February 24, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 24, 1963

Sun cloudy light snow 20’s LaVerne and Roberta here for dinner. We went to mother’s in the afternoon for supper. Evelyn and Clifford were here but we didn’t see them. Girls and I went to church and Sunday School.

Comment:  Again, the noon meal was dinner and the evening meal supper.  Many times relatives would drop in at just about any time.  Because of the remoteness, people who knew us would stop by if they were driving by to go somewhere else.  I think Evelyn was one of Dad's favorites and I remember Marilyn telling me about talking to Evelyn and she told Marilyn how well Dad treated her and Winifred, buying them jewelry and other stuff.  Here is a picture of the Taylor family and of Evelyn.

Evelyn was born on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1915 and had 4 children by Clifford Taylor who died in 1968 of diabetes:   James Barry, Glenn Clifford, Yvonne "Bonnie", and infant David.  Glenn died at 22 of kidney failure in 1964.  Baby David was born in 1954 and died in 1955, a "blue baby" with a congenital heart defect.  Bonnie died of cancer  May 17, 1998.  Evelyn died March 8, 2005, 90 years old.  She was the last survivor of the eight children of Elmer and Agnes Hubbard. She had the great misfortune of seeing her husband and three of her four children die..and with the death of James Barry Taylor in 2011, this generation of the family is gone.....

Evelyn Glenn Hubbard Taylor

The Last Of The Original Eight Children Of Agnes & Elmer Hubbard

February 23, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries.

February 23, 1963

Sat mostly sunny-10 to 12 windy. Clifton and Wayne did a load of wood in the a.m. I cut Carol's hair and set it. David had to work in the a.m. Robert (Segeritz)? and he were here for dinner and they brought Davids car home in the p.m. Sue went for music lesson.

Comment:  Another load of wood in the bitter cold.  David's car still not running right.  The highlight of the day probably was coming in from the cold and standing in front of the wood stove in the living room and maybe watching a little tv that night.  Here is a picture of most of the family doing just that probably in the summertime....

February 22, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February, 22 1963

Fri. Very cold -10 to 2. David started at Timberland.  Wayne and David went to dance at school. Davids car knocked worse and he left it at the corner and Wayne brought him home. I did some ironing and mending.

Comment:  We always were messing with the used cars we bought.  I do not remember my Dad ever buying a new car.  I did not buy a new car until 1967 and then the damn thing came in the wrong color.  I'd ordered a blue 1966 Ford Fairlane 500 XL  Hardtop Convertible and it came in green.  A red one is below.  When we did have a car problem, we usually tried to fix it our selves and if it required more than taking it apart and putting it back together, we usually went to Raymond Brown's in Broom Center and sometimes to Tom O'Hara in Prattsville.  Tom helped me fix a Ford Falcon when I burned the valves out driving from Niagara Falls where Mary Ann and I lived when we first got married  in 1965.  Tom let me use his bay and tools and supervised me while I took the head off the engine and removed the valves.  He then took a look and said they had to be "ground" and arranged for that at a machine shop close by.  I took the valves there and returned to have Tom guide me in grinding the valve seats and then when the valves were done, he supervised the re-assembly.  He only charged me for the valve grinding and nothing for his labor or facilities......

February 21, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 21, 1963

Thurs. Fair and very cold windy 2 above hi. I washed in am. The girls and I went to Maude’s in the afternoon to Stanley party. Roberta called for David to come to work Fri am.

Comment:  A Stanley party is where pots, pans, and kitchenware are sold by the person holding the party.  Kinda like Tupperware parties but everything was made of metal.  Roberta must have called David to help draw the mail.  LaVerne had a contract mail route that involved trucking mail from post office to post office and also house to house delivery.  And they seemed to live by the statement:   "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"..., but there is no official creed or motto for the Post office:  See below from Wikipedia...

  The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto.

