20171005 fall in the valley 2017 composite

Explore OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • WWW.HUDSONVALLEYONE.COM

Hybrid heritage, holistic harvest

Fall in the Valley

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• October - November, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

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Sweet smell of autumn Paul Smart dives onto the seasonal leaf pile he has created here’s a sweetness in the air.

The lushness of fruit rot gets edged with leaf smoke. Given some sharpness by the chill finally seeping from our evenings into daytime, the aroma provides the perfect sensory background for the storebought blow-up Halloween decorations we’re seeing, as well as for the thickets of political signage coming into view.

At least the latter aren’t tied to national or even statewide candidates and races this year, beyond the pleas for and against a 2019 state constitutional convention. There’s something heartwarming about seeing local names and slogans town to town. Some of us try imagining the character of places based on these monikers. Or we play games. Where are the most females running? Who has the

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Table of contents Introduction Sweet smell of autumn Paul Smart dives onto the seasonal leaf pile he has created ...................................3

Finding, picking, enjoying apples Jennifer Brizzi explores the east-bank orchards .....................................................4

Picking Ulster Harry Matthews provides a rough guide to local orchards .....................................10

The empress of seasons Mary Busch provides a meditation on bonfires, leaves and celebrations ......... 12

Autumnal festivals Sparrow enjoys his leaps into the unknown ...................................................... 18

Running in a wild place Chris Rowley has come across a variety of creatures on his favorite trail ....... 26

Locations chameleon Film festivals remind us of the global attractiveness of our turf, says Gregory Bray ....................................................... 28

older terrains around most names indicating us. That first snow will likely Hispanic/Latino lend a dusting to old heritage? logging trails, hidden Will this autumn stone walls and fences. match our dreams of Then the holiday seaoutrageous foliage, or son’s lights will be sudwill we end up with denly upon us. blighted maples, too much wind, and snow There comes a point

by Halloween? where I rake together I always make seva huge pile of leaves eral long autumnal and can’t help but dive drives back up into into it. And when I buy TERSHIA ELLIS my old haunts in the more pumpkins than Catskills, or across Pre-schooler Zoey at one family could posthe Taconics into the Samascott’s Orchard in sibly need. And when Berkshires.

There’s Kinderhook.

I spend several days in always a moment after the leaves have apple orchards, or attending local sports fallen (and with it our spirits, helplessevents on outdoor fields crisp with chill ly) when we get that first glimpse into and gorgeous in the cloud-framed foliage.

It used to be that this season seemed busier than others. Now, with summer so chock-a-block with events and visitors, many of us who live here see auLiving in a postcard tumn as the great cooling period before Melanie Zerah, a SUNY senior, muses on winter’s storms. There’s much to do, but her four years in the Hudson Valley .. 32 a relaxed time frame for doing it. There’s more darkness to enjoy at home.

Surviving the season Some of us like this season because it Roxanne Ferber provides sound family enables us to don sports coats and fun advice ..................................................... 38 outerwear once again, with accessories like nifty hats and scarves. Yet we’re not Plus ça a change quite yet ready to overburden ourselves Paul Smart chronicles the regions cultural with endless layers. It’s a time when khaki and plaid look right, along with scene....................................................... 42 beards and long skirts.

Finally, it’s a time of big holidays, a Confessions of a mediocre athlete time when communities pull back toRich Corozine remembers his short sports gether, celebrate in crazy Halloween career ...................................................... 48 parades, Thanksgiving turkey trots, holiday-season performances and organiOutside the simpler way zational dinners.

Violet Snow provides an alternative for How do we do all that despite Electhose who, like her, don’t enjoy hiking tion Day’s presence in the midst of it all? ...................................................................52 The big battles aren’t local these days, but national. No matter the number of Woodstock Thanksgiving signs lining our roads, there’s more time for seasonal fun in our villages, towns Tad Wise writes about the importance of and counties. At no time of year is more giving back to those who gave .............54 sensational local color evident.

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• October - November, 2017

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Finding, picking, enjoying apples Jennifer Brizzi explores the east-bank orchards

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER BRIZZI

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hen the temperature dips, I crave the crunch of a local apple. Fortunately they’re not hard to find.

Apple bounty abounds on the east bank of the Hudson, where I live. Dutchess and Columbia counties are full of farms, farmstands and markets where you can pick out a few favorites or pick your own from the trees, where you can savor them out of hand, in delicious dishes or

in the form of cider, soft or hard.

The rest of the year, those bland, outof-season, far-shipped apples leave me cold. It’s more than likely that years of memories of freshly picked local apples have me spoiled.

I used to trespass in orchards as a child, clambering over fences and scampering among the endless rows of trees studded with ruby-like orbs. I’d slow down now and then to pick an apple and take a

giant bite — it was always a McIntosh, with its smooth, leathery skin and fine flavor, and it was always painfully fresh, the stolen fruit both bracingly sour and achingly sweet.

My favorite local source of apples, with an impressive variety of heirlooms, some that I’d never heard of, is the Montgomery Place farmstand in Red Hook (they don’t offer U-pick). There are many kinds to choose from, and sampling is encouraged.

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They specialize in antique apples with lots of character, but there are plenty of the popular kinds, too. Talea and Doug Fincke grow about 60 varieties on ten acres, and their expert staffers can answer questions and steer you to apple nirvana.

The farmstand is closed Mondays but open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Find them where Route 9G intersects with Route 199 (4330 Route 9G). The phone is 758-6338, the website is www.montgomeryplaceorchards.com.

But make the rounds of our orchards.

Although autumn can be a season tinged with sadness and increasing darkness, as your body tightens against the cold, it’s a fine consolation to glory in the season’s sights and sounds, the vivid otherworldly hues of the leaves’ last hurrah, the geese squawking overhead as they flee south, peals of children’s laughter in the orchards, and the satisfying crunch of that luscious local apple when you bite into it.

Try Mead Orchards at 15 Scism Road in Tivoli, dating back to 1916. A hundred acres of their land is under a permanent conservation easement. You can pick your own of the 40 or so varieties grown on the beautiful farm. They also make their own

cider and applesauce. They can also be found at the Rhinebeck farmers’ market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. They have their own on-location farm stand and you can pick your own on weekends only,756-5641 or www.meadorchards. com/.

Even older is Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook (19 Rose Hill Road), run by the Fraleigh family for six generations since 1798. They offer pick-your-own on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sell homemade pies and preserves. 758-4215 or www.pickrosehillfarm.com/.

In Rhinebeck you’ll find the lovely Cedar Heights Orchard, high on a hillside with stunning mountain views. This family orchard has been in operation for more than 150 years. As well as growing many popular and antique apple varieties, they also grow crab and cider apples. Located at 8 Crosby Lane, they are open daily for U-pick from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 876-3231 or www.rhinebeckapples.com/.

Yet another long-established family operation in the southern part of the county which draws many city folks is Fishkill Farms at 9 Fishkill Farms Road in Hopewell Junction. FDR’s secretary

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of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., founded the farm in 1914, and it’s run by his son and grandson. They offer hayrides, weekend events and festivals and a cider bar when they serve their own hard Treasury Ciders and local wine and beer. Their apple-cider doughnuts are exemplary, and their 40 acres of apples is eco-certified or organic. U-pick is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the farm store is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. There’s a $5 admission fee.

897-4377 or fishkillfarms.com.

Barton Orchards, site of an annual hotair-balloon launching, also offers U-pick at 63 Apple Tree Lane in Poughquag. A one-peck bag (about ten pounds) is $16 and a half-bushel bag (about 20 to 25 pounds) is $26. 227-2306 or bartonorchards.com/.| Adame Farms is a market chain of four stores. Its Poughkeepsie-area location at 765 Dutchess Turnpike in Poughkeepsie.

Call 454-4330.

Serious cider Hard ciders are trending now, and there are some lovely local ones whose makers have chosen apple varieties for character rather than looks. To make good hard

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the Core Vodka from the at-the-farm distillery Harvest Spirits (at 3074 Route 9, open daily noon to 5 p.m. They also distill applejack. 518-758-7683 or www. goldenharvestfarms.com.

Also look for Sundog Cider in your local beverage stores. The solar-powered mill in Chatham makes unfiltered hard cider from local apples. 518-392-4000 or sundogcider.com Take U pick If you have specific varieties to pick in mind, call ahead. Grower estimate of when varieties come into season are not an exact science. It’s said that the harder to reach the apple, the sweeter it will be.

Fall in the Valley October - November 2017 An Ulster Publishing publication Editorial WRITERS: Gregory Bray, Jennifer Brizzi, Mary Busch, Richard Corozine, Roxanne Ferber, Harry Matthews, Chris Rowley, Paul Smart, Violet Snow, Sparrow, Tad Wise, Melanie Zerah EDITOR: Paul “Driving Dad” Smart COVER PHOTO: Milkweed Emerging

by Alan Carey LAYOUT BY Joe “Mister Sticks” Morgan Ulster Publishing PUBLISHER: Geddy Sveikauskas ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Genia Wickwire

Apples in the store are one thing, in the home another thing, and something else altogether when ready to be picked in local orchards, or busheled together in the fields. cider, you start with ugly little apples that may be misshapen and sour, but full of a character that has sometimes been deepened by a slightly prolonged rest on the orchard floor. Their high tannin levels often create a richer mouth-feel and flavor in the cider. The resulting beverages range from sweet to dry and from simple to complex.

For sophisticated adult ciders, look for the award-winning Hudson Valley Farmhouse made by expert Elizabeth Ryan of Breezy Hill Orchard in Rhinebeck and Stone Ridge Orchard near New Paltz. There are several kinds, all made from ecologically grown heirloom apples, and they are poured at some local restaurants, www.hudsonvalley-

farmhousecider.com/.

In Columbia County, seek out our editor Paul Smart’s favorite U-Pick, Samascott Orchards at 5 Sunset Avenue in Kinderhook. They grow 72 varieties, and make their own cider and sometimes pear cider, too. U-pick is available 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day but Tuesday, when they’re closed.

Their garden market at 65 Chatham Street is open every day 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. 518-7587224 or www.samascott.com Golden Harvest Farms at 87 Maple Lane South in Valatie also has U-pick, weekends only, from 9 am to 4 pm. They don’t weigh the apples but charge $20 per half-bushel picking bag that holds 20 to 22 pounds. Their cider donuts have won accolades and go well with

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Fall in the Valley is one of four Explore Hudson Valley supplements Ulster Publishing puts out each year. It is distributed in the company’s four weekly newspapers and separately at select locations, reaching an estimated readership of over 50,000.

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But many orchards have dwarf trees or offer poles for reaching the high ones.

Apples tend to ripen from the outside of the tree first and then in toward the center.

Unlike pears, apples do not continue to ripen once picked. To tell when they’re ripe, just go where the farm staff tells you.

