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.

Timeless

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Little Falls is another fine example of Upstate New York’s formerly prosperous era, between the Civil War and World War II. Many of the Victorian grand dames lines the streets, some kept up while other decaying.

One of the claims to fame of the city is The Human Polar Bear. City resident and eye specialist businessman Professor Louis Sugarman was thus called the Human Polar Bear for his sensationalist plunges into the freezing cold waters of the nearby Mohawk River. The man apparently bathed “daily,” even in temperatures of 20 BELOW zero!

The day we visited, the Monday after New Year’s Day, was extremely cold and the wind whipped around the rugged cliffs. No baths for us! I originally hoped we could wander the streets a bit, snapping photos and admiring the architecture, but it was too cold. Instead, we sauntered into Ann’s Cafe and Deli Restaurant for coffee and sandwiches. The prices are outstanding and the food was tasty. The coffee was absolutely phenomenal.

After we’d thawed out, we wandered the canal area. Little Falls was one of the Erie Canal cities, and the city thrived from the commerce. Railroads and, later, the highways, replaced the canal. The city slumped from the loss but Lock 17 is here and is a popular tourist site for canal enthusiasts. According to Wikipedia, the lock here at Little Falls was “the highest lift lock in the world at 40.5 feet (12.3 m) in height” until recently.

The city has created a lovely park and visitors’ center in this area by the canal. We wandered the park.

In the center of the park stands an odd, modern sculpture. It clashes quite loudly amongst a backdrop of very old buildings and antique shops.

The park hosts a number of stores. I am not a fan of shopping, but it was so cold that we decided to wander in the building. What pleasant surprises we found!

The buildings were crammed full with quirky old stuff for sale. We delighted browsing through so many interesting tools, crafts, furniture and other objects that left us baffled. We spotted this very odd device. It is made from blown glass and is enormous- larger than a beach ball! We played a little guessing game. My son thought perhaps it was a huge Christmas tree ornament. I guessed it was a Victorian decoration for a garden, like those glass globes on pedestals.

I submitted the photo and asked my NewYorkTraveler.net Facebook friends. What a surprise! Three people answered and knew exactly what it is– a Japanese fishnet float! Fishermen once hung these glass floats on the edges of their nets to make sure the nets did not drop down into the water, lost forever.

I also spotted an old rotary phone. Oh this brought back memories! Remember how long it took, just to dial a number? And if you dialed the wrong digit, what a pain it was to start over!

We spent too long in the shops, looking at so many things. A storm was coming and we knew we must start the drive home soon… but there was always something incredibly interesting to see!

Finally, we made our way out. I took a quick diversion to the bridge over the canal. We were surprised to see extensive damage, still, from the August and September hurricanes and severe flooding that had hit the area. You can see that the floods washed away parts of the foundations of these buildings. Oh no!

The waterway was messy, full of piles of enormous rocks, fallen trees and some debris. I could tell that there had been some cleanup already. I wonder how extensive the damage was after the hurricanes?

The sidewalk was closed, for obvious reasons. You can see right down through the foundation.

We slowly made our way back to the vehicle. The streets were nearly empty and the clouds were beginning to darken. Next time we return to this little city, it will be in better weather to visit the Nicholas Herkimer Home just east of the city limits.

On our way, we passed by the Fairfield Windmill Project, a hotly contested “renewable energy” project that greatly divided the community.

A New Year’s Stroll Through Little Falls, NY

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The winner of the event was a man from Pennsylvania. He owned this car, the amazing 1928 Isotta Fraschini. What a slick car.

My favorite car was this, an Auburn. LOVE this car.

Here are some other interesting vehicles we saw:

And a 1933 Marmon.

It was a great day! We hope to go again next year and see what’s new.

