| The following column appeared in The River Reporter on January 7, 1999. |
By Bert S. Feldman
The Recusant Reporter
Reprinted Thursday, January 7, 1999
[Editor’s Note: Bert Feldman is recovering from heart surgery. Here is a column that he wrote in 1983.]
To all of you who do us the honor of reading our column, may we, with all sincerity, wish you and yours the Happiest of New Years. We hope that over the past year we have given you some food for thought, shared a smile or two, and provoked some friendly arguments. If there is something in this pile of words that pleases or displeases you, we would like to hear from you. Even if you would wish to just say hello, it would, in the Quaker phrase, pleasure us. Address us here, at The River Reporter, and somehow the elves will see that it gets to us. May the New Year bring snow to skiers, a non-non-schlupfrig (we love that word) driveway to everyone else, warm feet and surcease from sniffles. May your tree not shed its needles, and may every gift be in your correct size and unbreakable. Peace, it’s wonderful.
Somebody who said it better was Horace Walpole, who, in 1778, said: "When will the world know that peace and propagation are the two most delightful things in it
A page from Aunt Tizzy’s Book of Helpful Hints: What to give someone for Christmas who has everything- antibiotics.
Our compliments to those communities who have decked their village streets with adornments appropriate to the season. It is a delight to see how pretty these places become, all gussied up in their wreaths, decorations and other doo-dads.
We were pleased to be in on two historical discoveries in our county this past month. The second, the discovery of an 18th century log cabin in the Town of Forestburgh, calls for much credit to those involved in its uncovering and study, and to the town officials who donated money, the use of town highway crews and gave a plot of land for reassembling of the cabin. The first discovery, the search for a Civil War bread-oven erected in 1892 by local veterans at their campgrounds in Kiamesha Lake, led to a bulldozed pile of stones. The cabin took the bitter taste of local indifference and neglect out of our mouth. A tip of the old tile to those Forestburgher who showed the rest of us that it can be done.