Often falsely cited as such, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City,^[1] derived from a quote from Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire:

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. (trans. A.D. Godley 1924)

In

February 20, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 20, 1963

Wed. 8 in of new snow hard snow squalls in am rest of the day mostly fair. The men cut wood for the parsonage in afternoon. Had a Sunday School staff meeting here at night. Dreadful windy around midnight.

Comment:  Must have been a tough day cutting wood for the church parsonage.  The Minister of the church did not get paid very much but did get his housing and quite a lot of free labor from the church members.  There were a lot of social events at the parsonage, including wedding receptions, anniversaries, ice cream socials and an event at Young Peoples Meeting where the girls would bring a box dinner and an auction would be held and the boys would bid on the dinner of the girl they liked best.   I just barely remember the auctions but sure do remember the incredible taste of the home-made ice cream.  I've never had better.  The ice cream was made with a crank freezer.  I think the taste must have come from the incredibly rich cream from the local dairy farms and probably a whole bunch of eggs.  I remember the kids would get to clean off the beaters and also got to turn the cranks.  Below is a collage of old crank ice cream makers.  I think I'm gonna get one and treat the kids and grandkids to some of the real stuff.....

February 19, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 19, 1963

Tuesday. Cloudy hi 40 snow started about 2:30pm and colder 30. David went to Windham in am to see if that job had started yet. Clifton, the girls, and boys, and I went to Cobleskill. In afternoon. David and Wayne went to Timberland after we got home. I wrote to Dougie and sent him the Middleburg News.

Comment:  Timberland was the charcoal plant in Stamford where LaVerne was the general manager.  David worked there for a while and got his hand caught in a briquet press and injured it pretty bad.  His hand was caught until LaVerne went into the control panel and re-wired it to reverse the press.  I used to draw bark for the factory out of the paper mills in Mechanicville, NY getting paid 8 cents a mile.  I got fired when the trailer brakes blew out on a steep hill just outside of Schoharie and complained about the poorly maintained equipment.  That was an exciting ride.

They probably went to Cobleskill for Dad to sign up for unemployment which was always scheduled for a Tuesday....

February 18, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 18, 1963

Mon mostly sunny warmer hi 36 real windy. Kids home for mid winter vacation all week. Clifton and David went to Bartholomew’s and bought a calf. Had a letter from Doug. Clifton called Orville Slutzky about David. He said he told David he could go to work Jan 14.

Comment:  David was going to work at Hunter Mountain.  Our Dad probably worked for Orville at one time or another.  From Wikipedia: "During the mid-50's a group of local businessmen, including Orville and Israel Slutzky, developed plans to revive the area's economy after the Great Depression.   World War II and the decline of Catskills tourism had caused long-term economic distress. The sport of skiing was becoming popular, and the group considered developing Hunter Mountain as a ski resort.This group created the Hunter Mountain Development Corp., which was the first operator of Hunter Mountain. Headed by James Hammerstein,  the son of Oscar Hammerstein II,  the group included many Hollywood and Broadway stars of the time. With Orville and Izzy Slutzky providing most of the land and their firm I. & O.A. Slutzky providing the construction, ground was broken to develop the ski area in the summer of 1959. The area was given to the group to operate with two stipulations: that it be called “Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl” and that it have snowmaking capabilities, which was a relatively new technology at the time..... In the summer of 1963, Hunter opened for summer skiing on plastic chips. Summer skiing lasted only a few years. During the winter of 1963/64, Hunter Mountain opened for night skiing for the first time.

I seem to recall David commenting on how miserable it was working there but they paid pretty good wages.

Happy Birthday Betty Hubbard

February 17, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 17, 1963

Sun mostly sunny and warm high 25. Girls and I went to Sunday School and church. Carol was sick in church. Wayne brought Linda home in p.m.

