Oral Histories: Huletts Island
My post on preserving oral histories resonated with a lot of people and I’ve received a number of emails regarding ideas. So I started yesterday on Thanksgiving. I had a chance to sit down with my father, Albert T. Kapusinski, and videotaped him on a number of things he remembered about his early years in Huletts in the 1960’s. I start today with a short video recollection about campers on Huletts Island.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVFcSD0Z-M
As an aside, he wanted everyone to know he’s doing well and he looks forward to contributing more to the Huletts Current.
Happy Thanksgiving
Landing of the Mayflower – 1620
“Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.”
William Bradford, in his History Of Plymouth Plantation. (This is the only primary source account in existence that describes events that occurred while the Mayflower was at sea.)
Oral Histories Needed
One project that the Friends of Historic Huletts is working on, is recording oral histories from longtime residents and people associated with Huletts Landing to preserve our area’s unique history.
We all have stories to tell, stories we have lived from the inside out. We organize these memories of our lives into stories.
Oral history is the systematic collection of living people’s testimony about their own experiences. Historians have finally recognized that the everyday memories of everyday people, not just the rich and famous, have historical importance. If we do not collect and preserve those memories, those stories, then one day they will disappear forever.
Friends of Historic Huletts would like to start an “oral history bank”, composed of recordings, video and testimony that is specific to the experiences of people from Hulett’s Landing. Oral history depends upon human memory and the spoken word. With the proliferation of camcorders and YouTube, this could be a great project and open to all.
Do you have a unique memory of Huletts? Then record it. Better yet, can you identify someone who has some great memories or stories about Huletts? Then ask them to sit for an interview where their narrative can be recorded.
I will be doing a few of these in the months ahead and posting them here. This is truly a worthy endeavor that everyone can join in and and learn from.
Now for Some History: 1949
Some hotel guests pose for the camera while standing next to the original Casino in 1949.
The Year in Video (You Didn’t See)
I make no bones about it, my videography skills are not the greatest. However, as you may have noticed, they’re getting better.
So here is a recap of a few scenes that I shot from the last year, that haven’t been seen so far.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKoQEerQaZk
Our Top 10!
Even though our name was misspelled on the Giants media pass when I visited their training camp in Albany in August, the fact that we were given media credentials demonstrates how bloggers have gained status in reporting on the news in the last year alone.
Yesterday we celebrated one year of posts at the Huletts Current. So to recap the last year I thought I would link to the top 10 posts from our first year:
1. Doing it Mountain Dew – Huletts 1980’s
2. Interview with Adam Terry, Baltimore Raven
3. Center for Watershed Protection -Their Backyard
4. The Lost Radio Ad
5. Behind the Plays: NY Giants Training Camp
6. What Exactly is a Catamount?
7. Behind the Scenes of the Today Show
8.Two Great Guys Honored
9.The Mystery of the 1842 Marker
10. The Keough’s & Vice President Biden
Tomorrow, the celebration continues with some out-takes from the videos I shot this past year.
We’re One Today!
Today is November 9, 2009 which is exactly one year since my first post on the Huletts Current. So, we have officially turned one together. During the past year, I’ve published 583 posts and other new sites and blogs regularly link to the Huletts Current. We’ve even broken some stories here.
We’ve done a lot in one year. We’ve gone from the Today Show to the NY Giants football training camp. We’ve done interviews, posted pictures, and tried to cover what’s going on in Huletts and regionally. We even saw the coldest night of the year. When things were slow, we even looked at some history now and then. We interviewed all the candidates running for the school board and the Dresden town board this past year!
To celebrate our first year, I thought I would share a note that I received which really captures what I hoped to do with the Huletts Current.
Dear Mr. Kapusinski,
I continue to enjoy the Huletts Current on a daily basis (except when I’m fortunate to visit the Lake). I’ve mentioned it to several people and they’re viewing it too. Because of you I found out about the history talk as Mountain Grove Church on the 19th of July (and was able to make arrangements to attend) and the Washington County Beach T-shirts (they were sold out when I went to get one but they’re getting more in and I’ve prepaid for one – they seemed happy when I told them, I “found” them in the Huletts Current).
I also taped the Today Show and loved what you wrote when you climbed the tree. Thanks so much for all the wonderful information you put together. I expect it takes a lot of work, effort, and time. I want you to know it is appreciated.
Thanks for the Noble webcam – I view that daily (at least) too. Please pass along my thanks to Jeff K for making it available to us.
It brightens my days in so many ways!