Ripeness is determined by a measurement of time from when the trees flowered. The staff will know.

To pick, roll the apple up while twisting rather than pulling straight out, branch and all. Once you have your apple, if you don’t eat it right away place it carefully

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in your bag to avoid bruising that will shorten its lifespan.

When you get home, keep your apples cool. Though apples look gorgeous in a bowl on the dining table, keep in mind that those need to be eaten before the extras in the fridge or cellar. Don’t wash them until right before eating.

Enjoy the apple in all its forms. Apples with nut butter or good cheese make for a sublime snack. Soft, ripe, intense cheeses and aged hard cheeses are both good, as are most blues. Try Brie or Camembert, sharp New York or Vermont

cheddar, Morbier, aged Gouda, Stilton or Maytag Blue.

Stew apples into savory dishes based on pork or poultry, red cabbage or squash.

Or make pies, crisps, strudels, tartes tatin or fritters. Applesauce from your most flavorful varieties is a treat, with pierogies or potato pancakes on yogurt or just plain. Quarter and core them, add water and simmer on the stove until soft, which may take around an hour. Strain out the skins and enjoy!

The aroma of hot mulled cider redolent with sweet spice is the epitome of autumn.

Get thee to an apple farm, pick a lot of the beauties, and enjoy one of the finer things of fall.

Don’t forget home improvement

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hile out and about having all the fall fun that’s to be had as we countdown to the annual holiday season, don’t forget that autumn is also a time to hunker down and get your homes and gardens set up for the coming colds of winter.

In addition to taking advantage of the many opportunities available at the Hudson Valley’s old-style and chain hardware and home stores, or working with our many fine contractors and service industries while the weather’s still perfect for outdoor jobs, there are also some bigger events coming for expanding your home improvement horizons.

This Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day weekend will see another huge Field + Supply modern-day interpretation of a traditional arts and crafts fair come to Kingston’s Hutton Brick Yard by the river, while the season’s last big antiques event takes place at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds midmonth. Ending the season will be the 5th annual Basilica Farm & Flea Market over Thanksgiving Weekend November 24 – 26, a three day event showcasing the variety of talent the Hudson Valley region has to offer, including ideas (and workers) for the home.

Talk about ways to get prepared, not only for the comforts of one’s home in winter, but also all those lists one’s hopefully started making already for the holidays.

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Picking Ulster Harry Matthews provides a rough guide to local orchards

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bake them into pies, make hard cider, or what have you, you are outside, in nature, playing a part in the age-old tradition of the great fall harvest.

And while you’re at it, many orchards have pumpkin patches as well that will also let you pick your own.

Perhaps no better way to top off your day of apple and pumpkin picking is a tasting at one of the local cider houses that are popping up in many of our communities.

Cider was once the drink of choice in these parts. Following Prohibition, much of that business dried up, leaving only the production of “soft cider” in its stead.

Since recent statewide deregulation, “hard” cider is once again in production, fast becoming a drink to stand shoulder to shoulder with any wine produced in

hinking of fall upstate might conjure up images of corn mazes, haunted hayrides, and all kinds of leaf-peeping glory. But it may also bring up thoughts of hillsides dotted with short, stocky trees brimming with ripening fruit ready for the picking. There is arguably no better place in the entire United States than right here in Ulster County to do just that.

Imagine, if you will, a brisk fall day, the sun warming the earth from a cool and lengthening night. There you are, perhaps family in tow, maybe a significant other or an old friend, heading out through the trees, woven basket over your arm, to spend the afternoon picking your own apples. Whether you plan to eat them raw,

the area. Due to the varieties of apples, subtlety of flavors, and length of aging, what was once a rough-and-tumble everyman’s drink has developed into a much more refined and wonderful beverage (think apple prosecco), not unlike the craft-beer-brewing revolution taking place throughout the country.

Assuming you’re ready to get out there and do some picking, here is a very rough guide of where and when to go in Ulster County. If I’ve left anybody out, you can take it up with the management. Also, following the list of orchards are the names of a few cider houses where you can do tastings.

So now all you have to do is get outside, have a good old time. Happy picking to all!

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Apple Hill Farm, New Paltz

others. Location for apple picking is 73 Clark’s Lane, Milton. Also, pumpkin picking. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekends. 795-2383, prospecthillorchards.com

U-pick apples and pumpkins through October. Enjoy the restored 1859 barn, weekend hayrides. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

124 Route 32 South, New Paltz. 255-1605. facebook. com/applehillfarm

Stone Ridge Orchard, Stone Ridge Two-undred-year-old working farm. Varieties include Honeycrisp, Ginger Gold, Empire, Fuji and others. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 3012 Route 213, Stone Ridge.

Also, gourmet farm market open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Fridays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays.

687-2587. stoneridgeorchard.us.

Dressel Farms, New Paltz Pick apples weekends.

Varieties include Gala, Macoun, Empire, Fuji, Rome and others. Hours 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Pumpkin picking available through October. 271 Route 208, New Paltz.

255-0693, www.dresselfarms.com DuBois Farms, Highland Pick apples and pumpkins through October.

Also farm market and cafe, bakery, weekend barbecues, corn maze, wagon rides and visits with farm animals. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through November 5. 209 Perkinsville Road, Highland. 7954037. www.duboisfarms. com

Tantillo’s Farm Market, Gardiner

PHOTO BY FAWN POTASH

It’s a perfect thing, the apple.

Hurd’s Family Farm, Modena Pick apples and pumpkins through October. Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hay rides, corn maze. Special events scheduled weekends. Admission. 2187 Route 32, Modena. 883-7825, www.hurdsfamilyfarm.com Jenkins-Lueken Orchards, New Paltz Family-owned and operated for more than 50 years. Features over 500 apple trees. Varieties include Gala, Empire, Macoun, Fuji, Golden and Red Delicious and others. Purchase of apple- picking bag required. Pumpkin picking through October. Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 69 Yankee Folly Road, New Paltz. 255-0999, www.jlorchards.com Kelder’s Farm, Kerhonkson Apples available through November.

Varieties include Cortland, Empire, Honey Crisp and others. Also, pumpkin

picking in October with hayrides on the weekends. Farm market, petting farm, hay rides, corn maze and mini-golf. 5575 Route. 209, Kerhonkson. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through December. 626-7137, keldersfarm.com Locust Grove Farm, Milton Seventh-generation family farm. Pick apples and pumpkins. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, Columbus Day through November 6. 199 North Road, Milton. 795-5194, locustgrovefruitfarm. com Maynard Farms, Ulster Park

Fourth-generation family -owned fruit and vegetable farm. Apple and pumpkin picking. There’s a playground for the little ones, farm markets, homemade ice cream and areas for picnicking. Open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.

730 Route 208, Gardiner.

256-9109, tantillosfarm.

com Westwind Orchard, Accord Open for apple and pumpkin picking 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through October. Also, movie nights and music events. 215 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord. 626-0559. westwindorchard.com Wilklow Orchard, Highland Pick apples and pumpkins. Varieties include Gala, Empire, Winesap and others.

Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through October. 341 Pancake Hollow Road, Highland.

691-2339. www.wilkloworchards.com

Apple picking. Varieties include Empire, Ida Red, Braeburn, Stayman, Winesap and others. Also pumpkin picking. Opens 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

326 River Road, Ulster Park. 331-6908.

Kettleborough Cider House

Prospect Hill Orchards, Milton

43 Baileys Gap Road, Highland. 2360956, BadSeedCider@yahoo.com

Varieties include McIntosh, Gala and

Located on Dressel Farms, 277 State Route 208, New Paltz. 453-2004, www. facebook.com/kettleborough/info Bad Seed Cider Co.

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PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

The Hudson Valley, Catskills and Taconic Hills are filled with foliage drives. The key is contrast: streams and waterfalls, fields and old barns. Just remember that the leaf-covered roads can also be slippery!

The empress of seasons Mary Busch provides a meditation on bonfires, leaves and celebrations ne of nature’s most sublime alchemies occurs when the autumn comes to light the world with its radiant wand. Around here, the first harbinger of autumn foliage arrived maybe a month ago, when a sumac branch suddenly began to turn a shade of yellow or orange. The evenings began to get a little colder, the daytimes a little shorter.

You will feel a sense of ripeness within you during the long, dusky twilights of the season of harvest. This magical season happens most in special places in the

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world, and the Hudson Valley is one of them. I grew up in Japan and Thailand, where the seasons were more muted. In Thailand it was just either rainy or sunny.

The idea of rebirth or renewal is inherent in the change of season. In autumn people have bonfires and begin their woodstoves, and the magic of fire enters re-enters the world, an intense symbol to reassure us through the cold of winter that the world will once again come to life. The trees, roots deep in the ground, continue to broadcast that belief through decades and centuries in ways we humans cannot.

The idea of renewal inspires the holidays of autumn as well, the wild desires for other identities in Halloween and the profound thanks for harvest in Thanksgiving. The coming cold is slowly revealed in a starker landscape. Some people take to hiking through barren landscapes or basking in the different shades of sunset.

Those who dislike the cold flee for warmer climates as many birds do. Butterflies and hummingbirds are among the many creatures needing warmth for their delicate systems. Their migrating swarms are evident throughout the fall.

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They see this miracle of blazing leaves in shades of orange, yellow, red and deep plum. For these visitors, autumn can be a moody season, with elements of chance. Wind or rainstorms can strip trees of their leaves quickly, leaving bare branches. Some celebrate the blazing

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There’s a sensuality to autumn. Think in terms of the scent of firewood, as well as the smoke it will generate when it burns. leaves as a union of the human spirit with nature at its most magnificent.

For others, spirits enter the world.

Wisps of death are the complement of intense life. Ghosts, imaginative remnants of life, inspire people to elaborate

Destinations EVENTS IN THE CATSKILLS

October 7 Hudson Valley Dance Festival at the Historic Catskill Point www.dradance.org

October 7 & 8, 14 & 15 Oktoberfest at Hunter Mountain www.huntermtn.com

October 7 10th Annual Guinness Festival at Gavin’s Irish Country Inn • www.gavins.com

October 14 Schlachtfest at Crystal Brook Mountain Brauhaus www.crystalbrook.com

October 7 & 8 Windham’s 23rd Annual Autumn Affair www.windhamchamber.org

October 14 Hudson Athens Lighthouse Tours www.hudsonathenslighthouse.org

For a complete listing of all events in The Great Northern Catskills visit

www.GreatCatskillEvents.com IT’S A WORLD AWAY… AND CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

on the afterlife. Zombies and corpses come to life, crawling out of their graves on missions of retribution and reminder, ghoulish to some but enthralling to others. There’s always a marketplace for spooky thrillers.

