A Country Store: Swimming in High Woods in the Summer in Quarry Pools

There were two other wonderful swimming pools in High Woods in those days both owned by artists who had made homes in abandoned quarries.  Tomas Penning's pool was quite large with just a small amount divided off for swimming.  That part was lined with flat bluestone rocks.  Swimming past that, one encountered several inches of muck, so it was best not to put your foot down.  The pool was filled with gold fish grown very large and very wild.  They would come by and nibble your toes if you sat at the water's edge.  When Tom and Elizabeth Penning had a party, everyone brought along their kids, and we had a grand time in the pool and around their beautiful, spectacular house. It is gone now having burned down a decade or so ago. Below is a picture of Tom Penning and Ernie Short standing by the pool having caught some fish.

Harvey and Barbara Fite owned the other wonderful quarry pool.  Harvey had two stepsons, Tad and Jon, one of whom had a birthday in the summer at which time there would be a party.  One year, in the early 50's, Barbara Fite decided to have a party for kids with a theme:  a scavenger hunt.  My sister, Meed (the artist Meed Wetterau Barnett)  and I were invited although we were on the young end of youngsters.  Most were early teens , but we were tweens.  Meed and I were put on the same team.  Looking back, we did not remember much of the scavenger list, but it was quite an adventure. One item was to collect a drawing of a duck from one of a list of local artists. 

This is how Meed remembers it:” I don't remember the other things on the scavenger hunt, but I can add some humor regarding our team's adventure with the cartoon by a Woodstock artist.  Not only did the drawing have to be by one of the artists on the provided list, but also, it had to be of a duck.  Our team was all but certain we could find Fletcher Martin at the Irvington Bar terrace.  He was there, and much amused by our request.  He was probably two sheets to the wind.  He drew us a wonderful picture of a duck that had breasts, and signed it lavishly.  We were delighted and giggled all the way back to headquarters." “It was (later) called Opus 40 because Harvey thought it would take 40 years to complete it.  At the time of the scavenger hunt-birthday party (Tad's or Jon's, don't remember), many of the present paths and terraces of the present Opus 40 were not yet created, and the great piece of bluestone that would become the monolith had not yet been found.  The quarry pool was green and clear, and much deeper than it is now.  At eight years old, I was not yet a strong swimmer and did not dare go into the pool, as it seemed not to have a shallow end. The quarry pool was green and clear, and much deeper than it is now.  At eight years old, I was not yet a strong swimmer and did not dare go into the pool, as it seemed not to have a shallow end.  One thing I remember well is how I admired the daring of the biggest kids as they climbed out onto the high stone winch, which had been left rising over the pool.  When a climber was good and ready, they hung from the end of the winch and let go, falling about fifteen feet into the cold waters of the pool.  I had felt mild frustration at not yet being strong enough to do it myself.  It looked wonderfully fun, and made a great splash."

Meed writes:  "I was probably the littlest kid there--still a child among tweens and teens.  I wasn't ready yet for the social aspects of the day, but the beauty of the place was not lost on me.  It had been one of the ten most perfect weather days of the year.  The sunlight turned the trees a thousand hues of green, and the view of Overlook was blue and purple and dappled with cloud shadows.  The surrounding woods were much closer, shaggier, and wilder than now. There was no thundershower that afternoon to interrupt the goings-on.  I spent most of my time climbing on the rock piles, gazing into the pool, and watching the clouds shadows on Overlook.  I sat in the middle of the little suspension bridge that spanned a deep outcarving in the rock.   A little stream ran below, making the rock smell like heaven.  Much of this formed the basis of future paintings and drawings."

