Sandy Pond Memories

Falling Through The Ice

2012-01-14T00:02:00.002-05:00

I fell through the ice. Once. In front of Bob Parker's camp (somebody else owns it now). It was December, I was 11 years old. There was an inch of clear ice and I just had to try it out. I walked out North from Scotty's Boat Livery and then West. I was about 20 yards offshore and broke through. I thought I was a goner but the depth was only up to mid-thigh and was so cold I could not catch my breath for several minutes. I slopped around and climbed out of there, wobbling home with frozen pants and squooshie boots- scared that it could have been worse (over my head, I'd be dead). I don't think anyone saw it happen. I never told a soul until just now...I was so frightened I just never wanted to think about it...

Winter at Sandy Pond

2012-01-06T22:23:00.002-05:00

The nights were so cold in January. On windless starry nights, we'd walk out on the ice, the snow squeeking underfoot, looking for a comet or a satellite in the night sky and stopping to gulp as we became aware of the northern lights wavering and flourescing in the sky. It was glorious. Sometimes I thought I could hear them make a noise like little glass crystals tingling...but of course there is nothing to hear but the echo of the lake and the prattling of snowmobiles.

Any Ideas?

2010-04-08T19:44:00.002-04:00

Looking for new material...Will post soon, sorry for the delay -VERY busy with the job these past several weeks! Any requests?

Brothers Kappesser

2010-01-28T01:49:00.007-05:00

Unc George, with wife Esther- 1950s

Uncle Frances, my dad Edward, and Charles Kappesser late 50's...all Sergeants.

France, Ed, and Chuck...band of bros.

This is a copy of Dad's photo, as a 1st Sergeant, that is still displayed in the lobby at NY State Police Headquarters in Oneida, NY.

I remember many gatherings at Dad's house at Sandy Pond when I was young. Dad's brothers, George, Chuck, and Frances would often visit. They would drink beer, eat heartily, tell jokes and stories, and play cards to all hours. Besides being brothers, these men had another thing in common - - they were all police officers. No Jerry Bruckheimer series could ever top the stories these men fascinated us with, because they were all real...

Brothers Francis, Chuck, Ed, and George Kappesser appeared in many newspaper articles during the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s during their careers as police officers in Upstate NY.

The 4 brothers, 3 of them State Troopers and George a Syracuse City Police Detective, were well known among New York's law enforcement circles during their heyday.
I have heard many stories. Wonderful stories.

At one point during his career, France was Attorney General (later, Governor) Thomas Dewey's bodyguard. He eventually was promoted to 1st Sergeant of Troop K in eastern NY. During retirement he was elected Town Justice of Pawling NY.

George was one of the best homicide detectives the city of Syracuse ever had. He solved many high profile murders. George also had a reputation for being skillful at talking suicide jumpers down and negotiating with criminals during hostage situations. This before they assigned these tasks to college-boys with psychology degrees.

Ed Kappesser, my Dad, with Grandma, circa 1938, New York State Police Motorcycle Patrol, Adirondack Region.

Ed, my Dad, a motorcycling State Trooper at first, eventually was promoted to 1st Sergeant of Troop D, which serves Syracuse and surrounding counties. He was in charge of the Trooper detail at the NY State Fair for many years. Among the four brothers, Ed was the best marksman. He taught marksmanship at the State Police Academy for a while. He also taught me. During retirement he was elected Town Justice of Sandy Creek NY.

Chuck was one of the first State Troopers to be airborne - using his own small plane for many official tasks. This before the State Troopers (or any NY police force) owned or used aircraft. Charles was also the best driver – he was fearless behind the wheel and knew how to drive faster than anyone he chased. His cruiser was always "personally modified" for more horsepower. This before the police had the special "interceptor" vehicles.

All 4 brothers enlisted as active duty soldiers during WWII. My Dad, a Marine, fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa against the Japanese. I don’t know about my uncles…these men didn’t talk about it much.

Their collective time in service as police officers numbered well over 100 years, prompting Lowell Thomas (who was also a friend of France's) to have these men as guests on his show during the '70s.

If all this seems unbelievable, read the newspaper articles for yourself.

Click on http://www.fultonhistory.com/

Enter the site and search on 'Kappesser'.

It was a privilege to know these men, to call them my Dad and Uncles. Yes indeed, they were part of the "greatest generation". They are sorely missed.

New Old One-Liners...

2010-01-23T03:21:00.000-05:00

You Might Be From Upstate New York if....

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through
36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will
swim by, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights
each year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation,
you might live in Upstate New York.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you
might live in Upstate New York.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the
year, you might live in Upstate New York.

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work
there, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of
his forehead, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live
in Upstate New York.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might
live in Upstate New York.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who
dialed a wrong number, you might live in Upstate New York.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE UPSTATE NEW YORKER WHEN:

1. "Vacation" means going South past Albany for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back
again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging
blizzard, without flinching.

6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including
weddings).

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave
both unlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend / wife
knows how to use them.

9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled
with snow.

11. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and
road construction.

12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to
your blue spruce.

14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

15. Down South to you means Albany.

16. A brat is something you eat.

17. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.
18. You go out to fish fry every Friday.

19. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

21. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

22. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all
your Upstate New York friends.

The Blizzard of '66

2010-01-15T05:43:00.005-05:00

The coldest temperature on record for Syracuse, NY is -26 degrees set on the morning of January 26th, 1966. The historic Blizzard of '66 began the day after, January 27th ...

The Blizzard of '66 is to date the most famous blizzard to hit Oswego, NY and surrounding areas, and holds the record for the most snowfall in a single storm in Oswego, where very snowy winters are taken in stride.

