Comments for The Chazy Lake Times

Comment on Weather by cleadslinger32

cleadslinger32 — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:32:39 +0000

I remember the tunnel leading into Benny Brook’s store quite vividly. I was about eight or nine years old so that would make the blizzard around 1940-41. Dad and I drove to Dannemora after the storm settled down and the roads were all cleared using the big, red Wolters Snowfighter. Benny and Dad had gone to school together in Chazy Lake, and they remained good friends. Benny took a picture of me on top of a huge drift. He had it enlarged and displayed it inside his store. I remember that I was wearing a red tasseled “toque”. That spot for about a quarter of a mile was always the worst during a blizzard. A southeast storm would come roaring up the pass between Lyon Mountain and Johnson Mountain. This was right in line with Whiteface and Lake Placid. The Saranac Valley was broad and low so that the wind could generate there while building up its force and then would form a Venturi funnel between the mountains and onto the lake. Dad said that before they had good snow plows that people used an ice road to by-pass that area. One end exited near Fournier’s farm. Also he recalled when they used horse-propelled vee-shaped plows using logs to flatten the road for wagons and sleighs.

Comment on 1901-1905 by cleadslinger32

cleadslinger32 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:56:53 +0000

Bert Cataract is mentioned. About a mile or less beyond Exford King’s house heading toward Lyon Mountain, one comes to the Junction as we called it. The gravel road to the left headed toward Saranac. On the right hand side was the cellar of a house that burned. That was Catarack’s house. I used to like to play there in the ruins. A small stream called Cataract Brook, flows on the other side of the road. It passes under the Badger Road and empties into Chazy Lake very close to Seine Bay Brook.
Yes, Charles Morrison was the husband of Aunt Lucy, Emma’s sister. She was an old lady when she lived with us one summer in the very early 40’s. She is the one who told me the family legend about the ancestor who was murdered. After almost seventy years, I’m not sure if I can recall her story accurately.

Comment on 1916-1920 by cleadslinger32

cleadslinger32 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:27:22 +0000

These news clippings are fun to read. Both Howard and Philmore were in WWI. Phil was sent over to France, but he never mentioned combat. Howard once showed me his bugle and played a tune for me. I think that it was “chow call”,”Won’t you come and get it…” Howard’s six- week illness was probably influenza. About that time there was a very virulent strain of it that spread worldwide. In fact, it is said that more U.S. doughboys died of influenza than in combat.
There is mention of a new school near Badger’s. Dad once told me that he helped his father build it. It was on the lake side opposite the hotel. I remember that the shell of it was still standing in the 40’s as well as the foundation and brick chimney of the Chazy Lake House.
Louis Alpert is mentioned. Shortly after Séraphim moved to Troy to live with his daughter, the house changed hands several times. That is when Louis Alpert owned it briefly. He had a grocery store in Dannemora. Later Louis’ daughter, Anna, became my first grade teacher at the Chazy Lake School. Once Miss Alpert invited me to spend the week-end with their family. Obviously I was her pet student, and, as a five-year old, I fell in love with her. Maybe that is why I always liked school and became a teacher myself.

Comment on Obituaries A thru C by cleadslinger32

cleadslinger32 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:43:02 +0000

I noticed the name “Eroh” in the Cumm obit. There was an Eroh who lived a ways south of Cadyville. Dad said that he was a relative but didn’t say how. I met him once when he came to the Grove. Earlier, Dad would hire him to process our recently butchered pigs into ham and bacon.