monday, 27 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 27 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy, real warm, 80's.  I did a big wash.  Jim was here in am after his wallet and Wayne and Gerald went to Canajoharie with him.  Doug, David, Carol and Sue picked them up at Franklinton in the afternoon.  Leaves are beginning to turn, Very dry.
Comment:   Another day I have no memory of..... an ad of the times:

Sunday, 26 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 26 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, 70's.  Went to church and Sunday School.  All Hubbard's at Merel's for picnic dinner.  LaVerne, Roberta, Marilyn, Jim and family here at night a few minutes.  Marilyn, Sue and I went to church in pm.  Wayne Thorington was killed in Middleburgh, hit a tractor trailer.
Comment:  I went to school for awhile with the Thorington boys.  Very nice boys. Mom called him Wayne, but his name was really Duane.   A few years earlier, his brother was killed home on Marine leave when he hit a tree in Middleburgh at 90 miles per hour.  Here is his gravestone....

Saturday, 25 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 25 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Sunny, hot, 78.  Put corn in freezer.  Marilyn and the kids here at night.  Kids stayed all night while Marilyn, Jim, Stella (Rogers Clark) and Paul (Clark) went to fair.  No rain all week.  Very Dry.
Comment:  As children, both Stella and Paul were neighbors, neighbors in that they both lived within about a mile of Hubbard Hill as the crow flies.  I worked with Paul on the RT 145 construction job in 1956.  He was later killed when  a car crashed  into a ditch he was digging.....here is the alumni entry for them in the 1959 Gilboa year book "ESTELLA ROGERS - Mrs. Paul Clark, 3 daughters, Gilboa, N. Y."....

Friday, 24 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 24 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Sue and I went to Middleburgh with Gerald to shop.  Got 200 feet of black plastic pipe and hooked it up to water in the barn and pumped it into the well.  Clifton home late.
Comment:  It's always something...Dad on a tear again....

Thursday, 23 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday,  23 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, coo in am.  Did a big wash, first this week because water so low.
Comment:  They were plagued by the droughts 53 years ago too..... "The precipitation history over the last century in the Catskill Mountains region that supplies water to New York City is studied. A severe drought occurred in the early to mid-1960s followed by a wet period that continues.  

View To South Mountain From the Cross Road...

Take A Listen:  Hubbard Music Mountain: South Mountain Ghost Story, Gerry Hubbard Performe...: http://hubbardfamilymusic.tumblr.com/post/9506916405/south-mountain-ghost-story-gerry

Wednesday, 22 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 22 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Wednesday, partly cloudy, cool in am, 50's.  Doug went with Gerald to Laceyville, PA with charcoal.  Boys drew water for the well.  Girls and I went to prayer meeting.  Mr. Mayo started ceiling of church, had it half done. 
Comment: Laceyville,  PA was about 260 mile round trip so I would get paid about $21 for a trip that would take from 8 to ten hours.  Not bad money back then.  The boys pumped water from the "Spring Lot" and the lot seemed always in our perceptions because it was one of the first sights as we walked out the door.  Here is my memories of it performed by son David Hubbard:  Hubbard Music Mountain: The Spring Lot by Gerry Hubbard, David Hubbard Per...:

Tuesday, 21 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 21 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy, cooler, windy.  I ironed, picked some tomatoes, had corn for supper again.  David went with Gerald with charcoal.
Comment:  "corn for supper" meant it was picked minutes before cooking and it was incredibly fresh and sweet.  Getting my eight cents a mile for hauling charcoal for Timberland, glad David was there to help unload.....no matter how it was packaged, we would be totally covered in charcoal dust after we unloaded....

Monday, 20 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 20 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day,  real warm, 84.  I didn't wash as I had a sick headache all night.  Showers at night, we had only a little rain.  Boys worked on the house.  Donna and Bev were here.
Comment:  Not sure what the boys were working on.  The original portion of the house  was a log cabin with massive hand-hewn beams serving as floor joists and slimmer trees used as rafters.  Here is a picture of the cellar wall...always a lot of "fixing"  to be done...