Here is a link to a newsreel on YouTube:

Newsreel: Blizzard of '66

It began as a nor'easter which affected the New York City metro area and was followed by heavy "wraparound" lake effect snows. Winds were more than 60 mph. during the storm and at Fair Haven, New York they are believed to have exceeded 100 mph. The snow was badly drifted and roads and schools closed as long as a week. Drifts covered entire 2 story houses.
A total of 102" of snow was recorded at Oswego, 50" of this falling on the last day of the storm alone. 50" of snow were also recorded at Camden, New York on the same day. The last day of the blizzard the winds subsided and snowburst conditions prevailed, with the snow falling straight down. Fair Haven did not have official snowfall records at the time, but state troopers reported measuring 100" of snow on the level, where none had been prior to the storm. Syracuse, New York received a record snowfall of 42.3" which remained their heaviest storm on record, until the Blizzard of 1993.
The storm lasted from Jan 27 to Jan 31 1966, a total of 4 1/2 days. The daily snowfall totals for Oswego are as follows.
27th 8" 28th 12" 29th 11" 30th 21" 31st 50"
I remember the wind literally howling in off The Pond. It was eerie. It didn’t subside for 4 days. Dad said it was the worst ever and always maintained that no blizzard has topped it since. It was a true blizzard with very high velocity winds and a few feet of snowfall. And it was very cold out. With the temperature outside in the single-digits coupled to the high winds, the wind chill factor was calculated to be 20 below zero at one point. We stayed indoors for a few days, so big deal. We had TV, board games, and comic books. We had snowshoes but no snowmobile. I don’t remember losing power during this one.
At times there were white-outs and we could not see Meyer’s camp across the street just 100 ft. away. The cars in the driveway were quickly and completely buried. A big snow drift kept forming on the roof at back of the house and my Dad had to climb up there a few times during the raging blizzard to clear it off. He would also take a broom to the windows to clear off the snow that the wind had plastered there. The blowing snow got in through the north gable vent in the attic and Dad had to clear it out of the attic too.
It took a few days to dig out and wait for the snow plows and loaders to clear the roads. School was closed for a week. My parents told us to stay off the drifts and snowbanks near the utility poles because they were high enough to enable you to reach up and touch the wires. The drift down by the entrance to Scotty’s Boat Livery measured 13 feet high.

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Below is an email from Marie (Mitchell) Reiger. Her dad was Bill Mitchell, previous owner of the original Bayview Hotel.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marie (Mitchell) Reiger
To: skappesser@hotmail.com
Subject: Blizzard of 66
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:05:41 +0000

Steve, I just read your blog about the Blizzard of 66. I remember that I had spent Christmas of 65 in Florida with my folks and flew into Syracuse in January, the day before the blizzard. Don and Dell Price, friends and customers of the Bayview, picked me up at Hancock Airport and drove me up to Sandy Pond. We knew a storm was coming so they turned around and drove right back to Syracuse. I remember waking up to drift after drift of snow in the road at the pond. Customers came by foot to the hotel. Ronnie Whisnant did plow the parking lot with his jeep. He had to come for his daily coffee!!
I was to begin college at SUNY at Oswego as a transfer from Hartwick College in Oneonta. Jack and Edie Castor were running the Bayview Hotel while my folks were in Florida. I missed a week of school before Jack took me over to Oswego to begin school. The snow was up to the second floor of all the buildings at the college. We had to tunnel into buildings to go to class.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi Marie -

Wow that's quite a story!

Yes' I remember pictures in the newspapers of the the tunnels on the streets of Oswego. Ronnie Whisnant also plowed us out (eventually). He had that red and white Jeep and he knew how to use it. My Dad shot some 8mm movies after the blizzard that I haven't processed yet, but I will post them soon.

I plan to be ice fishing on The Pond the coming weekend of Feb. 20 with my brothers Kip and Pete and friends. I hope I don't have to deal with a blizzard like this!

Do you mind if I add your email to the posting?

Steve

_______________________________________________

Hi Steve, Sure you can post my email. Have fun ice fishing. Do you know Tim Pauldine? He and his wife have a cottage near us but live in Oswego. Tim drives up to Sandy Pond every weekend and checks our cottages. He was up there two weeks ago. He said there were over 100 ice fishermen and it was really snowing hard. Hope you have good luck. Marie

Springerle Christmas Cookies

2009-12-20T04:22:00.008-05:00

One fond memory of living at Sandy Pond was of my Mom, Ruthy Kappesser, making Springerles at Christmastime.
Anybody visiting our family would get Springerles, which were thought to bring luck and cheer.

They are German christmas cookies, flavored with anise seed, which is licorice-like in taste. Mom's recipe came from Dad's family - his Grandma I think. Springerles need to be dried for a couple of weeks so they are rock-hard, but us kids would sneak them out of the jar ahead of their day because we liked them soft. I still prefer them soft. (I'm eating one now!)

They are formed with a special hardwood rolling pin or press that is carved with different designs to imprint on the dough. Barb has 2 of the rolling pins and 1 press...

Springerles. Barb made these with whole wheat flour she milled herself from some wheat we bought from the Amish in Lancaster County PA.

Barbs collection of Springerle tools...

A press.

This is an old pin.

Barb's been doing that Christmas cookie thing all week. The house smells great when I get home from work. The Springerle German cookies are almost ready to eat (drying for 10 days now). We have cookie exchange at Cobham (work) tomorrow and so I have plenty to bring to the table. I might make a batch of traditional Bavarian Cookie Wreaths. (Kappessers emigrated from Bavaria in 1803). Some of my fellow coworkers have no baking resources so they bring their cookies in from fancy upscale bakeries (or BJ's Warehouse)...they aren't bad either...

Of course we use a lot of cookie canisters!

The first one on the left is a fruitcake cookie, also new this year...visitors will be forced to eat cookies.

Here are all the different kinds Barb made this year. The front row is the German Springerles - my favorite. My Mom gave her the recipe from my Dad's Grandma (as I recall), originating in the old country (Bavaria, Germany), but I think she's researched and developed a better one...

These are new. A marshmallow covered with melted caramel and rolled in rice krispies.

Barb has been baking cookies every Christmas since we were married in 1982...and I have been eating them!

SCCS Football 1970 Part II...

2009-12-18T01:14:00.010-05:00

Appearing in this video clip and part 1 in the previous post were ROXY JANACEK, JILL SOULE, JULIE SOULE, JEANETTE BLOUNT, LORI YERDON, MYSELF, KEVIN MCDOUGAL, BILL MILLER, FRANKLIN NINOR, RANDY DAY, MARK RICHTER, CHRIS OUDERKIRK, MIKE PRESLEY, DWAYNE CLEMONS, SUE BLOUNT, and STEPHEN GREENFIELD.

Once I have these digitally transferred, I'll post again - the fidelity will be better then...

SCCS Football 1970

2009-12-17T04:02:00.008-05:00

Just a short video...clips my Dad, Ed Kappesser, shot at a SCCS football game in the fall of 1970. This video has not been digitally transferred from 8mm to MPEG yet, hence the "flicker"...

SCCS Cheerleaders

2009-11-29T05:26:00.008-05:00

My Sandy Pond Memories will always include the high school culture at Sandy Creek Central school.