Go back to school

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ooking for something a bit more edifying and social than another evening curled up with a book, or pretending that your binge-watching of the television has innate cultural rewards? Head out to a lecture at one of our local colleges, libraries, bookstores or art institutions. Now’s the season for big-time workshops and conferences on local campuses, in addition to the more commercial festivals. Various Hudson valley lecture series focus on spiritual matters, artistic inquiries, foreign relations, and the intricacies of the economy.

Check out websites for Bard College, Marist, Vassar and Mt. St. Mary’s. Pay attention to the calendars at SUNY New Paltz and the community colleges. Get involved with your local libraries, as well as the independent bookstores in Hudson, Kingston, Millerton, New Paltz, Rhinebeck, Saugerties and Woodstock. Read these pages and our weekly calendar in print or online at hudsonvalleyone.com.

Don’t let your brain wither.

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The extraordinary harmony of the seasons is wondrous. Between the warm lushness of summer and the cold bleakness of winter is an interval that provides a sparkle for the mind as it prepares for harsh winter. Such a season makes one consider the idea of the divine in nature.

Haunted Huguenot Street October 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28 Trick-or-Treat on Huguenot Street, October 31

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Credit: Elizabeth Schanz

Matagiri Sri Aurobindo Center

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It’s a time of exuberance. Some leaves drift from the trees at different times, while others remain stubbornly green before relenting to the loss of their leaves. Driving under canopies of gold trees on back roads cannot fail to make the human spirit soar.

The inner sense of ripeness and whole-

ness in autumn is a prelude to the stripping away that winter will bring.

Looking at the sky through a leafless tree during the cold of winter shows the world at its essence. Halloween marks the bridge between the seasons. The world becomes topsy-turvy, and people act out

their fantasies to mirror the flux of the natural world.

Thanksgiving restores a gentle calm to the human mind. To some, however, the intricacies of Thanksgiving family life may prove as grim as the natural world has become. his year the Hudson Valley has been spared many of the most severe storms, fires and hurricanes of the southern states. No earthquakes and little flooding this year. There have been some windstorms severe enough to down trees.

This increase in natural disasters makes autumn even more welcome and reassuring. It’s part of the natural harmony of the season, like the harvests and farm markets. I read the revival of farming among people who prefer backbreaking labor to working behind a desk as a sign of optimism. There’s a growing idealism, a desire a return to meaningful work connected to the seasons. Autumn is a season for the return to the elemental: earth, water, air and fire.

Revered as a mystery in pagan cultures, fire reappears in this season to warm us, turning wood to ash. Prometheus stole it

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Ferncliff Forest Rhinebeck’s number one free attraction offering an amazing view of the Hudson Valley from our Observation Tower.

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color from the gods. It will bring us both good things and evil ones. That is the final meditation of autumn.

I’d suggest that the best way to celebrate this time of fullness is to find a place to park on a remote country lane, to take a walk through the falling fall foliage, and to feel the earth at its most gorgeous. This is the perfect time to feel the alchemy of nature as she brings us this season of burning beauty.

Explore Hudson Valley

October - November, 2017 • 17

NORA is Learning, Adventure and Fun! Rental Vehicles Available Hunter Mtn 4x4 Tours Vehicle Recovery Training Team Building & Competitive Events Private Instruction Available

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• October - November, 2017

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Autumnal festivals Sparrow enjoys his leaps into the unknown

COURTESY OF SHEEP & WOOL FESTIVAL

Rhinebeck’s Sheep & Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in late October draws knitters and animal-lovers from all over the Northeast.

P

arades are in decline, but festivals are booming. Americans are sick of standing in one place watching John Philip

Sousa marches drift down a boulevard.

They’d rather lick garlicky lollipops, or get lost in a hay maze.

Personally, I like talking to strangers.

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That’s why I enjoy festivals. When you attend an autumnal gathering, you have the right to turn to a neighbor and remark: “That was a tricky maze, don’t you think?”

A festival is a leap into the unknown.

Even if you’re familiar with the headliner at the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice (for example), you won’t know 90 percent of the other performers. So you’re taking a chance, as are your fellow attendees. It’s like getting stuck in an elevator with nine people. A festival is a type of crisis, but a happy crisis.

Each gathering has its own community, with a unique dress code. Why do women wear high heels and shiny silver shirts to the Bearsville Theatre for the Woodstock Comedy Festival? Because they associate comedians with nightclubs? Because everyone did it last year? It’s hard to know.

But they are certainly more glamorous than the habitués of the Woodstock Bookfest.

If you know a lot of Hudson Valley dwellers, you’ll be surprised which friends you run into where. An aging podiatrist will show up at an avant-garde poetry tent.

A young illiterate will be first in line for the oud recital.

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Two pieces of advice: 1) Beware of “festival gluttony,” the compulsion to see everything. In many festivals, it’s impossible. And even if it’s feasible, one should exercise a bit of restraint. My parents always say: “Save something for next time!” (And they have, so far, lived to 98 and 94 — so maybe they know something.)

2) Be daring. Even if you dislike classical music, you may adore a classical-music fest, because two or three of the offerings will be so odd, they’ll resemble the Velvet Underground, or whatever music you collect. For example, I saw a piece by Edgar Varese at the Bard Music Festival (honoring Aaron Copland!), a stunning, proto-punk blast of sacred noise, written

by Frank Zappa’s hero.

For many years, I ritually attended the New York Film Festival, the cruelest gathering of culture-lovers I’ve ever beheld.

After each movie, the director would take questions from the audience. The first question would begin with insincere praise (“This is a very fine film; I was delighted to see it …”), and then circle in for the kill (“Are you satisfied with the ending, as it now stands?”). The next

questioner would be even more heartless.

Even a narcissistic filmmaker would soon be reduced almost to tears.

But upstate festivals are different. Citizens of our region arrive to celebrate. Even with global warming, winter is a time of retreat in the Catskills: the season to begin a demanding novel, or turn to that stack of Buster Keaton DVDs. Autumn is our last chance for collective rejoicing. In place of the traditional harvest festivals, we now have harvests of art.

Belleayre Mountain offers their annual fall festival October 7-8. This free event

includes skyrides, face painting, pumpkin decorating, live music, German food, and an appearance by Smokey The Bear.

Hunter Mountain will have four free Oktoberfest weekends, with authentic lederhosen and drndls, ending October 14-15.

(That last weekend will feature Catskill wineries and a Doxie Derby, which is a race between athletic dachshunds. Or try a 16th-century Oktoberfest at the Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo Park on September 30-October 1. (It’s their 40th anniversary of being 500 years in the past.)

That last September weekend is also the

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• October - November, 2017

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Hudson Valley Garlic Festival, in Saugerties. Performing there: Annie and the

Hedonist, The Arm-of-the-Sea Theatre, Sundad, Bells & Motley, and One World

Music, Entertainment & Festivals

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October - November, 2017 • 21

Puppetry. Of course, most attendees only notice the performers in passing as they search for garlic crab cakes (cooked by Kalani’s) or doughnuts with garlic pepper glaze (the Great Cape Baking Co.). This is the festival’s 28th year.

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he multifarious Woodstock Film Festival, in its 18th year, is October 11-15. And the ritual Burning of Kingston is October 13-15, commemorating the British torching of the city in 1777 (Over 300 structures were destroyed in a few hours). This free biannual event includes re-creations of street battles and British military camps, plus a tour of colonial stone houses. Visitors are encouraged to dress in colonial garb, and to carry “Loyalty Papers,” without which they may be imprisoned by the Redcoats.

The Beacon Club Pumpkin Festival at the Pete & Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park on October 15 is also free of charge. Look for pumpkin pie, cider, chili, music, and free rides on the sloop Woody Guthrie.

The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival is October 21-22 in Rhinebeck,

October 21st & 22nd 9am-5pm

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• October - November, 2017

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with 300 fiber artists, plus sheep-herding demonstrations, canine frisbee, a llama parade, a hay maze, and an angora goat show.

The ninth annual Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase, October 2729, is an exhibition of handbuilt guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, etc. by some of the

most gifted living instrument-builders.

The show offers instructional clinics, workshops and continual acoustic music, including performances by Happy Traum,

Ride back into history

thriving villages, where efforts continue to connect our residents and visitors to what came before.

In the coming months, be sure and check out Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, which hosts ongoing themed tours, including a haunted look at their own past (and cemetery) throughout the spooky month of October. St. James Church in Hyde Park has a similarly instructive tour of its cemetery. There are reenactment events at New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site outside of Newburgh, where the Continental Army spent its final days together,

and enrichment programs at Frederick Church’s Olana, outside Hudson, and the Thomas Cole House, in Catskill.

The Roosevelt/Vanderbilt National Historic Sites have various events, as do more localized historical societies in various towns.

Best of all, is the chance one has to combine history with fall foliage immersions via old-time train excursions. The Catskill Mountain Railroad, out of Kingston Plaza, hosts Fall Foliage and Pumpkin Patch trains in October; visit http://cmrrevents.com/ wordpress/ for information. And up in the Delaware County community of Arkville, the historic Delaware & Ulster Railroad offers weekend fall foliage trains, with some on Fridays too, through October; visit www. durr.org for information.

T

here’s a reason much of our region is part of a top national heritage area. Key elements tied to our entire history as a colony and nation are situated up and down the valley. Several of our presidents were born or lived here.

Great inventions and art movements were born, and later flourished in sight of both our magnificent river, and majestic, haunted mountains. And all that heritage still exists as part of our small cities and

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• October - November, 2017

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Macyn Taylor and Pasquale Grasso. I love the word “luthier.” I wish all medieval occupations had festivals: tinkers, wheelwrights, alchemists … (“Are you going to AlchemiCon this year?” one software designer might ask another, in San Jose.)

Last year the Woodstock Comedy

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Kingstonians come out every other October to celebrate a weekend-long reenactment of the burning of their city during the Revolution. It’s thrilling and slightly disturbing fun.

Festival began with a night of female comedians. One lanky, tall woman from Albany named Jaye McBride revealed, five

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minutes into her set, that she was a transsexual. There was a confused silence in the audience, but she continued, recounting the absurdities of her life. She was funny, and we all loved her. My first transsexual comedian! That’s what festivals are for.

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Running in a wild place Chris Rowley has come across a variety of creatures on his favorite trail

I

’m old now, but I’m still a runner.

I intend to continue running up to the day I die. That may be a bit ambitious, but hey, without goals, life loses something, right?

Nothing is better than wedging a run into the busy schedule. Once upon a time I was a cross-country runner, not any great shakes or anything, but I was willing and hit times that were just about good enough.

That kind of speed is long gone for me, but the pleasure of running remains.

Those that don’t run or take any aerobic exercise usually don’t get this. They may never even have experienced it. Working up a sweat and breathing hard loads you up with serotonin. Your brain releases beta-endorphins from your pituitary gland. The end result is that you get that aerobic exercise high which, I can tell you, is better than booze or dope, though it will not make the wallpaper fluoresce or move around in interesting ways.

