No television. No place to pay the phone bill. No more Spaulding's baked goods. Possibly no more Center Street School. While these were some of the noes in the news of our area in April 1982, there were some yeses as well, including a new structure at Corning Inc. of Oneonta and help to save bald eagles.
For the opening week of April, Ms. Pam Wheaton's fourth-grade class at Worcester Central School took on a challenge of what might be an equivalent to living today without text messaging -- a week without television.
"The whole idea is to make kids realize there is so much more to life than watching television, an activity that has become the dominating force in many modern families," Wheaton told The Daily Star.
"By the end of the week they found out they could do other things," Wheaton said. Some students practiced more on their musical instruments, read a book, or helped a family member cook supper, among other activities.
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If you were looking to pay your New York Telephone bill in person at their office at 17 Elm St. in Oneonta, you were out of luck. That office had been recently closed, to the surprise of some.
Spokesman Carmine Angellotti said, "Our society is changing. The face to face contact we used to have is being lost. It's just more efficient for us to take care of our billing this way." Meanwhile, phone rates were set to rise 9.4 percent, "to keep pace with inflation."
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Spaulding Bakeries announced it was going out of business Wednesday, April 14. At that time the main bakery was located in Conklin, and one of several distribution centers was in Oneonta on Market Street, where today's Spaulding Apartments are. The Oneonta site was a bakery between 1929 and 1955 for Spaulding, makers of bread, doughnuts and other products.
Spaulding had been before a federal bankruptcy court since the previous fall, after having to close its West Hazelton, Pa., bakery. The 1982 closure meant a loss of 15 jobs at the Oneonta distribution center.
A Web search today finds that many still miss the taste of a Spaulding kruller.
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Possible closure of a part of Center Street School was in the news Saturday, April 24. State school aid cuts were looming, and one plan to make up the deficit was to close the third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes at the school, keeping grades kindergarten through second grade.
Funding was restored, and Center Street lived on.
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While threats of closure and actual closures were happening, a visible expansion took place Tuesday, April 13, when what was then called the Corning Glass Works on lower River Street pumped up an inflatable 10,000-square-foot storage building, to add to the permanent structure, originally built in the early 1950s for the Enterprise Aluminum Co.
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If you've spent a bit of time around Goodyear Lake in the last few years, it has been fairly easy to spot a bald eagle or more in flight or in the trees. A small effort made by an Oneonta woman 30 years ago may have played a small part in taking the eagle off the endangered species list in more recent years.
It was reported April 27 that Anita Este was rallying area residents to save the imperiled bird on the 200th anniversary of when it was adopted as our national emblem. A retired Rutgers University professor and a member of the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, Este and other members were raising money for the Eagle Valley Environmental Association, an organization having 1,000 members in 37 states. The local fundraiser was a raffle for a canoe.
Este acknowledged it may be difficult to persuade many Oneontans to help relieve the eagle's plight.
"I don't think the general public is involved in this sort of thing," she said. "How many people have got into birding? I think it's fascinating once you get there. But I think they are interested in a canoe and I hope they are interested in our national symbol."
If only the bald eagles of Goodyear Lake could talk …This weekend: George W. Fairchild builds a new business block.
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 email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
From no TV to saving eagles, it was life in April 1982
- 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.
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
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Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
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