The Hyde Park Trail: History in Motion
Photograph courtesy FDR Library
by Kathryn Matthews
“If beauty is good for the soul, then I wish I could have taken the whole world to walk with me early Saturday morning in the woods at Hyde Park,” Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote of her restorative walks at Val-Kill, her Dutchess County retreat. Dogwood trees in bloom, “little orange lizards” (salamanders) skittering about, a sea of wildflowers in bloom—the details of Val-Kill’s ever-changing landscape so captivated the First Lady that she shared them with readers of her nationally syndicated “My Day” column.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, the Hyde Park Trail, a nine-mile “through trail” linking all the National Park Service sites—the Vanderbilt Mansion; Springwood, the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s private getaway; FDR’s Top Cottage; and the Roosevelt Farm Lane—rests within the town of Hyde Park’s 16-mile trail system.
The impetus for developing the Hyde Park Trail began in the mid-1980s when the Polio Plus (a Rotary Club charity) and March of Dimes walk-a-thon participants, attempting to follow the trail between Springwood and the Vanderbilt Mansion, got lost. “They were turning up in other people’s backyards—that’s when we realized we needed a better trail system,” says Karl Beard of the National Parks Service.
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The original 3.5 mile stretch, linking the FDR Home to the Vanderbilt Mansion, opened in 1991. In the ensuing two decades, its length has nearly tripled. The latest addition is the Roosevelt Farm Lane trail. On a recent 3.6 mile hike, my husband and I discovered that, on this parcel situated between Route 9 and the entrance to Val-Kill on Route 9G, FDR experimented with forestry, planting over a half-million trees over three decades. In the process, he’d acquired an understanding and appreciation of forestry that he later applied to the national tree-planting efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Roosevelt Farm Lane is the only part of the Hyde Park trail open to bicyclists.
On another hike within the system, we discovered that Riverfront Park, between the Vanderbilt Mansion and Springwood, parallels River Road, a public thoroughfare, before diverging onto the historic carriage roads and woodland paths that lead to each of those sites. The toughest trail is from Val-Kill, Eleanor’s retreat, to Top Cottage, where FDR entertained high-profile visitors, such as Winston Churchill and the king and queen of England. The trail is a steep and narrow, one hiker-wide, mile-long footpath.
We hoofed it all the way up and back; though, for the weary, there is a free shuttle bus service from May through October that stops at all the historic sites. which hikers can use to hitch a ride back to their parked cars. The only potential drawback; there could be a substantial wait.
Using new cell phone tours (845.475.3819) as their “guide,” hikers now get to listen, at designated spots along all six Hyde Park trails, to fact-filled highlights (example: the Atlantic sturgeon that were once commercially fished in the Hudson River at Hyde Park were so abundant that they became known as “Albany beef”). Alternatively, hikers can download audio podcasts to a computer, MP3 player, or iPod, for listening at home or later, while on the trail.
Hyde Park Trail Map
Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites
Daily, dawn to dusk; hikers/free
Parking lots:
Springwood
Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt
4097 Albany Post Road (Route 9)
Hyde Park
Vanderbilt Mansion
119 Vanderbilt Park Road
(2 miles north of the FDR Home on Route 9)
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill)
Route 9G, 2 miles east of the FDR Home on Route 9
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/17/11 at 09:17 AM • Permalink
The Wassaic Project: A Pop-Up Museum and Pizza, Too
Angelo Womack has brought his pizza oven to the Wassaic Project.
“Everybody is asking if this is an art installation or a real pizza oven,” said Angelo Womack, who was splitting wood on Wednesday outside Maxon Mills (below), which is the headquarters for the third iteration of the Wassaic Project Summer Festival. “This is a real wood-fired oven. It will become part of the Lantern Inn on the other side of the railroad tracks after the festival. I have travelled all over Italy and I make real Italian pizza. I’ve been making pizza in Brooklyn for years.”
This weekend, August 5 - 7, you will feel like you’re in a rural version of Brooklyn if you head a half mile south of the Wassaic MetroNorth train station. There will be hundreds of young artists and musicians decked out in artisanal T-shirts who’ll be camping on the field outside the old Luther Barn. You can eat hand-crafted pizzas alongside them while listening to 23 live music shows and viewing on-site art installations, film screenings, and dance performances.
