Just in Time for the Holidays!
Local books and movies for holiday gift giving
Post-Star
readers from 1994 to 2003 looked forward to the local history columns of Joseph Cutshall-King, who wrote with a unique blend of wit, expertise and insight.
Now you can enjoy them again.
Cutshall-King has compiled 104 of his "Over the Shoulder" and "Passed Times" columns in a new book "Over My Shoulder -- The Post-Star Columns of Joseph Cutshall-King, Volume I: 1994 - 1997."
When Cutshall-King sat down to select his favorite columns for the compilation, it was kind of like the challenge of choosing a favorite flavor of ice cream at Stewart's.
So he decided to publish the compilation in two volumes, with the second volume to come later.
Cutshall-King had a long career in museum management and non-profit development work, most recently at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury.
Now he devotes full time to writing and speaking.
His new book sells for $9.95 and can be purchased online at pipingrock.wordpress.com or at the gift shop of The Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls.
It is one of several new books on sale this holiday gift-buying season at the Chapman, where your purchases support local authors as well as the museum's mission of preserving and telling the stories of the history of Glens Falls and Queensbury.
Retired history teacher Matthew A. Rozelle continues his oral history series with "Up the Bloody Boot: The War In Italy," Volume IV of "The Things Our Fathers Saw - The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation," on sale for $18.99.
Three new books about regional photographers are on sale: "A Glens Falls-Lake George Area Portfolio, 1904 - 1946: The Photographs of Francis Bayle and Some Local History," by Bob Bayle for $26.95; "J.S. Wooley: Adirondack Photographer" by Richard Timberlake and Philip Terrie for $49.95; and "In Water and Light: S.R. Stoddard's Lake George," which The Chapman published, at $29.95 for soft cover and $49.95 for hard cover.
Bayle said his latest book includes 142 photographs and a history of French-Canadians in Glens Falls.
"This book contains pictures from the lower Warren County areas of Glens falls, Queensbury, Luzerne, Lake George, Bolton, Warrensburg and Chestertown. I think they provide a good idea of what this part of the county landscape looked like in the early 1900's," he said.
Other new books available at The Chapman this holiday season include: "Thanks Anyway Sir ... But I'll Sleep In The Tree," by Larry Weill for $19.95; "Treasure in the Boathouse," # 18 in The Adirondack Kids series by Justin and Gary VanRiper for $9.95; and my own "The Animated Feather Duster: Slow News Day Tales of the Legendary Facial Hair of Charles Evans Hughes" for $12.
Books by local authors also can be purchased in Warren County at Trees in Bolton Landing, Made in Upstate New York at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls, and the Warren County Historical Society on Gurney Lane in Queensbury.
Peter Pepe of Pepe Productions in Glens Falls produced "Harnessing Nature: Building the Great Sacandaga," together with Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts and county Planning Director Jason Kemper.
The 70-minute documentary chronicles the history of Sacandaga Lake, created by construction of the Conklingville Dam in 1927.
Pepe began filming interviews for the documentary in the 1980s, and recently partnered with Roberts and Kemper to bring it to fruition.
The documentary can be purchased at thegreatsacandagalake.com.
Several other local authors have new books out this season.
Agata Stanford of Glens Falls has a new political thriller novel "Everything Will Be All Right," available at Amazon.com for $14 for paperback and $7.99 for Kindle version.
K.M. Barrett of Queensbury has a new screen play in book format "Forget-Me-Nots," a drama dealing with love, loss and aging, available at Amazon.com for $15 for paperback and $4.99 for Kindle version, and at Barnes&Noble.com for $15 for paperback.
Additionally Lawrence Dudley, Glens Falls native has written a fascinating World War II novel that involves a Nazi plot to alter the US Presidential election; available on Amazon.
Former Glens Falls Post Star reporter Bob Connor has written his first novel "the Last Circle of Ulysses Grant" detailing the last 14 months of Grant's life with a settings from New York City, to nearby Saratoga County (available on Amazon)
For those looking for local ghost stories try "Haunted Warren County" by the late
David J. Pitkin, retired teacher and local author, resident of Chestertown who died in 2013. (Available on Amazon; may also want to look for his eight books at the Chapman Museum in Glens Falls)
Snarky Aardvark Films of Queensbury is filming the movie version locally, with a local cast, in 2019.
Economic Development, Business, and General News
Remembering Robert Flacke
The career of Robert Flacke, who died Nov. 10 at age 85, is an example of how seeds planted in economic development reap benefits for years to come.
Flacke, as commissioner of NYS Department of Conservation, was instrumental in assisting the City (in the Bartholomew Administration) in obtaining funding (a total of $23 million of Federal and State monies) to construct the $27 million Glens Falls waste water treatment plant in the 1980s. (The remaining $4 million balance was split between Ciba Geigy and the City of Glens Falls.)
The plant continues to support new development, including a new sewer district that Queensbury is developing along a growing commercial corridor in West Glens Falls together with the recently expanded Town of Moreau sewer district. Additionally the Village of South Glens Falls waste water is connected to the City of Glens Falls facility.
Flacke, besides being the former state Department of Environmental Commissioner, also served as Adirondack Park Agency chairman.
He was instrumental in devising a transportation plan for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, and in establishing the Olympic Regional Development Authority to manage Olympic venues after the games.
ORDA facilities, which include Gore Mountain Ski Center in North Creek, continue to attract sports-related tourism to the region.
Flacke was chief executive of Fort William Henry Resort and Conference Center in Lake George, and was Lake George town supervisor.
He was a booster early on of cultural heritage tourism initiatives in the region, and continued until his death to offer insight on tourism strategy.
Flacke was on the boards of directors of three major employers in Warren County: Finch, Pruyn & Co., Glens Falls Hospital, and Evergreen Bank and its successor Bank North.
Christmas a century ago
Barber shops in Glens Falls stayed open until 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1918, and Glens Falls Hospital off-duty nurses gathered to tell jokes and make whimsical prophesies at the annual nurse's party.
Merchants took satisfaction in record holiday commerce.
"The heavy purchases of gifts means a joyous day for people of the city and vicinity tomorrow," The Post-Star reported on Dec. 24, 1918. "And the season's business compared with that of the holiday trade each year during the war is taken to indicate that the feeling of depression has been completely cast off and that Christmas day will have much more significance this year than for a considerable period."
