Hometown History

December 15, 2022

135 Years Ago
The Local News – The D.F. Wilber Hook & Ladder Company are to give a grand minstrel show at the Metropolitan theatre on the evening of December 23rd. As is well known, this company contains among its membership some fine musical talent, all of which will be employed on the evening of the 23rd, and, in addition, four first-class minstrel performers from New York City have been engaged. The program will be very carefully arranged and it is expected the show will prove a great treat.
The town Sunday School Association was well attended and of great interest and benefit to all present. The program called for the discussion of practical questions and the persons to whom they were assigned advanced some good ideas. The importance of the Bible in the school, in the hand of each teacher, was very strongly endorsed. The line between safe and sinful amusements was discussed with considerable animation – public dances, games of chance and general theatre-going being regarded as unbecoming a Christian.

December 1887

110 Years Ago
Oneonta Herald Christmas verses – When grizzled Santa came to town, he didn’t wander up and down. A Herald in his hand he took. It was for him a shopping book. Just play the trick that Santa played – T’will save you money when you trade. “Ha” said Santa, “What’s the use of going further? New York’s bigger, but it isn’t better or cheaper; and when the going’s bad it would be foolish to tire my reindeer on longer trips. Everything useful, pretty or desirable for Christmas giving can be had in Oneonta, and right here’s where I do my shopping.”

December 1912

90 Years Ago
Santa Claus is going in for realism in a big way at Christmas time this year. Santa’s 1932 array of toys includes miniature vacuum cleaners and electric irons, for example. For boys there are electric trucks with real motors for them. Steam shovels are equipped to dig and dump in the sand pile. Instead of runners, the 1932-33 sleds will be fitted with four wheels. Whether this change with the event of good old-fashioned snow remains to be seen, but Santa says light winters in the past few years justify wheels instead of runners, Santa reports. The animals too have a lot of new tricks. There are ducks that quack as they waddle and frogs that leap and croak. Dogs and cats groan and mew when taken for a walk on their leashes. Dolls will have their own wardrobes, complete from lingerie to bonnet. Doll houses are modernistic in architecture and a strictly modern note is struck in tiny electric ranges and refrigerators which, like the electric lights, are wired for business.

December 1932

70 Years Ago
Oneonta Sales Company, Inc. 27 Market Street, put its 1953 line of Ford cars on display yesterday, featuring the new “miracle ride,” which smooths out bumps and controls side-sway on turns as one of the mechanical improvements. Prices will be unchanged from those on the present models, the Ford Motor Co. has announced. A new, wider and more massive grille with a single chrome center spinner is featured on the 1953 Ford passenger cars. A new chrome center bar wraps around the front fenders. New jet-tube tail lights with larger signal area which can be seen more easily from the side or rear, and a new chrome deck lid handle mounted below the Ford crest with a concealed weather-protected key opening, are other features. Eleven body styles and 18 models are available in the three lines of 1953 cars – Mainline, Customline and Crestline.

December 1952

50 Years Ago
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller said Wednesday that the state should consider making seat belt use by motorists mandatory. Speaking to a luncheon meeting of the Traffic Safety Council, he noted that 3,000 are killed and 300,000 injured by traffic accidents in New York State every year. He said much of this “epidemic” could be prevented by seat belt use. Studies show that only 30 to 35 percent of motorists use seat belts regularly. “We frankly don’t know if a mandatory seat belt law in New York would achieve results,” he said, “but too many lives are at stake to simply ignore the idea.”

December 1972

30 Years Ago
Hartwick College hopes to pay more attention to minority students and staff with the appointment of an interim director of multicultural affairs. College President Richard A. Detweiler has appointed Diane Slater of Oneonta to the job for about six months. Slater will be responsible for working with minority students, according to Ron Sherhofer, chair of the college’s new Pluralism Task Force. “We want Diane to focus on our students and not be too caught up in administrative work,” he said. A number of services for Hartwick’s minority students have been running at less than full capacity while the college sought to replace Carol Jean Hicks, who recently left Hartwick to finish a doctoral degree, college officials said. Hartwick has about 1,500 students with a minority enrollment of about three to four percent. “My concern for the future of the college is that we understand why diversity matters to Hartwick College,” Detweiler said.

December 1992

20 Years Ago
Officials at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta and The Hospital in Sidney said Friday they are asking their employees to volunteer to be immunized for smallpox. The inoculations are part of a New York State Health Department plan to vaccinate 16,000 healthcare workers for smallpox to protect against a terrorist attack. Between 90 and 100 Fox Hospital employees are being asked to volunteer for the vaccinations according to Dr. David Evelyn, Fox’s vice-president of medical affairs. “If a suspected case of smallpox came in, these people would be equipped to deal with caring for the patient without putting other healthcare workers at risk,” Evelyn said. President Bush on Friday directed some 500,000 military personnel and civilian defense workers serving in high risk areas to take the smallpox vaccine. The president said that he will be inoculated as well.

December 2002