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A Country Store: The way it looked and the way it was in the kitchen

By Diana and Norman Boggs

A good, welcoming host always finds people in his/her kitchen.  No matter where you set up the snacks and drinks, people will always congregate there.  That is the way it was with the kitchen at Henry’s store.  It was attached straight in back of the store.  There was a large, black kerosene stove with six burners and a generous oven.  The cookware was all cast iron, and there were all sizes.  Across from the stove was a red coca cola  cooler with beer on one side and soda on the other. It was about 6-8 feet long, waist height. . I think the whole top assembly must have come off because the inside needed to be periodically washed and drained.  The cooling circulator in the middle acted as a separator of the two halves:  left beer, right soda. It was such fun to open the sliding door and look at the bottles before making a final choice.  There was also a supplementary large refrigerator. 

When the circulator circulated its last, the cooler was simply kept full of a mixture of chopped ice and water.  The water was normally so cold that if you plunged a bottle of beer in too fast, it would explode.  The soda bottles seemed to be sturdier.  Henry would make periodic trips to Kingston or Saugerties to get 50 lb blocks of ice.  He kept the ice in an older coke cooler outside the kitchen door.  He had all the tools to move the blocks:  a long handled cutter to cut the blocks (looked like a relic from the old chopping ice out on the pond era), a tongs to carry them or their parts and any number of ice picks to finish the disassembly.

   Cabinets ran along the wall, and they were filled with eight ounce glasses, some were the classic beer glasses with the bulge on the top, others were just straight.  There was also an assortment of pitchers and Miss Rhinegold metal trays. They were gleaming and ready for the Saturday night dances when jolly groups would order up several for the table.  The sink was a double sink, and Henry was very specific about washing glasses. There could be no milk products washed with the beer glasses as they could leave a residue and the poured beer would not have a head.

You had to be careful of dangling flypaper that could catch you by the hair if you were not careful.  It worked pretty well to keep the fly population down.

The blue/gray cabinets were built low.  They were SPOOL CABINETS.... serious antiques...wish I had'em.

This is a picture of Bill Wilgus in the kitchen.

William (Bill) Wilgus and Ernie Short

There was another cash register in the kitchen for the convenient purchase of beverages to be consumed on the premises. Of course, there were various sign up sheets for the annual fishing contest, and other notices if they were important to the community, and funny pictures of who “skunked” whom in the ongoing card games.

Henry always cooked Sunday dinner for the family and he would invite anybody who happened to be hanging around in the kitchen to join us.  The variety of meals is discussed in another blog entry, but chicken was the most usual choice.  Boiled or canned veggies were included, and there was always a plate of white Bond bread and butter never margarine.

It was not unknown for him to suddenly have a party that included a clambake with lobster and plenty of corn.  He was, after all, a Jersey boy and had grown up near the ocean.

A Country Store: The way it looked and the way it was

I have been thinking about Henry’s store, the way it looked, and the way he had arranged things.  The photo above is from about 1929.  At this point, he had built the structure that would essentially remain the store for many years.  It is unknown how long he tried to have a restaurant, but that attempt did not last, and I do not remember that sign.  I was born in 1943, and my main memories extend over the fifties. 

He had created the store to be a practical place of useful retail as well as a location for his many interests and activities.  Henry had a love of auctions.  He purchased objects both antique and unique, and they would end up on the upper shelves of the store for sale. Henry was a man of feeling and interior thoughts.  Henry’s favorite saying was “Believe In Yourself”.

The main entrance was on the north or street side.  There were large windows along that wall, as seen in the photograph, making the inside spaces seem larger than actual.  There was a counter facing the entrance and behind it was a refrigerated section.  The store featured a limited amount of meat and cheese all purchased from Forest.  Bologna, Salami and American cheese and hot dogs were always available.  Henry also filled special orders of chops, lamb and pork.  He separated the chops using his cleaver upon a beautiful, heavy butcher’s block which was behind the counter. 

The candy counter was a glass covered display case on the east side of the store.  The regular items were all there:  Life Savers, Necco Wafers, chocolate bars of all sorts, and, my favorite, Cracker Jacks.  In those days, the prizes inside the Cracker Jacks were actual little toys, metal cars and animals, and I always hoped for a horse.