Sunday, 19 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 19 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Lovely day, warmer, 70's.  We went to church and Sunday School and to Marilyn's for dinner and called at Evelyn's in pm and went to church at night.  Beverly came home with us.
Comment:  Busy Sunday, Beverly must be Barry (James Taylor's) wife at the time....here she is in 1962 at the Taylor's Franklinton house....

Saturday, 18 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 18 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day.  cool, 60.  I did a big wash.  Marilyn's goods came from California.
Comment:  Marilyn and Jim must have shipped household goods for their place in Franklinton.  Five generations:  Grandma Bessie, Mother Frances Marietta, Sister Marilyn Ann , Niece Patty and Grand Niece......

Friday, 17 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 17 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy and showers in am.  Doug didn't go to work.  Bonnie Holden and Cheryl Killingback called in afternoon.
Comment:  I have no idea who the callers were...Doug in California with Sister Marilyn's family probably about 1960...Doug, Marilyn, Jim, Patty, Dean, Marna

Thursday, 16 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 16 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Clear and fair, 76.  Cleaned the house.  Roberta called and asked me to go after Marilyn with her.  We stopped at Evelyn's and went in to Middleburgh after groceries. Sue went to Laverne's for supper and they brought her home when they took Marilyn and the kids home.  Gerald got a new hood and axle for his car, and tires, and worked on it.
Comment:  The car I was working on must have been an Olds 88 I'd bought to fix up and Doug had hit a cow with...don't remember the axle problem...I was working on it in the dairy barn between it's manure gutters that we had shoveled so many times in the past.....sister Carol Sylvia with Marilyn's kids, Marna, Dean, Patty at their Franklinton house at this time...Carol was about 12 at the time.

Wednesday, 15 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 15 August 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy, 70.  Finished ironing and tailoring Gerald's shirts and did mending. Carol went home with Linda.
Comment:  Back then, there were no fitted shirts and in the military, any guy with a sewing machine could make quite a few bucks tailoring both the baggy trousers and the shirts that were issued.  I did not have a sewing machine but did know how to steam press so I made extra bucks pressing my buddy's uniforms.  At the Army Language School, we wore wool, winter uniforms all the time so that was a great place to make extra money....me and LaVerne in our uniforms in 1958....I was home on leave having graduated from the language school and en route to Okinawa..LaVerne was stationed at a Nike site just outside of Boston..

Tuesday, 14 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 14 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy and rainy, 60.  Gerald, David and Wayne went to Oneonta.  Gerald bought clothes.  Linda came over in pm.
Comment:  I must be buying clothes for college...don't remember the trip...I do remember my dad selling a cow so I could by clothes for my senior trip to DC.  The results, me in 1956 in DC....kinda sober.....

Monday, 13 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 13 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, 70's.  I did big wash and picked cucumbers.
Comment:  All righty then...

Sunday, 12 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 12 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, cool.  Marilyn and Jim were here for dinner.  Robert (Schemerhorn, Wild Bill's boy) and Wayne smashed up Doug's car.
Comment:  And they really did a job on it..Doug had the coolest, nosed and decked 1955 Chevy hardtop convertible, flat-gun-metal gray, no chrome on it and in great condition.  Wayne and Robert were wildly driving the narrow roads somewhere around Roxbury when they hit an unexpected "T" intersection at a high rate of speed and ran off the end of it and rolled the car several times. (mind altering substances in the form of beer might have been involved)  All the windows including the windshield were broken and the car seem to have all the edges rounded off it had rolled so much.  It was still drivable and on the very cold night Robert and Wayne drove the car home practically freezing to death because of the lack of a windshield. I vividly recall Wayne telling me about it when I saw the car but I can't remember what happened to it, if Doug fixed it or not.....the effect of the car was similar to this '54 model...could not find a '55... 

Saturday, 11 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 11 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, rainy, chilly day, 55 high.  I had a migraine headache.  Doug didn't work.  The boys went to Windham to see about a job but no one was there.
Comment:  Probably went to see HB Moore.  LaVerne, I and Jim Harris drove for him in 1960 and 1961 on the renovation of Andrews Air Base in DC and Interstate 84 in New York.  Good union jobs....

