Binghamton Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Down Memory Lane – the Zionites

Trinity A.M.E. Zion church, 1956

A good friend of mine from my hometown of Binghamton, NY, Cee, wrote that on Friday, May 22, they “attended a wonderful presentation by Brenda Cave James on local Black churches, Susquehanna Street prior to urban renewal, and more.

“One of her display boards caught my eye…” A display showed two different musical revues by the folks at Trinity A.M.E. Zion church in 1948 and 1956. The latter event, with the performers dubbed the Zionites, is of particular interest to me.

Before that, a little history from WBMG-TV (2024). According to Broome County Historian Roger Luther, “AME Bethel closed its doors around 1930, and the congregation merged with AME Zion Church, formerly located where Columbus Park now stands.” I was baptized in the AME Zion church at that previous location. “In 1957, AME Zion was moved to its present-day location at the corner of Oak and Lydia streets.”

Musical triptych

There were three segments of the 1956 program, Down Memory Lane, which was directed by two women I knew from church: Beccye Fawcett, who was my boss when I worked at the Binghamton Public Library for several months in the late 1960s, and Dorothy Owens, a stalwart in the choir.

Part 1 represented the Gay Nineties. For one song, the Floradora Girls danced. Among the women: Geneivive Taylor, another librarian, and Gertrude Green, my mother! A couple of songs were performed by Luvenia McElroy, my sister Leslie’s godmother. Mack Green, presumably my grandfather McKinley Green, performed a Buck and Wing Dance.

The Roaring Twenties included Leslie Green (misspelled as Lesli) performing “Sonny Boy” with his son. Wait, what? I would have been three at the time. For the Rocking Fifties segment, my dad performed folk songs.

The December 3, 1948, performance at Binghamton Central High School also featured my mother, who was then Gertrude Williams, and my father. It was directed by Beccye Fawcett. The repertoire was limited to the Gay Nineties.

I believe Brenda Cave James is the daughter of the late Allen Cave, who was the vice-principal of Binghamton Central High School.

Spring 1975 redux

getting back at “the system”

Photo by Andre Carrotflower – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121389827

Here’s a Spring 1975 redux item. When I hit my 20th blogiversary in May 2025, I said I would occasionally repost some items I wrote two decades earlier. So far, I have done that once. I’m excluding my Emmett Till post since I added so much new data. If I add information, it will be [bracketed]. I substituted a later recollection link about Boys in the Band.

At the end of the fall 1974 semester at the State University College at New Paltz (NY), I broke up with the person who would soon be my ex-wife, the Okie. She moved to Philadelphia for reasons that were unclear to me then, and certainly no clearer 30 years later. [Or 50 years later; I suppose I could ask her. Or I could let it go.] The primary relationship issues were religion and money.

I drifted to Binghamton, my hometown. In January 1975, my sister Leslie and I kidnapped our 75-year-old grandmother and took her by train to Charlotte, NC, where her daughter (my mother) had moved the year before. Gram was getting lame. She had a coal stove, and it would have been dangerous to get up and down the stairs to get it. Nor could she walk up the steep street on which she lived.

13 Maple Street

When we came back a couple of weeks later, I didn’t have any idea what to do next, so I ended up living in my grandmother’s home. Funny thing, though: as often as I had seen her tend to the coal fire in my childhood, I could not keep it going at all. I suffocated it, essentially. I even got help from a friend, but no success.

Eventually, the pipes froze. It was an old wooden house with old wiring, so I could run the refrigerator or the space heater, but not both. Given the cold of the house, I opted for the latter.

In February 1975, I spent virtually the whole month in bed watching television. My grandmother’s TV only got one station, the VHF station Channel 12. So I watched the soaps, Hee Haw, and whatever was on CBS that month. It was undoubtedly the deepest state of melancholy I’d ever been in. [And that is still true.]

My mom rescued me

The space heater was on the ground and, of course, I had every cover I could find. One night, a blanket, handmade by the Okie, fell off the bed in front of the space heater. Fortunately, the acrid smell woke me up, and I was OK. My sister Leslie told me later that my mother (in NC) THAT NIGHT woke up from a dream in which I was surrounded by fire, and stayed awake for a time. Perhaps my mother woke me up, six states away. I don’t dismiss that out of hand.

