HOMETOWN HISTORY

June 4, 2020

135 Years Ago

Home & Vicinity – A few nights ago a fair damsel who was coming out of one of our churches was approached by a young man who requested the pleasure of seeing “her home.” The young lady replied,” “No, sir; if you want to go home with me you must go with me to church, sit with me during the exercises and thus show yourself worthy of my company!” Sensible girl, that! If others would follow her example, the young men who loaf around the streets until service is nearly over and then station themselves near the church door, and when the ladies appear ask to go home with them, would soon become more familiar with the inside of the churches than at present.

June 1885

110 Years Ago

Halley’s Comet has now got safely around to the west of the sun, and every evening when it is clear enough the celestial wanderer is on exhibition. Every day it recedes farther and farther from the sun, so that now its hour of setting is about 11 p.m. Its tail, however, which for a few days was a spectacle to wonder at, grows less and less as the nights go by, and by next week the comet may be well toward invisibility again, at least to the naked eye. Those, however, who fail to see it now should take courage from the thought that another chance will be theirs in 1985.

June 1910

90 Years Ago

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today announced that 55 Negro Gold Star mothers have declined to make the pilgrimage to the graves of their sons under rules they said the War Department has laid down providing for segregation by color. The mothers have appealed to President Hoover to abolish the ruling. Their petition terms the War Department’s attitude “gratuitous insult.” Their petition states: “Twelve years after the Armistice ending WW I, the high principles of 1918 seem to have been forgotten. We who gave and who are colored are insulted by the implication that we are not fit persons to travel with other bereaved ones. Instead of making up parties of Gold Star mothers on the basis of geographical location, we are set aside as a separate group, Jim Crowed, segregated and insulted.” However, despite the protest, according to Toubee Davidson, Acting Secretary of the U.S. War Department, the policy of grouping all Negro Gold Star mothers and widows making the pilgrimage to their sons’ and husbands’ graves on European battlefields will be continued.

June 1930

65 Years Ago

Peter Axhoj, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. Axel Axhoj, Winney Hill road, outdistanced a field of 32 contestants to win the second annual Teenage Road-e-o sponsored by the Oneonta Junior Chamber of Commerce
this weekend. Peter scored 352 out of a possible 400 points to win the skilled driving tests. He came in second last year. He will compete for the New York State Jaycees title at Oswego on June 26. For the Oneonta contest held at Webb Island, Peter won a trophy, a suitcase, auto seat covers, a camera and $75 in U.S. savings bonds. Second place went to Russell Hanson, Milford. Three girls who entered the contest placed 15th, 16th and 19th.

June 1955

45 Years Ago

The best in television shows: “Good Times” This series usually bypasses street life for blacks, but in this two-part program, young J.J. is forced to run with a gang or else. Characters like Mad Dog, Neck Bone and Sweet Pea pressure the skinny artist until the comedy turns serious. There’s a light touch to the loving family life that dominates the early scenes of part one, as if to say, this is the way ghetto life can be, as opposed to life with marauding street gangs.
“M*A*S*H*” Nonsense played with style, as this ace series has a little fun with the CIA. Colonel Flagg, from the intelligence agency, investigates a penicillin robbery in the unit, and everyone the colonel questions appears to have an alias, in this wacky, tricky story. Poor Colonel Flagg doesn’t stand a chance playing detective, checking out wise guys like Hawkeye, Trapper John, and Klinger.

June 1975

30 Years Ago

The Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts will present three railroad films outdoors on the deck of the Autumn Café, 244 Main Street, on Monday, June 11. The screening which starts at 8:30 p.m. will feature the premiere of Director Marco North’s Grass Will Grow, followed by Buster Keaton’s comedy The Railroader, and the saga of the American railroad produced by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Moving On. Grass Will Grow documents the D&H’s Oneonta Roundhouse, once the largest structure of its kind in the world. North presents an evocative picture of a thriving past and an uncertain present by using images of the decaying roundhouse, vintage railroad film, and the memories of railroad people who remember its heyday. In The Railroader, Buster Keaton crosses North America from east to west on a railroad track speeder. The comedian’s sight gags are as spry and ingenious as they were in the days of silent slapstick comedy. By using early prints, and newsreel and silent film footage, Moving On tells the exciting history of America’s railroads to the accompaniment of folk songs, train noises and voices of the past.

June 1990

20 Years Ago

The following births were reported at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta in the past two months: April 17, born to Lisa and Daniel Tiska of Oneonta, a daughter; May 4, born to Edith and Robert Platt of Davenport, a son; May 9, born to Jack and Randy Tweedie of Walton, a son; May 11, born to Becky and Brian Cutting of Unadilla, a son; May 12, born to Amy Peters and Matthew Wheeler of West Winfield, a daughter; May 14, born to Shanda Whitbeck and Jason Olsen of Bloomville, a daughter; May 15, born to Irene and Geoffrey Hassard of Oneonta, a son; May 18, born to Rebecca Swart and Sean Obryon of Stamford, a son; born to Amy and Jeff Sloven, a son; May 24, born to Jennifer Northrup and Wade Johnson of East Meredith, a daughter; May 25, born to Kimm and Tim Hungerford of West Laurens, a daughter; May 28, born to Carlene Meyer and Matt Girard of Oneonta, a daughter.

June 2000

10 Years Ago

Damaschke Field, one of the oldest minor league fields still in use, will see a lot of excitement and play this summer as the Oneonta Outlaws, formerly the Saratoga Phillies, move into the recently renovated 3,700-seat ballpark this summer.
Opening Day for the Outlaws and Damaschke Field will be on Sunday, June 6. The gates open at 3 p.m. and the game starts at 5, and fans attending the game will receive a free refrigerator magnet of the Outlaws 2010 schedule

June 4, 2010