Visiting The Roycroft Campus In East Aurora, New York (Part 2)

Dateline: 25 October 2016, AD

With our docent in front of the Roycroft Inn.

In My Previous Blog Post, I wrote about the first part of my recent visit with friends, and our tour of some sights around Buffalo last Saturday. Our main objective for the day was to visit The Roycroft Campus in East Aurora. We were scheduled for a walking tour of the grounds with a "knowledgeable docent." The word "docent" was a new one to me. It simply means a guide.

We started the tour at the Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum, which is located in the spot where the powerhouse for the Roycrofter campus once was. Elbert Hubbard was the founder and driving force behind the whole Roycrofter movement. Here's a picture of Elbert that I took in the museum...

Elbert Hubbard
(1856—1915)

Elbert Hubbard was a top salesman for the Larkin Soap Company (when he was 16 years old!) and went high up in that company before cashing out and pursuing a career in writing. He traveled to England and was inspired by William Morris and his Arts & Crafts movement, which was, as you can read in the picture below, a reaction against mass production and growing industrialism.

Click the picture for a larger view.

Elbert Hubbart brought the arts & crafts movement to America and established Roycroft in East Aurora as an artisan community. Foundational to Roycroft was the Roycroft Press. 

Hubbard's inspirational and offbeat philosophical writings were published in a couple of small periodicals, one of which was titled The Philistine. 

In 1899 Hubbard penned a short essay in The Philistine that would change his life in a big way. It was written as filler for the periodical, and wasn't even given a title. But the essay resonated with enough people that Hubbard soon reprinted it in a small booklet and titled it A Message To Garcia. 

That little booklet was wildly successful. It sold millions of copies and launched Elbert Hubbard's career as a sought-after lecturer. It also provided the money to expand his Roycrofter artisan enterprise in East Aurora. Here is a picture of the first printing of A Message To Garcia at the museum...

Our docent told us that Hubbard was an avowed socialist (like William Morris in England). But he ended up being more of a capitalist. He was, in fact, a masterful marketer and entrepreneur. 

She also took some time to explain the scandals that Elbert Hubbard had to contend with. The primary scandal being adultery, having a child out of wedlock, divorce, and all that goes with that sort of thing.

Since our visit to The Roycrofter's Campus, I have watched This PBS Documentary about Elbert Hubbard. It is worth seeing if you would like to know more about Hubbard and his Roycrofter movement.

The Story Of The Roycroft Logo

And The Nabisco Logo

Elbert Hubbard had a distinctive Roycroft trademark that was put on all the products made by his Roycroft enterprise. This is what it looked like...

The orb with the double cross is a symbol that goes back into antiquity. There is a lot of confusion about its origins and meaning, and it so happens there is a fair amount of conspiracy discussion as to it's usage. 

But the object of the conspiracy discussions is not so much the Roycroft movement as it is the Nabisco company. Here you can see the same orb and cross is on every Oreo cookie made...

According to our docent, the Nabisco Company was going to sue Elbert Howard for infringing on their trademark. But lore has it that Elbert met with the top man at Nabisco and they came to an agreement. In the words of Elbert: "If you agree not to print books, we agree not to make biscuits." And the matter was settled.

Elbert Hubbard's 

Religion of Elbert Hubbard

One of Elbert's fundamental worldview presuppositions
was that there is no God. Therefore,
there is no spiritual reality (no heaven or hell),
and no spiritual accountability.
It's a wonderfully liberating belief system,
until you die, and find out you were wrong.

From what I have read of Elbert Hubbard and his writings, he was raised in a Christian home, but he totally rejected Christianity in his adult years. His apostasy appears to have been fueled by the 19th century transcendentalist movement and "intellectuals" like Thoreau and Emerson.

Hubbard didn't just reject Christianity, he routinely ridiculed and mocked the Bible and orthodox biblical understandings in his various writings. 

In one essay of his that I read, Elbert attributed Solomon's great wisdom to his pagan mother and his 400+ Philistine wives. 

Hubbard had a lot of admiration for the Philistines and asserted that the story of David slaying the giant Philistine named Goliath was fable. Hubbard saw himself as a Philistine and wrote that "Philistine" was a synonym for "manly independence."