Occasionally, I’d go to the library to listen to music on the record player and headphones. I remember once listening to the Beatles’ Abbey Road. The song that ended the first side was I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. [I LOVE the Billy Preston organ!] During the dirgelike instrumental ending, I cranked it up louder and louder. So when the instruments suddenly stopped, I really thought for a half-second that I had died.

Now and then, I’d visit my friend Carol, where I got cleaned up.

The janitor gig

I didn’t have a phone, so I missed at least a few job opportunities. Eventually, though, I got a position as a janitor in the brutalist Binghamton City Hall. There were 4 or 5 of us covering the building. I used to empty the wastebaskets from the desks of the police officers, clean the holding cells, wash windows, buff the floors of the common areas, and perform other tasks. Two of the guys started calling me Flash because I would get my work done by the end of the sixth hour of my eight-hour day, at which point I’d hide in the bathroom or a storage room and read. It wasn’t that I was so fast; they were very slow.

I really liked the police captain, and we would occasionally have erudite conversations about issues of the day or my future (which seemed bleak to me, but I’m sure I didn’t say that.) The police officers, however, were a more hostile lot in general, and I often felt that they would intentionally make a mess so that I would have to pick it up.

Drudgery

Now, some folks ABSOLUTELY were making a mess I had to clean up; they were the prisoners. These were holding cells they were in, and the detainees were usually there only one night before being arraigned in the morning. So they thought nothing of taking a lighted match and melting the paint from the walls. More than once, they would take their own bodily wastes and smear them on the walls. Perhaps they thought they were getting back at “the system,” but all they did was make more work for a college dropout.

As the weather warmed, my spirits brightened somewhat. I started going out with this woman named Margaret, but it was a classic rebound situation that lasted about a month. At the same time, I ended up doing a play, Boys In The Band. In the fall, I successfully returned to school at New Paltz.

It was one of the more difficult periods of my life, and I figured that if I could survive that, I could survive just about anything.

Sunday Stealing: Memememe — Part 2

the 1913 Binghamton factory fire

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Impetua is the blogger who delivered us this mother lode of meme questions. They were originally stolen from someone named Mel, whose blog no longer exists. We took 50+ queries and made it 20 questions over two weeks. (Boy, are they ever random!)

Memememe — Part 2

11. You can build a dream house anywhere in the world. Where would it be located?

Given the vagaries of climate change, I’d say right where I am right now in Albany, NY. It’s not perfect, but it works for what I need to happen.

Photo booth

12. Have you ever taken a photo in a photo booth?

Yes. Quoting me:

“These pictures were undoubtedly taken at a Woolworth’s, not terribly far from Binghamton Central High School, which is now and has been Binghamton High School since 1982. This is Michele, Steve, and I doing what one does in a tiny room, the camera flashing every ten seconds or so. I probably never saw these since they popped out of the side of the booth over 45 years ago.

“In the era of the selfie, if you have never had a photo booth picture taken at a Woolworth’s or similar venue, I should explain this process. There’s a booth with a curtain, and you would get three or four photos for 25 or 50 cents. For years, they were always in black and white, though the latter years had color. It didn’t take long to process, although the three minutes waiting seemed like an eternity.

“And the pictures were unique. “There are no copies, no negatives. Photo booths use a direct positive process, imprinting the image directly to the paper — creating a one-of-a-kind artifact.”

Steve sent these to me about a decade ago. Undoubtedly, I took many other photo booth shots, including at a Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library gala only a few years ago, but I don’t know where the pics are.

13. What’s your favorite kind of mustard (dijon, spicy brown, bright yellow)?

In order: Dijon and spicy brown.

14. What did you do on New Year’s Eve?

To the best of my recollection, I stayed up until midnight, hugged whoever was up—probably my daughter, unlikely my wife—and then went to bed.

School daze

15. Did your parents ever share memories of their high school days?

I don’t remember specifically—certainly not my father, who, I gather, hated school at the time. My mom went to the same high school and, for that matter, elementary school that my sister Leslie and I attended. I’ve seen pictures of her in elementary school; one is here.