A big part of life at SCCS was SPORTS and CHEERLEADERS. Now, I was no athlete in those days, but I enjoyed going to the games once in a while and watching the teams play and Cheerleaders do their stuff. Now the Cheerleaders had talent that I could appreciate. They would practice for hours and choreograph clever cheers and routines. I think they worked hard at what they did and never really got the credit they deserved. In any case, as a teenage boy with raging hormones, I would rather watch the cheerleaders (in their short pleated skirts) than the guys playing their games any day.

I went steady with a cute, bright, freshman girl for a while who made it on to the cheerleading squad. She was jumpin' up and down squealing happy when she made the team - it was a big deal. After that, I even got to ride on the bus with them for a few games (boyfriends of cheerleaders were allowed).

After one particularly hard fought basketball game against Belleville for the local Championship in which SCCS lost by one point, we filed out on the bus to go home, a little subdued and sullen. A couple of psuedo-juvenile delinquents snuck over and let the air out of Belleville’s bus tires. Our bus driver pretended to be mad and yelled at all of us like we were all guilty, but I saw his face in the mirror after he sat down in the driver's seat and I swear he smirked.

Belleville's basketball team got home late that night, but I'm sure they didn't care.

High school was full of great moments like that, and I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.

Here is a short video of a football game at SCCS in the fall of ’71. I have more footage but haven't transferred it from 8mm to MPEG yet. I'll post that another time.

February Visitors

2009-11-04T05:20:00.009-05:00

Almost every year, by February, winter's accumulated snow would be piled at least 5 or 6 feet high along the roads and around driveways from the incessant plowing and snowblowing and shoveling. At Sandy Pond, sometimes it would snow every day for 4 or 5 days. Blizzards with their strong winds and horizontal snow with sporadic "whiteouts", would hit maybe 2 or 3 times a month.

And, every February, our old and dear friends from Pittsburgh would brave the elements and visit for my Dad's birthday celebration on the 15th. The party usually included Dr. Rex Newton, his wife Alice, son Bobby, and Alice's brother Bob Hopkins and wife Peggy, and Regis and Jean Cannon. Oh my gosh we had some great times - ice-fishin', playing cards, tellin' stories, Back In The Day.

Here is a video of (the late) Bobby Newton snowmobiling in the winter wonderland of Sandy Pond...Bobby sure loved to ride!

WIGWAM HOTEL

2009-10-13T03:00:00.007-04:00

Photo taken a few years ago.

OLD PHOTO
When I went off to Navy boot camp on March 11, 1980, my mind sort of “photographed” Sandy Pond the way it was that day.
I have been living far away from there since so that photograph is tainted but vivid. The Wigwam Hotel is part of that old picture.

MR. KENDRADT
Growing up at Sandy Pond we took the Wigwam for granted as a run down local business who‘s hey-dey had come and gone many years ago. Mom and Dad took us there once in a while for a Friday fish dinner and Dad would take the opportunity to chew the fat at the Bar with the former owner old Nick Kendradt. I have forgotten who owned the Wigwam before old Nick - after all, I was a small child then.
Mr. Kendradt lived on a pension and chose not to sink much money into his hotel, content to let it coast down a slope while he made a meager living off the regulars - mostly card-playin, stogie-smokin’ beer drinkin buddies and “fish-heads“.

FISH HEADS

There always seemed to be a lot more activity at the old Wigwam in the winter. Fishermen would descend on Sandy Pond every weekend to try their luck through The Ice. There were hundreds of them on the ice on the weekends, many of them relying on the Wigwam, The Comfort Hotel (burned down from “faulty wiring” in the early 70’s), Sandy Lodge (which later changed hands and became “The Lodge“), Eddie’s Cove (or, as we used to call it Eddie’s “Cave”), and the Bayview Hotel (also burned in the 70‘s, from a lit ciggy-butt in the ladies room trash).
Seems like the Wigwam got the most customers, looking for chili, burgers, and beer for lunch - then back out on The Ice. Mr. Kendradt also sold bait and a very basic assortment of tackle available in the basement.

STOCK CAR RACES…
Living in my own teen world, I never knew who arranged or sponsored them, but there used to be stock car races on the ice in front of the Wigwam. Once or twice a winter, on a typically cold winter-cloudy-gray Saturday afternoon, huge crowds of people would watch dozens of cars compete in several classes, including “powder-puff” for the ladies. A few days before, a crew would plow the snow in the ice to form a big flat oval track with snow banks for walls. Tires and hay-bales were piled around the curves for extra protection. The cars were typically back-yard budget creations, right down to the tires outfitted with spikes. The spikes helped, but ice is still ice and the lack of friction provided the crowd with plenty of crashes (more like slow-motion fender-benders). Top speed, if a driver was skillful, was probably a brief 40 MPH, and none of the cars had mufflers, so you could hear the roar no matter where you were within a 3 mile radius. Beer flowed freely among the race-fans, and there were plenty of tailgate gatherings. If it snowed it just made the races MUCH more interesting…
I also remember a demolition derby in front of the Wigwam one or two years, with similar noise and crowds.

CARS KICKED OFF THE ICE
In the late 70’s, the Sandy Creek Town Board passed and ordnance that prohibited automobiles on the ice of any body of water in Sandy Creek township, which includes Sandy Pond. My Dad was one of Sandy Creek’s Town Justices in those days (Maurice Hurd being the other). He attended the Board meetings that debated and finally voted yes to the new ordnance. Despite the loss of revenue for local businesses, the town wanted to prevent any more drownings. Over the years too many cars had broken through the ice and fisherman drowned. In those days, once in a while, springtime yielded a body or two on the shore after the ice went out. Grisly...

Some photos from the mid-1970s. The horse and dog belonged to Nancy Warner,

(Photos courtesy Charlene Cole, Sandy Creek Town Historian)

SOUTHWICK BEACH STATE PARK

2009-09-14T18:28:00.003-04:00

Growing up at Sandy Pond I never paid any attention to this park and I rergret that. It's beautiful. We have camped here several times in the past 20 years.

If I lived in the area I would take advantage of this park several times a year.

The beach is immaculate...the bottom of the water in swimming area is all soft sand, the staff doesn't harass you, and they even allow you to body surf / boogie-board when the waves are high.

These photos were taken just after sunrise.

Wish you were there...