I other words, In Hubbard's opinion, it was a manly trait to seek autonomy from God, by rejecting his word (The Bible) as the ultimate moral authority. Which is to say, Hubbard developed his own religious belief system, with Elbert himself as the highest moral authority.

Here's a revealing quote from the little self-god, Elbert Hubbard, wherein he instructs his flock of followers about salvation ...

"Salvation lies in work, play, study, right living and right thinking, and not in belief in the death of a good man in Asia two thousand years ago."

So, sin was not acknowledged in The Religion of Elbert Hubbard. And since the standards of right and wrong as found in the Bible were not his moral authority, then "right living" and "right thinking" to Hubbard were whatever he decided were right for him at the moment.

This sort of religious "independence" is, of course, not unique to Elbert Hubbard. Millions of people follow a similar self-styled religion today. They judge elements of God's transcendent law as lacking in some way, disregard them, and then substitute their own opinions about what is right or wrong.  In so doing, they elevate themselves above their Creator.  

I can only shake my head in wonder when I see finite men, with finite minds, and finite lifespans, like Elbert Hubbard (who live in the midst of a natural world that testifies to an infinitely wise and powerful Creator), thinking that they can pass judgement on God, and live their lives in rebellion against Him. 

That kind of independence does not appeal to me at all. 

And Finally...

President McKinley & Vice President Teddy Roosevelt

The Roycroft tour was great. I admire Elbert Hubbard's entrepreneurial example, and the whole concept of developing a community of craftsmen who work with their "head, heart, and hands" to create objects of beauty and utility. I only wish the philosophy behind the movement was Christian, because biblical Christianity can certainly support that kind of hands-on, contra mundum approach to life. 

After our tour of The Roycrofter Campus, we headed back to Peg and Dick's house. On the way, we discussed the assassination of President William McKinley, which happened in Buffalo back in 1901.

Dick knew that Leon Czolgosz was the assassin. He even knew how to spell Czolgosz (but he didn't know how to pronounce it). I couldn't help but think that anyone who knows how to spell Czolgosz (and isn't Polish) is unusually smart.

I added to the conversation by letting everyone know that Czolgosz was electrocuted at Auburn State Prison (where I used to work) and that the first electric chair at the prison was in all likelihood, built by Gustav Stickley, who used to work at that prison before he went on to become famous for making furniture (which was part of the same American Arts & Crafts movement that included the Roycrofters).

Czolgosz in the Stickley Electric Chair.

Then, inquiring minds wanted to know how long it was between when McKinley was shot and Czolgosz was electrocuted. Peg and Ann referred to their iPhones and soon informed us that McKinley was shot on Sept. 6, 1901, and he was executed on October 29, 1901. It took less than two months for justice to be served (Details Here).

When we got back to the house, we all watched The Imitation Game. Fascinating history, with a sad ending.

A scene from The Imitation Game.

I noticed a historical flaw in the movie. There is a scene where a person is typing and they use some Liquid-Paper-like fluid to make a correction. But that kind of correction fluid was not used during WW2 (when the movie takes place). It was invented by Bette Nesmith in 1956 (you can read all about Bette Nesmith HERE).

So, it ended up being a long and full day of fun with our old friends in Buffalo. I really can't recall having that much fun in a long time.

Visiting The Roycroft Campus In East Aurora, New York (Part 1)

Dateline: 23 October 2016

Today, Marlene and I returned from a two-day trip to the Buffalo, NY area (which is 2.5 hours west of us). Our plan was to rendezvous with our old high school friend Peggy, her husband  Dick, and another high school friend, Ann, who drove up from Lancaster PA. Peggy and Dick live in a suburb of Buffalo and they offered to take us for a day of sightseeing in the Buffalo area. Our main objective being to tour the Roycrofter Campus in East Aurora.

The picture above shows the three girls (no matter how old they are, they will always be girls to me) in the back seat of Dick's car as we were pulling out of their driveway Saturday morning. Marlene is on the left, then Ann, then Peggy.

Our first stop was Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawana. Here's a picture from the back parking lot...

This church is probably the closest I'll ever come to visiting the Vatican in Rome. Very impressive architecture. It's especially impressive when you consider that the building where Marlene and I go to church is a converted agricultural pole barn. Here's a picture from the inside...

