Waves on the Beach

Autumn Comes In Like a Lion

Autumn is my favorite season; the cooler temperatures that come in on the wind, the changing colors of the trees. I love clouds when they have character. None of this blanket of gray overcast; give me towering thunderheads and scuttling cumulus ahead of the wind. The peek-a-boo of blue sky between the clouds is like finding a treasure.

The entire summer here on Lake Erie has been a mixture of feast or famine; weeks on end without rain, followed by one deluge after another. The first day of autumn came in blustery and rainy. The wind has persisted for days now, along with showers and downpours. I spent this morning at Barcelona harbor watching the massive waves roll to the shore, throwing themselves with explosive force against the break wall and then exploding once again when the retreating wave met another incoming. The force of nature is always awe inspiring and a bit frightening.

The crashing waves have taken over the beach. The gulls scurry to find any tidbit that might be washed up, then scatter when the next wave rolls in. A few brave, or perhaps foolhardy, gulls were aloft being buffeted by the winds straight out of the west, trying to make headway only to be held in position like kites. I wish I were a painter, I’d love to put the violence of the wind and waves on canvas. Photos don’t do it justice, but I’ll share a few with you anyway. Happy autumn everyone. Enjoy the fleeting season for the beauty it holds. Carpe diem.

Tidbits from 1939

Ripley in Review

While perusing the papers this week, I came across some bits and pieces in the October 26, 1939 issue of the Ripley Review you might find interesting. I’m amused by the style of writing back then. This is all in good humor, with no intent to antagonize, criticize or in any other manner upset any of my readers.

Gambling House Raided
Andy Arkielpane, Jamestown, was arrested Thursday afternoon on a charge of operating a gambling house. Arkielpane was the only man in the place at the time the police raided it. The place had been chartered by the state as the Chadakoin club.
(Bad timing on the part of the police – they couldn’t raid during, say, the evening when there may have been some customers?)

Aged Woman Fractures Hip
Mrs. Florrie Benedict, aged 79 years, received a fractured left hip when a heavy truck tire and rim fell on her while she was in the garage in the rear of her home Monday afternoon.
(Couldn’t she have refused receipt?)

Pulling Up Street Car Rails
A specially designed machine has been in use in removing street car rails from Central Avenue in Fredonia, and a company is to be formed to promote the use of the machine which is now operated by man power. Four men are required to operate the machine and they can take up 400 to 480 feet of rails a day.
(Good luck with promoting that! Can you imagine getting someone to do that today? Sounds like hard work.)

Farm Buildings Destroyed
The large barn and three farm buildings on the Clayton Kelly farm in North Clymer were destroyed by fire last Thursday night during the electrical storm which swept over the section last week Thursday night.
(Wait, when was that? Last Thursday?)

Silver Fox Sighted
A large silver fox made its appearance on the Frank Thayer farm which is located on the Frewsburg-Kennedy road. The animal sauntered across the road, proceeded in a leisurely manner across the yard and disappeared into the woods back of the house.
(Now there’s a nice use of descriptive words. Cocky little devil…)

Yessir, Another Bigger Yam
That this has been an exceptionally good year for the raising of sweet potatoes, or more properly, yams, was proven again Monday when Ross Wolf brought to The Review office one of the big tubers he raised right here in Ripley. The tuber weighed 4 ¾ pounds when dug.
(So what did the yam weight after it was dug?)

And my personal favorite:

County to Get Prisoner
When John J. Burke is released from Albany county jail after serving his sentence, he will be met by John J. Warren of Dunkirk with a warrant for his arrest on a charge of second degree larceny. The man is alleged to have rifled a poor box at Holy Trinity church in Dunkirk, the amount obtained having been about $95. According to Police Chief Warren, Burke has served about 25 years of his life in jail and that he is on record as having confessed to about 15,000 burglaries involving 7000 churches.
(Does this mean God doesn’t help those who help themselves?)

The New Fall Season

The new fall season line up on television has started. Such perennial favorites as The Biggest Loser, The Simpsons and CSI Miami, Las Vegas, New York, ad infinitum once again grace our big flat screens with their version of reality “ripped from the headlines.” Or do they?