16. What’s the most famous thing to happen in your hometown?

Most folks will probably note that Rod Serling, the creator of the famous TV show The Twilight Zone, grew up in Binghamton, NY. There’s a new statue of him in Recreation Park in the city.

But, and I guess more infamous, was the 1913 Binghamton factory fire, which occurred on July 22, “on the premises of the Binghamton Clothing Company… It destroyed the Wall Street building in less than 20 minutes, killing 31 of the more than 100 people inside. Though not as deadly as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, it put even more pressure on New York officials to strengthen life safety codes, increase funding for more inspectors, and increase penalties for violations.“

From Atlas Obscura: “The monument is at the top of the hill on the south side of Spring Forest Cemetery. Enter through the Mygatt St. entrance and bear left through the valley and up the hill. The stones stand in a clearing and are easily visible from the path.”

It’s weird, then, that despite spending my first 18 years in Binghaton and having visited that cemetery several times, even this decade, I did not hear this story until 2025. Here’s a link to the documentary The Devil’s Fire by WSKG Public Television and filmmaker Brian Frey. The book Return to the Embers of Tragedy by David A. Bogart was published in August 2025.

The short answers

17. Did you ever have a MySpace page?

Probably, but I surely didn’t know what to DO with it.

18. Will you eat a cookie today?

If it’s oatmeal raisin, yes.

19. Who is the last person you spoke to – not texted with – on the phone?

My wife. She was coming home late, which is not unusual.

20. Do you play poker?

As a kid, I played penny ante, but not really. Still, I taught my daughter how to play while going on college excursions, as described here.

Dad and the neighbor’s tree

Wizard of Oz

Here’s the story about Dad and the neighbor’s tree. The photo above was taken in August of 1969. My baby sister says she remembers the picture but not the incident, whereas my recollections are the opposite.

Let me tell you about that tree. I saw it from my bedroom at 5 Gaines Street, Binghamton, NY, looking towards the tree and the house at 1 Gaines. The photo was likely shot from our driveway.

The tree weirded me out. It reminded me of one of those mean trees in the Wizard of Oz movie: gnarled and sinister. Sometimes when I woke up from a dream, I would see an ominous face on the tree.

Sidebar (1965)

Here’s something only tangentially related. In 1965, when I was a 7th grader at Daniel S Dickinson Junior High School, there were some new kids in our class. One of them was Dawn, with flaming red hair. Based on a note her friend Bernadette passed me, Dawn seemed romantically interested in me. I was 12—she might have been a year or two older—and I had no idea what to do with this information, so I did nothing.

Back to the main story (1969)

The caption says the tree “accidentally crashed into the house… and the elm was being felled by the building’s owner when it tipped in the wrong direction into the building.”

My father is watching this young man, probably in his early twenties, work on this tree, ensuring it won’t strike our house. Dad told the guy that the tree would hit his dwelling. The fellow told Dad to mind his business as though this “old man,” who would have been in his early forties, was a foolish meddler. My father told me about this exchange before the tree was felled.

It “accidentally” hit 1 Gaines, which is technically accurate, but it was an avoidable incident. I don’t know the tenant in the photo; I suspect he lived upstairs, and the tree branches breached his dwelling area.

(Do you know how to “fell a tree” safely? If not, click here. This is from OSHA, which sister Leslie sent me.)

I think the owner lived downstairs with his wife, who I’m almost positive was Dawn from 7th grade, with a baby.

My father, an artist and floral designer, had excellent spatial acuity. He would have been 99 years old tomorrow.

PS: My sister

March rambling: Latibulate

a new Rebecca Jade song!

Latibulate: To retreat and lie hidden; to hide in a corner, which I’m trying very hard not to do.

Feb 28 Economic Blackout

A Paul Tonko Town Hall in Albany

As Suppression of Dissent Increases, Know Your Rights If the FBI Comes Knocking

TIME Women of the Year

Facebook & Content Moderation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; the 60 Minutes interview with John Oliver

EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS, Chapter 1, read by John Green

Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman, 95, was found dead alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa,64, and their dog, at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I only saw him in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Antz (1998-voice), The Birdcage (1996), Crimson Tide (1995), The Firm (1993), Unforgiven (1992), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hoosiers (1986), Reds (1981), Superman II (1980), Superman (1978), Young Frankenstein (1974), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The French Connection (1971), and very likely some episodic television in the 1960s. I’ve been to Poughkeepsie but never picked my toes there.