When RI met Wassaic co-founders Eve Biddle and Bowie Zunino two years ago, we were immediately smitten by their spunk and aesthetics, and soon they were discovered by The New York Times. The festival weekend is a true multi-generational, multi-disciplinary happening that is free (donations encouraged) so you don’t have to make a major commitment to be on the cutting edge. As the Wassaic Project has grown, the founders have taken on a third partner (Jeff Barnett-Winsby) and brought in other curators: Ryan Frank and Risa Shoup have put together an exhibition called Ode Hotel; Eric Gleason and Ethan Greenbaum have organized The Finishers. Here’s a preview of the 2011 edition of The Wassaic Project. (Our advice: Wear comfortable shoes if you plan on seeing all seven floors of art in the Maxon Mills granary.)
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Installations on the sixth floor of Maxon Mills.
A mixed media piece by Amy Podmore, a professor at Williams College.
Moria Kelly’s Will and Jimmy at the Old Hotel.
C-prints by Eliza Swann.
The Wassaic Project - August 5 - 7
37 Furnace Bank Road Wassaic, NY
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 08/03/11 at 03:29 PM • Permalink
Art Studio Tour to Benefit Library
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Nothing compares with seeing art and crafts in the environment in which they were produced. Unlike galleries, which are intentionally sterile so as not to compete for attention with the work, artists’ studios are rife with clues. Among the dozen-plus studios that will be open to the public this weekend in Ancram, Copake, and Hillsdale, NY to benefit the Roeliff Jansen Community Library is that of cabinet- and furniture-maker Joel Mark Kupperstein.
The first thing you notice about the studio, which is on a road so obscure it could aptly be named Unbeaten Path, are a pair of beautiful wood entry doors. Inside an eye-grabbing network of dust-collection ducts nearly upstages his furniture, which is simple, sculptural and clean-lined. In his work, the wood, rather than any ornamentation or detailing, is the star. He treats it with great reverence, often harvesting it himself, then designing around its idiosyncrasies.
Educated as an engineer, Mark (the surname he uses professionally) fell into woodworking after a post-grad stint in the Peace Corps. “I started out repairing antiques,” he says, “then somebody gave me a book about Wendell Castle.” Then, as now, Castle makes the kind of furniture that ends up in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Thus inspired, Mark turned himself into a topnotch craftsmen. Soon architects and contractors were hiring him to execute their cabinetwork. Eventually, he headed a workshop in Brooklyn that, during peak periods, would employ as many as fifteen carpenters. He was a success, but his business was based on realizing the designs of others.
Now that Mark and his wife Lynda Brenner, a psychotherapist, have “semi-retired” to their weekend place in Hillsdale, he is finally free to turn his attention back to handcrafted furniture. “If a furniture client asks me, as one recently did, I will still build the occasional kitchen. But now,” he adds with evident satisfaction, “it’s my own design.”
Art Studio Tour
Saturday & Sunday, July 16 & 17; 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tickets/$30 (includes Meet the Artists Reception at the library, Friday, July 15, 5 - 7 p.m.)
buy tickets on-line or at
Roeliff-Jansen Community Library
Route 22, Hillsdale; 518.325.4101
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/13/11 at 08:13 AM • Permalink
Zip-lining: Adventure in the Treetops
by Betsy Miller
In 2009, there were 62 ziplines in the United States. Two years later, there are about 200, three of them in our area. Investors, get out your checkbooks. Treetop zipping is coming to a neighborhood near you.
The use of cables and harnesses to transport people between two fixed points has been in use for hundreds of years. Whether crossing chasms, waterways or other more inaccessible terrain, it has always been a speedy and easy way to get from here to there. Today, it is also a sport—no, make that, an amusement. Since there is no skill involved, just thrills, it ranks with roller coaster rides.
Participants are fitted with state-of-the-art harnesses and helmets, then are hooked onto cables strung from treetop to treetop, or tower to tower, the higher, the better. Then, all one has to do is take a flying leap off the starting platform and presto!, a rider is out in the open air, flying like Superman. Speeds can range from 20 to 35 miles per hour. Heights obviously vary, based on the size of the trees, but can start as reasonably as 30 feet and go up to over 80 feet above ground.
