In spite of a snow storm, we are on our semiannual trip to Madison, Wisconsin to visit our son. so far the roads are fine. We will hope for the best when we get near the lakes!
Labyrinth Press Company
We stopped for lunch at a cozy little vegetarian restaurant, brewery and wine lounge in Jamestown. This was a great find because there are not many places to stop on this stretch of Rt. 86.
We were impressed by the friendly table service, quality food, and quick service. We might have to make this a regular stop. Give it a try if you find yourself near Jamestown, New York.
I ❤️ New York
There is something special about New York City st Christmas. The street vendors selling roasted nuts, Santa driving pedi-cabs, Macy’s store windows and the lights!
We went to see Aladdin at the New Amsterdam theatre on Broadway. It was not the best Broadway show I have seen but a lot of fun and larger than life sets one expects on Broadway.
Merry Christmas to all! 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Roosevelt Home and Library
Our main reason for stopping in the Hudson Valley area was to visit the FDR home and presidential library in Hyde Park. If you decide to go, allow a whole day because there is much to see.
FDR won a historic mandate in 1932. After three years of brutal economic depression, Americans decisively rejected President Hoover and the ruling Republican Party. Roosevelt defeated Hoover in a landslide and Democrats seized control of Congress for the first time in 16 years. They dominated the new Senate by an overwhelming margin of 60 to 35 and enjoyed a 310 to 117 majority in the House. Voters handed Roosevelt and the Democrats a blank check. Their only demand was action and FDR acted!
Imagine what could be done about climate change and other pressing issues today with that kind of mandate?
“Eleanor dreaded becoming First Lady. A writer, teacher, social reformer, political activist, she relished her hard-won freedom and financial independence. Though happy for her husband’s success, she now faced the prospect of a life confined to the traditional social duties of the ‘President’s Wife’. At FDR’s insistence, Eleanor resigned all her professional positions. She came to Washington with no defined role other than White House hostess. Yet ER soon began showing FDR how her energy and interest could help him achieve his goals. Instead of conforming to the accepted role of First Lady, she redefined it. She began holding press conferences on political matters for female reporters. She made fact finding trips- logging 40,000 miles in three months. She asked Americans to write to her with their concerns. Within months she received 300,000 letters. ER’s actions served notice that she was a new kind of First Lady.” From museum display
Here are a few more fun facts:
We were sorry that we did not see Valkill, Eleanor’s retreat on the other side of the estate. We plan on a return trip in the summer!
Here is a collage from the Roosevelt residence, Springwood, where FDR was born and lived throughout his life.
Guinness Record: 720,000 Christmas Lights
I did say we were going on a trip to New York City to experience Christmas lights. Along the way, in LaGrange, NY (near Poughkeepsie) we took in the Gay family home display which holds the Guinness World Record of the most Christmas light in a display- 720,000 lights, all programmed to music in order to celebrate the holiday season in style.
Sojouner Truth’s Home Turf
I have known about Sojourner Truth most of my life, but she always seemed larger than life and more like a myth than an actual person. It turns out the actual person, Isabella Baumfree, was born in 1797 and was enslaved on a farm in the town of Esopus in Ulster County, New York in the Hudson Valley. At the age of 29 she liberated herself from a by walking 11 miles to freedom over the Shaupeneck Ridge carrying her infant daughter, Sophia, the youngest of her four children. She found help from Quaker Levi Rowe and his wife who lived in a cabin in her path. (scenichudson.org) They directed her to the Van Wagenen family who took her in and helped her buy her freedom from from her enslaver for $20 and her daughter for $5 one year before slavery was outlawed in New York state.
In 1828 Sojourner Truth sucessfully sued for the freedom of her son, Peter, in the Ulster County Courthouse. in Kingston, NY. Early in 1827, Peter had been sold and sent to Alabama illegally. She succeeded in regaining custody of her son, but Peter never recovered from the cruelty and terror he experienced while enslaved in the Deep South. While she was fighting for custody of Peter, Isabella experienced a spiritual awakening, which guided her the rest oif her life.
In 1828, Isabella moved to New York City. She joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which allowed her to meet and speak with many Black community leaders. She continued to explore her new religious calling and learned more about the abolitionist movement. She also found new causes to champion, including temperance, women’s rights, Black uplift, and pacifism. She took up teaching and preaching in New York’s poorest neighborhoods, boldly going places other women activists feared to visit.
