Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Wednesday

It's Recyclables Day!

47.8 degrees and raining.

(and it smells just like Spring!)

HOWEVER .......

Here's the WKTV forecast: "As (Wednesday) goes on, cold air will traverse from northwest to southeast across CNY, mixing with and changing the rain to snow. Accumulations should mainly be confined to areas north and west of Rome, where a few inches may fall. Here's our current thinking:

"Things begin to get tricky late (Wednesday). Clouds should hang in, and with cold air in place, we could be seeing pockets of flurries and freezing drizzle tomorrow evening, which could make travel a touch slick. Then, ample moisture is going to overspread the region Thursday..especially after about Noon. With cold air in place, wintry precipitation will occur. Our computer models are having a world of trouble honing in on exactly how this is going to play out, but at this point, we can say this: Snow will build in much of the area Thursday. Snow will mix with and change to sleet and freezing rain south and east of Utica Thursday afternoon. Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain is possible Thursday evening and Thursday night before ending as a period of snow Friday. It is far too early to say anything specific regarding amounts, but significant snow and/or ice accumulation is likely somewhere in Central or Eastern New York. Winter Storm Watches are posted for areas south and east of Utica, and will likely be expanded as we get closer. Expect travel headaches Thursday night."


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In yesterday morning's blog post I included a "chain letter" that I'd received urging me (all of us!) to send letters to recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

However ------- I began getting Email right away saying "It won't work!!"

Here's why!! ............................Urban Legend Explanation

"One of the consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is that the U.S. Postal Service will no longer deliver mail addressed to "Any Service Member," "A Recovering American Soldier," or any similar generic addressee.

This is to protect the safety of American servicemen and women. Likewise, according to a statement dated November 8, 2007, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center will not accept such mail at its facility (though mail addressed to specific individuals will still go through).
Holiday cards should be addressed and sent to:

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Cards must be postmarked by December 10 , 2008.

THAT MEANS BEFORE THE 11th:
in other words, TODAY!

Click the next link for more:


One writer said he'd been told to "put 'Medical Family Assistance Center' as top line." Maybe that works ------- I don't know. I'm very sorry to have thrown you a curve!

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I don't think that there's much snow left on the ground, today, but yesterday - when it was still Winter - more bright decorations appeared: Above - on Osborn Avenue.



At the Swanberg Home on the corner of E. Main Street and Stafford Avenue.



There's a newly decorated tree on a balcony on W. Bacon Street.



Faith Gentile's doorway and ......



.... the Nichols' front porch brighten Berrill Avenue.


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Speaking of "Bright Ideas" .....


Road Salt and Mud are already here:

why wait ???

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Rick Garrett told me, yesterday, that a salesman - or deliveryman - had asked where the name "Waterville" had come from, and he wasn't sure: My information comes from this 1851 "History of the Town of Sangerfield" by Pomroy Jones, found in "Annals and Recollections of Oneida County."

"The village of Waterville stands chiefly upon lots Nos. 39 and 40 in (Sangerfield) but a small part of the village is however in the town of Marshall. It is situated upon the east branch of the Oriskany creek, at its junction with a small tributary which rises among the hills in the east and south-east part of the town of Marshall. At, and below this junction the east branch falls very rapidly until it unites with the west branch and Deansville. The power thus furnished is the only durable water power in the town. This circumstance, very early in the settlement of the country, caused a collection or "huddle" of buildings, known as "Sangerfield Huddle," and which by a steady and healthy growth has become the third place in importance in the county. In 1793, the former Colonel, but then Judge Sanger, built the first saw mill at this place. In the year 1794, Benjamin White erected one on the site of the present woolen factory. In the year 1796, Mr. White erected a grist mill near the site of the one now owned by Goodwin and Church. Within a few years afterwards Justus Tower, Esq., who settled in the place in 1799, built the grist mill which stands a few rods below."

"In the year 1808, the Sangerfield Post Office which had been previously located in this village, was removed to the Centre. In this year or the year preceding, the village, which from its first settlement had no other local name than the Huddle, received the name of Waterville. In the fall of the year, on a certain evening, Doctor Sherman Bartholomew, Josiah Bacon, Reuben Bacon, Isaac Terry, and John Williams, Esquires, were together in the tavern kept either by Eli Hotchkiss, or Pardon Keyes, now the dwelling house of Doctor E. A. Munger*, and among other topics, the name of the village became a subject of conversation, and it was unanimously agreed that the village deserved a more dignified name and that it should have one. After the suggestion of a variety of names, Doctor Bartholomew proposed that of Waterville, to which they all assented, and by that name it has since been recognized. It was not however generally known by that cognomen out of the village, until the Waterville Post Office was established in 1823. The name Waterville was selected, because not only agreeable, but a very appropriate one. The writer would not, like a certain lady author, intimate, that Whiskeyville** would have been more appropriate, believing that pure water is more congenial to the tastes of a majority of its citizens than whiskey."

* I think that Dr. Mungr's house (or a part of it) - which once stood on Main Street - is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Pesto, on Babbott Avenue.

** The "Huddle" was well-known for the fine whiskey produced at a distillery at the bottom of the hill on what is now Buell Avenue. Thus, the name "Whiskey Hollow."



Buell Avenue - then Mill Street - c. 1870.
Click to enlarge.

The distillery is the grayish building right across the road from the white barn which has been Mrs. Leigh's summer residence for many years. I was once told that the barn had been the cooperage for the distillery and that barrels of whiskey had been rolled back and forth through a tunnel beneath the road!

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Now go and have a Great Day

and remember .......



- Only four months 'til Spring!