Once addicted to zipline riding, participants can log on to www.ziplinerider.com to locate the extremes: world’s highest (5,000 ft. in British Columbia), longest (1.2 miles in South Africa), fastest (100 mph in South Africa), and the one with the most spans (27 in Colorado).
Ziplining for amusement is believed to have begun in Costa Rica, where traveling through the treetops of the rain forest gave visitors a bird’s eye view of eco-systems they might not otherwise have been able to see. Today, zipline parks must meet ecological and safety standards before they can open. First an arborist must affirm that the trees are healthy enough to be used as platforms and that the hardware will not damage their future growth. Then one of two professional organizations must sign off on all cables, pulleys, lines, harnesses and guide training. Finally, the Department of Labor needs to give its O.K. for the site to open as a commercial amusement park. All so participants can fly without a hitch.
When traveling from tree to tree, span to span, smoothness is a factor. A zipliner lands on one side of a treetop platform, unhooks from one cable, then hooks up and takes off again from the other side. Vistas can be woodland, open land, a waterfall, hayfields or long views of surrounding terrain.
At Big Bear Ziplines in Hyde Park, the views include forests, valleys and open fields—with a bit of wild life thrown in for good measure. That park, open since February, has 8 spans and took over a year to plan and build. General Manager Carolyn Beisiegel says her favorite part is how the rides change with the seasons. “The personalities of the lines are different,” “Colder lines run faster,” she says. “Humidity slows things down. And you can see so much more when the leaves are off the trees.” Other ziplines in the region are at ski facilities.
At Catamount in South Egremont, MA, the course includes not only ziplines but rope ladders and rope bridges to get you from one place to another. Not exclusively a zipline park, Catamount challenges visitors through levels of agility. Kids as young as 7 or adults with little or no confidence can start on the most basic course, then literally work their way up to higher ziplines and less stable-seeming, more challenging bridges and ladders. The site has 11 separate courses. Two courses feature 2,000 foot ziplines.
Jiminy Peak in Hancock, MA includes ziplines as part of courses that also have rope bridges, ladders and cargo nets. Participants must complete the less challenging courses before moving on to those that require more agility. a similar rope course with ziplines included. There are five courses varying in elevation and strenuousness. All courses are self-guided and require participants to be hooked into a guideline at all times.
David Scott, a 32 year-old electrician who lives across the street from Big Bear Ziplines, is already addicted. “I took my first ride right after they opened,” he says. “It was cold and I was a little scared to leave the platform. But the guides explained everything and showed me how it all works. They always make sure I am tied off so there was no danger of falling. It was a really good experience.”
So far, Scott’s been back four times, bringing a total of 15 people with him to experience the feeling of flying. Now he jumps off the flight deck. “I thought the sensation would wear off,” he says, “but it’s been different each time.” It’s only a matter of time before his Mom comes back, too.
Big Bear Ziplines
Hyde Park,NY
Riders must be 12 or older and weigh between 80 and 250 pounds.
8 courses: $79/Monday – Thursday; $99/Friday – Sunday
Prepaid reservations required.
Catamount Adventure Park
South Egremont, MA
Riders must be 7 or older and at least 48” tall.
11 courses: $49/age 12 and over; $39/age 10 and 11; $29/age 7 - 9
Daily through September 5
No reservations required.
Jiminy Peak Aerial Adventure Park
Hancock, MA
Riders must be 6 or older and at least 48” tall
5 courses; $45
Daily through September 5
Prepaid reservations recommended.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/10/11 at 09:47 AM • Permalink
To the Lighthouse: An Interview with Emily Brunner
by Betsy Miller
On Saturday, July 9th, a Hudson Cruise Boat departs from the Henry Hudson Riverfront Park in Hudson on the hour every hour between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. for the season’s first regularly scheduled tours of the Hudson Athens Lighthouse. The tour takes about one hour and features a talk by Emily Brunner, an 86-year-old retired nurse now living in Athens, who spent seven years living at the lighthouse with her family, starting at age 5, when they moved there in 1930 from another lighthouse in Huntington Long Island.