The Basilica is cavernous and I commented to Dick that it must cost a fortune to heat the place. He then informed me that the church has its own gas well. 

From the Basilica we headed along the Lake Erie shoreline on our way to Forest Lawn Cemetery, which happens to be a popular destination spot.

Our objective was to visit the grave site of Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States. Millard Fillmore was born in Moravia, NY (in 1800). Well, he was actually born in Summerhill, which is just a few miles up out of Moravia on Skinner Hill Road. For all practical purposes, Summerhill is now Moravia. 

Marlene, Ann, Peggy and me know this better than most Americans because we graduated from Moravia High School (class of 1976) and our Social Studies teacher was Bob Scarry, who literally wrote The Book on Millard Fillmore.

Here's a selfie of the five of us at Millard Fillmore's gravesite...

Much of our day was filled with a long rolling discussion about history (Mr. Scarry would be proud of us!) and far ranging trivia. For example, while tarrying at President Fillmore's grave, Dick and I were having a discussion about It's a Wonderful Life, Donna Reed, and The Donna Reed Show. Then Dick told me that Buddy Ebson was originally chosen to play the part of the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz movie, but the tin-colored skin coating gave him a rash. I never knew that. It was around that time that Marlene wanted to get a picture of me and Dick...

As we were walking back to the car, I reminded Marlene of what our fellow Moravia classmate, Ty St John, owner of St John Memorials told me at the class reunion last summer, when I asked him about getting a stone for our grave site (which we bought a couple years ago). He said the best thing to do is look around a cemetery for a stone design we like and take a picture to show him.

What a great idea. I found just what I'd like, Ty....

As we were exiting Forest Lawn Cemetery, on our way to the Roycrofter campus we were all momentarily stumped by a trivia conundrum... 

We could only remember three of the four Monkees. Peter Tork, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith. I knew that Michael Nesmith's mother, Bette, invented Liquid Paper, but I couldn't remember the 4th Monkee. 

Then, after a rare moment of quiet in the vehicle, Ann said, "Was it Mickey?" 

Well, of course it was. Mickey Dolenz! How could I forget? I'm A Believer , Steppin' Stone, Mary Mary (I had the album).

We were scheduled for a 2:30 tour at the Roycrofter campus and got to East Aurora in plenty of time to have a casual lunch at a coffee shop named Taste. If you're ever hungry in East Aurora, NY, Taste is the place to go. I had a Millard "Fill-Me-More" wrap and a pumpkin-spice latte. Excellent!

Over lunch we all talked about General Green, who lived on Main Street in Moravia, across from the entrance to the high school. Ann remembers General Green because she lived a few houses down from him when she was little. I never knew the General (he died a couple years before I moved to Moravia) but I knew all about him from my barber, Claude Richards, who used to cut the General's hair (back in the day). Here's a picture of General Green (before he was a General)...

I also knew all about General Green because Marlene used to stay nights with his widow, Ruth Green, when Ruth was getting old and senile (Marlene was going to community college at the time). Then, after Marlene couldn't do the job any more, my mother took over, and she did that for many years. Mrs. Green's house was like a history museum.

General Green was in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He used to have an old car that was riddled with bullet holes from the Japs. He would drive it in parades. During the war, Hawaii was under marshall law, and General Green governed the islands. 

After a long lunch, we had some time yet before our Roycrofter tour and walked down the street to Vidler's 5 & 10 Store. The old store is jam-packed with all kinds of things that I would have loved when I was a kid. 

But there wasn't a single thing there that I needed or wanted at this point in my life. Then Marlene suggested a shiny metal Sheriff badge for our 4-year-old grandson. I realized that was a downright good idea, and I bought it...

I showed the badge off to everyone when we got back to the car, and I think it was Peggy who suggested it might come in handy if Dick was to get pulled over for some sort of traffic violation. Hmmm. Good thinking, Peg.

With just a few minutes more to spare before our Roycroft tour, we drove by Millard Fillmore's House in East Aurora. No time for a tour there.

The future president was actually born in a log cabin and there is a replica of his cabin at Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia. 

Mr. Scarry, our Social Studies teacher, was instrumental in getting that cabin built a long time ago. As I understand it, the logs for the project came from an old building on the Rouse Farm up on Long Hill. Here's a picture of where Millard Fillmore got his start in life...

