Grandsons

    Entertaining three grandsons for the day was a delightful time.   We hiked nature trails, played miniature golf and of course ate a lot both for dessert and for lunch.   Carson is 14, Cole is 12 but almost 13 and Turner the youngest of the three is 9 soon to be ten.  These youths have a mega amount of energy and set a pace on the trail far faster than their geezer grandpa.   At least I got my exercise today just trying to keep up with them.
    Playing with the grandsons for the day gave me a chance to explore things in the area that I might not otherwise have visited.   The Lime Hollow Nature Center has many interesting trails and exhibits almost in my backyard.   Our visits today will inspire me to go back to explore more of the trails.   We are fortunate to live in a glaciated area where one can find bogs, ponds, eskers and other geological features.   In addition there are a multitude of unique flora and fauna to observe.   One of the pictures below illustrates a pond full of Canada Geese raising their young.   The discovery of wild strawberries along the trail added to the pleasures of the day.

The Pond and Geese

The  Observers

Happy Conclusion

    I don't know if they appreciated my stories of when I was a boy but it is a geezer's prerogative to reminisce.   They were shocked by my stories of 25 cent milkshakes and 10 cent ice cream cones.     I grew up with no phone in the house and they have their personal cell phones and electronic games.   In spite of the technological changes the bonding of the generations remains the same.   We are family.

Jello and Plows

   We have a number of day vacations planned for the summer.   Exploration of interesting museums, sites and attractions within a day's drive is on our agenda.   Yesterday we were off to the Jello Museum in LeRoy, New York.    It was beautiful day to drive through rural central New York of the Fingerlakes area.   I enjoyed observing the newly planted fields and the rural scenery of lakes, hay fields and pastures.
   We had a tasty lunch at the Depot Restaurant which was housed in the old LeRoy railroad station.   Train destinations were posted in German as part of the decor and a round model train track was fastened to the ceiling.   All in all  a striking ambiance with excellent food and service.

The Deport Restaurant

   After lunch we were off to the LeRoy House and the Jello Museum on the main street of the village.  The LeRoy house had been built by one of the founders of the village and purchaser of the triangle tract of land of 96,000 acres stretching from LeRoy village up to Lake Ontario.   The point of triangular tract was near LeRoy.   It is a magnificent period home that had grown as the family grew to 10 children.   We exited from the LeRoy house to the rear gardens and on to the adjacent Jello Museum.

Entrance to the Jello Museum

   I can't imagine anyone that doesn't like Jello!   The story of the invention of Jello and the fate of it becoming a ubiquitous dessert was well illustrated in the museum.   The details slip my mind now but it is fascinating that this product has become a world wide icon.    Several giants of entertainers have been spokespersons for this product.   Many geezers will remember Jack Benny introducing his radio show with the opening phrase, "Jello everybody".   And Bill Cosby has been a commercial representative for Jello for over 32 years.   Apparently Cosby's run is the longest in history.   Jello ads have graced numerous major magazines and the art in these ads is known worldwide and even includes illustrations by Norman Rockwell.

   Perhaps the greatest surprise of the day for me was visit to the transportation history display in the basement of the Jello Museum.    As I entered the display I was stunned to see a plow display for the Leroy Plow Company.   Since I recently have been lecturing on the evolution of the plow and working with antique plow models I am tuned into the role of the plow in the development of our nation.   It was an amazing find to view the LeRoy Plow Company history and learn that this LeRoy, New York company had manufactured as many a 25,000 plows a year and remained in business even through World War II.  
   I expect that I will be delighted to find more interesting things in the remainder of our day vacations.  It is nice to know that we can discover wonderful things near to our home.

