Winery/Birthday Tour

Last month the Wurtsboro gang did a tour of wineries in the Hudson Valley. Brave Laurie Kilgore drove a van so that the "oldsters" could drink. 

The first stop was the Basha Kill Winery In Wurtsboro

The tasting room at the Basha Kill

We are starting to get happy

We lunched on their deck

We celebrated the guys in our group who have turned 60.

                

Next stop was the   Stoutridge  winery in Marlboro. A beautiful place,the wine not so much

Final stop was Glorie Farm winery that let you crush the grapes

Purple Feet

Mike & Cheryl our brave grape stompers

I love the look on Karen's face

Toni, (not happy the wine ran out), me Cheryl & Mike Durdovic,Rich Ferrara,Eric & Maur Gross and Karen & Jim Kilgore

The view of the Hudson from the winery, they had music and food.

We ate dinner at the Newburgh waterfront a lovely end to a fun day

Closings

Wurtsboro lost some of our favorite businesses this month.
Kathy Mitchell closed the Tea Kozy Kafe to take care of her family
In the old days this was Shappys and the Shortline bus would stop here.
Later it was the Old Valley Restaurant

Toni & Kathy, we ate many great meals at the Kozy.
Almost everyone from town ate here and we usually knew everyone .

Toni with George & Chris the waiters at the Kozy with owner Kathy

Lynn's Flowers closed after 31 years. Catherine Hairie ran it for many years. They always did beautiful flowers for us.
Lynn is opening another store down the block this month

Not in Wurtsboro but the Cornucopia Restaurant Port Jervis was always a favorite of my family

We spent many  Mother's Days, Easter, and birthdays eating here

It's so sad to see it close. My parents would be so sorry to see it go.

They are tearing down this building in the middle of Wurtsboro to build a new library

When I was a kid this was Dr. Greenberg's office and later Dr Rakosi  had his practice here. The Coommunity/Dutch Reform Church is to the left

Wurtsboro Hills Lake

Last month my buddy Mike Durdovic stopped by and we did the tour of Wurtsboro Hills and the lake. Sad to say the lake is in terrible condition.
It has been abandoned for the last three years. Someone broke into the concession and trashed the shed where all the lake equipment, tables and umbrellas were stored. The raft is stuck in the muck on the side of the lake by the basketball court. We think the county owns the lake now. It has been put up for auction but I don't think anyone is interested. Here are some pictures:

Mike Durdovic looking at the lake

The beach

The raft has crashed on the shore on the right

Someone broke into the concession and trashed everything

On our old stomping ground

No lifeguard, no swimming but plenty of memories

We visited Joe Cirone who is recovering from a stroke.Mike and Joe have been friends since about 1961.
I'm a new friend since 1966

A few days after our visit to the lake someone "borrowed" a table and umbrella from the lake shed for his backyard.It was the only umbrella that wasn't destroyed. The someone who "borrowed the set had used them since the early 1960's and they held many memories for him. When that someone went to check the lake after the recent hurricanes he saw that someone, probably kids, had thrown the remaining tables over the spillway. I think Mrs. Bletz would be very pleased that a little part of of the Wurtsboro Hills lake has been saved.

Our group 1968 Wurtsboro Hills Lake. Notice the umbrella and  table over Mike Caine's shoulder

Back OnLine

So Wurtsboro boy is back online after an exhausting eight months. As many of you know we lost Toni's Dad  in March and my Mom in April. The dog has been sick and we had to empty out my folk's house to get it on the market. All of this was and is emotionally & physically exhausting.
But we move on and I hope to post more regularly to all my tens of fans.

My Friend Barbara Piper

 

Barbara &  our  Mayor Mickey

I lost one of my favorite people in the world on Thanksgiving 2010. Barbara Piper was just this marvelous woman who lived in Wurtsboro.She was talented, caring and just a plain nice person.
I first met Barbara when I would come into her office to pay my gas bill. She got a kick out of me because I would try and pay the bill before it came in the mail. ( I don't do that anymore).

Pretty soon Barbara realized  that Toni & I  decorated the outside of our house for most holidays. Barbara was the queen of outside decorations, I knew I couldn't compete, but she appreciated my efforts. She started to phone me to let me know it was time to put up Halloween. Sometimes the pressure was too much, especially when St Patrick's Day and Easter were within a week or two.I couldn't keep up with her energy.

In the summer we moved onto our gardens. Barbara had the most lovely flowers in the front of her house and in the garden behind her home. I could also go to her for gardening advise. One year she gave me a bag of daffodil bulbs she had divided up. The next spring she came by our house to see how the daffodils were doing. Thank heavens they came up!

Soon Barbara had me involved in the Wurtsboro Renaissance. This is a countywide effort to beautify Sullivan County. Every year I  helped plant flowers in the Village's flower boxes. Barbara would come by to say hello and inspect my efforts. I suspected she moved the flowers into their correct place after I left.
All summer long Barbara could be seen watering & tending the flower boxes, the flowers monument around Mike Diamond Square and her beloved Veteran's Park.

What I will miss most is gossiping with Barbara. It was never malicious, but she knew who was pregnant, who was moving into a storefront, who had passed. She was my font of information. We would joke she was in charge of information for the Village and I had Wurtsboro Hills where my parents lived. I think we pretty much covered it.

In the last couple of years Barbara was on Village Board. I was proud to replace her spot on the Village planning board and I nominated her at the Democratic caucus even though she was a Republican. Of course she won hands down. Who wouldn't vote for her?

But basically she was just my friend. One of those people you just hit it off with. I always loved to run into Barbara in town, she always seemed so happy to see me. When I'd visit her house and we'd sit on her rocking chairs, everyone who passed by would said hello. Barbara knew everyone. She was so caring to me, Toni & my parents. She left us way too early and I feel cheated. We should have had more time with her.

A memorial service was held for Barbara in Veteran's Park. She helped create the park and she lovingly took care of it.

Barbara love all penguins.
These penguins that were once on her lawn served as honor guards at her memorial

                        

Barbara was one of my dearest friends and one of the best friend the village of Wurtsboro ever had.

Wurtsboro is a much better place  because of Barbara and I am a better person for having known her.