Comment:  There is an old country song with the line "we raise Cain on Saturday's but we go to church on Sunday."  The boys and Dad did not always go to church on Sundays except when we were preteens, but we also never worked on Sundays other than the required chores to milk and feed the cattle, pig and chickens.  Not sure where it came from but the family superstition was that if we worked unnecessarily on Sunday, any thing you accomplished would be countered by something bad happening in the near future.  I recall mowing hay on Thursday or Friday, raking it into windrows to get it ready for baling on Saturday, then not bailing it on Sunday even with the threat of rain on Monday.  And it did rain on that Monday. We then had to wait till the rain stopped and the hay partially dried then, laboriously "ted" the hay and re-rake it for bailing.  A "tedder" is below.  We would haul the tedder down the windrows and the tines on the back would kick the hay up in loose piles to hasten the drying process.  We then had to rake it again for baling.  Of course, if you did not have tedder, the hay fluffing would have to be done by hand with a pitchfork and that made some long days.  I remember once when LaVerne and I were haying Kandora's place, (the Elmer Hubbard farm after it sold), we had a field cut and raked and the rain kept on until the hay molded in the windrows and we wound up burning it to get rid of it......

February 16, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 16, 1963

Sat -10 to 5 above. Bright sunny day Cold and Windy.  Girls cleaned up the house I had headache. The girls went to the (basketball) game at night with David and came home on the bus. Had a letter from Doug.

Comment:  Again a cold day.  Mom had a lot of headaches, probably migraine, that people on the hill called "poor spells".  "Poor spell" could apply to most any sickness that was obviously not a cold or the flu and/or did not have a fever.  I think several of the Hubbard men, my father and grandfather included,  suffered from mild and sometimes acute depression that left them in a funk for days and family said they were having a "poor spell".  Mom would sometimes stay in bed all day when the episodes hit.

Again, a big social event of the week during the winters, were the basketball games held at the Gilboa Central School.  The buses would run to pick up kids who wanted to go, probably because if they didn't, most kids would not go.  I know I would have never played any of the sports unless the school provided transportation.  Families were either working, broke, or running a dairy farm, any of which did not allow for a lot of running kids around to events.  Below is a picture of Carol and Susan on Susan's first day of school.  They are waiting for the bus. 

 In the back ground are the legs of a cow walking up the road...we might have been bringing the cows in to change pasture, milk or maybe the cow was just "out".

February 15, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 15, 1963

Fri high, 8 above.  Blustery day with intervals of sunshine,  cold and very windy. Clifton and David started the bookcase in afternoon they had trouble starting Davids car in the a.m. David went out at night and stayed at LaVernes because of drifting snow. LaVerne was sick with bad cold. Clifton and Wayne finished book case at night.

Comment:  The hills up out of Flat Creek and up around Earl's pond were always a problem in bad weather.  They are quite steep and have several blind, sharp corners.  Many's the time I've had to back down the hill almost to the Five Points intersection to get a running start at the hills.  The toughest one was the one just beyond the Clarence Ellis or Huber's place and just before Earl;s pond.  The fifty-one Ford we used to have had a straight transmission and the problem was you could not get it going fast enough in second gear to make the hills.  And in third gear, you had to go up so fast that is was a major driving challenge to keep it on the road around the curves.  And if you let off the gas for a second to keep it on the road, it did not have enough power in high to continue so, you had to shift to second and the tires would start spinning from the lost momentum.  Then you had to back down the hill and try it again and even backing down in the windy dark was quite a risky proposition.  We usually made it, but the "bail-out" was going down to LaVerne's to stay the night.  All the kids drove like demons and passengers not used to the narrow roads would be terrified at our driving...and most of the us kids had wrecked a car at one time or another.  Here is the fifty-one Ford  I used to drive.  I think it is Doug and Wayne in the background and we were working on the garage.

The Pick Up Truck Song, Live, David Hubbard, 1995

The Pickup Truck Song, CW McCall, recorded live by David Hubbard in 1995.

February 14, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 14, 1963

Thursday,  20 Cloudy,  snow in the afternoon. Clifton and David finished the divider in afternoon. I cleaned up the house and went to Madalyn's (Blakesley) to Missionary Meeting in afternoon.  Finished letters to Doug and wrote Marilyn. Clifton still didn’t feel very good.  Had prayer meeting here at night.  Evelyn’s (Baily) birthday.

