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 #RockSolidHistory from Ridgefield Springs, NY! This town, close to Cooperstown, was a tourist destination back in the late 1800s due to its natural sulfur-rich springs.
This beautiful building, from 1881, was a resort hotel and is now apartments. The building also houses the Foo Chow Chinese restaurant and the Park Inn Lounge/Tavern. This building is part of the West Main Street historic district and is on the National Register of Historic Places. #RidegfieldSpringsHistory #RidgefieldSpringsNY #NYhistory #NYresorttowns #ParkInnLounge #NationalRegisterNY #WestMainStreetHistoricDistrict
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 #RockSolidHistory from upstate NY! Today is about #FolkloreFriday, especially black cats!
Black cats have quite a history in the U.S., and not a very happy one, which has been perpetuated in every Halloween movie and story there is. Let’s figure out why. Back in the day, it was believed that cats could steal a baby’s soul, so cats were strictly forbidden to be around infants. Black cats, in particular, were believed to be the shape-shifted form of an evil being, like a witch or Satan. This belief goes all the way back the 13th century in a document by the Catholic Church. On top of that, if you just saw a black cat, it was considered a bad omen. That is why a black cat crossing your path became a well-rooted superstition. Personally, if a cat (of any kind) crosses my path, I am more than happy to pet it. 😊 #FridayFelines #FelineMyths #Blackcatsarebeautiful #Blackcatsofinstagram #CatLover  #RockSolidHistory from the former Ebbets Field in Brooklyn! Seventy-eight years ago today, baseball great Jackie Robinson was given a Cadillac.
Why? He had completed his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was important because Robinson was the first Black man to be signed to a major league baseball team. Robinson, an accomplished athlete in not only baseball, but track & field, basketball and football too, played for the Dodgers for 10 seasons overall and was an All-Star for six seasons. He then retired to become VP of the Chock-Full-of-Nuts coffee company, another first, but in the corporate world. I recently visited the Jackie Robinson Museum in Manhattan. Opened in 2022, it tells about all of Robinson’s triumphs, as well as his wife Rachel’s, and there were many. He was a peaceful person who propelled the Civil Rights Movement, opening a bank to help Black persons buy a home and a construction company to build housing for low-income families. He was also active in politics and held a position in the state of New York. But there is so much more to his story and his impact on others. Go check it out at the museum! #JackieRobinsonMuseum #BaseballNo42 #BrooklynDodgersHistory #BaseballHistory #NegroLeagues #CivilRightsMovememt #CivilRightsHistory #CooperstownHallofFamer #RachelRobinson #JackieRobinson #EbbetsField #GoMuseumingNYC #NYCHistory #Blackbaseballhistory  #RockSolidHistory from Wemrock Orchards in #FreeholdNJ!
This orchard, which also features a country store, was originally purchased in 1952 as a cow farm for the sons of Albert and Jeannette Giunco. Son John got an agricultural degree and planned an orchard and even bought the trees, but was drafted for the Korean War. Family members and friends planted the trees while he was away, and it became Twin Lakes Orchard. In the 1960s, the Wemrock country store was opened and it added cold storage to the farm to allow for an expansion into baked goods and more. The store still uses original recipes. There is a special stone in the parking lot with WEM etched into it. #WemrockOrchards #FreeholdHistory #NJHistory #GardenStateHistory #NJOrchard #NJOrchardHistory  #RockSolidHistory from the #GreatFalls of #PatersonNJ!
You may know some fun facts about this natural water feature – Paterson was an industrial city designed in 1791 by Alexander Hamilton to harness the power of the falls, and the falls became a national park in 2011. What you may not know is what this “S.U.M.” sign on a fence there means. I didn’t! It turns out that S.U.M. represents the “Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers.” It was this group of investors that Hamilton gathered to fund the purchase of the land and the building of the canals/raceways to bring water to mills in what we now know as Paterson. Now you know and can impress your friends. 😊 #SocietyforEstablishingUsefulManufacturers #AlexanderHamilton #TheGreatFalls #NorthernNJHistory #NJHistory #GardenStateHistory #SilkCityHistory #PatersonHistory  #RockSolidHistory from #LakeChamplain in Vermont!
For #FolkloreFriday we are going to talk about the region’s own Lock Ness monster. Called “Champ” or “Champy,” locals have reported sightings of this serpent or plesiosaur-like creature all the way back to the 1600s. A strange photo from 1977 only fueled the folklore fire. It is such a part of local life, that a collegiate summer baseball team in Burlington is called the Lake Monsters (formerly the Vermont Expos). Do you believe? #LakeChampMonster #VermontMysteries #LakeChamplainHistory #Champy  As a historical writer, there is a lot of time spent looking for information. #AmResearching jewelry at the moment.
A key piece of info is missing for what I am writing – what happened to a particular item of pearl jewelry throughout time? This catalog, published by A.E. Fersman in 1926, has helped. He took a photo of all the jewels the Russian government had, with detailed research on each one. If you didn’t know, jewels were often gifted among royals and reset in other pieces of jewelry. It is a complicated web if you are following one gem. I need to combine anecdotes, news reports, and what was photographed by Fersman after a lot of tragedy befell the Russian Tzar and his family in 1918 – to get at the truth. Even then, straightforward information has proved elusive…and theft was rampant… #JewelryMystery #WriterLife #HistoricalFiction #PearlJewelryHistory #RussianTzarJewels #TsaristJewels #PearlHistory #StolenJewelryMystery #RockSolidHistory  MAJOR UPDATE!!! THE FAIR HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 14 DUE TO RAIN.
#SavetheDate! This Sunday, September 7, I will be at the Hawthorne Farmer’s Market for a special occasion – the Green Fair! Held on the Louis Bay 2nd Library grounds from 10am-1:30pm, the fair will feature live music, food, giveaways, and unique items from local groups, entrepreneurs, writers, and artists. Each year brings an interesting mix of tables and I love being part of it. I will be selling the children’s book “A Rock Solid History of Hawthorne, New Jersey” and some framed holiday poems written by yours truly. Rain date is September 14. #HawthorneGreenFair #HawthorneChamber #HawthorneEC #HawthorneGreenTeam #LB2Library #RockSolidHistory #freebies #HawthorneNJ #HawthorneFarmersMarket #RockSolidHistory  #RockSolidHistory from the Russian History Museum’s Mysteries & Odysseys exhibit! Situated in the farm country of Jordanville, NY, this current exhibit really gets you thinking. Seemingly unimportant artifacts pack wallops of stories. Take, for instance, Tsarina Alexandra’s pearl earring. It was her favorite and she wore it often. In fact, she was thought to be wearing it the day she was killed (July 17, 1918). How do we know this? Well, one of these pearl earrings was found near a mineshaft in Yekaterinburg where she and her family were buried after they were murdered. Secretly and soon after, one of these pearl earrings got into the possession of Alexandra’s sister-in-law Xenia, who later divided imperial relics between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy Trinity Monastery (where the museum is). Funny thing is – the museum was supposed to get the pearl earring. But instead, they got an empty envelope labeled as having the earring. In 2013, these two institutions pieced it together and now the earring was donated to and resides at the Russian History Museum. It was a full circle moment. Imagine what this pearl earring has seen? I’m sure both happy and devastating times. #Jewelystories #TzarinaAlexandra #AlexandraFeodorovna #AlixofHesse #Tzarjewels #Romanovjewelry #Romanovmurders #RussianRevolutionHistory #PearlJewelHistory #PearlHistory #RoyalGems |
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