Saturday, December 8, 2018 Update
This Weekend in Amsterdam The Historic Amsterdam League will host Christmas With the Sanfords, Saturday, December 8, 2018 at Amsterdam City Hall. The free event features tours of the historic residence, which HAL members have decorated for the holidays. https://www.recordernews.com/news/local-news/139677
Historic Amsterdam League
Amsterdam Icons 2019, HAL’s annual full color 12-month calendar, is now available
http://www.historicamsterdam.org/ The Latest Podcast "The Great War"
Bob Cudmore "The Historians"
Episode 243
The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Another topic: a steam train excursion in upstate New York in 1968.
Keep The Historians with Bob Cudmore on the Internet and Radio in 2019 "24 "Days to Go https://www.gofundme.com/historians2018 The Historians Podcast on Amsterdam Radio this morning, Saturday, December 8, 2018 8:40 am WCSS 106.9FM and 1490AM or listen on line http://www.wcss1490.com/ Mohawk Valley Weather-Saturday, December 8, 2018-A chance of snow showers, mainly after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 28. Wind chill values as low as zero. West wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tonight A slight chance of snow showers before 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16.
Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 33. Saturday, December 8, 2018 http://www.fortplainmuseum.com/ The Fort Plain Museum’s annual holiday event, Christmas at the Fort, will be held on Saturday, December 8, 2018 from 10 am to 4 pm and is free admission. This event is held at the museum, located at 389 Canal Street, Fort Plain, NY 13339. New this year is a local author book signing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. including the forthcoming book, George Washington and the Mohawk Frontier by Norm Bollen.
Bob Cudmore, Mohawk Valley legend, author of Lost Mohawk Valley and the voice of the American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference has been added to the authors’ lineup this Saturday at Christmas at the Fort. Don't miss out!
Other highlights of the book fair: The Home Voices Speak Louder Than the Drums: Dreams and the Imagination in Civil War Letters and Memoirs by Wanda Easter Burch
A variety of Mohawk Valley/American Revolution history books by James F. Morrison
The Trail of the Wild Flowers Parts I & II - Lucy Ladd Stratton by Sandy Nellis Lane
War on the Middleline: The Founding of a Community in the Kayaderosseras Patent In the Midst of the American Revolution by James E Richmond
Crucible Along the Mohawk by Johnny T Rockenstire
Whispers of Liberty and many more by Heidi Sprouse
The Liaisons Plaisantes, who specialize in 18th century music, will be playing colonial Christmas music from 1 to 2 pm and have copies of their "A Plaisantes Christmas" CD for sale in the gift shop. The group is heard with their version of Gloucester Wassail as the theme song of The Historians Podcast. This Weekend in The Daily Gazette and on line "The Historians" Saturday, December 8, 2018-Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History takes us toy shopping in old Amsterdam. Downtown Amsterdam was a good place to shop for children’s presents in the mid-20th century.
Hymen and Vera Gordon came to Amsterdam from Rochester in 1941. Hymen was a manager for Schine Theatres based in Gloversville. The couple started the Toy Tent on East Main Street in Amsterdam in 1946. The name apparently came from a tent made to go over a card table that children could use as a playhouse. A Gloversville company, Nelson and Taylor, made the tents.
The store was first located on the north side of East Main Street then moved to the south side of the street. There was a lollipop tree in the window of the new store and a whole room devoted to dolls. The store’s slogan was “Amsterdam’s Happy Birthday Store.”
The Toy Tent carried Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, action toys, mechanical toys, model airplanes and even tricycles.
Hy and Vera’s son David Gordon started working in the business at an early age. The business closed in the 1960s. Later David Gordon headed Collette Manufacturing in Amsterdam.
Alphonso and Catherine D’Alessandro owned the Gift & Hobby Shop at Lark and East Main streets in the city’s East End. The building was destroyed by fire in the 1980s.
The hobby part of the business had a large supply of model plastic kits. The store held an annual contest for the best plastic car model.
John E. Larrabee’s hardware store on Market Street sold Lionel and American Flyer model trains at Christmas. Each brand installed a model train layout in the store. A 1958 ad offered an American Flyer guided missile train for $33.88 that could fire rockets from a railroad car. You could watch the missiles fly with a searchlight from another railroad car.
For several years in the 1980s Amsterdam was the shipping center for the tremendously popular Cabbage Patch Dolls made by Coleco Industries.
Coleco, which had started in Connecticut in 1932, came to Amsterdam in 1964 and moved into former carpet mill buildings to produce recreational products, including swimming pools and toys. The workforce totaled over 4,000 in the early 1980s with the popularity of the Cabbage Patch dolls. The firm made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the home computer market with its Adam computer and went into bankruptcy in 1988.
CLARK STREET TENANT
Reader Ray Knapik wrote that he and his mom rented the upstairs flat at Albert and Katie Sikoras’ home on Clark Avenue in Amsterdam from 1943 to 1950. The Sikoras were the subject of a recent column.
Knapik said, “I remember their son Harry had the best comic book collection of all the kids around there. Wish I knew where that stash was today.”
Harry’s older brother, Joe, was a semi-pro football player for the Amsterdam Zephyrs. Knapik and other neighborhood kids used to play touch football with Joe Sikora on the street.
Knapik said, “Heating oil tanks were kept in the cellar. In those days I had to go down there to fetch a pail. Very heavy for two flights of stairs. Also had an ice-box on the back porch. Carrying a block of ice from the ice-man’s truck was not easy either.
“The Sikoras were Polish, and I recall the wonderful fragrant food Mrs. Sikora cooked as I went up and down the stairs.
“In the back of the house was the community playground which was known as the Rockton Diamonds. Had a lot of good friends in Rockton (a section of Amsterdam) and that was our hang out place. Learned how to ice-skate on the sidewalk in front of the house.”
Bob Cudmore is a freelance columnist. Opinions expressed in his column are his own and not necessarily the newspaper’s. Anyone with a suggestion for a Focus on History topic may contact him at 346-6657 or bobcudmore@yahoo.com. Two Schoharie sites nominated for National Register
Area settled by Palatine Germans
Bill Buell Daily Gazette https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/12/07/two-schoharie-sites-nominated-for-national-register MAYFIELD — The village will be starting a new Christmas tradition this year with its first-ever Mayfield Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 8, 2018 by BRIANA O'HARA Leader Herald http://www.leaderherald.com/news/local-news/2018/12/holiday-parade-and-tree-lighting-in-mayfield-on-saturday/ Bob Cudmore’s guest on Talk of the Town this Sunday, December 9, 2018 is Troy Mayor Patrick Madden. Mayor Madden discusses efforts to reopen Troy’s public swimming pools and work planned on Troy’s drinking water system. Hear Talk of the Town Sunday at 6:30 a.m. on Magic 590 and 100.5. Posted as a podcast hear on The Historians Bob Cudmore and Troy Mayor Patrick Madden at Magic590 WROW Albany To invite Bob to speak to your organization, please email bobcudmore@yahoo.com
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