Comment:  A tooth ache on the hill could mean lots of pain for days.  Mostly treated with aspirin, we would also us sprigs of cloves to rub on the gum around the tooth.  I also remember Dad dipping his finger in whiskey and rubbing the gums of a teething baby at one time or another.  I do not remember ever going to a dentist as a child and believe my first dental exam was during my Army induction.  I know my first extraction was on Guam when I awakened a military dentist at 300am to end an agonizing tooth ache that had plagued me for about 24 hours flying across the Pacific.


Church and Sunday School on Sunday, Missionary Meetings, Prayer Meetings during the week, Youth Fellowship Meetings, Summer Bible School, Mom's life and that of the girl's was one of a continuous involvement in the church.  The boys were involved when younger but we seemed to "backslide" as we became teenagers.   The Flat Creek Baptist Church was focused on the New Testament  while Dad held greater stock in the old testament, especially Psalms and Proverbs and many a discussion ensued because of this.  Here is most of the family in front of the church with Aunt Ella.  Missing are my son Craig, he might have been in the Peace Corp, and I think Wayne is taking the picture.   I think we were at a family reunion and all attended church out of respect to Mom.....that was the last time I was in a church......If you click on the picture it will enlarge....

The Wonderful Soup Stone

 http://hubbardfamilymusic.tumblr.com/     Take a listen....

The Soup Stone 

There is an ancient folktale about a wanderer who pulls a magical soup stone out of his pack and shows it to the astonished villagers.

Asked to demonstrate it, he has an onlooker fetch a cauldron, into which he places the stone, with appropriate ceremony and gestures.

Now, he requisitions a bunch of carrots and several large onions from the village storehouse.

Eager volunteers contribute beans, scraps of meat, and various spices, all of which goes into the pot.

Two strapping young peasants fill the pot with water from the nearby well and hang it over the communal hearth.

The water begins to bubble, and soon a tantalizing aroma fills the air. The wanderer sniffs at the soup, tastes it, then nods sagely.

He reaches in with a ladle, removes the stone, and returns it to his pack after letting it cool.

The grateful villagers fill a large wooden bowl with the delicious soup for him, and he eats until his belly can hold no more.

His hunger satisfied, he departs, leaving behind him a wondrous tale of a magical stone that conjures up the best soup that anyone can remember.

I've played and sung this song for years but do not have any very good recordings of it. Charlotte Haskin heard me sing this at a family reunion a long time ago and wanted the lyrics.  Somewhere in my head is a blurry memory of an actual soup stone hanging in some dimly lit kitchen and I think it might have been in Grover Haner's place on South Mountain.  I remember when my mother and the Hubbard Aunt's went there to clean his house for him.  He lived alone, almost like a mountain man, and I remember Mom commenting on the greasy sheets from his bed that they had to wash....

Here are the lyrics by Shel Silverstein.

Enjoy Gerry


I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
The noodles and the marrow bone,
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

Hanging from a string in my momma's kitchen
Back in the hard time days,
Was a little old stone 'bout the size of an apple.
It was smooth and worn and grey.
There wasn't much food in my momma's kitchen,
So whenever things got tight,
Momma'd boil up some water, put in the stone
Say, "Let's have some soup tonight."

And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes,
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

It'd been in the family for a whole lot of years,
So we knew it was a nourishing thing.
And I remember momma as she stirred it in the water,
And we could all hear her sing.
"It's a magical stone and as long as we got it
We'll never have a hungry night.
Just add a little love to the wonderful soup stone,
And everything will be alright."

And I swear we could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes,
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

So it carried us all through the darkening days
'Till finally the sunshine came.
And the soup stone started a'gathering dust,
But it hung there just the same.
Ever since then, Lord, the food's been plenty
But every now and then I find
That momma in the kitchen and the wonderful soup stone
Drifts across my mind.

And again I taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrow bone.
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful wonderful soup stone.
We were nourished by the wonderful soup stone.
Oh, the wonderful wonderful soup stone.