“The Long Island light was situated between the estates of the Vanderbilts and the Whitneys,” said Emily Brunner, third from left in the photo, in a telephone interview this week. “I think that’s why it had indoor plumbing. But there wasn’t much else. It was designed for a single man—one bedroom, a small living area and a kitchen.” When her family moved up to Hudson, they were in the lap of luxury—sort of. At least, the space was designed for a family—four bedrooms, a good sized kitchen and a family room. “But we had an outhouse that hung out over the river,” she recalls. “We’d never seen anything like it.”
Nor did they know how to use it properly. When her younger brother made his first quick pre-bedtime visit during a stiff northerly breeze, he ran back indoors teary-eyed in urine-soaked p.j.s. “My Dad told him he needed to learn never to pee into the wind,” she laughs. Brunner says her Father would hang “items for learning” on the inside of the outhouse door each month. “That’s how I learned Morse code and semaphore signaling.”
The family lived without electricity and running water. They had a cistern for drinking water and Brunner’s mother hauled up 14 gallons of river water each day to use for laundry and bathing. “She’d strain the water, then boil it on the coal-fired stove before we could use it.” Her mother also baked all the family bread, pies and cakes, prepared meals, did laundry on a scrub board, and shared the watch with her husband. “We had a wind up mechanism that worked on weights so that the fog bell would ring every 15 seconds,” says Brunner. “And we could set the flash the same way.” Each lighthouse on the river had a different series of flashes so that boats on the river would know where they were. The kerosene burning lamp was magnified with a Fresnel lens and, according to Brunner, was visible 20 miles north and 20 miles south.
As the eldest of four children, it fell to Brunner to row her siblings to and from school in Athens each day. She says she could drop her hand over the side of the boat and know which way the tide was running. During the winter, they’d walk across the ice, and she could listen to the creaks and know what the water was doing underneath the frozen surface. ‘In those days, the ice would get to be 30” thick on that side of the river,” she explains. “On the Hudson side, they’d keep the channel open because it was deeper—30 to 40 feet as opposed to the shallow 18 feet on the Athens side.”
Life at the lighthouse was filled with adventures. “People have the misconception that it was boring,” she says. “We always had plenty to keep us busy. We’d listen to Amos ‘n’ Andy on our Atwater Kent radio, play all sorts of board games, polish the brass or paint the railings. And most of us kids spent a lot of time drawing, too.”
But their number one favorite game was watching for dead bodies floating down the river. “We’d take our binoculars out and spend hours watching things float by,” Brunner says. During the seven years she lived there, she sighted three bodies. “My Dad would take the boat out, put a line around the body, then haul it back to Hudson, where the police would take over.” All in a day’s work at the lighthouse.
Hudson Athens Lighthouse Tours
Starting Saturday, July 9th,
hourly 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The tour takes about one hour and features a talk by Emily Brunner.
There is a picnic table for those who wish to linger.
Adults/$20 Children/$10
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 518.822.1014
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/04/11 at 06:36 PM • Permalink
O Say, Can You See Some Fireworks
Funny how fireworks, invented by the Chinese in the 12th century, still inspire more awe and delight than anything Disney (studio and parks divisions combined) has conjured up so far. This weekend there will be many displays, the big challenge, apart from nabbing a parking spot with a view (despite extra-high parking charges, sanctioned lots fill up fast), is figuring out which display is what night.
Berkshire County
Great Barrington On Saturday, July 2, at 9:30 p.m., there will be free fireworks at the Wyantenuck Country Club. (Rain date: Sunday, July 3rd)
Lenox At noon on Monday, July 4, Shakespeare and Co. presents Revolutionary Moments, vignettes about the influence of the Bard on a range of historic figures. (adults/$15, 18 and younger/$5). This will be followed by S&Co.‘s eighth annual reading of the Declaration of Independence July 4 at 3 p.m., followed by an S& Co.-hosted barbecue, where food will be sold. That evening, at Tanglewood, also in Lenox, marks the last night of James Taylor’s big weekend, and, not surprisingly, it is long since sold out. But the fireworks display that follows is visible from many locales in the immediate vicinity. Olivia’s Overlook on the Richmond Road, an obvious choice, is best approached on foot as that small, free lot fills early.
North Adams There will be a fireworks display immediately following the SteepleCats game at Joe Wolfe Field, 87 Marshall Street.