Ice cream was served in a cone or dish, a real glass dish by-the-way.    The flavors were always chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.  The brand was Sealtest.  There could be small offerings of fruit depending on what Henry could procure in Saugerties that day. Bananas were a favorite of his.  Many in the local community were not really familiar with them and were shy of them at first.   There were two scales, one for deli items and the other for fruit or some other items such as flour and coffee.  Tobacco in the form of cigarettes, cigars and pipe was also kept behind the counter, and Henry was careful not to sell it to kids.  He, himself, did not smoke and did not approve of the habit, but he rarely commented on the practice.  He also did not drink coffee preferring to have Postum [i]as his morning hot drink.  Orders were rung up in a good, old fashioned cash register that kept a total but did not run a tape of individual items.  The sum, however, was first listed and figured on the outside of a paper bag as the order was packed, and this served as a customer’s receipt.

Newspapers were available on Sunday, The Daily News and local Saugerties papers.  There was also a ballot box to vote for Miss Rheingold.[ii]  Every year there would be a new crop of glamorous faces, and I always had my favorite, a girl with black hair.  I did not like my light brown hair and wished to look a bit more like Veronica from the Archie comics.

The upstairs was as tempting as the basement was ominous.  A Malaysian flame sword, a souvenir from the war, decorated the stairwell wall. It was always used on special occasions to slice the celebratory cake.  

There were more swords and interesting looking knives upstairs.  Norman teased me by saying they were all from the war, and if I were to look up close, I would see blood on the blades.   At the top of the steps was Henry’s machine shop.  The machines ran using a series of belts attached to an electric motor.  There was a lathe, planer, table saw, and drill press.  There was also a severe warning published:  “Stay away from the machines!’  A few years back, Ernie had sliced off the top of his index finger.  I had often seen the blunt end of that finger, and it was enough to keep me away from the machines.  Anyway, there was so much more to discover upstairs.

The walls were lined with shelves filled with labeled cigar boxes.  The letters were in Henry’s unique style of capital letters with dashers between each word:  -NAILS-, -SCREWS-, -BOLTS- .  Henry saved everything.  He salvaged all hardware for future use.  He also saved buttons and sorted them by type and color, and there were hair combs and buckles and many other hidden treasures. 

On the south wall there were stacks of shoe boxes.  They were rubber bathing shoes.  Henry had purchased a whole bunch of them at some point with the idea of selling them to ladies who were on their way to one of the many area swimming holes like “The Patch”.  I would try them on hoping for my size, but they were always too large. 

There was a small door that led to a passageway to the eaves.  I had to crouch over and walk on the boards that had been laid between the joists.  Carefully stored along the sides were two large coffee grinders with big flywheels.  There was a model car, wooden and big enough for a child to sit on.  I always mean to inspect it more closely, but I did not dare to actually disturb it.  After all, I was only up there exploring because people had temporarily lost track of me. 

At the very end of the tunnel through the roof space, there was a little alcove with a window.  There were many boxes stored.  They were hidden away, and as I think of it now, they were probably filled with my grandmother, May Van Bramer’s possessions.  Henry had been very upset at his wife’s severe illness and had probably packed her belongings and hidden them away.  My mother told me he had buried all of their correspondence and her jewelry with her.  People do things like that when they are feeling deep grief.

In one little chest, there were letters and a piece of preserved wedding cake.  I would sit back there looking at things and thinking about who knows what –probably horses and my next riding lesson.  I am lucky enough to have one of my grandmother’s letters that I found among Henry’s possessions after his death at age 83.  It seems to be the letter that plans their elopement.  She had been engaged to another, and their marriage was a big surprise to their families.

If your memory includes a vision of the store as it was in the 1950's, please add your remembered details in the comments section.  Thanks.  dj

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[i] ·  Postum is made from wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and maltodextrin from corn. This 10‑calorie beverage was caffeine-free, fat-free, trans-fat-free, sodium-free, and kosher. In addition to the original flavor, there was a coffee-flavored version.

