If you were jolted out of bed or had a bit of a scare put into you at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 28, 1959, you were getting a local welcome to the day's new "sound of freedom" "" the supersonic boom.
"Oneonta, which has passed through eons of giddyup, chug-chug, beep-beep and bop, yesterday was jolted into the jet age," reported The Oneonta Star the next morning. "A faster-than-sound plane twice lowered the boom ... The City of the Hills shook like a shimmy."
People were just waking up that morning or getting ready for work or school. The jet passed over, and most thought there had been an explosion. Windows rattled, homes shook and some homeowners went searching for leaks in their heating systems.
There was no explosion. Nevertheless, "Telephone calls swamped The Star, radio WDOS, city police, firemen and state police. Fox Hospital, rocked, called the Fire Department."
An Air Force spokeswoman, surprised at all the commotion, chuckled and then turned serious.
"Do they live in the U.S.? This is just panic, not fact," Maj. Evelyn Watkins, public information officer at what was then Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, told The Star.
"It's the sound of a new age of freedom," she said. "People had better get used to it. In the next ten years, it's bound to happen real often."
Watkins said she doubted that any planes from Griffiss caused the boom because none took off from their base until shortly after 8 a.m. She said she believed the plane may have been a powerful F-104 Starfighter on a training mission from Otis Air Force Base near Cape Cod, Mass.
Maj. Watkins also took the opportunity to invite readers to an open house to see the latest jets May 16 at Griffiss, now home to the Griffiss Business and Technology Park, as well as the Rome Research Site of the Air Force Research Lab. In 1959, the base was the largest employer in Oneida County. It was realigned for civilian and noncombat purposes in the early 1990s.
The sound barrier wasn't the only thing crashing. Something had fallen from the same jet and was discovered the same day as the April 28 sonic boom. A cone-shaped dragchute was found on Marvin Young's property in Prosser Hollow, near West Davenport. Young found the item in pasture.
Another call was made to the Air Force, and this time, Sgt. John Deal explained that the chute was used by fast planes to slow down before landing. Deal wasn't certain if the chute fell from the jet that jolted the area or a heavier plane. It was harmless and became a "souvenir" for awhile.
Another item was discovered near Treadwell. The Oneonta Star reported about something that looked like a bomb or torpedo that was discovered on the farm of the Koopman family on Roaring Brook Road.
Klaus Sohns was a junior at the Kellogg Central School and lived with the Koopmans, working for his room and board on the farm. Sohns discovered the object while driving a tractor, and on the side of what looked like a torpedo or bomb was printed "Do Not Drop or Drag."
The Koopmans asked their neighbors about this object and eventually told The Star, "If the Air Force wants it back, they sure can have it, otherwise we'll keep it for a souvenir."
If it wasn't coming from the sonic jets, other items were dropping from the sky. Jacob Schmitt had a 300-acre farm on Swart Hollow Road. A big "flying boxcar" freight plane also passed over our area, this time in August 1959. Schmitt's grandson James found an emergency fuel tank on their large farm.
State police were called in to check out what looked like a large nose cone, weighing about 1,000 pounds. Like the other items, the tank was taken away after the Air Force was again notified. Police were trying to find out why so many things were being dropped out of the sky around Oneonta. They were concerned these items could have hit inside the city as easily as they did a few miles outside.
The Air Force reminded us as to why the sonic booms were necessary.
"We who are fortunate enough to hear the sound of booms from our own aircraft need never hear the sound of bombs from enemy aircraft," adding how the Soviet Union also had such aircraft. We were keeping pace with the enemy.
This weekend, a little bit of Oneonta near San Diego.
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City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