The Antique and Classic Car Show in Utica, Pt2

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Garbage is today’s theme. Boy oh boy. you could get REALLY creative with this one! I was tempted to snap a photo of a box full of the worst books in the world, or a photo of the current White House and Congress, or of my local school building… but I think it is wise to avoid politics today, lol. So I decided to go with *just* garbage. Although, as the saying goes, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”

Here’s a photo of some garbage– er, treasure. I drove by a salvage barn on Route 20 in Madison, NY. It’s actually a cool place– they have some of the neatest things to be found there. If you are willing to dig past all the garbage.

(Ooo a Harley-Davidson wagon! They musta been cooking with gas back in the olden days!!!!)

This area of Madison County is called the “Antique Capital of the World.” In August, this entire stretch of Route 20 from Madison to Bouckville is FILLED with antique dealers. People come from all over the world to find old treasure for their antique stores, for movie-making, or for personal collections. My only question is: after so long, don’t all the antiques go somewhere? I mean, HOW many antiques can there BE in the world?!

And just for kicks, here’s a dilapidated old house from the area. Even the houses are antiques! (Mine is probably as old as this one)

How did your Photo Hunters go today? Leave your link in the comments and I’ll visit you later this week!

Photo Hunters: Garbage

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Bouckville’s only claim to fame must be its status as the location of the largest antiques show around– the Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show. People come from all over the country and the world to scour the tables, barns, tents, and antique stores during the big weekend in August. I’ve been through the area during that weekend, and it is nearly impossible to drive through the undulating crowds of antique hunters.

Traveling here in early March is another story.

The entire town was like a ghost town. Oh sure, there were signs of life around– I saw another car on the road, and the gas prices were up again– but I didn’t see a person anywhere. And I stopped to see if the Chenango Canal Cottage Museum was open– not a soul around.

The little museum– not much bigger than a single room in an average-sized house– is along the old Chenago Canal, which is also near the Landmark Tavern, a somewhat renowned local eatery and inn (Bouckville is near Hamilton, NY, home of Colgate University).

So besides the closed museum, the tavern, and the empty fields, the only thing around to take photos of were the old buildings. Bouckville has tons of these. Many of them had a grandiose elegance to them, despite their dull and weary appearances. Several had antique shops in them (closed for the season).

Oh and there was this very interesting mill. A car was parked outside, but I never saw nor heard any activity.

So there you have it: Bouckville, NY. A fine example of the hundreds of tiny little ultra-rural communities in Upstate NY.

Don’t Blink! It’s Bouckville, NY

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A New York City lawmaker’s plan to regulate antique firearms like other weapons could have severe economic repercussions for museums and historical societies around the state and prevent hundreds of living history events and re-enactments staged every year.

If passed in its current form, the proposal by Democratic Assemblyman Michael Gianaris of Queens would make the state the first in the country to require owners of antique guns, black powder weapons and muzzleloading firearms to go through a background check and purchase a license, said Ralph Walker, a legislative specialist with the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

Presently, antique firearms are exempt from regulation under New York law. Gianaris’ plan would regulate them like handguns without exemptions for historic sites, museums, living history events, reenactments, educational programs or purposes, or interpretative events.

My question is, why do we need regulations for antique guns? Antique firearms are dinosaurs; they don’t load well, they are not accurate, and most are very old and fragile. An overwhelming amount of these guns are owned by museums and collectors. It’s not like people in the state are going to lock and load and stalk the neighborhood with an 1776 musket. You also have to use black powder and, in some cases, paper wadding, to operate them anyway. What is really going on? Why would a NYC lawmaker want to slap antique gunowners so harshly? Hmm. Could there be an ulterior motive besides doing it “for the children”??

“Many upstate communities depend upon heritage tourism as a major economic contributor. This bill would be a terrible economic loss to them … and would be a disgrace to New York state’s proud history and heritage,” said Doug Cubbison, of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum.

Such a stupid law would kill the historic Upstate re-enactment business, and cripple most Upstate museums financially. Hmm. Plus, no one is really talking about the most important issue: the right to bear arms.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

NYC Lawmaker Bill To Restrict Museum Firearms

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