Of course, running, cross-country skiing, swimming or riding a bicycle does other good things for physical health. Your blood circulation increases as your heart works harder. That has a mental effect, too. Lung capacity improves. In the case of running, because this is load-bearing exercise, your body responds, by building bone. Finally, your immune system gets charged up, too, and your white blood cell counts increase.

Even though I’m old, I have the pulse and blood pressure of someone much younger.

Come the annual visit to the doctor’s office for the checkup, this is always reassuring.

I know there can be no guarantees about anything, but I get a sense of well-being from being reasonably fit.

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here is the issue of knees. My knees. I think about them a lot.

Life without functioning knees is no fun at all. So to prolong my running life I take care of the knees.

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

Running has become one of the Hudson Valley’s popular sports, especially when the cooling days and fall foliage draw increasing numbers to the trails.

Protecting that precious layer of cartilage coating the ends of femurs and tibias is crucial. I take supplements and vitamins, including fish oil and glucosamine. The fish oil has a powerful anti-inflammatory action, and is also good for brain health. Vitamins B3, B12, C and E are important for healthy cartilage.

Yes, there is debate over glucosamine.

The vet put our enormous orange cat, old Andy, on glucosamine when he started limping a couple of years ago.

The limp got better and today he gets around with minimal visible discomfort as long as he gets his glucosamine. He

has no idea what is going into his food.

Andy cannot be enjoying a placebo effect.

Encouraged by Andy’s experience, I began taking glucosamine, too. So far, touch wood, I have not suffered any real joint pain.

There is some evidence that running actually seems to protect joints from damage. As with bones, the body responds to the wear and tear by ramping up its capacity for joint replacement.

The other side of this issue is simply being careful. Running in one’s later years is great fun, but getting hurt is

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not. I am careful not to run too much in any single day. I know my own limits. I can run about seven miles maximum. I leave the marathons and tremendous endurance races to others.

But it’s not all about me. I have come to appreciate more how I, a runner worried about my knees, share this spectacular ecosystem with a universe of other creatures. We are all connected players on a unique and rarified natural stage.

There are wonderful places for me to run where I live, up on the Shawangunk Ridge.

My favorite run is an old, overgrown carriage trail that once served a mountainhouse hotel. The carriage trail and a few examples of stone wall are all that remains of that world. The views are spectacular, and various wildlife encounters have left me feeling blessed.

R

unning on that trail over the past 20 years introduced me to four bears and half a dozen rattlesnakes.

Only one bear encounter had any fizz to it. In April 2009 I came around a corner on the north side of the trail loop, which is the wild side, and there he was, a recently awakened bruin ripping up a log for some grubs. He stopped and looked at me with a look that I interpreted (correctly, I’m sure) as “What the hell does a bear have to do to be left alone to find something to eat around here?”

I was perhaps forty feet away from him, close enough to see that he was much bigger than I was. I extended my arms out wide and held my hat in my right hand.

Speaking in a voice that I fondly imagine as my parade-ground drill instructor voice I announced that I was not threatening Mr. Bear. Now that we had met, I told him, I would retire and leave him to his devices.

I hoped my voice didn’t tremble too much.

He turned away from the log. I slowly backed away to the corner curve. He did that bear thing of stamping on the ground to inform me how big and heavy he was. I repeated my offer of beating a retreat. He went away up the trail and out of sight.

At that point I went the other direction as fast as my legs could carry me.

On returning to the more civilized side of the trail, I warned some friends who were going to barbecue that they might have an unexpected guest. Twenty minutes after I got home they called to say that a fairly big black bear had just come calling. They were indoors. The barbecue had been postponed.

This summer I surprised a bear in the same area as 2009’s encounter. This time, I didn’t see him or her until I was virtually on top of it. Bam, whoosh, tromp tromp tromp, the animal exploded out of cover on the left side of the trail, hanging over the deep gulley in the ridge, crossed the trail lickety-split and went up a steep slope on the right side and vanished into brush up there.

I froze, of course. My pleasant run meditation had been shattered. I stood there with my heart beating a lot harder than usual.

It was clear enough that the bear had had no hostile inclinations. I yelled a bit, and a few seconds later, with some crashing in the brush, this bear departed down into the gulley.

I waited a few seconds and then resumed my run. The unexpected momentary glimpse of a fat, glossy, black-furred body left me feeling wonderful. I hope that he or she is feeding up and getting ready for a nice hibernation this winter.

Encounters with northern timber rattlesnakes happen now and then, too.

Mostly, these rattlers are inclined to ignore runners. I was doing laps of one

October - November, 2017 • 27

trail one time and passed the same big snake, stretched out on the left side of the trail, three times. It never moved or rattled. It was gone on my fourth lap.

At other times, snakes have rattled. When they did, I just gave them a wide berth.

The rule with snakes is simple: leave them be and they’ll leave you alone, too. But they are beautiful in their wicked, snaky way. I have stopped at a safe distance to admire them. They have never paid me any notice.

Now and then I surprise a hawk, I often see deer. Indeed, some of the older deer up here seem to know me, and don’t even move when I go by. Foxes, a coyote, even an eagle once, have graced my mountain running with a sighting.

The eagle was in a small tree on the west side of the ridge overlooking the Rondout Valley. It lifted off with a scream of displeasure from right above my head, making me jump with fright. I watched as it flew off, parallel to the trail, and then caught a thermal and rose into the sky, secure in its majesty. After a few moments to calm down, I resumed my run. I felt privileged to have been that close to such wild beauty while engaged in simple aerobic exercise.

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Locations chameleon Film festivals remind us of the global attractiveness of our turf, says Gregory Bray or me, no autumnal event can match the sheer anticipation I feel for the Woodstock Film Festival. Each year, notable actors and filmmakers bring a little bit of Hollywood into our backyard. The Woodstock Film Festival, which touts itself as being Fiercely Independent, celebrates the Hudson Valley as a desirable location for dreamers and artists throughout the film world.

In the recent past, the festival has showcased work created here, including Bruce Beresford’s Peace Love and Misunderstanding, featuring Jane Fonda, Rhymes with Banana, featuring Zosia Mamet, Growing Up Smith (formerly titled Good Ole Boy) featuring Jason Lee, among many others The festival is in close cahoots with the Hudson Valley Film Commission, an organization dedicated to bringing film and television productions to our area. This year saw

F

WIKICOMMONS

Alfred Hitchcock’s great North By Northwest involved a narrative-setting journey up the Hudson River that featured previously shot images of the Highlands, Catskills and local cities as a scene-setter. several productions taking shape around us, including this summer’s Furlough, fea-

turing Melissa Leo and Whoopi Goldberg.

What brings filmmakers here, and is this

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a recent phenomenon?

Especially at this time of year, the Hudson Valley is a cinematic place. The moment the leaves indicate a yellow or red hue brightening beneath their summer green color, the air takes on the sweet aroma of apple cider, pumpkin spice, and the annual festivals celebrate our

October - November, 2017 • 29

harvests. There are haunted hayrides and houses, spooky old village tours, and other autumnal delights. spent my senior year of high school volunteering with the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie. That January, I had the honor of working at the Hud-

I

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Since

1978

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• October - November, 2017

son Valley premiere of Nobody’s Fool, directed by Robert Benton based on the Richard Russo novel. The film starred Paul Newman, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis and most notably, to us, the City of Beacon. My job was to open limousine doors (the key principals, alas, did not attend) for the guests and industry personnel pausing on the red carpet for the local paparazzi. As a kickoff, a representative from the governor’s office took the stage and talked about a partnership emerging in the Hudson Valley.

I worked for a few short years after high school with the Hudson Valley Film and Video Office. I was a locations coordinator. A film or television location scout would contact our office asking for a specific location — for example, a pier or an office building near a water tower.

I would then scour the Hudson Valley for such locations, take a few snapshots (predigital age: Kodak Funsavers), develop those shots at a one-hour photo kiosk, and scan the photos in. It would take some time for our phone-line modem to

Explore Hudson Valley

COURTESY OF HUDSON VALLEY FILM COMMISSION

The Thing About My Folks, with the late Peter Falk, was one of the first of a great wave of films that have been made in the Hudson Valley and Catskills in recent decades. With a bigger tax incentive, everyone’s expecting the industry to grow in our area. send the images over. I would then save the original photos in various physical

files in a cabinet (a file for ‘Piers’ and a file for ‘Water Towers’) with information

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October - November, 2017 • 31

Explore Hudson Valley

COURTESY OF GLASS EYE PIX

Larry Fessenden of Olive has made a point of drawing dark, psychological horror films up to his home Catskills for production in recent decades, including his own classic, Wendigo. about the locations attached.

I left the office in 1999 for graduate school, and at that time the file cabinet was overflowing with location possibilities.

Within the next two years, the office and the festival would close shop, and Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto would cofound both the Woodstock Film Festival and the Hudson Valley Film Commission.

Though my personal memories extend back over the better parts of three decades, filmmaking in the Hudson Valley predated me by many, many decades. Back in the silent era, DW Griffith ran his studio at Mamaroneck, New York, and shot a number of his films around Westchester County. A number of other films look to our region as a charming escape, just upstate of the bustling big city, If you needed a getaway or to get away, our back yard was here for you. Such was the case in films such as North by Northwest and Dirty Dancing. Other films have made use of a variety of our locations to double for faraway places. From high-budget films like War of the Worlds to less memorable b-films such as The Stuff, our region has doubled for other areas outside our region, including New York City, Oklahoma, and, in Scorsese’s Kundun, the Far East. ome years later, I met up with Laurent Rejto for dinner. At that time, Woodstock’s film festival was in its eighth year, and I was invited to bring students to the festival to create videos covering the festival’s events. Laurent was enthusiastic about the multitude of locations in the Hudson Valley. “We

S

have a location for anything,” he said.

“Anything.”

He was right. Need an urban area? We have it. Need a suburban street? Have it.

Apple orchard or farm? Yup. Shoot on the water? We can do that. Seasonal shooting?

Winter, summer, spring or fall. All of it.

He had to concede on one location.

“Except for deserts. We don’t really have those.” The Hudson Valley Film Commission now boasts locations on its Pinterest

page, a far cry from the Kodak Fun-saver images I dealt with nearly 20 years ago.

In extolling the virtues of the Hudson Valley as a film location, not to mention the handsome tax incentives, I am left wondering. How does our region look to a film audience from outside our region now? Shooting here is one thing. But representation is something else.