SOUTHWICK BEACH

2009-08-21T06:49:00.002-04:00

Aug 22 - Aug 29 we are staying at Southwick Beach State Park, north of Sandy Pond. That'll be fun. Campsites 47 and 48 - stop by...say hello...
I hope to be showing the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Rat Pack Movie Uncut (Blu-ray disc) someplace during this time frame. Maybe at Brewsters, maybe at Eddie's Cove...maybe at somebody's home...not sure yet.

I don't know if I'll be updating this BLOG during that time.

Bus #54

2009-08-18T18:13:00.002-04:00

I remember waiting for the school bus during the long cold, grey, winters at Sandy Pond – how could anyone forget freezing like a popsicle? Most of the time there was at least a breeze coming in off the Pond and when it was more than a breeze the wind chill factor would plummet exponentially deep into the minus numbers of Fahrenheit. There have been many times in my life that I have experienced being “cold to the bone” so to speak – and the majority of those times were either waiting for that stupid school bus or ice-fishing with my Dad.

The bus did not pick us kids up in front of our home. We had to catch the bus down on the lower road, which meant walking down Ontario Avenue and over in front of Meyer’s camp (which used to be the “Jappyland” skating rink / dance-hall / hang-out) under a big oak tree. Fortunately that tree offered some protection during bad weather. The bus we rode was (I’ll never forget) #54, and 60 passenger ’61 GMC custom made by Superior Bus Co, driven by Mr. Fahnestock. Mr. Jim Fahnestock had more than one job at SCCS. He also taught MATH and coached basketball. He was a short, fearless man with a crew cut and a macho attitude. Everybody liked him, but you did not want him mad at you.

I remember Mr. Fahnestock using the school bus full of kids as a tow truck, yanking cars out of the snow banks and ditches when these situatiuons presented themselves. Amazing.

Every Friday Mr. Fahnestock would reverse the bus route so the kids who normally get off last got off first to start their weekend. Those kids were always elated on Fridays, and there was always an air of excitement.

Several things happened on the bus that are remarkable and worth mentioning here. In order to keep a close reign on Mike Richter, who was a mischievous boy in his mid-teens, Mr. Fahnestock appointed him to be the official door opener and Mike took it seriously - doing a good job at it. Unfortunately Mike had the worst beer farts west of Route 3. He was under-age but that did not stop him from indulging himself and from time to time he would let her rip and we would all suffer, windows flying open and sleeves over noses... Mr. Fahnestock thought it was funny…

One morning we arrived at school and before he opened the door to let everybody out Mr. F said only the girls could get off – he needed to talk to the boys. After they were all off Mr. F said that he heard a boy saying the "F word" and wanted him to ‘fess up' and we would ALL be staying on the bus until the perpetrator confessed. There was a long pause and we all looked at one another, shrugging our shoulders. Then a hand went up and Mr. F told the rest of us to leave. As I got off the bus I glanced at the bad boy and was surprised that it was my brother Kip! I not surprised he was using bad language because that was certainly nothing new…I was surprised that he confessed… that had never happened before. Mr. Fahnestock could intimidate somebody twice his size…

One time the bus accidentally ran over a dog. That was sad. We had just picked up the Mc Williams Kids and we all felt a little bump as the bus started off. Mr. F slammed on the brakes and sent Mike back to see what it was. Mike came back shaking his head and muttered something to Mr. F. He bounded out the door and knocked on the McWilliams' porch door to tell them the bad news. They wrapped the dead dog in a blanket and took it out back. The Mc Williams kids got off the bus and stayed home…

Another time while making a turn onto another road off the Ouderkirk Road, the bus slid off the road on some ice into a deep snowbank and we were stuck. Mr. F radioed for another bus to come get us. While waiting, he tried rocking it back and forth – gunning the old engine and grinding the gears…that was a ride as good as at any theme park - but he could not get it back on the road. We were all laughing and the girls screaming etc.

When I was a senior I started driving my van to school and got away from riding the bus. I missed it a little but driving to school was cooler. Once in a while I’d take the bus when I had no money for gas or the van was broke down.

Lots of good memories on that bus. Every Spring would bring squirt-gun battles and every winter the snowballs would fly (while Mr. F wasn’t looking). But if he caught you he would yell and glare at you in his giant 2 foot rear-view mirror, and deal with you harshly once we got to school. The popular punishment was to sweep and mop the bus…it was a very clean bus indeed!

I never thought I'd fondly remember the stupid bus...

SO LONG "WILD BILL" We'll Miss Ye...

2009-07-28T17:30:00.002-04:00

I first met Bill Stedman at the Redfield Hotel one thirsty night in the late ‘70s.
He was mouthing off about our President suffering from “rectal-cranial” inversion. I lost my beer out through my nose I was laughing so hard. We were shootin’ pool and he was pretty good (for an Army puke)…

We called him “Wild Bill” Stedman in those days.

He had been in a tough outfit during his service in the Army and I honor him for his service. The special training he endured in the Army is physically and mentally grueling, and any man who makes it through that deserves recognition and respect.

He was a good shot and one heckuva deer hunter and knew the Tug Hill well of course. I suppose I can say this now that he’s gone off to the great hunting ground…but Wild Bill told me he liked smoked salmon BETTER than venison sometimes. Well, I like venison a LOT more than salmon, so we agreed to swap venison for salmon pound for pound. He always gave me a tenderloin or sirloin – only the best cuts. We continued with this arrangement until I enlisted in the Navy and went away in 1980.

I haven’t seen Bill since and now I am sorry to have read his obituary. Now that he’s gone I regret I didn’t look him up when I was home on leave. He had a quick wit and a long list of jokes. He was a dependable sort and willing to help you out if you were broke. I probably still owe him like 20 bucks for beating me in 8-ball so much. Once in a while I’d beat him but I think he let me.

One time some friends and I were on the way home to Sandy Pond at zero-dark-thirty after an evening of revelry and mischief at the Redfield Hotel. Some local band had played that night and we all had a real good time. It was December and a light rain was icing up the roads so I had to drive like a Grandma. Coming around a long curve on a down slope somewhere between Redfield and Greenboro, we suddenly saw a dark figure with a flashlight in the middle of the road waving it around at an alarming rate and holding his other hand up, screaming over and over STOP! STOP! STOP! I started pumping my brakes but the tires were not experiencing any road friction on the wet ice so it took forever to get her stopped, just missing the guy with the flashlight. Then we saw the accident about a tenth of a mile down further. Looked like about 4 cars in a serious pileup in the middle of the road.

The guy with the flashlight was Wild Bill.