February 13, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 13, 1963
Wed. 15 Cold Windy, Clifton and David worked on divider, went to Middleburg after lumber etc. I finished ironing.  Had 2 letters from Dougie with his address. I wrote to him. Clifton about sick with a bad tooth.

Comment:  Rural Free Delivery or RFD 2, was the name of our postal route for the hill.  The US Postal Service was really a great thing for the remote areas of the country.  We always looked forward the the mail coming and especially if we had ordered something from the Montgomery Ward or Sears and Roebuck catalogs.   I remember ordering "Roebuck" blue jeans for $2.98 a pair and various shirts for a couple of bucks. I always anxiously awaited the mail and checked it every day.  I still do it today and my family thinks I'm kinda weird about the mail.
 Baby chickens were also delivered through the mail and I can still remember the very unique smell of the chickens and the bedding when the box arrived.  The picture above shows the chick box at the post office, but our's came with the regular mail.  Letters were just about the only way that families kept in touch during the sixties and were looked forward to very intensely on the part of the family and service member.

February 12, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 12, 1963

Snowed all day 26 inches.  I wrote to Marilyn and Louise and sent in my social security card for number.  Clifton and David tore out partition between livingroom and dining room.  Sent N.Y.S Income tax.

Comment:  The house on the hill was a continuing project either from a maintenance or a remodel standpoint.  The middle part was constructed first with hand-hewn beams used as foundation plates, floor joists and rafter.  The wood house was added later with an attached out house and you really don't want to know anything about that.  Then, what we called the"new part was added which was also the largest section of the house and included a cellar and a second story story attic.  Then a lean-to type dining room was added to the back of the original portion.  Lots of drafts, sagging floors.  Below is a  picture of the living room opening to the dining room which was what David and Dad were working on.  The hand hewn beams can be seen on the ceiling.

Looking Into Dining Room From Living Room

Hubbard Hill House

February 11, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 11, 1963

Mon. 35  Cloudy but not too cold.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill and Mothers for dinner.  Had to sign up for unemployment today instead of Tuesday because of  Lincoln's birthday.  (Lincoln's birthday was February 12th in 1963) Rain in afternoon and evening and turned to snow.  I washed in am.  Marilyn called.

Comment:  Unemployment insurance, the construction worker's friend.  Not sure how we would have gotten through the bad times of the fifties and sixties without it.  One had to work 26 weeks then was eligible to draw unemployment if you could show the state that you were ready, willing, and able to work a job that could be found in your occupational field.  You had to report your activities every week to the unemployment board and they would then issue you a check the next week.  Almost all of the construction workers were laid off during the winter months so this was a godsend to those folks. I drew it when I got out of the Army, LaVerne drew it a lot of times, my dad did also.  It was a way of life for many families in the area.  

February 10, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 10, 1963

Sunday, Twenties,  Mostly cloudy.  Girls and I went to church and Sunday School.  Mary Ann came with Gerald for dinner.  Laverne and Roberta came in the afternoon and we went to Middleburg and Cobleskill and went with them to look at cars.  Gerald and Mary Ann and us were down there for supper.  Wayne and Linda were here.  David at Sandy’s.

Comment:  Dinner was the noon meal and supper was the evening meal.  Not sure who Lilliane is and why they were looking at cars.  The Flat Creek Baptist Church was a major part of Mom and the girl's lives.  They usually went to church on Sundays, stayed for Sunday school, then went to a prayer meeting sometime during the week.  The oldest three, LaVerne, Marilyn, and I, were "saved" at a young age, Marilyn at 11, me at about the same age, and I don't remember about LaVerne.  These were full immersion baptisms held at a pool at the end of a culvert by Halleck's.  We used to go swimming there quite often in the summer. 

February 9, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 9, 1963

Sat -10 to 26  Bright, sunny day, warmer.  The men cut wood.  Sue was sick with an upset stomach.  The girls went to Awana.  I didn’t feel like going. 

Comment:  Cutting wood was a weekly chore regardless of the weather.......

 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.
For the winter wind and chill was bearing down,
As we struggled in the 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.