If you’re one of the lucky people who subscribe, at exorbitant prices, to one of the satellite dishes or cable TV, no worries; you’re getting your favorite shows in high definition and living color with interruptions only when it rains, snows or the cable “goes out.” However, if you are throw- back to another time, or just plain stubborn and you’re using an old fashioned antenna, well my friends, that’s a horse of a different color.

First, the government warned us for months that as of February 2009 we would no longer be able to watch our old TV sets with just an antenna on the roof. But, oops, not enough of us were buying (literally) into the switch, so the date for us old fogeys to get it in gear was changed to June 2009. As of that date we had to have either cable, satellite, or a digital converter box set up and ready to go in order to view our much beloved boob tubes. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE some intelligent, thought provoking, uplifting shows on television. I personally have access to over 300 channels, but I just can’t seem to find them very often.

We find our old antenna from 1965 isn’t good enough, so we buy a new one, making sure the distance ranges will get us to Buffalo and Erie. Okay, we have our vouchers from the government to get our magical converter boxes to hook onto our antennas. But before we can do that, we have to find a young person who understands the mumbo jumbo that explains how to set up the converter box. Got it hooked up? Good!

It doesn’t work.

It wasn’t enough that we had a remote for the television, another for the VCR, a third for the DVD, now we have another for the converter box AND the antenna rotor as well! But when the new antenna and converter box still don’t bring in the channels we want, we need an antenna booster to amplify the signal. Gone are the days of channel 2, 7 and 12; now we have channels 2.1, 2.3, 2.5 etc. and can’t find any of our old shows on any of them.

I think it’s all a plot by the cable and satellite companies to get more customers.

New antenna: $114
Power booster: $59
Turning off the TV and curling up with a good book: Priceless

Do Good Anyway

"Noblesse oblige." With great wealth comes great responsibility. This sentiment has been paraphrased, reworked and oft quoted. The best example of the spirit of "noblesse oblige" in recent years has been that of Senator Edward Kennedy. While watching parts of his funeral last week, I was struck once again by the public service he performed during his almost 50 years in government. The Kennedy family, love 'em or hate 'em, were born to privilege and power. Joe Sr. groomed his boys, Joe Jr., Jack, Bobbie and Teddy, for power. Their mother, Rose, groomed them for service. In the end, it was Ted Kennedy who served his country the longest. But it's not his "official" service I want to address. It is his private contributions with which I am most impressed.

Without fanfare or publicity, Ted Kennedy went about doing what he could, individually, for hundreds, if not thousands, of people who crossed his path. News stories are abundant now that he has died about how he read weekly to inner city school children, most of whom did not know him as "Senator", but rather "friend." I heard about how he personally called each family in his home state of Massachusetts who were victimized by 9/11, not once but several times, checking up, seeing how they coping with that unspeakable tragedy, a tragedy he understood all too well. Time and again he used his position of privilege and power for people less fortunate than he. His legislation was always aimed at helping people, whether it was civil rights or health care reform. He reached out to the "common" people around him, not just his rich and powerful cronies. Kennedy admitted himself he was not a perfect man, far from it, but he persevered, he kept trying. Politics aside, Senator Kennedy was a great humanitarian and as such, an example for all of us.

I have often used this column to exhort people to get involved in the community, give back, help their fellow citizens, a sort of noblesee oblige for the working class. I fall far short of that which I could do, but I keep trying. I'm not a rich or powerful person, but occasionally I need to be reminded to be unselfish with my time and energy. During a particularly low point recently, a friend gave me a copy of some words Mother Teresa had on a wall in the children's home in Calcutta. Subsequently I followed up on the Internet and discovered they were written by a 19 year old Harvard student in 1968. The original is from a booklet written by Kent Keith for college leaders. Now posted at my desk, The Paradoxical Commandments urge me on and give me impetus to continue when I feel no one is listening or cares. Perhaps you will find them inspirational as well.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

A Visit from the County Executive

Ripley, the once forgotten child of New York State, on the outskirts of civilization, more a part of Pennsylvania than New York due to the proximity to shopping, lower taxes and job opportunity; left in the dust, literally, with its country roads; strangled by high New York State taxes and a $54 million state deficit, unwilling or unable to entice business to stay; collapse of the school merger and needed solutions to educate the children of the community; these were some of the issues Greg Edwards, Chautauqua County Executive, faced when engaging the Meeder’s Restaurant crowd on Tuesday morning this week.

