D is for the Doraville Schoolhouse


There was a one-room schoolhouse in a tiny hamlet called Doraville, NY. It was so small that, growing up in Binghamton, perhaps 26 miles (42 km) away, I had never heard of it until considerably later. But it holds a special place in the hearts of my in-laws.

Two of my mother-in-law’s older siblings actually attended the school before it closed down during a school consolidation c. 1940. But then a kitchen was added on, and the building was used for years as community center for meetings, suppers and the like. As it was a very short walk from the former school to my mother-in-law’s parents’ house, it became the location for the Olin Thanksgiving for many years, into the 1970s.

At some point, the powers that be decided to tear it down so that some utility lines could be built, or some such. However, members of the community objected. They raised the requisite money to move the building from its original location to a spot in Harpursville, some 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away.

It wasn’t just money that was needed; it was manual labor to cut the building in half, horizontally near the roof line, schlep it to the new location then put it back together. It’s likely that the plans wouldn’t have succeeded at all had the state not coincidentally built a new bridge; the old bridge might not have borne the weight. (The photos pictured tell the story of the move.)

Once moved, there was an effort to try to replicate the school as it once was. Under the leadership of my wife’s uncle Don Olin, this was accomplished.

The doorway in this picture led to the kitchen that had been added in the 1940s.


So when the Olins had their family reunion in July 2009, they held it at the Harpursville Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, maybe 1 km (1100 yards or so) away, the family made sure the school was open for their perusal. The pictures here were taken by this blogger at that occasion with a disposable camera.

Unfortunately, Don Olin died last November. The restoration of the Doraville Schoolhouse is a lasting memorial to him. Here’s more about Don.

And more on the Doraville Schoolhouse.

No, the outhouse, just behind the school, is no longer in use.

ROG

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: Julie & Julia

My goodness; Carol and Roger not only went to the movies, but saw a film playing in its first weekend! We got a babysitter and went to see the only film playing at the Spectrum in Albany, our favorite movie theater, we could agree on. (To be fair, Carol’s already seen a couple of them.) Actually had to briefly stand in line.

Julie & Julia is writer/director/co-producer Nora Ephron’s clever intertwining of two true stories: the coming of age of Julia Child, a bored American housewife in Paris after World War II, with Julie Powell, a frustrated would-be writer who works in a New York City agency to help those affected by the events of September 11, 2001. Julie worships Julia, the cookbook author who made French cooking accessible to Americans, and starts a blog to track her Child-like efforts/obsession.

The strength, and perhaps the weakness, of this movie is that Julia Child is played by the incomparable Meryl Streep, who quickly disappears into this role. Entertainment Weekly already says this year’s Oscar is Streep’s to lose; I haven’t seen that many other movies in 2009, but this is a bravado performance, steeled by great support from Stanley Tucci as her husband. Tucci, BTW, appears in the possibly greatest foodie movie of all time, Big Night; Tucci and Ephron are foodies in real life. I also enjoyed the brief turn by Jane Lynch.

So the more modern story suffers by comparison because it features Amy Adams, who costarred with Streep in Doubt, but shares no real scenes here. Adams is a fine actress, but her somewhat whiny story and the attendant acting by her, Chris Messina as her husband, and others, were not as interesting, or nearly as funny.

I should note, however, that the more historical tale had some built-in advantages. When Paul Child suggests to Julia that she could be on television, she laughs. The audience laughs too, in part because they know that Julia eventually DOES appear on the small screen.

Some critics suggested they had difficulty keeping track of which time period the story was in; my wife and I had no such difficulty. Others wished that it was more about Julia and less about Julie, if at all; the reality that with a mere history of Child, the viewer would miss some insights about Julia that Julie exposes to us.

So, I recommend the film. If I did stars, it’d be 3 out of 4; grade would be B+.
***
A 10-minute Streep interview. Interesting how an agent provocateur’s comments and response to same took over. He said – I assume it’s a he, “There’s a reason why old fart and over the hill actresses aren’t in great demand–because no one wants to see them! Let’s compare: Meryl Streep vs. Angelina Jollie? Not Meryl! Or, how about Meryl Streep vs. Scarlett Johanson? Not Meryl here either! One more shot: how about Meryl Streep vs. Megan Fox?” Evidently talking about something other than acting. Even Megan Fox, in the EW cover story, noted that her acting skills are nascent.
***
Carol and I once saw Stanley Tucci at Capital Rep theater in Albany several years ago. Can’t remember what we saw, but I was close enough to say to him, if I had had the nerve, “Loved you in Murder One and Big Night.” But I didn’t; so it goes.

