It is always good to keep up with current events. However, it is starting to become an unwritten requirement to seek some diversions from staying up to date on news, as for some it can become overwhelming or depressing.
These days we're bombarded with news of war in Afghanistan, an increasingly tense presidential election, a bad economy or hydrofracking, for example.
The same tension was around in May 1952, such as the Korean War, the first hydrogen bomb being tested, Sen. Joseph McCarthy's constant accusations of people being Communists, and the Eisenhower vs. Stevenson presidential race was warming up.
True to both generations of those who follow news closely, it's just nice to seek temporary diversion. Around our area, there were diversions aplenty in May 1952.
These days a $20 bill can barely get you out of a grocery store with essential items. In 1952, it was quite a different story, as far as purchasing power.
"Somewhat annoyed, Charles J. Lawler, Jr. of 11½ Pearl St., has returned from Yankee Stadium where he almost witnessed a baseball game," The Oneonta Star reported Saturday, May 10.
"You know how it is at a game," he explained. "You get keyed up and you got to have a dog to relax you."
Lawler went in search of a hot dog, but no matter which concession stand he went to, no one had change for a $20 bill.
"You'd think in a city of eight million people you could get change for a twenty, wouldn't you?" asked Mr. Lawler. He never did get his hot dog, but if that was the only game he attended in 1952, it was part of a historic season, as the Yankees were World Series champions that year.
In Neahwa Park it was reported Friday, May 16, that the skate pond is "to blossom out as swan lake and also a fish hatchery for stocking the upper reservoir."
An unnamed man had offered a pair of swans worth $125 if the Oneonta Parks Board would accept responsibility for their care. The board did, and said they'd take the swans as soon as they could drain the pond and build a swan island in the middle of what we know today as Hodges Pond.
As for the fish hatchery, the fish would be moved after some time from the park pond to what is Wilber Lake on upper East Street. The fish would eat algae at both places, ridding the park pond of algae overgrowths and then for creating better tasting water in the upper reservoir, the city's water supply.
Thursday, May 15, was Women's Day at Bresee's Oneonta Dept. Store. Being the busiest shopping day of the week, as tradition had it, the store attracted shoppers -- both male and female -- to see 35 male employees, donned in female attire.
As described by the Star, "Flouncing coyly through the store, they gave forth with a surprisingly large vocabulary, consisting primarily of 'mah dear' and 'chahming a'm surah.' All this in a falsetto tone, reminiscent of grating cheese."
If you were looking to serve potatoes with your meals, you were out of luck in May 1952.
"The potato famine, whether real or manipulated, has reached the black market stage in Oneonta," it was reported May 23, "and has otherwise departed so far from the seasonal normal as to be generally described by merchants as 'just plain screwy.'"
Suspicion was strongly held among grocers that a large commission corporation, taking advantage of smaller plantings and huge Army purchases for food in the Korean War, had cornered the new potato market.
The Office of Price Stabilization, the federal agency whose task was to control prices during the Korean War, was making arrests in upstate cities for those charging exorbitant prices for potatoes, old or new. The OPS encouraged Oneonta housewives to help stop the price gouging by giving them a call to report on the suspicious practice.
If you ever come across a bronze medal inscribed, "I Beat Ben Hogan," it was from a worldwide golf challenge May 31, 1952. Ben Hogan was a great professional golfer of the time and had challenged all golfers to an 18-hole match. Hogan played solo at a course in Dallas that day, while more than 250,000 took the challenge at their home golf courses.
A total of 47 took the challenge at the Oneonta Country Club. Three members of the club, Joe Vavra of Schenevus, Ralph Mannona and Harold Senkel, both of Sherburne, beat Hogan's score of a par 71, with 69, 70 and 70, respectively. Caleb Brackett of Oneonta tied Hogan.
The $1 entry fee to the Hogan challenge was donated to the USO and the National Golf Fund.
This weekend, a return to some hard news of May 1937.
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. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
I asked Cam Morris, head of Eastern Travel/Oneonta Bus Lines, how many years her company has been handling the Safety Patrol trip to Washington, D.C.
Continued ... - My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
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Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
Continued ... - Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
- Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
