Hamilton's Great Chocolate Train Wreck Festival

Though a little chilly, the heavy gray clouds held back the rain and gifted us with hints of blue skies over some beautiful, autumn turned, golden trees of the village green. All in all, I'd say The Great Chocolate Train Wreck Festival in Hamilton was a smashing success! I had a great day performing with Steve Skollar, and enjoyed listening to the music of Dove Creek, Bill Staines, Tracy Grammer and Bill Harley. To see the park filled with booths selling just about everything under the central New York sun and happy faces young and old is the most wonderful thing about this close knit community. And, I got to finally meet a pen pal relative from my mother's side along with his wonderful family who traveled down from the Syracuse area and dined us at Nichols And Beal. Here are some shots.

Some Crazy Dutch Woman Stories

I've had some really nice quality time at home as summer winds down. I've turned the ten year kitchen upside down in a clean-a-thon and painted it gypsy gold yellow. Its amazing what a coat of paint can do for your spirits. Nick is trudging through his most humbling time and will come home December 24th at midnight. I can't wait to get him out. One high light of late are a few emails I received from a long lost relative on my mother's side of the family. Sweet little glimpses into my dutch Oma's past I vaguely remember but somehow completely know. Hi Pamme, "Ha Tee Wa" I too recall your Grandmother, Bertha, often boiling water for tea. Related to her tea brewing, my maternal grandmother, Adrianna, was a compulsive tea brewer. After Grandmother's tea kettle, which never contained tea -- only water -- reached the interior temperature of the Sun, a towel would be wrapped around the teapot handle to enable pouring of the super-heated water into tea cups. After long steeping and extended tea bag bobbing and stirring and adding of milk and stirring and sugar and stirring, Grandmother would lift the tea cup off the saucer to sort of spill the tea from the cup into the saucer. The tea-filled saucer was then lifted to her lips, and the tea sipped from the edge of the saucer. This part of the tea ritual involved much noisy slurping. My Mother, Wilma, did the same, but only when in Grandma's company. I recall asking my Mother about the why of that seemingly strange tea ritual. Her very practical answer was that the tea cooled to a drinkable temperature sooner when spilled off to the saucer. Hi Pamme, Another Crazy Dutch Woman story: A friend received a very expensive meerschaum smoking pipe as a gift. The pipe was manufactured in Holland and was accompanied by a several page document printed in Dutch. I stupidly volunteered to have the document translated by an aunt. My Mother could speak and understand spoken Dutch, but she could not read or write in that language. The older aunts could, of course, read and write in Dutch. So, on a later trip to Honesdale, we collected my Aunt Jane and took her to my Mother’s home. We set-up Aunt Jane at the kitchen table with tea (what else?) and goodies and gave her the several page pipe document. I sat with pen and pad awaiting the spoken translation, poised to write down Aunt Jane's every word. Aunt Jane silently read the document for several minutes, while my Mother, my wife and I watched in reverent, you-could-hear-a-pin-drop silence. Aunt Jane then pronounced that the several page document said that, “this is a very good pipe.” That was it. “This is a very good pipe.” Aunt Jane then put the document down, and proceeded to drink her tea. My wife, of course, thought this was very funny. Trust me! Ann will N-E-V-E-R let me forget the incident! Thank you long almost lost relative I so look forward to meeting you!