ROG

ROG

That scene in Field of Dreams always makes me cry

Even before my father died on August 10, 2000, there was a scene in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams where the Kevin Costner character is playing catch with his dad – you know, this one – that always got to me. My father and I didn’t play catch that much, but he did take me to minor league games in Binghamton (the Triplets – farm team at various times of the Kansas City A’s, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves) and explained the intricacies of the sport.

As I noted here, the evening before my father died, when he was in a comatose state, “I turned on a baseball game, and explained the action to my father. I think the sound was down, so I was doing a play-by-play for a couple innings. I told him about Jason Giambi, the long-haired player for the Oakland A’s who had ‘graced’ the cover of Sports Illustrated within the previous year.”

So baseball – and music, card playing and football – were shorthand ways for my father and me to deal with each other when other paths were not available.

Here’s a couple pictures that my sister came across only last month of my father as an MP at the end of, and after World War II, either in Texas or somewhere in western Europe, sometime in 1945 or 1946:

ROG

ROG

Teachable moment QUESTION

I’m just not getting this notion that not talking about race will somehow fix the race issue, the position, it seems of George Will and Morgan Freeman. Just this month, I came across this Salon piece about a vendor sending the letter writer a racist cartoon. In Racialicious, The protagonist of Justine Larbalestier’s novel Liar is a young black woman with short, natural hair. So why is there a white girl with long, straight hair on the cover? A touching piece in Antiracist Parent notes it’s never too late for racial unity in your family, about a mixed race couple, now married 40 years, who were rejected by his (white) family until fairly recently. Great moments in political race-baiting, which I will contend SHOULD include Bill Clinton.

Yet these “teachable moments” such as the Skip Gates arrest/President Obama’s comment/the “beer summit” don’t seem to teach much. Lots of arguing across each other. Most of these “moments” from Don Imus’ comments to Michael Richards’, seem to generate a lot of fury, but then we move to the next thing. There seems to be little common ground forged.

Or is there? I think most conservatives and most black people seem to be on the same page with regards to Henry Louis Gates, though they get there different ways.
Michele Malkin and her ilk wondered why he wasn’t taught at one point to respecting the police, while black folk thought, “Is that man CRAZY? You don’t shoot off your mouth to a cop; you can end up dead.” in any case, Gates’ Arrest Was Nothing Compared to Evan Howard’s.

(Musical interlude: Pete Seeger – What Did You Learn In School?, with Words and Music by Tom Paxton
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.)

So should we talk about race? HOW should we talk about race? I’m convinced there’s more to be said but unclear about the methodology.

ROG

ROG

John Hughes

I am certainly aware of the iconic nature of the John Hughes ouevre of the 1980s. Yet I am not all that well versed in it. Which is to say that I’ve never seen Molly Ringwald in a movie: no Sixteen Candles (1984), no The Breakfast Club (1985), no Pretty in Pink (1986). I’ve also managed to miss most of Hughes’ other work.

So what HAVE I seen?

Delta House (1979), a short-lived TV show based on the movie National Lampoon’s Animal House. Hughes as a writer. It was the most authentic of the Animal House derivatives, but none of them lasted for very long.

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983). Hughes as writer. Actually saw this in the theater, and recall enjoying it, though I probably haven’t seen it since.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Hughes as writer/director/producer. I’m pretty sure I saw it only on commercial TV. I think I need to see it on video/DVD, because I see the clips and I’m not remembering them.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989). Hughes as writer/producer. Seem to see this on TV a lot during the holidays, though I don’t know if I’ve ever watched it from beginning to end.

Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Hughes as writer/producer. Both on commercial TV. The first one was mildly interesting, but the second one felt as though it was a retread.

Which brings me to my very favorite of the limited number of John Hughes movies I’ve seen, the only one besides Vacation I actually saw in the movie theater. A film I didn’t know, or forgot, was a Hughes film:

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

If you’ve not seen it, it is the story of two unlikely traveling companions, played by Steve Martin as a tightly wound man and the late John Candy as a too chummy guy who seems oblivious to the Martin character’s boundaries. It’s very funny, yet quite poignant. Anyone who’s ever had transportation difficulties will definitely relate. I haven’t made my Top 100 movie list yet, but I suspect it will contain this film.

Now, I’ll have to add some John Hughes to my Netflix list.
ROG

ROG
Ramblin' with Roger
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