(photo link)

Well, I sure have rambled on here, and I haven't even gotten to the Roycrofter part. 

Stay tuned for Part 2....

Me And Art,And A Canoe Named Desire

Dateline: 21 October 2016

Scotty's Boatyard, Owasco Lake, N.Y.
1976

This is a neat story that I’d like to share with you, my regular Upland readers, and also the children (3 daughters and 2 sons) of my late, great high school friend, Art Dillon. Art passed away back in 2002 from cancer. He was only 44. 

####

Yesterday on the Moravia Class of 1976 Reunion Facebook page I posted the picture above, with the following comment…

"I found this old picture today and thought I’d share it here. I’m pretty sure it was the spring of 1976 and it was at Scotty’s Boatyard, at the end of a canoe race. Left to right in the picture: Paco Rosado, Charlie Wright (in truck), Maureen Carey, Art Dillon, and me. Paco and Charlie were in one canoe and Art and me were in another. Me and Art did pretty well and got a trophy. It was a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can with a canoe on top. One of the very few trophies I’ve ever won in my life. :-)"

After posting the picture, Seccy Cogswell Carson (a 1976 classmate) asked if I had the trophy displayed. I replied that I didn’t know where it was. I suspect it is buried in a landfill somewhere, and has been there for a long time.

Well, that picture on Facebook was noticed by Art’s wife, Lori. She found Art’s trophy (each of us got one at the end of the race), took a picture of it, and posted it to Facebook. Here's the trophy….

It says First Place on it. 

Impressive, eh?  

To my surprise, Lori said that she still has Art’s canoe. It is light blue in color, and he painted the name, Desire on it. 

So, it’s pretty neat how that all came together on Facebook. And now, I’d like to tell you the rest of the story…

After getting a big First Place in that local canoe race, Art figured that he and I (with Desire) should enter the World Canoe Regatta in Bainbridge, New York. Art had the canoe. Art had the vehicle to get us there. And he took care of all the entry details. I was just his willing racing partner.

The race was at the end of May, 1976. I checked the internet and it’s not referred to as The World Canoe Regatta anymore. It’s the General Clinton Canoe Regatta. 

Too bad. That just doesn’t have the same ring to it as The World Canoe Regatta.

Well, anyway, it was just me and Art on this great adventure, and we were feeling pretty confident in our abilities. The race was on the Susquehanna River and I don’t recall exactly how long it was. Five or ten miles maybe. It was quite a distance (but it was not the 70 mile endurance race—that much I’m sure of).

I remember that there were so many entrants that they had the canoes start in several groups. It was a timed race. We were given a big identification number that, if I recall correctly, we put on the front of the canoe.

Soon after arriving, it was obvious to Art and me that most of the racers were very serious contenders. They had lightweight racing canoes and special racing paddles with wide ends and bent handles. We also noticed that many of the competitors (all men that I recall) had impressive upper body physiques; they were built for canoe racing.  And some of them were speaking French! 

We were just a couple of skinny high school amateurs (and country hicks to boot).  We were totally outclassed.

The start was kind of intense. There was a short period of chaos as all the canoeists jockeyed to get off the line. A canoe near us tipped over and two guys were splashing around while everyone drove on by them.

By the time we got to the finish line we were exhausted. We had given it our best shot. We had passed a lot of other canoes, and a lot of other canoes had passed us. But, since there were so many different starts, and canoes from other races on the river with us, we had no idea how we did when we got to the end. After waiting around for awhile, the last of the canoes for our race came in and the results were posted.

There were over 100 canoes in our race and, to our utter surprise, we came in third.  

From last.

To be honest, I don’t remember if we actually were third from last. But we were really close to last place. We were so close to last that we were profoundly humbled. I remember we took some satisfaction in the fact that we weren't dead last. That would have been totally humiliating. 

And that was the end of our canoe-racing adventures.

Art was a great guy and a great friend. We had a lot of different adventures back in our high school days. Some of them I’ll never tell. But most of our adventures were good, wholesome fun centered around outdoor activities. Looking back these 40 years later,  I’m thankful for the experiences, and the memories. I only wish that Art were still here so we could look back on them together.