He was standing in the middle of the road forcing cars to stop before more cars piled up. He stood there waving that flashlight and screaming at cars until the cops and ambulances got there. Some of the cars he was stopping got a little out of control so he had to dodge them as they slid by. The man was fearless and agile. I don’t think anybody in the pile-up got hurt, but if it hadn’t been for Wild Bill stopping all those cars who knows how horrible it could have become. After he was done he just got in his vehicle and drove away.

He never mentioned it again – didn’t think anything of it I guess. The people involved in the crash don’t know it, but they owed Bill a lot after that night, maybe their very lives. Wild Bill was one of the good guys and I was fortunate to have known him only for a couple of years…we’ll miss him.

RECENT PHOTOS at The Pond

2009-07-27T02:30:00.008-04:00

SUNSET AT THE BAYVIEW

OUR ROOM AT RAINBOW SHORES HOTEL

READY TO PICK UP DAD'S BOAT

JUST GOT DAD'S BOAT OUT OF THE WATER

DAD'S BOAT ARRIVES AT IT'S NEW HOME ON THE CHESAPEAKE

FLAG AT ACUTEC LODGE

EVENING AT ACUTEC LODGE

BAYVIEW

RAINBOW OVER THE BUCK, LANCASTER COUNTY, ON THE WAY HOME

NICE SIGN ROB!

BARB AND I WITH DAD'S BOAT - - FINALLY

EVENING AT THE SMITH'S...

HOG NOSE POINT, SANDY POND

BAYVIEW DOCKS

DAD'S BOAT

Greenboro - Almost Heaven

2009-07-09T21:40:00.039-04:00

Road through Greenboro at sunrise.

Back in the day this road through Greenboro was narrow with no lines, a long quiet walk...

Littlejohn - I didn't have time to see if the old fire tower is still back there.

Nice to see a restaurant in the area these days.

This is some kind of tavern that exists near Greenboro now.

Close up of the restaurant.

The memorial near Ode's old homestead.

This old church still stands.

This is looking west, the beginning of Route 15 that goes all the way down to Sandy Pond.

I caught the sunrise here from Sandy Island Beach. Needed coffee bad when this was taken.

Sunrise is absolutely the best time to shoot photos in my book. Lately I have been catching the sunrise at Tydings Park in Havre De Grace where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay - lots of sailboats and yachts to capture there. Seems like Saturday mornings are best for this activity - few people are about before 6am. I love the solitude - helps me recharge...

During my recent visit to Sandy Pond, I awoke at zero-dark-thirty Sunday morning (June 28th) and headed to the small hamlet of Greenboro on the Tug Hill Plateau, about 40 minutes due east from Sandy Pond. If you have never visited Greenboro then perhaps you might consider it - it is a lot more "almost Heaven" than West Virginia (and everybody still has their TEETH there -just kidding!) It's much different now than it was about 40 years ago - - the trees are MUCH bigger now and I noticed there is a tavern and restaurant in the area.

I was first introduced to Greenboro by a bright young girl I used to be sweet on.

Greenboro was so different from Sandy Pond I became fascinated. The people living there seemed to be much closer and neighborly, ready to lend a hand in a heartbeat (well, many of them were related).

I was only 15 and awkward, oddly uncomfortable that there was no waterfront, no swimming, no water skiing. In those days my young psyche associated a sense of security and comfort from being able to watch the sunset over the water, not over a bunch of stupid trees. Strange how my immature mind worked at that age (Iwas pretty much a clueless pup then).

I was impressed at the amount of snowfall there during the winter months - about 3 times as much as we got at the Pond, maybe 200+ inches per season. I took that kind of snowfall for granted many years ago, but today I admit I have trouble wrapping my head around it...it is truly beautiful there after a 2 foot snowfall and the sun peeking back out, casting long shadows after supper.

Snowmobiling in this area was incredible. There was a million trails going everywhere. The snow was so deep it was like gliding on soft thick clouds. I never experienced complete silence before I had a chance to drive the old orange '69 Moto-Ski back deep into those woods and stop and turn off the engine. The deep snow would soak up all the sounds and you only heard the gentle breeze whispering in the tree-tops, with an occasional squeak or groan of branches rubbing against each other. At Sandy Pond you always heard other sleds or music or airplanes...there was only complete silence there a couple hours after the BARS closed and the revelers passed out, just before the sun popped up. (Chuckle)

A couple of friends and classmates- - Chris Ouderkirk (aka "Ode") and Greg Yerdon (aka "Bronson"), lived in Greenboro. Today Chris is the Facilities Boss at SCCS, but I have no idea what Bronson is up to.

I remember Ode's Mom Shirley was a skillful deer hunter - much different than my Mom.

I remember there was a horrible accident right in front of Bronson's house one time - a head-on collision. There was death. Sorrow permeated the neighborhood for months afterward - a very young girl had died. If my memory serves me right her name was Gay Giddings. I still get a chill thinking about that...everybody was trying whatever they could do to save them just after it happened. It is a remote area and it took forever for the ambulance to arrive. Enough about that.

I also remember Bronson's baby brother was attacked and mauled by their family dog, a St. Bernard. His face got chewed up pretty bad. Very bizarre.

I learned some important life lessons in Greenboro:

Watching the old "HEE HAW" comedy show with good country folks is better than watching American Idol, CSI, and Andy Griffith simultaneously.

If anybody EVER puts you up to shooting a skunk with a deer rifle, make absolutely sure you miss it. If you hit it with a 30 caliber bullet it will explode stinky skunk juice all over the area and gag everybody for days afterward...I still don't know why it was to be shot. I aimed low and shrugged my shoulders while it fled. After that incident I had a reputation in Greenboro of being a poor shot. So what. Not sure how I could be a good shot anyway with a strange gun I had never fired before in a strange place aiming at something I would never eat...

I never want to witness a bull becoming a steer again. I was asked to help castrate a young bull being raised for beef, but ended up only watching the grisly procedure. I never went back THERE again - THAT guy deliberately scared the Bejesus out of me for his own reasons...which was uncalled for but funny when you think about it. I was just a young impressionable kid that was probably begging to be scared anyway.

NEVER agree to sleep in an unheated room during the winter months if you staying at a friend's house in Greenboro. You WILL freeze your frigging butt off - and you BETTER not complain the following morning, or you will be labeled as a PUPPY from Sandy Pond (which actually was pretty damn accurate in those days.)

I suppose I could ramble on but it would be interesting to only a very few people. I am surprised by the vivid nature of my memories there.