Are we still the route for gangsters to bury their misdeeds, as in Goodfellas? As the hippie haven for misguided utopian ideals, as in Taking Woodstock? Or can it be something more sinister? Hudson Valley in the fall, after all, evokes Washington Irving’s tale, Sleepy Hollow. And filmmakers such as Larry Fesseden and his Glass Eye Pix productions have made use of the eerie hues — the lifeless sky and dry leaves, of a Hudson Valley November.

Perhaps the Hudson Valley is a locations chameleon. It’s likely that an audience witnessing our region might not even realize that they’re looking at our turf.

Perhaps this year we will get a sense of how we’re viewed. The Woodstock Film Festival kicks off October 11 through 15, and I couldn’t help notice that several films made use of our home in their stories.

Gregory Bray is an associate professor of digital media and journalism at SUNY New Paltz. He loves movies.

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• October - November, 2017

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PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

It is said that students who come to know the autumnal views from SUNY New Paltz and other Hudson Valley colleges are destined to return.

Living in a postcard Melanie Zerah, a SUNY senior, muses on her four years in the Hudson Valley lthough I’ve been doing it for years, the back-to-schoolfall excitement is restored every first day of school.

SUNY New Paltz touts its accessibility

A

to fall activities and events in town. For college freshman and seniors alike, the fresh, the crisp Hudson Valley autumn air never loses its charm.

Unfortunately, due to global warming,

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the weather in September is difficult to predict. Last week I was wearing my

Explore the Valley’s great food scene!

F

rom October 30 through November 12, Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, run by its own board of leaders in the regional farming, food and dining scene and sponsored by our counties, several leading banks and hospital groups, as well as dozens of local businesses. provides special incentives for fine dining at over 200 regional restaurants.

Each participating eatery offers special, three-course dinner menus for $32.95, as well as 3-course lunches for $22.95. (Plus beverage, tax and

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COURTESY OF VASSAR COLLEGE

The great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead made sure that the campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie was particularly beautiful every fall as the students settled in for the academic year. favorite scarf and boots. Today I’m walking my dog in shorts and a tank top. (I’m wearing them, not the dog). By the time October rolls around, the foliage is usually dressed in orange and yellow, coffee shops are advertise pumpkin-spice flavors, and the village has pretty much become Halloween Town.

“I like that everywhere you go looks like something out of a postcard,” said Meg Tohill, a SUNY New Paltz secondyear journalism and English major. “It’s picturesque.”

I’m a senior currently, and I do not plan on going to graduate school any time soon after I get out of here. August 28 was my last first day of school. The sweltering classrooms and sticky desks in late August and early September aren’t much cause for unhappiness. Once the scenery

tip). There are no passes, tickets or coupons are required; diners simply browse the list of participating restaurants, choose any or all that appeal, and call the restaurant directly to reserve a table.

While a majority of HVRW establishments are located in the lower valley counties of Rockland and Westchester, there are 31 Dutchess County restaurants, ten in Ulster, 18 in Orange County and ten in Putnam participating. As the big dates for the week approach, menus of what’s being offered get posted online. For more information call (845)765-2600 x 301 or visit www. valleytable.com/hvrw.

becomes the New Paltz you have seen in the pictures, nostalgia will start to set in.

Apple Hill Farm, just up Route 32, has been a staple in my SUNY New Paltz experience for the last four years. It is a pretty short walk from the campus, though walking back to the dorms with five pounds of freshly picked apples isn’t the easiest stroll. Access to the orchard is affordable, and apples of many different types, my favorite being Red Delicious, are available.

An exciting element of living here is having the Wallkill Valley rail-trail in downtown New Paltz. Coming from Long Island, having easy access to a beautiful stretch of nature so close by was new to me. Though the novelty has worn off, I have never been less grateful for it.

Once fall arrives, the trail becomes

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• October - November, 2017

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framed by colorful trees and shrubbery.

You can really get away from it all for a bit.

Stopping into the Mudd Puddle right by Water Street Market for a pumpkin spice coffee before strolling down the trail is a fall ritual I love. I will really miss after I graduate.

“Hiking is the greatest thing about New Paltz in the fall,” claimed Chris Sumano, SUNY New Paltz third-year journalism major. “From the local stretch of the rail-trail to Minnewaska there’s so many great spots.”

The campus farmers’ market, courtesy of

the Sustainable Agriculture Club, brings the tastes of fall directly to campus.

Dressel Farms, the Phillies Bridge Farm Project, Old Ford Farm and others bring

A harvest of road trips

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here do we go to get a full blast of color these coming weeks, or that long-view sense of the more brittle part of autumn that comes once the leaves fall?

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their produce to the classroom concourse for students between classes. Hot apple cider, apple-cider donuts, fall vegetables and cinnamon pastries fill the air and

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How about a long drive?

On the east side of the Hudson, head towards the ridge lines that separate New York from Connecticut and Massachusetts, making sure to take the time to explore the Stissing Mountain rise through the center of Dutchess and Columbia counties. Head north on the Taconic Parkway, an easy landmark.

There are great little communities to center day trips around: Millbook, Pine Plains, Millerton, Spencertown, Chatham and New Lebanon among them.

Don’t forget the Hudson River as well.

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Explore Hudson Valley

the bellies of students and faculties each Thursday during the fall semester.

Perhaps my most favorite part of fall in New Paltz, and what I will miss most dearly, is the Halloween Parade in the vil-

lage. Parents, children, college students, townies, visitors and teenagers come together for this rare, spooky unifying experience. Everyone is in costume, as are the storefronts on Main Street.

Some people dress up in really amazing costumes just to entertain others and get some good pictures for the local paper to brag about this magical town. The streets are closed off. The spirit of Halloween and

Much of the valley is not all crowded and holds on to autumn leaves longer than the higher ground around. Staatsburgh and the route south of Beacon towards the Bear Mountain Bridge are windy and quaint. Stop in Germantown, as well as the old river town of Stuyvesant, where it’s easy to spend long hours just watching the river flow.

In the land of the Shawangunks and Catskills, the key is to head up in to the higher elevations and their long, often dead-ended valleys. The farther west you go, the wider the views open up. En route, keep an eye out, as the leaves fall, for signs of old bluestone roads and stone walls crisscrossing the rugged landscape. Great destinations include Hunter-Tannersville and Windham, Prattsville and the vast expanse of rural Delaware County. Try the Rondout Valley hamlets of High Falls and Stone Ridge, as well as the

shifting village of Ellenville. Beyond all of those is Sullivan County, filled with the ghostly ruins of what was once the Borscht Belt.

As on the east side of the mighty river that gives our region its identity, you shouldn’t forget to check out the river towns and villages of Coxsackie, Stuyves-

ant, Athens, Tivoli, Catskill, Saugerties, Rhinecliff, Esopus, Marlboro, and Cold Spring. The Route 9W pathway is still chock-a-block with old monasteries and private schools en route to West Point, while major routes on the east side of the river open up fine vistas overlooked by the distant Catskills.

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October - November, 2017 • 37

Thankfully, the beautiful hiking hot spots of Mohonk and Minnewaska will always be available for me, no matter how “mature” I get. There is nothing better than taking the time out of a busy schedule to hit the trails with some friends, and then stop for fall treats after. I have officially become fine with the “white girl loving pumpkin spice and all things fall” stereotype. I have no reservations at all in squeezing the most I can out of my last

fall as a New Paltz student.

Everyone was right. College does go by extremely quickly. Listen to me, freshman! Find plenty of time left to enjoy this mystical time of year in New Paltz. Make the most of it.

Although there are other obvious aspects of college I will miss, fall in New Paltz touches on almost all my fondest memories here.

here’s nothing like getting outside to attend a sports contest. There are many opportunities through October, including some spectacular night games under big lights at the region’s larger high schools and colleges, or Dietz Stadium in Kingston.

For a place where community sports still are the way they used to be, visit Cantine Field in Saugerties practically any time.

Start by checking out your town’s youth soccer and fall-ball baseball leagues. The games are often fast and energetic, or at least cute when the youngest get out there to start learning sports and sportsmanship. High schools list their seasons online, and love big audiences to spur their athletes on. On the college level, Bard, Dutchess Community College, Marist, Mount St. Mary’s, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Ulster, Vassar and our Albany-area institutions keep up busy schedules with top teams from throughout the Northeast, and often farther afield.

There’s even football. And no, they’ve not yet politicized on a local level. They’re just about great old-time fun. Be sure and buy

some warming beverages as the temperatures keep dropping until their last games get played right around Thanksgiving.

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holiday falls on, the local bars and offcampuses houses are all Halloween party destinations. Halloween takes our focus away from pencils and papers. Halloween is pretty much a week-long event for college students. Can’t make that Monday night party? There will be Halloween parties every night until November. We pretty much cherish every last drop of Halloween before our next saving grace, Thanksgiving Break.

Try local spectator sports

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• October - November, 2017

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Surviving the season Roxanne Ferber provides sound family advice s a native to upstate New York, I have never been without a positive view of fall. It’s a time of plenty. There are many different ways to take in the experience of freshly fallen leaves and the colorful backdrop of the season.

My husband and I landed here over ten years ago as newlyweds with zero children.

We had the luxury of living like tourists in our beautiful new hometown.

Before we had kids, we enjoyed leisurely tailgating with friends, hard cider in hand, under an archway of gorgeous jewel-toned trees. We decorated our home with fall décor in under an hour. We loved a lazy train ride through the crisp afternoon sunshine.

We had plenty of time. Our day was our own. We packed only our camera to document the adventure.

Having kids has made a big difference in the way we revel in the changeover to autumn. Life with kids returning to school in the fall feels a lot like being shot out of cannon. You know where you are supposed to land, but the trajectory seems to change every year.

The fall season offers a bounty in nature

A

FAWN POTASH

What’s better when the weather cools to climb a tree to see what you can see.

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

Close your eyes. No matter your age, it’s easy to recall the smells, sound and feel of lying in a leaf pile all your own.

and in calendar obligations. Fall harkens the return to school, the hustle of fall sports, open houses and meet-theteacher nights. We sign our kids up for a few extracurricular activi-

ties like scouting, book club, gymnastics and 4H. Maybe this is the year we finally join the PTA. These wonderful programs require hours of volunteer efforts. With the onset of homework and after-school practices, the weekdays become shorter. If your kid plays a sport, you may start to wonder just

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are now dressing up to parade in costume at school, at church, at nursing homes and through town before neighborhoods even open their streets.

You start planning the perfect-themed family Halloween costumes. Though you may feel inspired to hand-make said costumes yourself, you instead cave in to

buying them so that you can enjoy just a few minutes of leaf-peeping on your drive to the store.

Schools offer no-scare trick-or-treat nights. Libraries set up haunted houses and hay mazes. These events allow the kids to stretch out this sugary holiday and milk it for all its worth.

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There’s an allure to colorful leaves. After they fall, they can be gathered, and the fun begins. how much fall fun you will really have.

