history
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A Museum You Can Ride On
My previous posts covering exhibits at Fenimore Farm & Country Village ranged from goofball Americana (The Cardiff Giant) to a high-minded attempt to convey the history of the region in a tangible, interactive way (The Otsego Herald). Occupying the intersection of those two concepts is another Fenimore Farm exhibit: The Empire State Carousel. The carousel Continue reading
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National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
This past weekend, I travelled to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. I could go on and on about my history of visiting the Hall of Fame going back to childhood or wax poetic about the place of baseball in the fabric of America. Or I could just share some photos Continue reading
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Stanwix Redux
My wife and I have decided that we want to, over the course of however long it takes, visit all 429 sites in the U.S. National Park System. No, really. To butcher an old proverb, a journey of 429 sites begins with a single step. For our first step in this undertaking, we chose to Continue reading
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Classics Every Day: Mid-Year Update
Back in January, I took it upon myself to start reading some classic fiction, poetry, philosophy, or history every day for an undetermined period of time. I called the project “Classics Every Day.” Now, in this first week of June, I’m happy to report that Classics Every Day is still an ongoing project. I have Continue reading
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SPQR
Central New York place names are chock full of allusions to Classical Antiquity. We’ve got Homer, Cato, Cicero, and Brutus. You’ll also find municipalities named for Ithaca, Carthage, Syracuse, Marathon, and Utica. With all that, it should go without saying that our region contains a city named Rome. It is said that 19th-century travelers on Continue reading
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Time Passages
One of the many odd byproducts of moving back to my hometown to raise a family was that my kids attended the same elementary school and the same high school that I did. When I would go to those buildings as a parent for open-houses, parent-teacher conferences, or performances, some ghosts of the past would Continue reading
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I Knew Her When She Was a Health Center
The medical building on the SUNY Oswego campus is called the Mary Walker Health Center. When I was a student there, we used to refer to it simply as “Mary Walker,” as if we were talking about a person rather than a building. If you told someone you were running a fever and experiencing flu-like Continue reading
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Independence Day Challenge
Today is America’s birthday. People across the country will celebrate by attending parades, shooting off fireworks, cooking out in the back yard, or maybe going to a baseball game. Regardless of the specific activities one chooses, the general focus of the holiday is on patriotism. Of course, patriotism is an abstract concept that is difficult Continue reading
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Silas Towne, Mexico Point, & Spy Island
A couple weeks ago, I traveled to the Oriskany battlefield and Fort Stanwix. I didn’t know it at the time, but an interesting prelude to the Oriskany battle unfolded at a place called Mexico Point, just 15 miles from my home. The story goes that there was a patriot spy named Silas Towne who was Continue reading
About Me
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 