Pittsfield As 2011 is Pittsfield’s 250th anniversary, their 4th of July Parade, which USA Today, has declared one of the country’s top 10, will be an even bigger deal than usual. It starts at 10 a.m. Monday. That evening, after the Colonials 6:30 p.m. game at Wahconah Park, there will be fireworks at the ballpark. Since they don’t begin until the game is over, it’s impossible to give an exact time, but if the game doesn’t go into extra innings, think 9:30ish.
WilliamstownThe annual Independence Day Parade in steps off from Southworth Street at 11 a.m. on Monday, July 4th and culminates at about 1:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by a reading of the Declaration of Independence in front of the Williams College Museum of Art.
Columbia County
Chatham The town parade, complete with bands and floats, starts at 9:30 a.m. on July 3rd. Later in Chatham, the Family Fun Fest—free rides, kids’ activities, entertainment— at the Columbia Country Fairgrounds starts at 3 p.m., followed by fireworks at dusk. Food and beverages available may be purchaused. Admission/$5; under 12/free
Germantown From 2 - 10 p.m. on July 4th, Clermont State Historic Site, home of a signer of the Declaration, offers an Old-Fashioned Independence Day, where anyone so inclined might actually learn some history. Even the music ranges from 18th-century to pop. There is food for purchase (although picnickers are welcome), and fireworks over the Hudson, courtesy of the town of Saugerties on the other side. Per vehicle/$8 before 8 p.m., $10 after 8 p.m.
Kinderhook At 11 a.m. on July 4th, the annual People’s Parade, complete with old cars and kids of crepe-paper decorated bikes begins. Prepare to be charmed.
Lebanon On Saturday, July 2, after the races at the Lebanon Valley Speedway, there will be “the most unbelievable fireworks display imaginable.” Adults/$11 & $20, children/$2;
Old Chatham The organizers of this unflashy parade boast that there are “no celebrities,” which sums up the sweet spirit of the thing. Anyone who wishes to can be in the parade. Gather at the Old Firehouse at 9:00 a.m., the parade begins at 9:30 a.m. Albany Turnpike Road going through Old Chatham will be closed for about an hour.
Dutchess County
Poughkeepsie will hold its fireworks celebration on the 4th at about 9 p.m. People can view it for free at Waryas Park, but the best perch is probably the splendid new Walkway Over the Hudson. Those wishing to view it from on high must buy a special $10 wristband, available at various area stores, in order to gain admittance. Since, for safety, the number of people allowed on the Walkway must be limited, so are the number of wristbands, which are expected to sell out fast.
Rhinebeck The Dutchess County Fairgrounds hosts the Hudson Valley Philharmonic & Fireworks on Monday. Offerings range from Aaron Copeland to selections from the Broadway shows Rent and Hairspray, sung by vocalists from the Tri-Arts Sharon Playhouse. Gates open at 6, the concert starts at 8, and the fireworks are at dusk. Admission/$12, advance/$8, under 12/free; OR carload/$45, advance/$35.
Litchfield County
Lime Rock Every year Lime Rock Park in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Salisbury hosts the local fireworks show. This year the fireworks will be on Saturday, July 2 (rain date: Sunday, July 3. Carload/$10. Gates open at 6 p.m. for picnicking; fireworks begin around 9 p.m. Please leave the dog at home.
Litchfield On July 4th, The Litchfield Historical Society is sponsoring a Turn of the Century Fest and Pet Parade, welcoming owners of creatures (caged, if feathered, or leashed, if furry) great and small to march them through the streets in celebration of America’s independence. At the end of the parade route, there will be a turn-of-the-century-themed party, complete with sack races, tugs-of-war, seed-spitting competitions, and an ice cream social.
New Milford‘s annual Independence weekend carnival, featuring rides, game booths, and food, will take place at Young’s Field beginning on Thursday June 30th and continuing through Saturday, July 2nd, culminating with a free fireworks display on the 2nd, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Fort Hill Still Meadow (behind Starbucks). Rain date: Sunday, July 3rd.
Washington The grounds of the Shepaug Valley Middle/High School will open at 3 p.m. on July 4 for BYO family picnickers. (There will also be some food concessions.) Fireworks begin at dusk.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/28/11 at 05:39 PM • Permalink
Dan’s Diary: The Berkshire/Cape Cod Connection
The contemporary Flume Fountain at Heritage Gardens & Museums on Cape Cod.