The weeks roll by in an autumnal fog of practice nights and meetings. You count down the weekends by the number of soccer games left. he fall is oddly layered with festivities and adjustments to new routines. Some kids find it difficult to adjust to new rules in the classroom, a new coach on the ballfield, and new friendships to adapt to. Keeping to family traditions like apple-picking, pumpkincarving and hay rides give kids something to look forward to. Familiar events balance out all the changes the season brings.

With only 13 weekends in the fall season, there is pressure to push every single activity to its fullest. Halloween festivities can take up entire weekends and a few weeknights. Gone are the days of a onenight Halloween costume brigade. Kids

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• October - November, 2017

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DION OGUST

For many, Halloween is still the pinnacle of autumn, a time to play out fantasies for some, and for others the start of a dangerous winter season.

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Parents stretch out the planning and organizing. My advice: Pare down your choices. Participate in only the experiences that enrich your joy and demand less of your time. eekends here in the Hudson Valley can provide a reprieve from the frenzied pace of the work week and the demands of school life. There are plenty of opportunities for families to enjoy an impromptu day out. If you aren’t locked into an afternoon on the soccer field, perhaps a play date at a local park or a meetup at a fall festival will

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provide you some relief. Play dates give parents and kids time to socialize outside the constraints of school activities.

Some seasonal activities provide personal space. I find spending the day applepicking, letting the kids loose to run on the farm, gives all of us room to breathe, especially if we select a farm that offers an on-site tavern for me and the husband.

The kids can set their own pace. We make few demands of them. All of us enjoy the opportunity to Immerse ourselves in the earthy aromas of the orchard, to dive into fresh-baked cider donuts, and to bask in the warmth of the sun, recharging for the week ahead.

The to-do list can feel forever stacked against us. We barely finish enjoying one holiday before we begin planning full swing for the very next. No sooner have the goblins and ghouls returned to their graves than the turkeys and the great feast arrive.

Expectations begin to slow down just a little bit. The kids can enjoy a little time off from school and begin preparing their holiday wish lists. Modern-day Thanksgiving is really a seasonal prequel to the dramatic holidays ahead. As soon as the last of the turkey day leftovers are tucked away neatly in the fridge we are off to shop. Putting up our tree ushers in the winter season.

We relish the extra time with friends and family. Maybe we get to enjoy watching our kids on stage in a holiday pageant. We stop for a moment to enjoy the twinkle of their shining star.

The haste to fit in all the commitments and entertainment can daze kids and parents alike feel dazed. We don’t want to rush the beauty and celebrations of autumn, though there certainly is a brisk pace to it all. Sticking to annual traditions, simplifying our experiences and leaving room for spontaneity are the keys to surviving the cyclical demands of this grandiose time of year.

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• October - November, 2017

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Plus ça change Paul Smart chronicles the region’s cultural scene

A

utumn’s the perfect time to get out and about to cultural events. And yet ‌.

Gallery owners have been talking about how hard it’s become getting collectors in to exhibits and convincing them to shell out the money to put art on their walls. Musicians speak about dwindling crowds in smaller venues; the local scenes where one once went to dance cooling nights away have been disappearing for some time now, except in a few destinations. Ditto theater audiences:

one can always get reservations for what’s playing in Catskill, Hudson, Hyde Park, Phoenicia, Poughkeepsie and Rhinebeck these days. That worries those running such places.

Is there still a cultural scene in the Hudson Valley that blossoms each autumn, as in bigger cities? Is the world of art galleries, museums, theaters, nightclubs, hangout spots, and dance festivals still vibrant enough to support new works, changing audiences and fresh creative growth?

The answer to both questions is yes.

We’ve got colleges filled with captive audiences and liberal-arts agendas geared

towards the virtues culture brings to civilization. Kingston, Hudson, Woodstock, Beacon, New Paltz, Rhinebeck and even Newburgh are home to growing populations of ex-urbanites who aren’t yet saddled with child-rearing chores, and are looking for ways to bring with them the artsy means of entertaining themselves to which they’ve grown used. There are a growing numbers of artists, musicians and other creative sorts supportive of their communities.

Things have changed, though. It’s not like it was five, ten or 15 years ago when gallery scenes were popping up all over the region, fueled by waves of incoming

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artists looking to share their work. The scenes similar to what they remembered from New York City in the 1980s are very rare here. The music scenes of a generation ago, when Woodstock was one of the nation’s top recording centers and local bands played bars, restaurants and small clubs are much diminished.

But the crowds keep coming. There are new levels of sophistication to what’s being offered, from top-ticket bands and solo musical artists to dance premieres, festivals and art happenings which get mentions in the New York and national cultural press. With colleges now back in session and several towns settled into annual autumnal arts events, one would be hard-pressed not to talk up what’s being offered.

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COUNTY hits its stride with the agriculturally-oriented county’s harvest events, many of which have gained quite the cultured air since the demographics started changing mightily a couple of decades ago. And with noted institutions in place now all over the county, from the Millay Colony in Austerlitz to Jack Shainman’s The School in Kinderhook, Art Omi in Ghent, and the continuously expanding scene all around Hudson, the place is now chocka-block with regular happenings.

Some cool things to keep on the calendar include some hot concerts in Hudson at Helsinki (Black Uhuru, Lloyd Cole, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Dave Alvin, and an omnibus evening entitled “Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders,” with talents including Juliana Hatfield, Dave Hill, Daniel Mendelsohn and Suzy Roche at the newly renovated Hudson Hall, formerly the Hudson Opera House. An October “Musical Salute to Marvin Hamlisch” is at Half Moon (home to the region’s top alt scene), and there are pop-up events every weekend around town.

Theater performances and film presentations include a production of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s “The Mother of Us All” at Hudson Hall in November, the annual FilmColumbia festival based around Chatham in late October, and regular screenings of top independent films, new works and opera broadcasts at TSL Warehouse. The old Arts Walk’s been jettisoned, but only because the gallery scene along Warren Street is now healthy enough without it.

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• October - November, 2017

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visit Jack Shainman’s world-class The School gallery space in Kinderhook, as well as the new indoor and outdoor shows opening at Art Omi in West Ghent. For a real sense of this rural-urban county’s new cultural scene, everyone comes to Hudson and other towns for Halloween parades with new creative edges, as well as the big Winter Walks in early December.

Dutchess County splits up among Poughkeepsie, Beacon, the Rhinebeck/

Red Hook area, and the rising eastern townships from Millerton down through Wassaic and Dover Plains to Millbrook and environs. Leading the local cultural scene are the big college offerings. Bard will be presenting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in a pair of concerts, plus numerous top readings and lectures (Diane Ackerman of The Zoopkeeper’s Wife fame and a session on Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times with Ian Buruma

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Vassar’s got a lot of fine theater, more lectures, and top new poets. The community college hosts a talk on Eleanor Roosevelt’s calls against apathy and puts on some fine Day of the Dead Mexican Jarocho music.

Music-wise, the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie will kick in a new season of Hudson Valley Philharmonic concerts plus gigs by Ani DiFranco and a pile of Seventies and Eighties talents at Darryl’s House in Pawling, including Lee “Scratch�

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Bard’s Hessel Museum, classics in Vassar’s Loeb Center, minimalist wonders at Beacon’s Dia, and cutting edge and/or local art in galleries around Beacon, Rhinebeck and Poughkeepsie. Don’t overlook Wassaic Art Project’s autumn events.

Theatrically, look to the Bardavon and Millerton’s movie house for regular opera broadcasts, and also new drama and comedy from the troupes at Hyde Park’s CIA and the Center for Performing Arts

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Left, though The Colony in Woodstock has been given new life, it carries on a tradition of local musicmaking that stretches back in the town’s twentieth-century history. Seen here is the great singer-songwriter Jules Shear; right, contemporary artist Tony Oursler is one of the many innovators being celebrated in an exhibit at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art on the SUNY New Paltz campus this season. burgeoning Second Street restaurant row. Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill has a very ambiREENE COUNTY got tious and much beloved lineup quite the splash at sumof weekly plays, performances mer’s end with a big New and evenings and afternoons of York Times spread on the pure fun. Windham Arts lined Kiki Smith exhibit at the up some topnotch art shows. The Thomas Cole House in Catvenerable Greene County Counskill. Look for that energy to cil for the Arts gallery continues compound over the coming in the county seat. months from the new arts Expect a continuing series scene rising in old Prattsville of world-class chamber music to great festivals in Durham events. There’s also the manyand Hunter, fun gallery faceted Catskill Mountain Founshows in Windham and Catdation’s offerings in Hunter skill, and a growing reputaand Tannersville, including tion for theater, dance and COURTESY OF BARDAVON.ORG performances of Moliere’s claseven fashion happenings all The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, which started off as sic Tartuffe, arts and crafts over the place. exhibits, film screenings and Some key events to keep an an opera house, is now one of the top entertainment musical events ranging from eye out for include the superb venues in the Hudson Valley’s cultural scene. a Sonny Ochs tribute to an a dance festival down at the capella classical repertoire evening care the growing roster of performances and Point in Catskill Columbus Day weekend, of The Sebastians. exhibits at the Athens Cultural Center in the Guinness Fest in East Durham’s raw of the midst of that riverside community’s top Irish musical talents to the area, and Everyone’s been noticing the expanded Ulster County scene in Kingston these John Maureen days, but fresh blood’s also shifting what’s drawing people to New Paltz and Woodstock, Phoenicia and Saugerties, and even the Ellenville-Accord area of late.

For visual arts, check out the non-profit, museum-quality exhibitions through Quality Headwear & Blues Music-Since 1992 Woodstock’s hamlet center; see the “InSPECIAL MUSIC ORDERS WELCOME HATS CLEANED & BLOCKED novators show” at the Dorsky Museum CD, DVD, Vinyl, Harmonicas, Ties, Suspenders, at SUNY New Paltz; participate in the Prints, Posters & Unique Gifts growing Midtown Kingston scene at R&F 845-339-3174 320 Wall St. Kingston, NY bluesandhats@aol.com Encaustics, The Lace Mill, the Shirt Fac-

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tory, and other newer locations; and check out Saugerties’ great Cross Contemporary spaces on Partition Street, SUNY Ulster’s ambitious Muroff-Kotler Art Gallery, and group shows in Phoenicia, New Paltz, as well as High Falls’ Wired Gallery.

Theater is abundant, with small troupes in Phoenicia (Shandaken Theatrical Society), Woodstock (Performing Arts of Woodstock), Ellenville (Shadowland, which now extends its season into the holiday season), and Kingston (Coach House Players). Arm of the Sea, the region’s own Bread & Puppet, will be traveling a new show into the coming months with a premiere celebrating the reservoir centennial in Olive. The Rosendale Theater is augmenting its fine schedule of special screenings with regular live theater and other events.