·  Postum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postum

Wikipedia

[ii] Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, "the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House."^{[  From Wikkipedia}

A Country Store: Henry starts his store in High Woods

    

     Henry started to build his store in about 1922.  The first store was in the front part of his house.  In order to support his family, he wanted to be as useful as possible to the community and to those passing through, so he immediately included gas for automobiles and purchased a bus to offer as transportation for local folks. The 1923 papers remark that Henry was giving bus service into the town of Saugerties on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  In the winter, he cut back to just Saturday.

    

     There is a gas pump close to the road (now called Dutch Town Road) in the foreground.  The little family group standing on the steps leading up to the store consists of Grandmother Van Bramer, May Wilgus, Bill Wilgus and May Van Bramer Wilgus.  The building on the right is a garage.  Electricity had not reached High Woods as of that moment, so there are no wires and no telephone poles. All work was done with hand tools.   The gas pump was a hand pump.  From the beginning, Henry signed on with Texaco.

    

     Bill Wilgus and May Wilgus stand by storage tanks.  May was often cautioned by her mother not to pump gas too often as it would give her unsightly muscles in her arms.  Her mother, May Van Bramer Wilgus is very ladylike and neatly dressed as she sits behind the wheel of the Wilgus bus. A cement mixer is visible under the house.  The house is up on piers.  This was probably for the installation of the coal furnace that eventually *went under the house. 

   

     At First, Henry called his store “The Mountain View Store”.  He also had a sign that read “H.A. Wilgus Ice Cream Parlor”.  He was selling Albany Ice Cream which advertised itself as “It’s Pure”. 

     I am not sure of the identity of the group of people in this photograph, but they look as though they may be on their way to school.  They appear to be carrying books.  The school was within walking distance from the store.  May and Bill Wilgus walked to school every day, and often walked home for lunch and then back to school for the afternoon.

   

     There are people seated by the window, and one boy on the steps.  It is summer in this picture.  Previous pictures were fall or winter as evidenced by the leaves.

     I have been browsing the 1923 newspapers and paying special attention to the High Woods News sections.  My goal is to try to understand the issues of the time as Henry started his business.  His roots were in New Jersey, therefore, according to my mother,  he was often identified as an outsider by local people.  In a way, he created the 1920’s version of today’s Cumberland Farms or Stewarts.  The same elements were there:  a roadside stop for food, fuel and ice cream. 

     In Saugerties, the local movie was a seven reeler.  The movie changed weekly.  There were many tales of sad deaths:  Mrs. David Whitaker died leaving nine children; There was a warning to take care because poison bootleg was around; A child killed his cousin while playing with a real gun in the family barn.  The library had closed for the winter because they lacked fuel to heat the building.  It was mentioned that business prospects seemed good for starting a mushroom raising facility.  Two new apples were developed. 

     People were apprehensive about foreigners.  A new Ku Klux Klan branch was formed in Middletown, but local people seemed not to favor them. On the other hand, a new unit of the WCTU was forming, and seemed to get a good reception.  People were learning to vote by machine for the first time and practice sites had been set up.   Fortune telling was forbidden within the town of Saugerties.  They also worried about flu, smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, typhoid, and pneumonia as well as the condition called “scale” that was affecting some apples.

     There was talk of school consolidation and the benefits it would bring like better teachers.  This did not move the High Woods population as yet.  The one room school had Byron Terwilliger as teacher and May and Bill Wilgus would attend. There was some concern about teaching Darwin’s non-scriptural ideas. 

     Notice was given that United Hudson Electric Corporation would start extending service along the Woodstock-Saugerties road.  Electricity, it was said, is a universality not a luxury.  Soon, all drivers would be required to have a license, and a special department to issue said licenses was forming.