LeRoy PLow Company Shovel Plow

   

Geezer Tennis

   Yesterday I participated in the 2011 New York State Senior Games held in Cortland.   For many years I have played both in the men's singles and men's doubles tennis competition in my age bracket.   It is a fun time and winning a medal adds some satisfaction to the activity.   Yesterday was a blistering hot day.   Unfortunately I melted in the heat and had to retire from my singles match after one set.   Early in the set I had it all going for me and was leading 5-2 when I began to lose my energy and my edge.  I ended up losing the first set 7-5.   Rather than extending my agony and perhaps damaging my health,  retiring was the wise thing to do.  Walt Schoonaker played well and certainly had the stamina to stick with it.   Congratulations to Walt for winning the gold medal in his final match with Viktor.    It was a thin field in our age group this year and my nemesis over the years, Dave Shannon withdrew for some unknown reason so by default I did get the bronze medal.
     Seth Burgess and I played in the men's doubles in the afternoon and we were soundly beaten at 6-2 and 6-0 in that match against Fred and Al.   Our bracket spanned ages 70 to 87 so the pairings often had more senior people matched against younger opponents.   Seth and I out aged our opponents by about 5 years.   No excuse though.  Fred and Al had played together for many years to their advantage in our contest.   This was the first year for Seth and me so we are on a learning curve.   We look forward to another year after we have developed our team skills.
    The Senior Games is a wonderful activity and we are grateful that Cortland stepped up to support the games after the State of New York exited due to budget difficulties.    No matter what our age many of us still enjoy competing with our peers in athletic endeavors.   Win or lose,  the participation in itself is sufficient reward.   I feel so fortunate to have learned tennis  when I was 9 years old.   Tennis can be a life long activity that can be cross-generational fun.   In our family children and grandchildren can be on the courts with us.   And we all have a great time.

Gerry With Medal and Other Geezers

Walt- Gold Medal : Viktor - Silver Medal

Warm Up Time

   

Plow Boy

    Lately I have been immersed in plow history and dealing with models of plows.   Over the past two years I have refurbished a historic collection of model plows acquired by the first president of Cornell University Andrew D. White in 1868 at the direction of Ezra Cornell.   Along with the refurbishing of the physical models  I have translated from German into English an annotated original model plow directory.   At the invitation of the Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti I presented an illustrated lecture on this collection along with a discussion of a more than 5000 year evolution of the plow at their April meeting.   This lecture was videotaped and now is available on line on YouTube as well as through Cornell.   This has been an interesting interlude in my geezerhood activities.   At this point my colleague J. Robert Cooke assisted by others is finalizing the plow project which will be published on Cornell's eCommons.   Anyone interested in this activity can view this project through the following links.  These are early versions so you may want to go to the eCommons library for the latest version.   The manuscript and supporting materials are reaching their final edit and we look forward to the completion of the project.

 Youtube - http://youtu.be/XGznAv9S94Q <http://youtu.be/XGznAv9S94Q>
CornellCast - http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoid=1248 <http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoid=1248>
eCommons – http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/22848 <http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/22848> 




    During this project I was reminded that Jethro Wood of Scipio Center, New York in Cayuga County was the inventor of the interchangeable parts cast iron plow.   This past Monday on a Memorial Day outing I visited the site of Wood's invention and his home.   It was gratifying to see the historical markers erected by the State of New York and also to see his very well preserved home.   Although I left the farm I grew up on nearly 60 years ago and have had a long academic career in engineering, there certainly are strong agrarian roots remaining in my life.   Maybe I am still a plow boy at heart.

Jethro Wood the Storekeeper Inventor

Jethro Wood Home Site Marker

Jethro Wood's Well Preserved House

Apple Fritter - The National Pastry

  Tonight Garrison Keillor had a skit on The Prairie Home Companion about Congress  enacting a law to make the apple fritter  the national pastry.  Part of the skit was a negotiation between two senators where one would support the apple fritter for the national pastry if the other would support his legislation for designating grits as the national side dish.  I loved the piece!   I am an apple fritter addict.  My ski buddies routinely chide me about my consumption of an apple fritter every day at our morning coffee break at the ski slopes.   I get the same grief from my associates at Cornell when we have our morning coffee breaks too.   I claim that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  It is just that I consume my apple in the form of an apple laced pastry.  Probably I should feel extremely blessed that I can have this vice since many of my companions are diabetic and not allowed such an indulgence.