Musically, Woodstock has reinvigorated its scene with the addition of new booking blood at the Bearsville Theatre and the Colony, while Kingston’s hot with upand-coming club scenes at The Anchor, The Beverly and BSP. UPAC is preparing to come back strong in November after current renovations. Even dance is making big strides via an extended season at Mt. Tremper Arts and BSP. On a par with London, Paris or New York? It’s a different scene, often more creative and more crowd-pleasing. It supports more new works than many cities around the nation do. And it’s becoming sustainable at levels unseen since the 1970s, and maybe even the earlier Hudson Valley and Catskills heydays.

There’s no reason not to get out and have a cultured time of it this season.

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Confessions of a mediocre athlete Rich Corozine remembers his short sports career t was 1960, and Henry Mills, big and ornery, crashed through the line and was headed my way.

I was playing linebacker, all 5-9 and 150 pounds of me. Henry, who off the field was a sweet guy, was 5-11 and 220 pounds of fast, raw, intimidating muscle. We were on a collision course.

It was during a scrimmage of the Peekskill High School football team (the Red Devils), and I realized at that moment that I didn’t want to have this impend-

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ing head-on with Henry. So I dove at his feet, and missed him. The next thing I heard was a whistle.

“Who is that fairy?” yelled our beloved coach, John Devins, the Vince Lombardi of high school football, who never met a player he wouldn’t demean (maybe except for Henry: the star of the team, and black to boot). “Who is that fairy over there?” our high-school Hall-of-Fame coach yelled again. “Corozine? Are you a little fairy?

Do you want to kiss me or do you want to play football?”

Since kissing Devins would have been aesthetically unappealing, I opted to play football. I liked the game, played it since I was a little guy. (I also played basketball and baseball, I’ll get to them shortly). But I was a fairly mediocre athlete, a football “scrubini,” a player who only plays when

their team is up by at least 50 points, or if they were on the kickoff team (read: suicide squad).

I was on the kickoff team. And since I was fast, Devins and his assistant, Bob Pease, put me in to run kickoffs back. My first return, the opening kickoff in the first game of my junior year against Scarsdale, I ran it back 90 yards for a touchdown (reality: 25 yards or so, was tackled, and twisted my right knee).

“The Fairy” here walked off the field on his own, was examined by our incompetent doctor, one Dr. Colao, the Butcher of Ringgold Street (where he had his practice). I was told that I could go back in to play. I did.

On the next kickoff, my knee gave out trying to block for Henry, who thankfully returned the kick. Once again the The

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Fairy here — in pain I add — walked off the field. Doc once again said I was okay to play. I said no, I could barely walk.

The next school day, our gracious coach called me into his office and told me that I wasn’t really important to the team, that I lacked desire, that I had no guts, and that if I wanted to I could “quit the team.” So I quit. And I never heard the end of it.

The reason I wanted to go out for the varsity was that my friends were on the team, and my friends and I would play tackle football without helmets or pads every Sunday afternoon for fun. For fun!

Imagine that!

When Devins got wind of this, especially since some of his varsity guys played with us for fun — he referred to us in gym class (yes, I had to endure him in gym class) as “those paper tigers” who didn’t “have the guts to play for real.” Stupidly, like the immature chum that I was, I took his bait.

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COURTESY ULSTER COUNTY ALIVE

For athletes, there’s allure in playing big games under night lights. never played football again. Anywhere. In my junior year, I went out for the varsity basketball team, coached

by Big John Moro. Peekskill, at this time, was an unrepentant racist burgh, with high school approximately a quarter black kids, some of whom were the school’s best athletes. Though I was pretty mediocre, I could play some ball, and was a good dribbler and passer. With the likes of Kenny Duke, Jim Curry, Willie Johnson, Roland “Tutti” Stansbury and Elbert “Nookie” Green (I never asked where or how or why they got those nicknames) — all black kids — there was no chance of me not only getting playing time but even of making the team.

That was okay, though, but what I didn’t expect was for Moro to ask me in front of all the players if I was going to stick it out. “We don’t want quitters, Corozine,” he told me/them. He didn’t have to worry though about my undermining the team’s morale (like The Fairy did in football). He cut me soon after. I wasn’t only mediocre.

I was also a pariah to the sanctity of highschool sports.

Then came baseball season and coach

I

Bob Pease, Devins’ football assistant, a young guy in his early thirties (Devins was in his fifties). Baseball was my first love. I had always played the game. Game after game after game all summer long from forever. Pickup games mostly, where we chose sides and umped them ourselves.

No adults. No formal organization. You know...for the love of the game.

I had played JV (unlike with football and basketball), and went out for varsity my junior year. I was still mediocre: a shitty fielder with a lousy arm, but I could hit.

I could turn on anyone’s fastball. At our first practice that spring day in 1960, Pease got us all together in the gym — the field was wet — and called us out, all of us, asking what positions we wanted to play. I said: outfield. And he said: “You’re not going to quit, are you, Corozine? We don’t want quitters on the team.” I told him no, I loved baseball.

I guess it was the wrong answer. What followed next was a display of power baseball. Pease hit grounders to all of us in the gym, where the ball skidded along the floor and was hard to handle. He decided to teach the quitter a lesson. Where he

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hit hoppers to everyone else, to me he hit scorching liners inches off the gym floor which would bounce just in front of my glove and smack up and hit me somewhere on my chest, face, balls. It hurt. I had to endure this until I caught the ball.

There I was for five minutes or so, trying my best to catch these rocket shots. I was completely pissed. And when I finally caught one, I threw it as hard as I could back at Pease’s head. He seemed to enjoy that, smiling and telling me: “Good catch.” didn’t play much my junior year. I was still mediocre. I mostly pinchhit in the late innings (the fastball) or pinch-ran (fast). And I didn’t quit. My senior year Pease didn’t single me out for anything -- I guess I was no longer a quitter. After making a diving catch into the stands in our first game, I became a regular in the outfield. And I started out fast at the plate: eight for twelve in our first four games, all the hits off fastballs.

Then in game five I saw a curveball. And I could not only not hit it, I was completely overwhelmed by it. A dinky little curveball, and I was flailing away at it. It was depressing. I went into a great slump – 0 for 20 – and lost my spot in the outfield.

I figured that to get it back I’d have to do something drastic. “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid,” said Goethe.

So I did. And it brought back the wrath of sports — conformity — via Bob Pease.

I drew a third eye and pasted it onto my Peekskill baseball cap, covering the “P.” At practice the next day Pease noticed it and asked what it was.

“It’s a third eye,” I answered.

“What does that mean?” countered

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Pease.

“It’ll make me hit better,” I told him.

“What do you mean?” he looked puzzled.

“I’ll see the ball better. Get some hits...”

I had been intending to add: “... help the team, end my slump, I wasn’t going to wear it during a game.”

After cursing me out and singling me out as a wise guy in front of the guys, Pease threw me off the team. The quitter had finally got his comeuppance. The Fairy was truly unmasked. He could draw. And a third eye at that. Didn’t take the game seriously. Was undermining the sanctity of the game. Besides, they knew he was just a mediocre athlete, anyway.

John Devins went on to become the

principal of Peekskill High School. John Moro coached for 20 more years. Bob Pease dropped dead of an aneurysm the next year on the baseball field.

Henry Mills was sent to prison three

years later for killing a man in a bar fight.

I ran into him 20 years later on the train back from New York. We had a good chat. He remembered that day in 1960.

He died in 1986.

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Outside the simpler way Violet Snow provides an alternative for those who, like her, don’t enjoy hiking

L

ove to be outdoors but not that fond of hiking? Same here.

When I get focused on all that aerobic exertion, I must confess, I often fail to notice the plants and rocks and creatures around me. On the other hand, if I’m not struggling to make it to the top sometimes I don’t know where to focus my attention.

We’re so used to engaging the linear left side of the brain. It’s hard for us to give in to the all-embracing right side, the part that lets us commune deeply with nature.

Back when I was an herbalist, I solved that problem by learning to identify plants, especially ones I could eat or make into medicine. The identification process gave my left brain something to do that was directly connected with nature, making space for the right brain to ease into action without my even noticing.

Here are some objects of study to keep your mind ticking this autumn, providing you an arena of focus that will enhance your appreciation of the wonders surrounding us here in the Catskills. You don’t have to go far. Patches of weeds contain plenty of curiosities.

Start with your own back yard. Town parks, although often dedicated to playgrounds or ballfields, generally have weedy locales around the perimeter. State parks offer greater variety — ponds, fields and woods, each with its own assortment of plants. It may help for you to bring along a field guide to plants and/or trees in case you wish to identify a particular species.

Buds Many people think the buds form on the trees in spring, just before they leaf out.

Buds actually emerge in summer, when the trees are in their growth phase. Waxy bud scales protect the embryonic leaves and flowers throughout the winter. Fall is a fine time to inspect the buds on twigs and notice the wide variety of shapes and sizes, corresponding to the shape and size

PHOTOS BY VIOLET SNOW

Milkweed is one of the most popular fall finds. of the leaves of that particular species.

Generally, the bud forms at the base of a leaf. However, if you examine a sumac twig with the leaves still on it, you won’t see any buds. Break off a leaf, and you’ll find the bud hidden underneath. Surprise!

Wind If the wind is blowing, look around for a tree whose leaves are shaking very fast.

Aspen leaves have flat stems that allow them to pick up the slightest breeze, and their stiff leaves make a particular clattering sound. If the leaves of any tree are drying out, watch them detach one by one from their twigs. Each leaf twists or spins or flips or floats in its own fashion en route to the ground.

Seeds In the quest for reproduction, plants generate seeds and give them a strategy for dispersal. See if you can find seeds in

each of these categories.

Strategy #1 is the parachute method: seeds that travel by means of lightweight fluff to blow to new locations and find hospitable ground for springtime germination. The most obvious plant in this group is milkweed. If you find a patch, open up some of the slower-developing pods and look at the precise arrangement of unripened seeds overlapping within.

Other plants in this group include wild lettuce and aster.

Strategy #2 is hitchhiking. Seeds with hooked prickles latch onto passing sweaters or fur at the lightest brush so they can ride to a new place. Burdock burrs irritate the skin with their sharp points, prompting the carrier to yank or scratch them off with some difficulty, after a period of transportation. Bird’s-foot trefoil seeds are flat and linked together, but they break apart when you try to brush them off, so you have to pick them off individually,

October - November, 2017 • 53

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mosses and lichens they wear.

These primitive plants are responsible for early steps in evolution and the ongoing process of dirt-building. Lichens break down the rocks they live on, leaving behind microscopic fragments of matter that, over centuries, accumulate as dirt. Then mosses can use their tiny root-like appendages to anchor in shallow soil, catching more dirt to build up a thicker layer and paving the way for the higher plants with real roots, which require deep soil.