Here is a picture of the Farmall Tractor in 1976 with Craig and David playing on it:

February 8, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 8, 1963

Friday:  Coldest day -16 to -24 am Very cold -5 high some wind during day.  Mostly sunny.  Electricity was off from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Our water started to feeze in the well.  I washed in the a.m.  Emil and Doris Menuson called in the p.m. about hay.  Martin’s came for their hay in the afternoon.  LaVerne and Roberta were here at night.  Not so cold -10.

Comment:  Wow, 24 below zero without the wind factor.  Probably a tough day on the hill with the power off and the well freezing.  It seems we always had problems with the well running dry in the summer and intermittent problems with the pipes and pumps that brought it to the house.  Not sure when we got running water to the sink in the kitchen and I remember a red hand pump there that we sometimes had to prime.  We did put in a bathroom in the attic when I was seventeen in1955, my junior year in high school.  Before that, in the summer we would take soap and towels and bath in Earl's pond occasionally.  In the winter, we relied on the school showers after gym or athletic events.  We partially solved the supply problem by running a pipe to a very good spring in "The Spring Lot", a 3 acre lot south of the road and creek.  Below is a picture of the bathroom on the hill.  

February 7, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 7, 1963

Thurs, cloudy, 30 in early am, grew colder all day, zero  at night.  Wrote to Marylin.  Clifton and David fixed the pump so it would shut off.  We had about a dozen calls for hay.   Junior Losie bought 68 bales and Martin And Sons from East Meredith bought and also, Wally Stryker.  I didn’t have prayer meeting at night because of my cold.  It was at Madalyn's (Blakesley).   Earl and Lillian stopped for a few minutes in their way home from Cobleskill..  We had a radio gram from Doug.

Comment:  Apparently selling off the hay because they may have sold the cows to head for California.  Not sure.  I think they were having problems with the well water pump that would not shut off and they had to fix it before it burnt out. 

 I think the Navy provided Doug with an opportunity to send a telegraphic message that was decoded from Morse to voice and sent over the phone or a hard copy was printed and mailed.  If anybody can shed more light on the radiogram, please leave a comment on the blog. 

February 6, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 6, 1963

Wed 28-40 high cloudiness warm partly sunny no wind.  I was about sick with a cold.  Clifton and David went after Gerald’s Olds in Schenectady.  Doug started basic training.  Had a package from Louise towels, pens and book.  David got the spring fixed in his car at Raymonds.  They had good luck getting the car home.  ($10 Olds.)


Comment:
Verba ipsa loquitur..The words speak for themselves

February 5, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 5, 1963

Mostly sunny 30.   David, Clifton and I went to Cobleskill to Mothers for dinner.  The ice was nearly gone from roads.  David's car had a broken spring.  I had a bad cold in my head. 

Comment:  I think David broke the spring in his car by loading a big piece of concrete guard-rail post into the trunk to help him get up the hills when it was so icy the last couple of days.  I remember seeing the car with the guard rail in the trunk and it was squatting very low in the back.  Here is a picture of my mother's mother, Bessie Laraway Barber Van Tassell  as a young woman.  She is on the right.  Not sure why they are standing in what appears to be a hay-field.

February 4, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 4, 1963

Mon.  Mostly Cloudy -8 to 12 above with light snow in the afternoon.  I washed and hung a line full outside.  Gerald started school in Albany.  The Gerkins sailed to Europe. A lot of schools closed because of icy roads, but we had school.  Gerald called in am and said he’d bought a 55 Olds in Schenectady for $10 and wanted us to get it this week. 

Comment:  I bought the car and tried to fix it up and sell but to no avail.  Never could get that damn thing fixed so it would not knock.  I think we finally dragged it into the woods and junked it.  Here is a 1956 Olds 98 convertible that I drove around for awhile when I was attending Cobleskill Ag and Tech.  Dad bought it for some reason and it always burned a lot of oil.  You can see the smoky exhaust in the picture.   I think it's my brother David in the car and Hubbard Hill is in the background.

