No Burma Shave Here!

We drove through Holland Patent on a gloomy winter day last week. We passed by the “Window King” R.A. Dudrak and these delightful signs brightened the day!

HAHA! I liked that last sign. It alludes to the old Burma Shave road signs, popular in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s when Americans hit the roads in droves. It was a time of great optimism and prosperity. The road trip was king.

Burma Shave was a shaving cream, manufactured by the Burma-Vita company. Sales for the cream were less than enthusiastic, so the company started an advertising campaign that later entered the annals of American culture. They placed signs with brief snippets of limericks along roadways. At first the signs were pure advertisements, such as these:

A shave
That’s real
No cuts to heal
A soothing
Velvet after-feel
-Burma-Shave

You’ve laughed
At our signs
For many a mile
Be a sport
Give us a trial
-Burma-Shave

Later, the signs became little stories or humorous admonitions against speeding and driving drunk. Always, the last sign said simply “Burma Shave.”

Hardly a driver
Is now alive
Who passed
On hills
At 75
-Burma-Shave

Past
Schoolhouses
Take it slow
Let the little
Shavers grow
-Burma-Shave

If daisies
Are your
Favorite flower
Keep pushin’ up those
Miles per hour
-Burma-Shave

The actual shaving cream was never as popular as the company’s advertising campaign. Sales declined and Burma-Shave was sold to Philip Morris in 1963. The company pulled the ads and thus ended another quirky icon in American road trip travel history. A shame.

But there are a few of us who still remember Burma Shave! It was nice to see that the Window King of Holland Patent remembered.

Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, Part 3

If you don’t have a hankering to go see this museum after the first two posts about our trip (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here), I don’t know what to tell you. It took us two full days (and then some) to see this museum and we had a BLAST. My kids’ heads are officially stuffed with Adirondack information. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot at closing time, we were ready to haul out a boatload of cash to buy our own little cabin in the woods!

In the previous posts, I yakked on about the Adirondack hermits, Adirondack stuff and paraphernalia (aka, junk) that previous campers and residents left behind for us to ooo and aaa about, and I talked about the wonderful methods of transportation back in the ‘ol days (and you think modern potholes are bad, check out the old plank road!). For this post, I’ll talk about the modern Adirondacks– the Winter Olympics and Smokey the Bear, woo hoo!

Twice, Lake Placid in the Adirondacks has hosted the Winter Olympics, in 1932 and 1980. I remember watching the 1980 games on TV and feeling that tremendous surge of pride as a New Yorker. Lake Placid (where we hope to visit very soon) is a wonderful little community of sports enthusiasts. Dozens of winter athletes have come from this little town, including Jack Shea, winner of the 1932 gold for speed skating and his grandson Jimmy Shea for skeleton sledding in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

The museum has a small section devoted to Olympic history. This is the sled on which Francis Paul Stevens won his silver medal in 1932.

A little bit of trivia– did you know that the Lake Placid High School is the only school in the United States to have been issued an alcohol license? During the 1980 Olympics, the school served as a private bar. Lake Placid was also one of the first communities in the U.S. to build a golf course, in 1898.

Moving along, we wandered through another very large building dedicated to the various industries in the Adirondacks. Logging was the biggest, and there was so much to see and learn. We all found it extremely fascinating, with many old tools, displays, plaques and stories of the loggers and their families. What a tough, tough job. I’m amazed at the strength of these guys.

This is one of the many gigantic piece of equipment the loggers used. It’s a Barienger brake, a huge piece of machinery that controlled logs (and horses and men!) as they were transported down the steep slopes of the Adirondack mountains.

Men also transported logs by the many waterways of the ADKs. I loved this diorama.

After spending over an hour in this one building, we ventured outside to the old Whiteface Mountain fire tower.

The view is so cool.

Obviously, these fire towers could make or break a community. To heighten awareness of the threats of fire to visitors, Smokey the Bear was invented by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1942. This is a genuine old Smokey suit. Did you know that Smokey was named for Smokey Joe Martin, a New York City assistant fire chief?

The last moments of our visit were spent enjoying the various outbuildings. Many were reproductions of typical ADK cottages and summer camps, all sporting unique and quirky objects, like chain rain gutters, rustic playhouses and furniture made from twigs.

Giant Adirondack Chair.

TV, Adirondack style!

Before the sun set and the museum closed, we scampered over to the back of the museum to take one final glimpse of Blue Mountain Lake. As dusk approached, a couple of loons trumpeted over the lake. It was absolutely beautiful. I miss it so much.

Thanks for reading. If you are ever in the Adirondack region, check out the museum. It’s a blast!

Timeless

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I adore history. Historical artifacts, historical stories, genealogy, everything! In so many of our exploits seeing so many wonderful old articles from the past, I always walk away awed. HOW can such old, antiquated objects still exist or even still operate after all these hundreds of years? At Fraunces Tavern in New York City and at Fort Ticonderoga in Upstate New York, we gazed at articles owned by George Washington. I loved his old pocket watch, watch fob and watch key. It’s amazing that these things are still preserved! They just don’t make such things like they used to, either. Especially watchpieces. These “time” pieces are truly timeless when made well!

All my kids love wristwatches. A few of them have cell phones, but they still wear their watches. Problem is, the watches they have had are the “discount” watches from the local Wally World. Needless to say, I usually wind up (pun intended!) purchasing a new watch for each kid because the watches are so poorly made. 300 years from now, will museum visitors be treated to the junk from our landfills? Ugh.

It would have been better if I’d paid a little more and just purchased Citizen Eco drive watches for the children. Seriously, I could imagine George Washington wearing one of these watches, especially if it has a barometer or calendar. He and Thomas Jefferson were avid weather watches, I hear. You think this watch with its “perpetual calendar” would go over well?