With small groups of people around tables, drinking coffee, eating breakfast, Mr. Edwards addressed the concerns and sometimes anger of the Ripley community. “Why hasn’t anything been done to build up Shortman Road,” local resident Ray Williams asked. Mr. Edwards replied, “I’ve been pushing for a Welcome Center at the Shortman Road exit. Pennsylvania has one for less than 50 miles of their state along the I-90 corridor. New York State has almost 400 miles on Interstate 90. We should have a Welcome Center here.” When asked why people would stop at a welcome center with no restaurants, motels or businesses in the area, he talked about the business project that has been in the works for some time now. “One hundred fifty acres of land has been secured behind Regal Trucking on Shortman Road,” he said. “An enormous amount of effort has been invested in this project. The DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and archeological studies have been completed, water and sewer is being put in. The land will be “shovel ready” by the end of summer, and that’s important to prospective businesses, to have the site ready for development.” Although a firm offer has not been made for the prime property, distribution and transportation businesses have expressed interest. Business like this will bring other businesses to the town, building up the Shortman Road interchange, and eventually the village itself, Edwards believes.

When questioned about property taxes in the area, Mr. Edwards pointed out that our property tax has decreased for the past several years. “How will the wind mill project impact me,” asked local businessman Bob Bentley. “It will create a direct cash influx to the property owners,” explained Edwards, “as well as substantially lower property taxes.” As to how much the wind mill project would lower taxes, he deferred to Town Supervisor, Peter Ryan, who stated, “We’re being very careful about the process, making sure it’s done right. If the project is approved, and we’re a ways from that, it could result in a significant tax reduction for property owners.” A lighter tax burden would not be the only benefit to the town. In order to bring the component parts of the wind mills into position, roads would need to be widened, strengthened, and in some cases rebuilt. “Cross road intersections will need to be built up in order for the trucks to make the turns,” Edwards stated. As for roads in general in Chautauqua County, he said some tough decisions need to be made on the delivery of services to the roads in the county. “Who should be in the business of highway construction, maintenance and plowing is one of the issues that is being analyzed,” he said.

The fate of Ripley’s school is still in the balance. “Only two school mergers have happened in New York State in the last 10 years,” commented Mr. Edwards. In discussion with Ripley School Superintendent John Hogan and Business Manager, John Frey, he learned that options are still being pursued for Ripley’s students, even though the Westfield/Ripley merger was voted down. “Mergers aren’t on the horizon and tuitioning out our students was not approved,” commented Mr. Hogan. “We’re exploring other opportunities for our high school students at this time.”

Greg Edwards briefly addressed the crowd by saying his folks regularly go to Meeder’s on Friday nights and that he has long enjoyed the village as a fisherman. “With the addition of the Wine Trail, Quincy Cellars has become one of the places I regularly suggest people go to have a unique winery-dinner experience,” he added. “The pride this town has taken in the Veterans’ Monument was almost overwhelming as evidenced by the emotions I expressed at the dedication ceremony.” He went on to say the Memorial Day parade this year was one of the most well attended and delivered he has seen to date. He concluded by saying, “The town has tremendous potential due to its location and I have been working hard to capitalize upon [that potential] for the residents and the county.”

It’s hard to solve a community’s problems in just over an hour, but Greg Edwards tried his best to assure the people of Ripley that progress is being made on a number of fronts. “It was one of the liveliest groups and most informative community conversations I have had to date.”

Tribute to Carlyle Neckers

Carlyle Neckers, music teacher in Ripley during the 1960s, recently passed away at the age of 96. I hadn’t thought much about him until I saw his obituary in the Jamestown paper. Then of course the memories started floated back.

I’ve searched the old yearbooks, at least the ones I have, and he appears in 1961 as the chorus teacher. I would have been 10 years old then, and not yet exposed to his rich and salty sense of humor. But three years later, in February 1964 the Beatles hit America and Mr. Neckers broadside. It wasn’t music he assured us, it wouldn’t last. He went so far as to state, “They won’t last 10 years.” The girls all clamored they would last forever! Yeah, yeah, yeah… We were all right. In ten years the group disintegrated, and yet their music lives on. I wonder if he ever remembered that prediction.