Friday, 10 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 10 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, rainy, chilly day, 50's high.  Kept the kids while Marilyn and Jim went to Windham.  They were here for supper.  Doug didn't work.
Comment:  The kids at the time, Marna, Patty Dean.....

Thursday, 9 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 9 August 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, cool, 58 degrees.  Had Missionary Meeting, Marilyn, Louise, Mrs. Mayo, Myrtie, Madelyn, Virginia, and children were here.  Men all home early for supper...(Mom's underscore)
Comment:  Must have been kinda raucous with all those kids there.  Quite an occasion that all the boys and Dad were home for supper...and only seventeen years before on this day in 1945, the second atom bomb was dropped over Nagasaki from the plane named "Bockscar" named after the pilot Bock.  Betcha did not know the name of the plane before now..Seventy thousand people died and WWII ended 6 days later....

The Bockscar and its crew, who dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki

Wednesday, 8 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 8 August 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Clearing, warmer, windy.  I washed in am.  Wayne, the girls and I went to Cobleskill shopping in pm. Wayne had roses sent to Mary Ann for Gerald for her birthday.
Comment:  I was probably driving about 80 hours a week during that time.....Happy Birthday Mary Ann Hallenbeck Hubbard, wife for fifty-five years as of August 21, 2020

Tuesday, 7 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 7 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cooler but humid, thundershowers in early am, rained nearly all afternoon.  I ironed and went to baby shower for Bonnie (Brown) Mace at Marion (Brown's) in afternoon.  Carol and Susan went to.  We rode with Myrtie.
Comment:  Bonnie Brown was a classmate of mine and Victor Mace was a year ahead of LaVerne at Gilboa High....here she is in the 1956 Reflector.....Here is her obituary:  Bonnie J. Mace, 68, of Broome Center Rd., died Tues., July 31, 2007 at Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, NY.Mrs. Mace was born in Gilboa, NY on April 30, 1939, a daughter of the late Raymond N. and Irene V. Buel Brown. She was raised in Gilboa and graduated from the Gilboa Central School. Mrs. Mace worked for New York Telephone, Becker Electronics and Golfetto's Studio. Most recently she had been employed as a substitute teacher at Gilboa Central School. She was a past president of the Gilboa Central School's Board of Education and had been a board member from 1981-1994. She also served on the board for BOCES. Mrs Mace was volunteer for the American Cancer Society, a member of the Gilboa Historical Society and also a member of the Broome Center Chapel Church. She belonged to the church's Lady's Guild and also taught Sunday school. Mrs. Macewas an avid reader and loved taking care of children.

She is survived by her husband, Victor W. Mace of Gilboa, NY, whom she married on May 27, 1961 and
Daughter: Brenda (Robert) Weaver Gilboa, NY
Son Todd (Melissa) Mace Schenectady, NY
Granddaughter: Kira Weaver Gilboa, NY
Grandsons: Andrew Weaver Gilboa, NY
Christopher Mace Schenectady, NY
Sister: Shirley Kutzscher Gilboa, NY
Brothers: James (Carolyn) Brown Gilboa, NY
Richard (Linda) Brown Gilboa, NY
Several Nieces and Nephews.

Monday, 6 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 6 August 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Overcast and humid in early am.  Partly cloudy, 82.  I cleaned and waxed floors in the dining room and living room.
Comment:  Mundane day on the hill, world-changing event in Hiroshima on this day, now 75 years ago today....lest we forget....



On August 6, 1945, 8.15 am, the uranium atom bomb exploded 580 meters above the city of Hiroshima with a blinding flash, creating a giant fireball and sending surface temperatures to 4,000C. Fierce heat rays and radiation burst out in every direction, unleashing a high pressure shockwave, vaporizing tens of thousands of people and animals, melting buildings and streetcars, reducing a 400-year-old city to dust.



Housewives and children were incinerated instantly or paralyses in their daily routines, their internal organs boiled and their bones charred into brittle charcoal....from a Japanese website about the event...