Thank you,
Marge Butler
I have to say the thank you, Marge, goes right back to you and all the readers of the Huletts Current from me. I’ve seen our unique page views climb to approximately 400 per week and without people reading the Huletts Current, I wouldn’t be doing this. We’re now even syndicated on Amazon’s new wireless e-reader, the Kindle.
So we’re going to celebrate this week with some fun posts. I haven’t run out of ideas and I have some more funs things in store for the year to come. We’ll also cover the “news” that impacts our community.
Tomorrow, I’ll recap the top 10 posts from our first year and don’t forget the absentee ballots in the Dresden town board race will be counted this week! We’ll report on it right here on the Huletts Current. Now 1 year old.
October 31st
George H. Eichler
April 15, 1900 – October 31, 1978
Not a year goes by without someone either asking questions about my grandfather, George Eichler, or telling me some type of story about him. I received a call this week and once again, someone had a remembrance of him which not only brightened my day but reinforced how many other lives he brightened as well.
So while today is Halloween, it is also the anniversary of George Eichler’s passing on October 31, 1978. Sadly, his final years were fought battling Alzheimer’s disease.
This is the last picture taken of him about a month before he died. Somehow he had chipped his front tooth and would not stand still for the photograph. He kept wanting to go and “talk to all his friends,” as he was known to do. My grandmother would say that unless she kept a strict eye on him, he would wonder around the Landing chatting with anyone. So many people would walk him home after he found his way to their house or party.
This was the last picture my grandmother had of him, because he collapsed from a stroke while eating dinner and died shortly thereafter on Halloween in 1978. Both my grandmother and my mother took it very hard and, while I was a child, my memories of him remain to this day.
His obituary listed him as many things but, to me, the essence of who he was revolved around the idea that “community” was more than where you lived and that “love of neighbor” was what everything else sprang from.
Bits of Everything
HBO’s Cool New Video Technology
This will really draw you in. It’s called the Art Heist. It’s HBO’s cool new technology which allows you to view a movie from numerous different perspectives. Spin the movie while you watch and go on to other scenes. Click on the “Chart Your Progress” link on the top and watch the whole movie, scene by scene. It will capitivate you.
The Original Lone Ranger
The Washington Post has a book review of, War on the Run, The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America’s First Frontier. This sounds like a great read.
The Mystery of the 1842 Marker
This is one of the more interesting things I have run across regarding local history. Like any truly good story, it’s also a good mystery.
When I posted this story this past summer about the Military Road Marker off of Washington County Route 6, Marilyn Borden contacted me about an interesting old survey marker in the middle of her yard. Here is a picture of it.
It is unlike any survey marker I have ever seen and she said the surveyors who surveyed the property for her and her husband, William, had never seen anything like it either. She would go on to say; “Not many people know it is there. It is a bit of a curiosity when people see it!”
Here are close-ups of it with captions of what is inscribed on each side. (You can click on each image to see them in full resolution.)
TREATY OF WASHINGTON
LT COLONEL I. B. B. ESTCOURT, H. B. M. COMMISSIONER.
BOUNDARY, AUGUST 9, 1842.
ALBERT SMITH, U. S. COMMISSIONER.
The Dresden town historian, Agnes Peterson, did some research on it years ago but was never able to come up with anything conclusive. It seems to have something to do with the United States boundary with Canada and the War of 1812. If you scroll to almost the middle of this page, you can see a drawing of it. Read the paragraph above the drawing and see footnote # 45.
I have attempted to research the historical significance of this marker over the last few months but have come up empty. I’ve presented here what Marilyn Borden has shared with me and if anyone would like to continue the research, I will be happy to present any findings here.
A good mystery always starts with a question. What is the historical significance of this marker?
Now for Some History: 1960
The text is a bit hard to read from this flyer but the movie, Gun Glory, was showing at “Movie Night at Huletts” on Tuesday, August 30, 1960.
Hulett’s Casino – 9:30 P.M.
Children Under 12 – $.50
Adults – $.60
Now for Some History: 1947
Two hotel guests stand next to the original Casino in 1947.
Columbus Day 2009
Columbus Before the Queen – Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze – 1843
Click the Image to See Full Scale
October 12, 1492
“On the thirty-fifth day of the voyage, two hours after midnight, a sailor on the Pinta shouted “Land!” He could see land by the light of the moon. That morning, October 12, 1492 all the men went ashore. The place? Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, renamed San Salvador.”
“Called Guanahani by the native Lucayan Indians, Columbus renamed the island San Salvador or “Holy Saviour,” noting in his journal: “The beauty of these islands surpasses that of any other and as much as the day surpasses the night in splendour.””