I remember Mr. Neckers as a fun guy, making musical notes easy to understand and chorus a pleasure. He would tease and cajole us into singing his choice of songs for concerts, songs I later recognized from Broadway shows or classic movies. “Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep, cheep, cheep, talk-a-lot-pick-a-little-more…” with the counterpoint Good Night Ladies from a hilarious scene from The Music Man. Ridiculous in the 9th grade, but a classic I later learned. He introduced to me to a whole world of music that I didn’t understand at the time. I vaguely remember a music history class of his, but I wasn’t paying much attention I guess. But over the years, bits and pieces come back to me.

He appears in the RCS yearbooks from 1961 until 1968. He guided us through dozens of Christmas and Spring concerts, and trips to Chautauqua Institute to compete with the other local schools. Like most of the teachers I had, I never thought of them as whole people. They were one-dimensional, without history or substance outside the school day. Mr. Neckers life is a study in a life well lived. From having a grandpa who served in the Civil War, to operator of a general store, to semi-pro basketball player, he was an interesting man in all respects it seems.

I’m saddened by his death, even though I didn’t know him well. He touched my young life briefly, dropped some pearls of learning, and went on to bigger and better things. I’m glad he passed my way. Rest in peace Mr. Neckers. You made this world a better place.

To read more about his life, go to http://www.lifestorynet.com/memories/50124/.

Pride and a Bit of Prejudice

Pride and a Bit of Prejudice

Thomas Wolfe wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again,” and while, unlike his character, I don’t write about the warts and blemishes of my home town, I will concede it is hard to go home again. After a forty year absence, people change. Or do they? I draw upon memories of my school years in Ripley. By the age of 20 I had left the area, only to return for the annual visits to family. My experiences of my hometown were colored by a teenager’s perspective. After the roller rink closed down, after the movie theaters in Westfield and North East ceased to exist, there wasn’t much to do here. We hung around Meeder’s, gossiped and made plans for bright futures. We instinctively separated into groups: the “in crowd”, the in-crowd wannabes, the jocks and their girls, the brainiacs, the geeks, etc. You get the picture. There was nothing worse than wanting to be a part of one group and realizing you probably wouldn’t break out of the caste system you were in.

I thought things would be different when I got to be an adult. I thought people would move beyond the petty distinctions of their youth. I thought adults would be more willing to put aside their differences and work together for the “common good.” Sounds kind of like Utopia, doesn’t it? Or maybe I’m just being idealistic.

The nice thing about having been away, besides gaining a new perspective on the world, is my new appreciation of home when I came back. Of course there are problems here, and it’s not perfect, and not everybody cooperates and works together; but this town has potential. After the heyday of the 40s, 50s and 60s were over, and the rapid exodus of businesses began, people thought, and still do to some extent, that this town was dead. Au contraire! This town is coming to life again! Now I admit, I am an incurable Pollyanna, and I choose to concentrate on the good, but look around you. The veterans drew hundreds of people together in creating the monument in the center of town; the churches have programs to help everybody from the elderly, to the kids, to the down-and-out; the fireman’s auxiliary, Project Love, Community Development Corporation, the library, the scouts, and etc. etc. etc. are ALL working to make this a better place to live. Now it’s true that sometimes they work at cross purposes, and sometimes they are working for the same thing, but separately, but these organizations and more are clearly interested in making this town a better place. Healing the divisions of the past, groups of people are making herculean efforts to improve our lives. All we have to do is participate and take advantage of what’s being offered.

Now, there are people who will always point out the problems, but very rarely do they offer solutions. Unless we’re willing to actually DO something about the shortfalls of the community, perhaps we should be less judgmental of the people who are trying the best they know how to make improvements. There are personalities and ideas that just seem to clash, but I’m seeing progress here in my hometown. I’m working toward that progress in my own small way. Wherever you are, I hope you’re doing the same.

A thought to leave you: Work harder, be better, love more. If we all got what we deserved, we wouldn’t get much.