If you ever wondered why Ellen Spear left her plum job as president and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, you’ll understand after visiting her at the magnificent Heritage Gardens and Museums in Sandwich, MA, which is a couple of miles from the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges. One of the best kept secrets on Cape Cod, the 100 acre campus is a lush, multidisciplinary fantasia that Spear is planning to rebrand as the “Museum of Summer.” The former country estate of Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Lilly III, it includes several gardens (densely planted with Dexter rhododendrons, day lilies, hostas and hydrangeas) an antique automobile museum (coincidentally housed in a replica of the Shaker Village’s iconic round stone barn) two other museums (with one of the best collections of folk art in the United States), and an indoor working carousel from the early 20th century with a companion exhibit Flying Horses about the history of carousels in America and the Italian immigrants from Brooklyn who carved many of the iconic horses.
As Spear, who became the executive director of Heritage in March, strolls the meticulous grounds, she confesses that she feels liberated from the contraints of the Shaker’s utilitarian aesthetics. At Heritage, form and function are often frivolous—like a rococco Cadillac convertible and the plethora of day lilies—and unapologetically fun. If the Shakers had children, they might have approved of Hidden Hollow, the new certified Nature Explore Classrooms situated in a two acre dry kettle hole with everything made from natural materials “You can let your kids run and play free here which is something fewer and fewer children get to do anywhere anymore,” says Spear. “It’s a beautiful spot for non-electric learning.”
And Spear is already tapping her Berkshires connections and consciousness to enliven Heritage. She is especially excited about working with the Norman Rockwell Museum’s Laurie Norton Moffat (with whom she co-chaired the Berkshire Creative Economy Project in 2007) to bring two Norman Rockwell exhibits–Picturing Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration and Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera—to Heritage for the summer of 2012. “Believe it or not, there has never been a Rockwell exhibit in the Boston area,” she says. As we walk past the tented Magnolia Cafe restaurant, she mentions that “I am encouraging them to adopt a farm-to-table menu.”
So if you are headed to Cape Cod this summer, plan to stop for an hour or two at Heritage Museums & Gardens on the way, or keep it mind as the perfect rainy day activity. Ellen Spear will be very pleased to see you.
The round stone barn car museum photographed by Kevin Sprague
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/19/11 at 07:44 AM • Permalink
A Free Introduction to Fly Casting
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by Betsy Miller
“What I try to teach is this,” says Fred Moran, fly caster extraordinaire. “You have to set up a motion of the line that pulls the rod back over your shoulder. Then, when you feel the line tug on the rod, you start the forward motion. The wrist shouldn’t move. The shoulder shouldn’t move. It’s only the elbow. It’s like a machine,” he continues, “the most efficient is the one with the fewest moving parts.”
So begins a lesson in Moran’s introduction to Fly Casting scheduled for Sunday, June 26th at Bascom Lodge in Adams, MA. The fisherman (he calls himself and others like him fisherpersons) has been an angler since he was 7. Now retired from a career as a teacher and school principal, he’s gotten plenty of practice recently. He knows how to catch a trout.
“The total object is to get the fly to land on the water,” he instructs. “What fisherpersons are trying to do is imitate the size, shape and color of the flies that are hatching on the water that particular day. It’s important that you ‘match the hatch.’”
All those flies sold through L.L. Bean, Cabella’s, and Eddie Bauer simulate different insects that trout (mostly) are watching for. “In every sport there are different things you have to learn before you can be successful,” says Moran. “To catch trout, you have to learn the differences among all of the flies. Most people who are successful have the flies that are hatching that day hooked into their vest.” And then, of course, the fly has to land on the water’s surface –just like the real thing. “You have to trick the trout into believing it’s a live insect,” Moran adds. That’s where the art of fly casting comes in.
“Basically,” says the angler,” to locate trout you need to know how they seek comfort, safety, and food.” Water, 52 degrees in temperature, fills the first criterion. Safety includes plenty of bubbly water for oxygen and a few overhanging rock ledges that offer hiding spots. And then there’s lunch—those flies landing on the water’s surface.
The class is held in a field outside the Lodge at the top of Mount Greylock. Participants may bring their own rod, reel, and line, if they have them; otherwise, Moran will supply them. No flies required. “Unless you’re on the water”, says the instructor, “all you’ll catch is grass and dandelions.”