###

A year after this canoe-racing chapter of my life, I had another canoe adventure with another friend, on the Lamoille River in Vermont. You can read about it HERE.

Pruning My Raspberries

Dateline: 21 October 2016
(click on pictures to see larger views)

Before Pruning

I have two 36-foot rows of red raspberries on the edge of my garden. They have been there for a lot of years, and every year, usually in October, I prune the rows. The picture above shows the vegetative chaos that I encountered at pruning time this year. It is typical.

And here is what those same two rows in the picture look like after I pruned them a few days ago...

After Pruning

Here is a close-up view of the rows...

I have removed the old canes that bore fruit earlier this year, and I've cut out a great amount of the new canes that grew up this year. The remaining canes will bear fruit next year. 

I selected and kept the largest canes and canes that were growing closer to the center of the row. They are tied to the center support bar that runs down the row, and the tops of extra-tall canes were snipped off at a little under 5-ft high.

Here's a picture that shows how I have tied each cane to the center support...

This cane-trellising system has worked for me for a long time. But I do NOT recommend it as the ideal for trellising raspberries in a home garden.

Instead, I recommend "bush-planting" of raspberries, using a center T-post stake to tie off the bramble canes. The technique of stake-trellising was introduced to me by E.P. Roe, the famous berryman of the 1800's. 

Having grown and trellised brambles along a row-trellis for so many years, I was immediately struck with the greater logic and simplicity of E.P. Roe's stake-trellising technique when I first read about it. In essence, you end up with individual raspberry "bushes" instead of a continuous row.

Every year I think to myself that I want to plant some new and different varieties of raspberries, but it just doesn't get done. Maybe next spring I'll finally get to it. And I will be using E.P. Roe's stake-trellising idea.

If you have a copy of my Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners, I explain E.P. Roe's stake-trellising idea on pages 23 and 24.

Autumn In Vermont,And My Baddest Picture

Dateline: 20 October 2016

Autumn always reminds me of my year of school in Vermont back in 1976/77. The YouTube video aboveshows the town where I went to school. It's in the Lowell Mountains of the Northeast Kingdom. You can really see the beauty of the place in that drone film.

Sterling College (as the school is now named) was, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life. It was an adventurous year with many new experiences, and it changed my life for the better (I've written about my year at Sterling HERE. And there are several essays about that year in my 20-part Finding My Way series HERE).

One of my best friends in that school year was Ed Bais. I wrote about Ed and me making apple cider in Craftsbury Common At This Link. In that essay I wrote:

"Several years ago, Ed sent me a photo he had taken of me just prior to one of our "rumbles." I have just burst through the door (he knew I was coming) and have a heavy length of tree-branch-for-a-club raised in my right hand. A menacing scowl is on my face. I'm about to thrash him. I'm sure Ed was laughing when he took the picture, which I'm also sure was just before he commenced to boldly meet my challenge."

Well, I didn't have the ability to post pictures to my blog back in 2005 when I wrote that essay, but now I do, and here's the picture...

That's the baddest picture of me that you'll ever see. Notice that my hair is long—practically down to my shoulders. I was 18 years old.

A few months later, when school was out, and I was back home in New York, I looked a whole lot more respectable, as you can see in this next picture...

In that picture Ed and I are about to leave for Craftsbury Common to attend a fiddler's contest. Ed had his sister's car and drove from Ohio to pick me up. My mother took the picture.

After the fiddler's contest, Ed headed home and I stayed in Craftsbury Common for a couple of months. I had a job there helping to restore an old building on the outskirts of town. It was a job that set me on a life course in the building trades. I haven't seen or spoken with Ed since then.

The Decline Of Blogging

Dateline: 19 October 2016

My extreme southern garden blogging friend, David The Good, announced today that he is giving up his daily blogging regimen. He will now blog only once a week. David's reasoning...

"My suspicion is that blogging is a dying medium. There is too much content out there and too many distractions competing for our attention. Who has time to do all the online reading they’d like to do? It’s easier to flip through Instagram or watch a YouTube video for most people."

I think he is absolutely right. Blogging is not as popular as it once was. There are so many blogs to read, and people really are too busy. Besides that, there is plenty of other internet media that is considerably easier to experience than reading a blog. 