Sunday, 5 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 5 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy, humid, overcast in pm.  Went to church and Sunday School and rode over to Earl's in afternoon a few minutes.  Mother and Norm came and stayed for supper.  Sandy and Linda were here too.  Baptist Youth Fellowship started.  Went to church at night.  Had to draw water from spring for well today.
Comment:  That hand-dug well seemed to be always a problem.  We ran a hose about 500 yards or so to the "spring lot" spring and filled the well when necessary.  Here is the well cover just to the side of the old Allis Chalmers "C".  Looks like we were using it as a tool bench while we worked on the tractor.....

My Grandparents On My Fathers Side: Elmer & Agnes Hubbard Surprise 25th Anniversary 92 Years Ago....

Gilboa Couple Wed Twenty-five Years Given Surprise

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hubbard were greatly surprised when a number friends and relatives came to help them celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary August 25, 1928.  After congratulating Mr and Mrs. Hubbard, a buffet lunch was served after which Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard were presented with chest of silver.

The evening was spent with music and singing.  Those present at the happy event were:  Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hubbard and family, Clifton, Earl, Lorraine, Evelyn, Ina Belle and Winifred, Mrs. Ann Hubbard, Mr. and Mrs. John Hubbard, Mr. and Mrs. Merel Hubbard, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Ellis and daughter, Doris, Grover Haner, all of Gilboa;  Mr.  and Mrs. Geil Spencer and son, Kieran Orin of Mackey; Mr. Amos Flint of Athens; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Hyatt and son, Robert, and Mrs. Charlotte Hyatt of Ellenville; Mr. and Mrs. Gamalia Hasbrouck and sons, Steve, Leonard and Allen of Milton.

All left at a late hour wishing Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard many more years of happy married life.

Uncle Merel, 22, and Aunt Madeline Hubbard Ellis 24, were marred. Doris Ellis, the only grandchild at the time, was two years old.  My Dad, Clifton was 20, Earl 18, Lorraine 16, Evelyn 13, Ina Belle 12, and Winifred 6.

Mr. and Mrs. John Hubbard were Elmer’s brother and wife.  The rest of the guests were mostly distant relatives, some by marriage. Their names are familiar but I have no clear recollection of them. Here is a picture of the whole family several years later with more grandchildren:

Saturday, 4 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 4 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day. I picked beans, cucumbers and made pickles.  Did some ironing and cleaned upstairs.  Marilyn, Jim and the kids here in evening.
Comment:  And in other news on this day:  

• Marilyn Monroe took the fatal overdose of Nembutal pills at her home at 12305 5th Helena Drive in Brentwood in Los Angeles, apparently at some point between a 7:15 phone call from her former stepson, Joe DiMaggio, Jr., and a 7:30 pm call from actor Peter Lawford. The pills interacted with a dosage of chloral hydrate already in her body, and she was in a coma by 10:00 pm.^[9].  

Here is a picture of her from her last photo shoot on July 13, 1962, a couple of weeks before her death...looks gorgeous and haunted...

Friday, 3 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 3 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day.  Washed.  Went to Middleburgh at night, Marilyn and kids went too.  Carol came home.
Comment:  On this day: Sure did not know or care at the time.....

• President John F. Kennedy made the decision to break ties with singer Frank Sinatra after his brother, U.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, delivered him a report detailing Sinatra's connections with organized crime. Sinatra, reportedly, was so enraged by the President's decision to no longer visit the singer's home in Palm Springs, California, that he took a sledgehammer and personally destroyed a landing pad built to accommodate visits by the presidential helicopter, Marine One.^[8]
• 
  

Thursday, 2 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 2 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
I cleaned front room.  LaVerne and Roberta here in pm for a few minutes.  LaVerne had been promoted to plant manager.  Man here from conservation department about appraising farm.  Gerald got home about noon.
Comment:  I do another all night trip, this time with Wayne...funny how I don't remember anything about it.....

Wednesday, 1 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 1 August, 1962, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, humid.  I papered living room overhead and covered spring rocker.  Wayne went with Gerald.  Gerald left for Sturbridge at midnight for broken tractor.
Comment:  The tractor was a semi-tractor and for the life of me I cannot remember anything about this trip...