Apple Fritter Giant

Add Some Freshly Brewed Coffee

    My dear wife is my enabler since she willingly shops at our local Price Chopper for my fritter supply.   She buys in quantity and they are available in the freezer for my daily fix.   Whenever the supply gets low she make sure to resupply during her morning coffee run.   So in my house the apple fritter is the pastry du jour.   Thank you apple growers and the Price Chopper bakers!   I don't expect any real legislation to make the apple fritter the National Pastry but if ever a National Pastry or even a State Pastry is to be designated you know what I'll be lobbying for.

Apple Blossom Time

   I grew up on a fruit farm so apple blossom time wherever I am has a special significance to me.   This year I have been especially aware of the apple tree blooms.   The blooms seem  to be unusually fragrant and abundant on both the domestic and wild apple trees in my neighborhood and on the Cornell Campus.   For the first time this year I learned that the only native apple trees to North America are the crab apple trees.   Today's domesticated varieties of  apple trees are derivatives of crab apple tree stock.  Over 60 years ago as a youngster on the family farm we celebrated full bloom of our apple trees in anticipation of a bumper crop of apples in the fall.    It was always a tragedy when a hard frost occurred during bloom time.   If my memory serves me right,  a major run of frosty nights in the spring of 1947 decimated our apple crop.   Our normal harvest would be about 5000 bushels.   The 1947  crop was only 746 bushels.   This was a serious blow to the bottom line.   Sixty four years later the same vagaries of weather assail apple growers.   However, this year's later in the season blooming of the trees should reduce the risk of a killing frost.   In 1947 full bloom occurred in late March due to an unusually warm spell in early spring.

     I am thankful that I can now enjoy the beauty of apple tree blossoms without the anxiety of needing apple production for my livelihood.   Below a are a couple of pictures of crab apple trees in  bloom on the Cornell Campus.   Enjoy!

Smell the Blossoms

I'll Look for the Crab Apples This Fall

Geezer Gatherings

North Rose Central Class of '52

   In the past six days I have had two meals with geezer groups.   One a breakfast with  the ROMEO's (Retired Older Men Eating Out) of the Fayetteville United Methodist Church and the other a lunch today with with some of my classmates of the North Rose Central School class of 1952.    Although the ROMEO's gather every Wednesday morning, I only see them every few months.  However, it is fun to get together with them to catch up on the doings of a community we lived in for several years.   One member of the ROMEO's consistently ribs me about the success of Cornell athletics (He is a Syracuse University fan) and I always tell him about the Cornell related Nobel prize winners.   The banter is light hearted with a good number of laughs and fortunately we all know the boundaries and avoid being offensive.     This is not true for all geezer gatherings so I am grateful for these fun filled and peaceful gatherings.

L. to R.:  Rose, Millie, Bob, Camera Shy Spouse

     Today Nancy and I had a leisurely drive to Newark, New York for the lunch with several of my aforementioned classmates.   It was our first longer trip in our Smart Car.   Speaking for myself, I found it to be a comfortable two hour each way trip.   Even if we did have some rain and fog.   Ten classmates and three spouses were in attendance.   The ten of us represent about half of the class that is still alive out of the class of 28.   We have been getting together for class reunions starting with our 25 year reunion at five to ten or more year intervals until recently when we have been planning annual to semi-annual luncheons.   Next year (2012) will be our 60th reunion year so perhaps we will have a bigger event.   All of us are well into geezerhood.   Some even have great grandchildren.   Many of us have survived with relatively few age challenges while others have have significant medical issues or are deceased.   I suppose our class  is a microcosm of the general population by age but certainly not in ethnicity.
     These gatherings can be challenging for spouses since they typically do not share the same experiences of the classmates.   Usually we are rehashing events of our teen years that have no relevance to the spouses.    Frankly, I think reunions can be overdone.   Unless one can move on beyond reminiscing my interest begins to flag and I am ready to move on to current events.    While Nancy and I  make it a point to inquire about what is going on in their lives, we notice that few pick up the idea of asking us what we are doing.   I hope that this is not totally true of all geezers but just an anomaly of this group.   I conclude that geezer reunions are to be taken in small doses.   A couple of hours of conversation and a good meal suffice.      Meanwhile some of us who remain tech savvy know that social networking over great distances can be accomplished with Facebook, e-mail and the like.   Will face to face reunions be the thing the current generation when they become  geezers?   Who knows what that future world will be like?