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Moran considers fly casting an art form. Once beginners get hooked (so to speak), getting properly equipped will take only a couple of hundred dollars. “You can get away cheaper,” the master flycaster adds, “but the equipment won’t be as responsive.”
Moran concludes, “I’ve taught hundreds of people over the past years. With most, they end up with an average understanding of fly casting. Occasionally, someone will catch on really quickly.” But, no matter the level of expertise, fly casting is the opposite of stressful, unless the caster feels strongly about catching a trout.
Moran has a solution for that, too. Start in a warm water pond—one with no trout in it. Fish for blue gills, punkin’ seeds, or perch. “They’ll bite at anything,” he says. “You’re sure to catch a fish”
Bascom Lodge
Sunday, June 26 at 3.p.m. (class lasts approximately 1 1/2 hours)
Admission/free
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/18/11 at 11:19 AM • Permalink
Step into the Gilded Age at the Orleton Pleasure Driving Show
Top and bottom photographs by Lisa Cenis
In the center of Stockbridge, at the intersection of Main and Elm, there is a modest fountain, erected, according to engraving on its back, in 1881. In front, water spits from the merry mouth of a verdigris Pan into what appears to be a watering trough for horses. Apart from Pan, this monument is a sober affair. Roughly fashioned from limestone, it is etched on one side with the legend, “Merciful man is merciful unto his beast.” On the other, as if to dignify its own crudeness, “Utility is preferable to grandeur.”
Tell that to the folks at Orleton Farm up the hill. The business of Orleton, home of Harvey and Mary Stokes Waller and site of this weekend’s Pleasure Driving Show, is grandeur that is blithely indifferent to today’s utility, fueled instead by a powerful nostalgia. The barns there house the Wallers’ extensive collection of antique horse-drawn carriages and sleighs, some commercial, most designed for private use—all restored to perfection, all historically significant, some extremely so (including “Old Times,” the road coach that won the most famous coach race of all time*). The stables shelter a dozen horses that are as far from “beasts” as anything that walks on four legs can be. They are, in effect, the equine equivalent of a corps de ballet—chosen for their beauty and striking resemblance to one another, and their ability to perform exacting physical feats with precision, in unison, while pulling tremendous weight.
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Welcome to pleasure driving, a faction of the horse world that is entirely separate from fox hunting, hunter-jumper competition, and racing. The Colonial Carriage and Driving Society is a local club affiliated with the Carriage Association of America, an international group with 3,000 members in fifty states and thirty countries, whose mission is to keep the history and tradition of driving carriages alive.
“My family was into carriages before me,” says Harvey Waller, the immediate past president of the Carriage Association of America, current co-president of the Colonial Carriage and Driving Society, and co-host of most of that organization’s events, including this weekend’s show. “And so were Mary’s.” The couple, he (the whip in the photo above) from Connecticut, she (next to him in the large, brown hat) from Massachusetts, met as competitors on the class “A” hunter-jumper circuit. After their sons were born, the Wallers gave up competitive riding, and together began to build a world-class collection of carriages and attendant accoutrement. These are housed in several immaculately restored barns at Orleton, a property that has been in Mary’s family since 1901.
The Wallers’ collection bespeaks a world where money and leisure were plentiful, competition all the more mighty for being covert, and the inevitable excesses that follow held in check by a complex, strictly enforced code of etiquette. Echoes of those strictures are evident in today’s pleasure driving. Men and women tend to dress in a style compatible with the age, prestige, and function of their vehicles. To compete, a driver, called a “whip,” must wear a hat, apron and gloves and, of course, carry a whip.
This weekend, anyone curious about this charmingly arcane pursuit is invited to join impassioned advocates at Orleton for a three-day meet that combines the excitement of a horse show—competitive events, ribbons, trophies, vendors of goods and food—with the marvels of a exhibition of exquisite, perfectly restored, antique vehicles that open a window into a day gone by.