The Littlejohn Wildlife Management Area is in that area too. There was (is?) a tall fire-tower at Littlejohn to use to spot forest fires. Lightning tends to spark fires in the woods once in a while. I and some of my buddies used to go there back in the day and climb that tower for fun - I have old-school 8mm movies of that.

I hunted deer in the Greenboro area a few times with my Springfield 30-06, but all I ever could get in my sights was a disappearing white tail bounding away at an alarming rate. I'll admit I was a novice in these woods and I had a great deal of respect for the guys (and gals) who were successful in their deer hunting there. I prefer hunting ducks at Sandy Pond - - I was truly in my element there. Ducks are small targets traveling 60 mph - a tad bit more plentiful and challenging (and not as gross to gut and dress).

I noticed some kind of memorial stone posted in Greenboro just up the road from the old church. Perhaps that's relatively new. Amazingly, that old church across from Ode's old homestead is still standing. I wonder who takes care of it?

Some things never change and that's a good thing.

The light of the sunrise was incredible when I took the photos. The angles of the shadows enhanced the peacefulness of this place that I'll never... forget. Wish You were there...

Alumni Banquet, Visiting Sandy Pond

2009-07-08T02:31:00.019-04:00

A good meal with old friends - brother Pete still likes to sport the long hair...

Dad's boat - now it's my turn to take care of her.

Front: John Didden, Stephen Kappesser.

Back: Carol (Hilliker) Didden, Barb Clark, Dee (Miles) Yerdon, Roxanne (Janacek) Ferguson.

We recently visited old friends and family at Sandy Pond and surrounding area. I hadn't been there since 2005, after my Dad, Ed (Kap) Kappesser passed away.

Sorry to say it's been a hard 4 years for us since - Yahweh dragged us through the Valley and now we are MUCH stronger for it:

In 2006 Barb had to defeat breast cancer. I prayed I wouldn't lose her for I then would need to crawl into a hole and die.

It was a true blessing to be a short drive from Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is the best in existance (ask any doctor).

Barb endured a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. She volunteered for a clinical trial in which they administered chemo and radiation simultaneously - a one-two punch. The doctors report that it is very successful so far - hundreds of women have benefitted from this treatment.

My Lord and our wonderful church family and friends (especially at Towne Baptist Church) pulled us through that deep, dark valley with many acts of raw unconditional love and kindness and even more prayers...Barb is still cancer-free.

At the same time Barb was sick, our young daughter Sherry got mixed up with some thugs and found herself in very serious trouble with the law, facing 10 years in prison for armed robbery. THAT was a nightmare. We prayed and asked all who we knew to pray...

The assistant States Attorney recognized the situation with Sherry so she convinced the Judge to have mercy - - so she did 30 days in the slammer and 2 years probation. Again, the prayers of many prompted our Lord to help Sherry. She's OK now - all that's in her past.

2007: I tore up my shoulder lifting a concrete slab building our raised-bed garden. I had to endure rotator-cuff repair surgery. Luckily the orthopeadic shoulder surgeon for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team (and Director of Shoulder Orthopeadics at Johns Hopkins) Dr. Steven Petersen, agreed to repair the shoulder. He's a good man...talk about answers to prayer. It's great to witness a guy who knows what he is doing. I was on disability for 12 weeks and it took 10 months for the pain to go away (Thanksgiving morning it disappeared!). I am still doing physical therapy. It's strong and getting stronger now.

This year God has blessed us with vigor, resources, time, and joy so we decided to finally visit the Pond again.

My siblings Kip and Amy are going through somewhat hard times now so I urged them to pray and their hard times will pass. I'd give them money but that would accomplish nothing. We all have our valleys.

June 26th Barb and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary at Sandy Pond. If you had told me 27 years ago that I'd be celebrating our wedding anniversary, I would have spit in your eye. Back then, anniversaries were for geezers. Not anymore.

The annual Sandy Creek Central School Alumni Banquet happened to occur on June 26th, so we hopped in the fambly truckster and whisked ourselves northward to attend.

We got to take a tour of the SCCS campus thanks to some fellow National Honor Society youngsters, and then enjoy the banquet among a few of my classmates from 1972: Dee (Miles) Yerdon, Roxy (Janacek) Ferguson, John Didden, Carol (Hilliker) Didden, Barb Clark, and my younger brother Pete.

Also chatted with Mama-Sue Bitz and said hello to Dr. Patty Ledden as they were inducted on SCCS' "Wall of Distinction". I have deep respect and love for Sue - she has a big heart and a keen mind.

They let me say the opening prayer for the banquet and to my surprise I didn't choke up.

I kept the prayer was short and solid - hitting at the heart of my Faith.

I prayed in the name of MY Saviour, Jesus Christ - an oh my gosh I said His name out loud at a sanctioned public school event. (So what are they gonna do, take away my birthday?)

Not a problem at SCCS - people there recognize and respect The Faith.

A couple of people complimented me on the prayer later - Christian brothers and sisters are everywhere -!

We stayed at the Acutec Lodge (it's a big cottage) on Sandy Pond's waterfront next to Jo Maas' home. My old friend Rob Smith's company owns this pretty place and he was drumming up business in Paris with his wife Nancy at the annual international air show so the cottage was ours for the weekend - thanks so much Rob and Nancy!

It is a beautiful place to stay...and of course we did not touch one drop of all the wine stored there (probably enough to stock a cruise ship...?)

Not that it's a bad thing to have a unique selection of the grape.

I visited with my old friends Jo, Brenda, Dan, and Pam Maas, who were throwing a graduation party for their progeny on the shore next door. I discovered that Brenda's daughter Alyssa can sing like a bird strummin' her guitar - keep rehearsing, girl. She sang many of my old favorites by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. I got to sing harmony on one tune...

Saturday morning I took a trip to the other shore and discovered my former crony and partner in mischeif Johnny McClellan drinking coffee on his patio at 6am. I hadn't seen Johnny for 27 years...we caught up for an hour and it was like no time had passed at all.

These people mean a lot to me and it was great to catch up a little.

The trailer I brought to pick up Dad's old boat was inadequate so we towed nothing home - laughing about our new "invisible" stealth boat...
I'll pick up the boat later - looking forward to making her seaworthy again.

I took photo opportunities all over: Wigwam Hotel, Sandy Island Beach, Greene Point, Seber Shores, Sandy Creek, Pulaski, Smartville, Wheat Hill at sunrise, Little John Preserve, and Greenboro. These were all my favorite places - home of many fond memories and friends ...wish you were there...