P.S. My son saw me going through the BlueDial.com website and he came right over. “Wow, watches!” he said. I told you, my kids like watches!

Check out the store for some of the most beautiful watches you’ve ever seen. Truly, these are elegant timepieces. And who knows, maybe someday YOUR elegant timepiece will sit behind a display case in a museum.

Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY – Part 2

This is one of the finest museums in Upstate New York. Read Part 1 of our trip. The Adirondack Museum is the “everything” place about the Adirondacks: the ecosystems and biology of the forest and lakes; life in the Adirondacks from early times to now; the logging and mining industries; its formation as a state park system; a treasure trove of Adirondack paraphernalia.

It took us two days to see the entire museum, and we rushed through it on the second day! The place is situated like a campus, with dozens of outbuildings connected by pathways. Lovely fountains, a pond, and breathtaking views of the majestic mountains fill the background.

After wandering through several buildings loaded with information and artifacts relating to the geology and geography of the park, boat building, and Adirondack camp nostalgia from the previous century, we entered an enormous building with several life-like displays of old carriages, trains, and sleds. Transportation by boat seemed to be the main mode for Daks residents, but a railroad and horse-drawn carriages transported visitors to the park.

The train reconstruction is remarkable. What elegance and decoration of those old trains! Today, everything is so utilitarian; the difference is so striking.

I like the Peddler Wagon. It was crammed with all the typical household necessaries of mid-19th century rural American.

We also saw a Dog/Sheep Power Machine! The kids and I have often joked about building one of these. We wouldn’t churn butter as this one does, but maybe the critter would provide some juice for the electronics, eh?

This is cool– a huge snow roller. Back before plows, all the people could do was squash the snow and pack it down as much as possible. Wow.

I enjoyed seeing a replica of an old plank road. About 100 years ago, such a road ran in front of my house. These plank roads were built of logs. Sometimes the logs were planed flat, others kept there round shape and we firmly planted into the dirt pathways. VERY bumpy going. A businessman or group of businesses usually funded the construction. They charged tolls to make up for the construction costs. These roads must have been extremely hard on the wagon riders — ouch!

The name of this “mountain” on a map made me giggle.

We followed another path from that building to several outbuildings. These were tiny replications of typical summer camps. This one is called the Durant Sunset Cottage, named for the builder and owner (William West Durant and Frederick Clark Durant, respectively) and for the radiant design. The building is sided by spruce limb and used as sleeping quarters for the Durant camp north of Raquette Lake.

In the 1860s after the Civil War, Americans became prosperous and enjoyed more leisure time. City-dwellers and rich folks wanted to enjoy the “strenuous life” outdoors, and they flocked to the Daks for their exploits. The Adirondacks are extremely rugged country, however, even to this day. A whole new economy sprang up: guides and guide books who led intrepid city slickers on forested adventures.

Hermits came to the Daks, too. The museum dedicated a portion of the room to some of the hermits.

Noah John Rondeau is one of the more famous hermits (oxymoron??). For a hermit, he sure got out a lot. He had visitors from all over the world, and traveled to New York City on occasion to give speeches about hermit living.

Rondeau was quite the character. I have intentions of reading more about him (yes, he even had books written about him– this is quite the popular hermit!). He invented his own language and wrote his diary in it. It took a while, but someone did crack the code.

Rondeau was definitely a quirky character. One of the books at the museum that interested me was written by Maitland de Sormo. I’m going to check it out (it’s difficult to find in print anymore) and perhaps do a little story about Rondeau here in the future.

I continue our adventure at the Adirondack Museum in Part 3, so stay tuned for more!

Oh Say, Can You See?

New York State drivers, did you know that the state Department of Motor Vehicles no longer requires us to take a vision test for license renewals? What do you think?

I think it’s terrible, especially now that the population is getting older. No offense to you senior citizens, but vision tests ensure that the folks behind the wheels can still see to drive! Vision does tend to deteriorate with age, and mandatory vision tests did provide the public with some assurance that all drivers on the roads had adequate vision. The DMV says they eliminated the tests because they wanted to make online license renewal easier. I think that is a very poor reason for eliminating the vision tests. The tests were a minor inconvenience compared to the assurance that every driver is fit. Oh well… we as drivers can each do our part to make sure that our loved ones are OK behind the wheel and that we all get regular exams at the optician’s office. Sometimes a nice, new pair of glasses is inspiration for a quick vision check. I’m going to go again soon because I want a new prescription for a new pair of eyeglasses at Zenni Optical. I purchased a pair several months ago and I absolutely LOVE them. Honestly, I can’t sing Zenni’s praises louder. I got exceptional service and the glasses are the best I have owned. I want another pair, now!

Zenni optical has a very large variety of eyeglasses for every style. Besides the “everyday” styles, Zenni sells novelty frames for the holidays. My favorites are the red and green Christmasy glasses. I am not sure what style I will get next, perhaps something pink or something very zany and colorful. If you or a loved one is in need of new glasses, check out Zenni’s selections– maybe you can even get a pair for your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day or Easter. The glasses at Zenni’s are so inexpensive that you can have several pairs for the price of one retail-bought pair. Many frames are generally $6.95 to $9.95, but strong prescriptions may cost more. Because my prescription is so strong, my glasses were $71. But that prices was a fraction of the cost of retail-bought eyeglasses. So I could still buy two more pairs of glasses and still make out better than retail frames!

Seriously– if you are needing new glasses, try Zenni Optical. To buy glasses online, you do need your prescription and pupillary distance measurement. These measurements are obtained by an optometrist with a simple eye exam. And eye exams are good, especially if you drive!

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