The Gerkins lived on the "cross road" in the old Swartz place and when they were moving, I bought a black VW and a sweet little 20 gauge shotgun from them.  Here is a picture of one of the Swartz girls with my Uncle Earl.  I must have started classes at SUNY@ Albany 48 years ago today. 

56 Olds 98 

Dorothy Swartz And Uncle Earl

February 3, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 3, 1963

Sun then cloudy and cold.  5 above, high wind.  We didn’t go to church because of icy roads. They weren’t sanded until 4 p.m.  Then we went over to Earl and Lillians for a while.  Gerald left about 3 p.m.  Dougie called from Great Lakes 3:30 p.m. Could hear him real good.

Comment:  Because of the steep hills, when the roads were icy, we were at the mercy of the town's sand trucks.  This was two men in the back of a town snow plow using shovels to spread the sand in wide arcs across the road. 

It really was quite graceful as they would each alternate spreading a single shovel-full from one side then the other as the truck moved slowly over the road.    
Here is my Dad when he was the Gilboa Town Superintendent beside one of the snow plows that were used.  It was either an Oshkosh or FWD, (four wheel drive).  They often had to use tire chains also to maneuver the icy, snowy roads.  The man with Dad was the pastor of the Flat Creek Baptist Church, Reverend Shaline.  He baptized my sister Marilyn by full immersion when she was 11 years old in 1947, which, just might be the year this picture was taken.  
When Dad ran for his second term for the job, the town clerk, Alice ? dropped her pencil when she learned the vote was a tie.  The decision was made that each candidate would serve for half the term and the candidate going first would be decided by a coin toss.  Dad lost the toss and rather than serving half a term, conceded the job to his opponent.  After the loss, we moved back to Hubbard Hill, probably in 1948.

February 2, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 2, 1963

Sat 20-30 Cloudy very light snow in am.  Turning to rain in afternoon and evening.  Wayne went to Middleburg. to put up poster for school.  Linda and Jay went too.  He came home around 7 P.M. and Gerald started for Gloversville but turned around and came back because roads were so icy. We’d planned to go to South Jefferson to rally but didn’t go because of ice.  Boys had to use tractor to get Gerald's and David's car home up the hill below the house.

Comment: Slippery-n-hell on the hill  and activities delayed.

Thanks to Michael Hubbard,  I just learned that my great-great grandfather Jabez Hubbard with his wife Maria Brandow moved to Hubbard Hill or to a close-by mountain in 1860 or so and was an officer in the Green County anti-slavery organizations. More about this later.

February 1, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

February 1, 1963

Fri -5 to 28 Bright Clear Day and Warmer.  I washed in am.  Washed 2 blankets and a bedspread for Gerald.  Did some ironing in pm. Wayne went to a ball game at night and David went out. Clifton's cold still bad.  

Comment:  Slow day on the hill, high school basketball game on Friday night.  These games were the social event of the week while we were in high school giving us isolated farm kids the opportunity to interact socially with kids from other schools and especially, girls from other schools.  The buses were sexually separated for away games, girls on one side, the boys on the other, and each bus drove with the interior lights on and included at least one teacher chaperon.  At the high school dances, we were also closely monitored to ensure minimal body contact between the sexes.  Dance bands stuck to the Hit Parade type of arrangements with very few up-tempo songs.  Certainly, no bumping and grinding that apparently is now accepted. 


 I was a starter for the Gilboa High School mostly because it was a Class E school with less than fifty boys eligible for sports in the entire high school and I could kinda run, dribble and chew gum at the same time.  My career came to an ignominious end when, while walking to the bus after a game, I lit up a cigarette practically in front of the coach and was thrown off the team the last game of my senior year.  I chronicle this sad event in a previous blog: Click To Listen:  Hubbard Music Mountain: Last Game At Gilboa Central Talking Blues:

Talking blues is a form of country music. It is characterized by rhythmic speech or near-speech where the melody is free, but the rhythm is strict.  See below for Wikipedia link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_blues