Orleton Pleasure Driving Show
31 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge
Friday - Sunday, June 17 - 19
Admission/$5; children under 5/free
Show hours, Friday 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Museum hours Friday - Sunday, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
*A wager of one thousand pounds was made that “Old Times” and its driver James Selby could not make the round-trip between the White Horse Cellars Hotel in London and the Old Ships Hotel in Brighton in eight hours. On July 13, 1888, Mr. Selby made the 108-mile trip in seven hours and fifty minutes, changing horses fourteen times.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/14/11 at 05:54 PM • Permalink
Road Trips: Happy Birthday, Harriet
by Angeline Goreau
Angeline Goreau is the author of “Reconstructing Aphra: A Social Biography of Aphra Behn.” She lives in the town of Litchfield.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was fifty-one years old when Abraham Lincoln, on meeting her at the White House in 1862, declared: “So this is the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”
Harriet could be called diminutive in stature only. She was a woman of expansive ambition, the prolific author of twenty books—among them a novel that, arguably, changed the world more than any other work of fiction in history. Uncle Tom’s Cabin vividly brought to life the horrors of slavery and set the minds of reformers everywhere on fire. First published in 1852 and never out of print since, it has been translated into thirty-seven languages.
Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, CT on June 14th, 1811. On Tuesday the Litchfield Historical Society will be throwing her a party on what would be her 200th birthday. There will be cake and a discussion about Pogunuc People, a novel she wrote about her fondly remembered country childhood.
The daughter of Litchfield’s Congregational minister, Lyman Beecher, Harriet was the seventh of thirteen children, all crowded into the parsonage (far right in the painting) on North Street, which Harriet described as “a wide, roomy, windy edifice which seemed to have been built as a series of afterthoughts.” A preponderance of boys, as well as Dr. Beecher’s habitual absentmindedness, made the household somewhat chaotic, though full of energy and excitement. More than one prodigy emerged from this interesting habitat: Harriet’s brother Henry Ward became one of the most famous preachers in America; her sister Catherine played a crucial role in shaping women’s education.
Dr. Beecher was famous for his ponderings on predestination, as well as such pressing moral issues of the day as whether Christmas should be celebrated. His stern Calvinism lay heavily on little Harriet, who was called Dolly at home, but she found liberation wandering in the woods, spoiling her clothes with berry juice. Another kind of liberation came unexpectedly when, at the bottom of a barrel of sermons, she discovered a copy of Arabian Nights. Dr. Beecher had forbidden his children to read novels—which he viewed, at best, as “trash” and, at worst, as dangerous. But with Harriet’s discovery, the floodgates opened, and soon Dr. Beecher himself fell under the spell of Sir Walter Scott, whose adventures all of Litchfield read aloud to each other in the evenings, eagerly waiting the next installment to arrive by the unspeakably slow post. In those days, a book was an event, as Harriet once remarked.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Pogunuc People, recreates life in Litchfield as it was at the turn of the nineteenth-century, a time when people felt no need to lock their front doors at night; if fact, in summer left them standing open so the moonlight could shine in. She sketches tea-parties and political quarrels, exuberant Fourth of July celebrations, and religious revivals. She writes elegiacally of her childhood—summer’s “perfect freedom” and the “dreamy stillness” of a town where the coach comes only once a week. “Everybody staid at home and expected to stay there the year through.”
Not all was elegy, however. The novel does not fail to remark on the six months of winter’s “howling desolation” and makes much of the rats at the parsonage—a population so large and war-like that the family cat preferred to ignore it entirely. Cranky New Englanders make trouble with their neighbors, and even go so far as to move the schoolhouse to a new location without the consent of the town.
Copies of Pogunuc People, which includes a key identifying characters that Stowe disguised with pseudonyms, may be purchased from the Litchfield History Museum. In the book, Harriet herself is Dolly Cushing and her father, Lyman Beecher, is Parson Cushing. Judge Tapping Reeve makes an appearance as Judge Belcher; the Revolutionary hero Col. Benjamin Tallmadge has a significant role in the novel as Col. Davenport.
On Saturday, the Litchfield Historical Society will follow up Harriet’s birthday party with a walking tour focusing on the Beecher family.
Litchfield History Museum
Discussion of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Litchfield roman a clef, Pogunuc People
Tuesday, June 14; 7 - 8:15 p.m.
Members/free; non-members/$5
Litchfield Historical Society
Walking tour of The Beechers’ Litchfield
June 18, 10 a.m.
Members/free; non-members/$7
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/08/11 at 01:06 PM • Permalink