I'll post photos later...

WE'RE VISITING SANDY POND THIS WEEKEND

2009-06-23T19:25:00.003-04:00

We haven't visited Sandy Pond in 4 years. We are going to this coming weekend.

We will be attending Sandy Creek Central School's annual alumni banquet on Friday, and visiting several friends on Saturday.

I'd like to take Barb dancing somewhere Fri & Sat nights but I don't know where there is live country music or classic rock these days.

She loves to dance.
And I like dancing with her - especially the slow dances.

Also, staying at Acutec Lodge on water's edge (next the Jo Maas's home). That is a special treat. My old friend Rob Smith let me have it for the weekend. Rob's a good man - - even though he's a Steelers fan. HA!HA!

Hope there's a coffee maker there, because I don't want to waste a lot of time sleeping.

CARPE DIEM...

Pain Burns Away Fear...

2009-06-23T06:11:00.010-04:00

From: Charlene Cole

To: skappesser@hotmail.com

Subject: July 18, 1968

Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:26:15 -0400

Hi, found the clipping and will attach it. This copy will be better than getting it off a microfilm reader.

Charlene

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: skappesser@hotmail.com

To: ory67kool1@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: July 18, 1968

Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:47:22 -0400
.

Thank you so much Charlene! I did not expect this - it is a very pleasant surprise today.

The news story erred in that we finished (not started) our swim at Scotty's Boat Livery (later after Scotty Hayward passed on that livery became Kappy's Boats - there's Sandy Pond Memories BLOG posting about that).

We started the swim along the opposite shore due east, where the "Ghost Channel" appeared one year (see that Sandy Pond Memories BLOG posting too).

Let me tell you what the story doesn't say.

The news story doesn't say that I was coached intensely by my older brother Kip all the way across the Pond.

Kip was in Dad's boat as a safety observer. (We might have been kids but we weren't stupid.)

The story doesn't say that I was no athlete and skinny as a rail so after about a half an hour of swimming my arms started cramping in a big way. I wanted to stop. I had to stop... I could barely stay afloat much less propel myself towards the goal. Fear manifested itself.

The story doesn't say that Kip yelled and cajoled me from the boat, saying anything to motivate me to ignore the cramps and keep going. (Some of it was nasty and I cannot repeat it to a lady).

Of course I kept going somehow and finished the thing. I will never forget that grueling swim that day - probably one of the hardest things I had done up to that point... It took about 2 weeks for my arms to feel normal again.

The 3 boys in my company were summer friends whose families had summer cottages on the Pond.

Mickey Matvyak, Michael Savage, and Bill O'Connor were more athletic than I and recovered much quicker.

After this little trial, I consciously put on some muscle by working out during the year that followed.Funny thing is that I believe I could do it now, 41 years later, thanks to the Navy survival training, a lot of swimming experience, and better upper body strength... It was so nice of you to research this for me.

Thanks again!

Best Regards,

Steve

Stephen Kappesser

WEBLOGS:http://sandypondmemories.blogspot.com/
AND
http://grandpastephenspage.blogspot.com/

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven... Ecclesiates 3:1

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Charlene Cole

To: skappesser@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: July 18, 1968

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:34:17 -0400

You are so welcome....It was much easier to locate in the newspaper collection at the History Center than on a microfilm reader. Can I print "the" story and "your" story in my column? Did you go to school with Jack Parker? He just died. Charlene

From: skappesser@hotmail.com
To: Charlene Cole
Subject: RE: July 18, 1968
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:08:37 -0400

Hi Charlene- You are so gracious for asking my permission - - of course you include the story in your column - a "blast from the past" so to speak, but since I moved away from Sandy Pond so very long ago (1980) when I entered the Navy, and I've only visited a few dozen times since, there's a good chance that I have faded from the collective memory of Sandy Creek / Sandy Pond.
... There is a story from the 50s that was in one of the Syracuse papers. My Dad Ed Kappesser was a Trooper in those days and he investigated a freak accident. Apparently a military aircraft was engaged in live-fire target practice on the Lake and a few rounds from its weapons landed in a cottage on the shore. Thank God nobody was hurt but it was a big story there for a while. The newspaper interviewed my Dad and I remember Mom saying he was even on TV - which was a real big deal in the 50's.

Gotta go - plenty to take care of, even on Father's Day!
God Bless,
Steve

RE: July 18, 1968‏
From:
Charlene Cole
Sent:
Mon 6/22/09 12:25 PM
To:
Steve Kappesser (skappesser@hotmail.com)

The Alumni community remembers you and I am sure many others. My readers like to read about people from the area. If you find that story at the library and need a better copy let me know.

Charlene

VFW Post Lacona NY is going ONLINE

2009-06-17T05:16:00.006-04:00

I received this email recently:

From: rradford

To: skappesser@hotmail.com

Subject: VFW Post 8534 Lacona NY

Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:53:06 -0400

Hi Stephen,

I've been following your blog almost from the beginning and have enjoyed it very much. I feel as though I've known you all your life. We live at Sandy Pond year round, the snow can be a little much though, but we still enjoy it.

I belong to the Cable Trail Post 8534 VFW in Lacona and have just designed and launched our Post website and was wondering if I could put a link to your web site on ours and also if you could put a link of our Post website on your website.

Here is our Post web address: http://www.vfw8534.club.officelive.com Also, congratulations on the new addition to your family.

Thank you,

Bob

[So I hit Reply...]

From: skappesser@hotmail.com

To: rradford

Subject: RE: VFW Post 8534 Lacona NY

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:13:53 -0400

Yes, it would be an extreme honor to have a link at your Post's website. I am not a member of the VFW but I like them and the good things they do and represent. (I am a "Cold War Veteran", not a Veteran of a Foreign War, so I'm exempt from membership.)

Fair winds and following seas...

Stephen Kappesser

WEBLOGS:http://sandypondmemories.blogspot.com/
AND
http://grandpastephenspage.blogspot.com/

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven... Ecclesiates 3:1

SCCS

2009-06-13T06:04:00.030-04:00

This Web Log is dedicated to memories of Sandy Pond where I grew up (a little). I need to make sure my children and grandchildren can read about my memories.

If you were a local resident, Sandy Pond is of course intricately linked to Sandy Creek, where some folks seem to think of the Pond as a wonderful oasis to play and relax, but other folks think of it as a decadent playground for affluent summer residents and vacationers (umm, not that there's anything WRONG with that!)