For the next 11 years, Isabella worked as domestic servant before undergoing a second spiritual transformation. She believed God was calling her to travel and preach about the causes she believed in. To mark the start of this new chapter in her life, Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She was about 45 years old.
Sojourner traveled throughout the Northeast, telling her story and working to convince people to end slavery and support women’s rights. She had little money, so she often walked from place to place and sometimes slept outdoors. She met abolitionist leaders like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and David Ruggles along the way. She never shied away from challenging these celebrities in public when she disagreed with them. Sojourner’s lack of education and her Dutch accent made her something of an outsider, but the power of words and her conviction impressed all those around her.
Though Truth never learned to read or write, she produced a book and sold it to support herself. This Narrative, dictated by her to Olive Gilbert was first published in 1850 and was republished five times during her lifetime. Later editions included selections from her Book of Life, a scrapbook containing newspaper articles, letters, songs etc., that she collected.
In spite of many obstacles in her life, Sojourner Truth’s tenacity, courage and conviction helped her became one of the most consequential abolitionists, and activists for African-American civil rights, women’s rights, and alcohol temperance in U.S history. (Wikepedia).
Reimagining Newburgh, NY
We spent the afternoon today in the city of Newburgh, NY., population 28,856. It is a city with a rich and vibrant past that fell on hard times and is now reimagining itself. This is a theme we have seen repeated in our travels throughout the U.S.
We saw many historic boarded up buildings and also much evidence of restoration. My eves dropping husband overheard four conversations about real estate in the coffee shop where we had lunch. The prices are definitely a deal for folks moving up from the city.
The area was settled by Lenape for thousands of years. Germans settled here in 1709. Now the largest population is Latin from Puerto Rico, Peru, Cuba and Mexico. There is also a large Black population.
Some interesting things about Newburgh:
General George Washington made Newburgh headquarters for the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
A local photographer decided to do a portrait of a city on the side of a building very similar to Robyn Wishna’s We Are Ithaca installation.
The Recovery Management Corporation, an addiction recovery service had a really apt saying on their door, which we can all take to heart. “The future rests in our hands, rebuilding this community, restoring its structure while bringing hope and purpose to our lives.”
The Hudson: the River that Flows Both Ways
For 10.000 years the Hudson River Valley was home to many Native American societies—from the Munsee Indians of the lower valley (also known as Lenape), to the Mohicans and Mohawks of the upper valley. (hudsongreenway.ny.gov). The Hudson River runs through the Munsee, Lenape, Mohican, Mohawk, and Haudenosaunee homelands. Prior to European exploration, the river was known as the Mahicannittuk by the Mohicans, Ka’nón:no by the Mohawks, and Muhheakantuck by the Lenape. The river was subsequently named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company who explored it in 1609. (Wikepedia) “Muhheakantuck ” means “water that flows both ways”. The southern part of river is actually an estuary that changes direction twice a day as the ocean pushes salt water in against the river current with the high tide; the tidal influence extends as far as the Federal Dam in Troy.
One of the most important rivers in U.S history, the 315 mile river was a major navigation route before there were trains and automobiles. The Hudson’s connection to the Mohawk River allowed travelers to eventually get to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. A strategic waterway during the American Revolution, the Hudson was the scene of numerous battles, including the decisive American victory at Saratoga and the naval battle of Tappan Zee.
A New York Christmas
We have decided to take a short trip to New York city, It has been some years since we have been there to experience the magic of Christmas in New York. We plan to stop in Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park to see the sites on the way. Stay tuned!
New Guinea Community, Hyde Park, NY
From 1790 to 1850 there was a settlement of free Blacks and some White people in what is now Hyde Park, NY. “Guinea” is a reference to the Guinea Coast in West Africa. Many of the residents were formerly enslaved by the owners of large estates here along the Hudson River. There still exist some foundations and stone walls at this National Register of Historic Places site at Hackett Hill Park. (https://www.hydeparkny.us/336/New-Guinea-Community)
In addition to this free Black community and large estates along the Hudson, there was also a large Quaker settlement further inland, which was a radical abolitionist stronghold. The Quakers moved to Dutchess County to escape persecution in New England for their call for “plainess”, for the abolition of slavery and equal treatment of women. Their views were considered radical and unwelcome.
Perspectives on the Road 