Good Friends, Good Music

Good Friends, Good Music

Oct 25, 2010 | Tin Horn

Our 6th Annual Meeting October 23 was a great time to renew acquaintances, meet some new folks and enjoy a program by folksinger Linda Russell who performed campaign music from the past on guitar, and lap and hammered dulcimers. Some might remember Linda as the “star” of “Touch the Nearest Star,” the 1980s musical about the life of Roxbury-born naturalist John Burroughs.

These days she travels all over the Northeast performing 19th century tunes about New York State history, women’s work and rights, and of course electioneering music before the age of radio, TV, and U-Tube. Fifty people heard her perform for us at LaCabana Restaurant in Fleischmanns. If you couldn’t attend to renew your HSM membership for 2010-11 in person, please download our membership form, and send in your dues today to make sure you continue to receive The Bridge newsletter, and the benefit of free program admission in the coming year.

ANNUAL MEETING PHOTO GALLERY
Click for a larger view of each image…

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Appreciative audience

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Bob Hubbell, Eleanor, Charlie Mager try the dulcimer

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Linda Russell and friend ‘play’ the dancing horse

Taking our place in cyberspace

Oct 18, 2010 | Tin Horn

Finally, HSM has a website! After years of talking about it, we now have a presence on the web, the one and only place devoted to the history of the Town of Middletown. Thanks to Sue and Craig of Bovina-based CMS Internet Solutions, Inc., our programs and activities can be reached by anyone anywhere, more or less instantly. HSM board member Joanie Merwin, Internet guru at Belleayre Mountain, designed our site, and CMS did the architecture.

We hope you have fun exploring the site. Don’t hesitate to contact us with corrections, or to submit photos or short history articles for consideration. We see this as a living site with new material added periodically. We also welcome your submissions to this blog. Discover something new about your family or community? Want to share a new resource or bit of research that’s Middletown-related? Please contact us!

History as art!

History as art!

Oct 18, 2010 | Tin Horn

We are very excited that the talented East Branch Delaware River Plein Air Painters have once again taken brush in hand to benefit our Historical Society. Over the past several months, ten artists have sketched and painted historic buildings and sites in Middletown. Of dozens of works produced by this creative crowd, 25 original paintings will go to the highest bidders at a silent auction and reception Friday, Nov. 26 from 3 to 6 in The Commons, Main Street, Margaretville. Last year’s event was a great success. Don’t miss this tremendous opportunity to decorate your home with a one of a kind painting by a local artist! Or, think holiday gifts! See a sample from each of the artists.

Meg Leveson paints Walnut St., Margaretville

 

Campaigns of the past revisited at Historical Society program

Oct 14, 2010 | news archive

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown will offer a musical journey through spirited election campaigns of the past when it gathers for its Annual Meeting Saturday, Oct. 23 at LaCabana Restaurant in Fleischmanns.

Linda Russell, former balladeer for the National Park Service, will sing and play the songs America voted by in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her lively program casts a unique look at how we came to know the candidates for political office in the days before mass media.

The public is welcome to the program, which is made possible with support from the New York State Endowment for the Humanities, the NYS Legislature and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Linda’s free performance at 1:30 p.m. will follow a luncheon of American and Mexican favorites that begins at Noon. Reservations for lunch are required by October 18. Please call 845-586-4973, or email history@catskill.net to reserve your seats at $15 each.

During the business portion of the meeting HSM will unveil its new website, which will contain capsule histories and photos of each of the hamlets in Middletown.