I came to this conclusion earlier this year after getting involved with a Facebook page. Far more people are looking at Facebook because it's faster to "consume." It's also more entertaining. There is much more visual amusement there. I'm not passing judgement. I'm just saying that it is clearly evident. And it is what it is.

The fact that precious few people read my blog writings became crystal clear when I left The Deliberate Agrarian blog and came here to Upland three months ago. The Deliberate Agrarian had an e-mail subscriber list of 1,356 people. But only 182 of those people have signed up for the e-mail subscription to this new blog. That means that 87% of the people I thought were reading my writings at The Deliberate Agrarian probably weren't actually reading it.

I blogged at The Deliberate Agrarian for 11 years and it has had 3,812,025 page views. Even though I'm no longer posting there, that blog had 1,2191 page views yesterday, while this blog had 388 page views yesterday. That 97% difference further underscores the fact that few people actually read this blog.

What are all the visitors reading at The Deliberate Agrarian? Well, most of the page views are of blog posts related to my Whizbang products, like the chicken plucker and the cider press. 

One of the few non-business posts that has a LOT of views there is Delmar Ain't So Stupid. That's kind of nice to see, because it is one of the better essays I wrote there over those 11 years.

I'm not complaining. I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm not even looking for more readers. I'm just pointing out a reality that I find very interesting.

At this point, I have no intention of stopping my personal exercise in blogging. But I have been making an effort to keep my blog posts more visual and less wordy (this blog post being an exception).

If you are a regular reader here at Upland, you are among the few. And I appreciate you.

Now, I need to go figure out what this Instagram thing is all about.....

Grape Harvest 2016

Dateline: 19 October 2016, AD

Some Concord grapes from our 2016 harvest.

I planted a single row of Concord Grapes on my property line several years ago. They have been an easy fruit to grow here in Central New York state. But the trick to getting a good grape harvest is to prune the vines every year in the winter. 

We grow the grapes primarily to make juice. My wife is the juice master. She uses a Mehu-Liisa.  We've used other juicing techniques but none are as easy as the Mehu Liisa, especially when canning the juice. 

Five years ago, Marlene canned 15 gallons of concentrated grape juice in quart jars. And that was only part of the crop. We had friends come and pick the rest of the grapes. 

But I neglected to prune the vines for a couple of years after that. And then, in my pruning zeal (and ignorance) I pruned the vines too much. As a result, we got almost no grapes. This year, however, we're back on track. I know when I'm doing a little better with the pruning. 

Our harvest this year is not anywhere near that 15-gallon year, but there are lots of grapes and they are delicious.

###

If you would like to plant a grape trellis of your own, be sure to check out my grape trellis T-post fittings. They make the job of building a solid trellis so much easier than any other trellis idea out there. Click Here for details.

Mowing My Oats

Dateline: 16 October 2016, AD

You may recall that I planted oats as a cover crop in my garden back around the end of August, after harvesting the onions that were there (Click Here for details). The oats grew very well, as you can see in the above picture. Rather than let them be winter-killed, I decided to mow them down a couple days ago.

I have a scythe, but it isn't suited to mowing a relatively small garden bed. A sickle would have worked, but I decided to try using a small, cheap, cordless shrub trimmer. I bought it at Amazon for less than $40 (Click Here For Details). Here's a picture of the simple trimmer...

That little trimmer, with a little rechargeable battery, cut the whole 30ft long bed of oats and had power to spare. I'm impressed. But the tool doesn't slice through the stalks effortlessly if they are close together; I had to use a sawing motion in order to get them to fit into the guard notches, so they would feed into the cutting blade. Occasionally, the blade jammed, but only occasionally, and once I backed the cutter bar off it started right up again. 

In the final analysis, I think the concept of using the hedge trimmer to mow down small patches of cover crops is a good one (it's actually fun to do), but there are probably better quality trimmers—for  more money. 

Here's a picture of the mowed oats...

Those oat greens are laying thick over the bed. I'll let them stay right there until spring. So the bed will be covered for winter. It will be interesting to see what the soil looks like in the spring. It should be nice and mellow (as the old timers used to say). My plan is to plant the bed next year without digging it at all. It's a no-till gardening experiment.

Here's what the oats in that bed looked like just a couple of months ago...