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Archiver > NYMADISO > 2001-04 > 0988180821


From: Tim Stowell <>
Subject: [NYMADISO] My New York visit - part 3
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 02:46:30 -0400


When I last left you, I was visiting family members just outside of Smyrna
but nearer to Otselic on Sunday evening.

We ended up staying at my relative's house until after 9 PM. We got back
to where I was staying around 10 PM.
My cousin and his wife went to bed, while I got busy downloading and
answering email until my normal bedtime of 3 AM.

The next morning after breakfast and another download of email, we set out
on the day's adventure. We traveled east out of South New Berlin on route
23 towards Morris.

In all my years of going to going to New York, Morris was not one of those
most visited places. The last time I remember being there had been at
night, visiting at a friend's church. Of course by daylight, the town
didn't seem to be as I remembered it. We flitted in and out of Morris in a
heartbeat, heading east along 23 towards and through West Laurens, West
Oneonta and into Oneonta proper. The journey over, though not that far,
was a pleasant respite from my daily trek back home.

Along our route we came upon an unusual sight - that of the car in front of
us for quite some time. What was striking about this late model car was
that it apparently had no visible driver. No head or arms were to be seen.
Even looking at the reflection in the rear view mirror of the car showed
not a soul driving. Had it not been for the shoulder strap of the seat
belt mechanism showing that it was in use, one could have concluded the car
was being driven by remote control! I'd not seen such a sight since my
last journey to Florida years ago.

I was to meet in Oneonta at 10:30 but because of a late start and other
factors, did not arrive until nearly 11:00 to meet, chat and say thank you
so much to Sandy Goodspeed, without which a nice section of material on the
Chenango site would not be there.

The neat thing about vacation and a loose agenda, is that one has the
luxury of time, to a certain extent, to sit and talk of what has been
accomplished, to plan further and to talk about things in general. I told
Sandy about the material I had found in Norwich at the county library - the
1890 New York, Ontario and Western railway guide - a quasi-1890 census for
those areas. She in turn told me of her next project she's working on and
other interests she has in the area of central New York.

The unfortunate thing though was that time passed quickly and it was soon
time to go as I was to meet the New Berlin Town Historian in New Berlin at
100PM.

Now we come to the explanation of time zones. Most folks are well
acquainted with the Eastern Standard Zone, the Central, Pacific and
sometimes even the Mountain time zones but few people in the North are
aware of the Southern Time Zone. Basically the Southern Time Zone covers
that region of the South where time either stands still or is nearly
nonexistent. The concept of time standing still is fairly well understood
because folks tend to think of Rip Van Winkle in that regard. However, the
nearly nonexistent is much harder to understand much less explain.

There are probably many variations of this but two particular versions come
to mind at the present. One version is where Southerners who have been
visiting someone decides it is time to go home or move on. Gradually
pushing away from the table or getting to their feet they begin the process
of saying goodbye and leaving. One can gauge how Southern one is by how
long it takes to actually leave after saying goodbye. If one has planned a
short visit to someone, it's best to come in say hello and then immediately
start saying goodbye. The average good-bye lasts approximately 30 minutes
while others may stretch into several hours or even days.

The second variation of this phenomenon denies that clocks exist - saying
that we'll get there when we get there - no need to hurry or that somehow
one can wish their way to somewhere by forcing the clock to tick slower on
their account while they travel at the speed of light. Sometimes
Southerners take this time zone with them when they travel outside of the
South.

I trend toward the latter but have been known to use the former as
circumstances demand. Suffice it to say I did not get to New Berlin for my
100 PM appointment with Barb Avery. Instead we went into the town library.
The librarian told me that Barb had just left and that she would call and
let her know I had arrived at the library.

The library in New Berlin is the best equipped library I've seen for a town
of its size. They have 4 computer terminals for public access with at
least 2 Internet ready. The library also has a small but impressive
section of books on Chenango, Madison and other counties as well as
regional and state resources.

Barb soon came and we talked about New Berlin. In recent months she had
started sending me information for the web site, including identification
of the men in the GAR reunion photo, cemetery listings and other material.
She had been on the committee that surveyed St. Andrews cemetery this past
summer, which I'll put on-line once the material makes it to me.

We chatted on and I told her the material I'd found in Norwich and of my
visit to meet Sandy earlier in the morning. I told Barb I'd seen and
copied some pages from a book at the library - the 1869-70 Childs directory
of Chenango county, which a young man had contributed about 1/2 the towns
listings to me to post about a year and a half ago.

In the meantime, my cousin, went across the street and purchased a map of
Chenango County for me. Even though it is a modern map, it shows lots of
what I'd call wide spots in the road that have a community name attached to
it.

I used one of the computers at the library to show Barb some of the work
I'd done on other sites as we discussed how best to present data. We then
visited the previously mentioned room of historical material where I talked
with her about what I'd like to have added to the web site. I spied a copy
of a book similar to the Chenango County directory I'd seen at the Norwich
library and made a comment about how I'd passed up getting a copy years
before, as I had only one line about one relative in it.

Barb then made a generous offer to give me an extra copy that she had of
the Madison County book. She had this at her home and took me there to get
the book. Arriving at her house she showed me some of the records she has
there. I saw where she had listings of cemeteries and mentioned that there
was one cemetery in all of Chenango County that I wish I had a listing for
as I've relatives there and one that I'd seen many obits mention as the
final resting place. That cemetery is Sherburne West Hill. She then told
me she had a copy of same at least through the late 1950s that she would
get copied for me.

As the day was getting late we returned home.

-----------
As the day is getting late here - 245 AM, I'm heading for the bed and catch
ya'll another day in one time zone or another!






Tim Stowell
Moderator Chenango County mailing list
Coordinator Chenango County, NYGenWeb pages
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nychenan

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