If you’re lucky, you may find a damp boulder covered with a thick mat of brilliant green moss.

Make sure to press your nose into the moss and smell the clean-dirt smell. The body of the plant is springy under your cheek, softer and sweeter than a rug. This slow-growing wall of moss may have been here for a thousand years. Do your best to stand as still as the moss for a few minutes.

Maybe it will open your mind.

ensuring a longer ride.

Strategy #3 is the shakeout.

Pods dry out and break apart so the seeds within may be easily dislodged by passersby brushing against them. These plants don’t spread as rapidly in terms of distance but grow in dense stands that gradually expand their territory.

Think of garlic mustard, with its long, narrow pods, and common evening primrose.

Berries

Another seed-spreading strategy Sumac leaves and berries, the first to turn. is edibility, to which we give its own category of study. Berry-type fruits Mosses and lichens are attractive to birds and other animals as food. The juicy flesh contains seeds I challenge you to find a rock bigger that are impervious to digestion unless than your head that does not have moss chewed, and they tend to pass through or lichen growing on it. These plants are the digestive tract unharmed. Excreted everywhere, and we hardly pay attention in a spot distant from the parent plant, to them, although there are many different they break new ground for the species. species, each with its own shape. Look at How many different kinds of fall berthe fallen trees, and many of the upright ries can you find? Most of them — rose trees, and count the different types of hips, spires of sumac berries, the invasive and thorny Japanese barberry — are red, Car Care for easy spotting by winter birds. (An exception is the forest plant nicknamed dolls’ eyes, whose poisonous white berry TIR REB E has a black pupil. Poison sumac also has AVAI ATES whitish berries, but red-berried sumac is LA IN O BLE quite benign.)

CT. All Phases of Mechanical Repairs The life cycles of berries and birds are intimately connected. No fruits are availTune-Ups • Tires • Brakes • Oil Changes Tune-U T anges able in spring, when growing baby birds need the abundant protein provided by worms and early insects. By the time birds are putting on muscle and fat for migration, raspberries and wild straw138 C Cornell Street • Kingston, NY • 339-5435 35 berries are ripening and providing the appropriate nutrients. Winter berries contain Vitamin C, a preservative that keeps them from rotting throughout the cold months, when they provide food for Foreign and Domestic • Wholesale • Retail • Auto & Truck birds that overwinter.

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Woodstock Thanksgiving Tad Wise writes about the importance of giving back to those who gave n this time of Thanksgiving we speak of the strengths community finds in itself. Despite destruction of conversation throughout cyber-civilization, Robert Frost’s declaration still rings true: “Earth’s the right place for love.” The whole world ’round we find actors performing in benefits for endangered theaters, painters raffling off their work for a fellow artist struck low, and fisherfolk hosting pricey fish dinners to help the families of the ill, injured or drowned.

In my home town of Woodstock, a different tradition dominates a scene long dominated by music and those who make it. Here — for more than 50 years now — a core group of players have come to the aid of those in need. These artists do not merely “take care of their own.” Instead, Woodstock musicians continue to help the embattled and often nondescript citizens of an older town which, beneath the glitter of incoming wealth, appears to have vanished. But old Woodstock hasn’t vanished, as we learn every time tragedy strikes, and the town once again pulls together to make and move to the music of hope.

The first musical benefit I remember attending in Woodstock (circa ’71) was hosted by Ron Merians, the controversial owner of the town’s most fantabulous latenight music club, The Joyous Lake. That event was intended to prop back up an inhouse dishwasher risen to cook known by the name of “Mugsy the Mope.” Through undisclosed circumstance, Mugsy’s rental had burned to the ground, burning with it everything he owned. Mugsy looked and smelled even worse than usual.

To the good — everyone in the club was smiling hard, partying harder, and dancing harder still to the all-star band stuffed onto that famously tiny stage. At night’s conclusion The Mope himself strapped on the guitar he’d just received from Ron and “all of us here at The Lake” to sing with

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impeccable timing his own composition consisting entirely of the unforgettable lines: “I’m horny as a brand band./ I wish I had a sun tan./ I’ve been sitting in your bed all night/ Just thinkin’ about it.”

The fact that Mugsy soon split town in possession of a vast array of borrowed items (as well as a fair stash of cash) calls forth our first shine of underbelly concerning Woodstock and its musical benefits, namely: “Beware of who and exactly how you help.” e can be relatively sure that the custom of a benefit hosted by musicians around and about Woodstock goes back at least as far as the initial mission of Pete Seeger. Pete remains a pretty safe guess as the godfather of our modern phenomenon even on the national level, having inherited this mantle from Woody Guthrie. Woody perceived need. He created events everywhere he went to help the impoverished and ignored. Seeger carried that message even longer and farther “from California to the New York Island.”

By fortunate coincidence Seeger received tremendous assistance (after they were transplanted to Woodstock from Greenwich Village in the mid-1960s) from Happy and Artie Traum. The number of benefits these pinko, pseudo-Commies played over the years could easily have doubled for a lesser duo’s entire public career. The even more radical Beat-based Ed Sanders, after the dissolution of his seminally outrageous band The Fugs, also hosted an enormous number of causes in Woodstock, mainly in the arts and in politics, foremost evidenced by what essentially became his own “lefter” branch of the local Democratic Party. And Robbie Dupree also served as organizer of dozens and dozens of charitable events.

I can’t and won’t attempt to say who did the most to champion the tradition among the next generation of support.

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Certainly Marc Black deserves mention.

Starting back in days when he and the late Betty MacDonald were united, the Marc Black Trio (completed by bassist Michael Esposito) was always stepping up to help. As he still does. Amy Fradon and Leslie Ritter, who first sang together backing Marc, proved a powerhouse for good all their own. The great local songwriter Tom Pachecho invariably gets called to (or hosts) the stage when tragedy or injustice strikes.

Likewise, the musical comedy team of Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine is often tapped for this cause and that. There are the ever-vigilant Michael Veitch, the wonderful Jules Shear, our dearly missed Rick Danko, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Kate Pierson and other members of the B-52s. Fom the jazz world Jack DeJohnette, Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso (and their entire Creative Music Studio gang) have given generously of their time and talent. A huge presence in this forcefield, of course, remains the late and most luminous Levon Helm, whose contribution I’ll address separately.

Back in the day John Hall, aside from organizing MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) on the national level, assisted in cleaning up toxic dumps alongside such great special guests as Debbie Lan, the much-missed Rob Leon, Anne Lang and Tommy Nicholson, Pete O’Brien, and numerous others who all “stood up” to help. he first great irony surrounding “the musical benefit” is that these old soldiers of the cause are often in need of a benefit themselves. The avoidable tragedy found in the awful end of the vastly under-recognized John Herald — who towards that end played mostly benefits — makes this point all too loud and too clear. Indeed, such soldiers (like any army) become exhausted and even damaged by battle. More punishing still, their personal commercial

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The immigrant Chinese painter Hongnian Zhang captured the character of his adopted hometown’s annual community Thanksgiving in this epic painting of several years ago. viability often found itself undercut. In today’s world, a performer not making vast piles of money is soon viewed as little more than a eunuch guarding the whorehouse of commerce. A performer must take care not to hurt himself or herself in helping others.

In the recent era, Baird Hersey and Prana have consistently come to the aid of those in need. The multi-talent Robert Burke Warren consistently steps up, and Joey Eppard, that gifted member of our present musical tribe, is always giving of his remarkable talent. Pete Levin invariably finds himself called to service. Tim Moore graces the stage. So does Robin “The Hammer” Ludwig. So did the departed Gizmo, both serving and served by benefits, and so do the many who recently assisted the intensely missed Father John of Woodstock’s remarkable if tiny Church on The Mount.

All have contributed most honorably.

Many — maybe even most — local musical benefits aren’t intended to heal or right wrongs, but simply to assist existing agencies which themselves prevent harm (like the fire department, and searchand-rescue units) or to provide funding to organizations which nourish the soul through the arts (like the Woodstock Guild, Woodstock Library, Woodstock’s “Bookfest,” the Woodstock Artist Associa-

tion & Museum, Woodstock Performing Arts, The Voice Theater, and Opus 40, to name some.

Woodstock’s best-known musical benefit remains the annual Winter Solstice (first started up by Happy and Artie in 1999) for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild which, while sadly lacking Artie and John Herald, remains gloriously led by Happy Traum. Over the years the event’s been assisted by Larry and Teresa Campbell, Amy Helm, Eric Weissberg, Amy and Leslie, Josh Colow, Scott Petito, along with the resident and ever-humble John Sebastian.

Here’s another hazard of musical benefits. Even “the pull” of so legendary a talent as John Sebastian is strained through over-use. For this reason, I’m told, John limits the number of benefits he performs each year so that when he actually does step onto stage, the applause is what it should be — overwhelming. And the coffers of whatever cause he assists are — as they should be — overflowing. (As was the obvious case in his benefit for the Woodstock Fire Department two years ago.)

Who have I left out? Though I wrack my brain, that list is doubtless long!

No Thanksgiving story on this subject is complete without fuller mention of the man who gave so much to Woodstock, though he’d already earned the love of

the town, and American music itself, by his accomplishments.

Prior to the invention of Levon Helm’s “Midnight Rambles” (originally a rentparty benefit to pay taxes), the backstage environment of any star-studded rock concert in America tended — by dint of who was more famous than whom — to be prickly, even hostile. Reaching back to traditions of the Grand Ole Opry and gospel, Levon learned how to employ a sense of welcome and warmth — indeed a sense of family — to virtually every performer who stepped upon his stage. Always assisted by his adoring and remarkably talented daughter, Amy, by the justifiably highly acclaimed Larry and Teresa Campbell, and by other stalwart crew (including the one and only Donald Fagen), Levon actually melted at least part of the hidden cold heart of American popular music. Along the way he assisted farmers near and far, siphoned concert-supplied funds into such disparate causes as Woodstock’s Little League and Family, and gave a boost to the Woodstock Volunteers Day that runs each August.

Whether you head off to Woodstock’s big community center Thanksgiving or go to friends’ and/or family’s private tables, be sure to raise a glass to Levon and the other fallen heroes. Be sure to invite those still living. And don’t forget the chestnuts!

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Wreath Wine Fineries at the Wineries

Nov 18-19 • Dec 2-3 • Dec 9-10

Hudson Valley Wine Tasting

PASSPORT 15 Unique Wineries Beautiful Views Delicious Tastings Self-guided wine tasting tour of the Shawangunk Wine Trail Valid: Jan 1-Aug 31, 2018 Sales end July 31, 2018.

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Visit our wineries, enjoy a wine tasting, receive a souvenir wine glass, grapevine wreath, and ornaments.

Stock up for your holiday table.

Wine makes a great gift!

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