HELLO! MY NAME IS BLOTTO THE MOVIE trailer.

The Birth of a Community: Early Black Churches, Schools, and Organizations that Built Binghamton, NY

Are You Lonely? Adopt a New Family on Facebook Today

The State of American History: Lincoln and Immigrants

Now I Know: Dead People, Supporting Each Other and The Loophole That Gets You Paid for Riding a Bike and How To Plant Nearly 1,000 Trees an Hour

If You Ever Stacked Cups In Gym Class, Blame My Dad

Them. Again.

2.0: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Muskrat’s Billionaire Welfare: How the world’s richest man built his empire on government funds while attacking public workers

FOTUS Says He’s Above the Law in Social Media Post Invoking Napoleon: If you haven’t started worrying yet about his plan to destroy democracy and crown himself king, start now.

Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump (2019) – Rick Reilly: “If you’ll cheat to win at golf, is it that much further to cheat to win an election? To turn a Congressional vote? To stop an investigation? If you’ll lie about every aspect of the game, is it that much further to lie about your taxes, your relationship with Russians, your groping of women?”

The Presidency and the Constitution: Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States (2010). “Those who are entrusted with [power] must educate themselves in self-restraint. A republic is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal, and our actions are imperfect.”

Can Ethical People Work in the Administration?

The Republican Party’s NPC Problem — and Ours | The Ezra Klein Show

DOGE’s Illegal Takeover Pulls From Fascist Playbooks. When we see a parallel government taking shape, we should not refrain from calling fascism what it is.

FOTUS Puts America in the Axis of Evil

And. More.

From Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

“We should have seen this coming. [FOTUS]… has finally cut out the middleman and put U.S. citizenship up for sale like a clearance item at one of his bankrupt casinos. For a mere $5 million, the world’s wealthiest tax-dodgers can now purchase a ‘Gold Card’—a visa so opulent and sleazy it might as well come with a free timeshare in a collapsing Florida high-rise.

That’s right, [he] has replaced America’s immigration system with a Black Friday deal for billionaires. Who needs democracy when you can just PayPal your way into the country?”

Plus, a bunch of other stuff, including his now-confirmed, terrible Cabinet. But I highlight this because I had read it in only one place, the hardly liberal Foreign Affairs:

U.S. government escalates feud with Pretoria by cutting aid and offering refugee status to Afrikaners. “Few would have foreseen an executive order awarding refugee status to Afrikaners—the white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers who dominated the country’s politics and led the apartheid regime from 1948 to 1994. South African media queried whether he was even aware that Afrikaners differed from English-speaking whites like his South African-born billionaire advisor Elon Musk, whose criticisms of the South African government appear to be the source of the idea. It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” South Africa’s foreign ministry responded in a statement.”

And yet

Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., proposed a measure that would empower FOTUS to begin negotiations with the Danish Government to acquire Greenland. The bill would also rename the territory “Red, White, and Blueland.”

MUSIC

Hello, It’s Me – Evan Marks & Rebecca Jade. Vote in this year’s San Diego Music Awards for this song in Category 21 every day through March 27!

Hostile Government Takeover (EDM Remix)

Black Bottom by Nkieru Okoye

He Will Break Your Heart – Jerry Butler, who died at the age of 85

The Message -Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

I Put My Ring Back On – Mary Chapin Carpenter

Cabo Frio – Peter Sprague

Starburst by Jessie Montgomery

Coverville 1522: The Peter Gabriel Cover Story III and 1523: Cover Stories for Howard Jones, Steely Dan, and Smokey Robinson

Another Day In Paradise – JOYNER (from the Hulu Original Show “Paradise”)

Careless Whisper – Wham

American Eagle Waltz by Jacques Offenbach

Why Wasn’t I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet) – Maria McKee

Suite from The Wind and the Lion by Jerry Goldsmith

Green Grass Grew All Around – Pete Seeger

Creep – [fan edit] I’m not a robot

Everybody Wants To Rule The World -SOFTBARDCORE (cover in Classical Latin)

You Make My Dreams (Come True) · Daryl Hall & John Oates

I Want To Know What Love Is – Foreigner