If you are not familiar with SCCS, here's an info-mercial:

Number in my graduating class (1972): 63

[I and brother Kip appear in the photo at the top of this yearbook page (second row left-most)...in an abnormal display of recognition, Kip "tapped" me during my induction ceremony into the National Honor Society.]

You had the same classmates from Kindergarten through your Senior year. By the time you all graduated you knew everybody, in detail.

School started after labor day and ended mid-June with no penalties for snow days.

Children from Osceola, Redfield, Greenboro, Orwell, Smartville, Lacona, Sandy Creek, and Sandy Pond attended SCCS. Some kids used to ride 30 miles on the bus one way.

Sandy Creek was famous for it's Wrestling program, and some of the boys took State more than once.

My theory is that because the boys shoveled so much snow during our lake effect winters that they all had abnormally enhanced upper body strength.

The top right photo shows Bill Miller at his best - not a guy to be reckoned with. A few years later one day after several adult beverages at The Lodge Bill mischievously keyed my '64 Falcon in the parking lot one while I watched.

I said "thanks, Bill" and walked away...

I'm not stupid.

It's an honor to note that the forensic psychologist who helped identify the psycho-killer "The Unabomber" was one of our classmates: John Sperbeck. I understand that nationwide he is one of the best at what he does.

John was honored at the alumni banquet last year, inducted onto the "Wall of Distinction" along with biochemical research scientist Randy Yerden, decorated combat-wounded Marine Corps veteran Joshua Pitcher (who was the subject of many prayers by yours truly and many others during his horrific battle to stay alive afterwards) and James Allen, who I understand is a good man that's deeply involved in government and community service organizations in this area.

I'm on the back row in the middle. Brother Pete is on the front row second from left. We all really loved the girls' mini-skirts and shorts - they would probably be banned today. Sue Blount and Jill Soule are in fine form in this shot. (I mean that in a good way!)

We had EASTER Vacation, not "Spring Break", and many of us saw each other in church on Sundays.

Jack Miller, top row on the far right, was one of my favorite teachers. He knew his stuff and didn't take any crap from anybody.

They did not summarily execute you for flushing a live pyrotechnic device down the commode and blowing a 4 inch hole in the cast-iron soil pipe (I shall not name the perpetrator and it wasn't me...)

Once I parked my car in the school parking lot with my shotgun still in the trunk from duck hunting that morning. No big deal at SCCS in those days - - some guys had them displayed in their gun racks in their pick-up trucks...

My entry on this page of the yearbook is typical of my brand of humor...

Redfield and Orwell used to have their own small elementary schools.

(If the mid-right photo was in color, you would see that Debbie Steven's legs were pretty blue during this romp.)

School would typically close for snow only if it was an active blizzard and the plows could not keep up with it.

And...In Osceola and Redfield was not unheard of to ride your snowmobile to meet the bus in the morning. Carney Hall told me had to do it once.

(

It was OK to pray in school. Or it was OK to look like you were praying in school.

I really should bring my yearbook to the alumni banquet this year and get a few more people to sign it...

According to last week's Salmon River News, Roxy (Janacek) Ferguson (middle) is still singin' her heart out. Good for you, girl! The girls were probably doing a folk song here, most likely something from Peter Paul and Mary or Bobby Dylan.

The Floating Dock at the Bayview

2009-06-11T04:12:00.008-04:00

(Photo courtesy of Charlene Cole, Sandy Creek Historian - thanks Charlene!)

Bill Mitchell employed a unique design to his dock at the Bayview back in the 60's. It was a huge wooden platform with dozens of WWII surplus 55 gallon drums affixed to the underside, anchored to the bottom on huge concrete slabs. I loved that dock. As a ten-year-old it was a fascinating thing to walk on because it sank and bobbed and bounced as you walked on it - dipping up and down in the water. When we thought nobody was looking several of us kids would spread out and get her rockin'. Mr. Mitchell caught us doing that one time and gave us hell. He said next time he'd tell my Dad (they were good friends) - then there would be hell-to-pay.

We fished off that dock almost every day during the summer, catching mostly sunfish, yellow perch, and little smallmouth bass. Once in a while you would land a "mud puppy", which is a strange looking dark brown slimy salamander-looking creature that is not common knowledge until you catch one.

I loved the days that were calm and warm, with the sun glinting back low in the sky at you after supper. Between supper and sunset was the best time to fish off that dock. I can close my eyes now and remember the glorious smell of the exhaust of 2-cycle outboard engines, see the rainbow colors of gasoline decorating the water's surface, and listen to the multiple drones of power boats everywhere. At twilight we would walk towards shore, the distinct fragrance of rotting mooneyes and damp seaweed along the water's edge engulfing us, quickening our pace.

This typical calm scene was always accompanied by the infamous Bayview jukebox streaming audio out of the open screened windows on the saloon-side. That old jukebox contained a remarkable assortment of music that appealed almost anybody. Country, Rock-a-Billy, Folk, Pop, Rock, Love Ballads, Big-Band... it was all there - 3 songs for a dime. My favorite was Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" because Mr. Mitchell would always crank that one up loud...the older folks usually got up and did a little jitterbugging to Glenn Miller...

Once I invited my school-buddies Dan McGraw and Mike Presley to go fishin' with me off the Bayview dock. Being only 12 years old or so, I don't believe they had never been to Sandy Pond before and it seemed to be a real treat for them. Later in life Dan served honorably in the US Air Force (manning Cold War ICBM silos) and Mike became one of the areas BEST stone masons...Gosh, I wish we were there drowning worms again...just for a day would be almost Heaven.

Sunrise

2009-06-10T05:33:00.005-04:00

I sat shivering in a duck blind on the tip of Hog Nose Point on North Pond. The morning was lightening up in the east sky - quiet and still - enough to hear the trucks on Route 3 two miles away. 41 degrees out. I had no decoys but I knew I'd see a few ducks because the day before was a blustery one and they would be tired, sleeping on the south side of the Point at the base off shore from the Milner camp. Maybe the number 4 shot out of my full choke 12 gauge 1893 Winchester pump could carry out enough to pick one as it flew by. This weapon was Dad's and had changed hands in the family for many years.

The morning evolved before me in a myriad of color and shadows as the sun approached the rise. The song "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens came to mind as I kept my eyes peeled for "quackers". Finally the sun broke above the east ridge and hit my eyes. Glad for the warmth I reached for my coffee. Suddenly I heard flaps and quacks to my right. DANG! I dropped the cup and rose to shoot but it was already too late. 2 Mallards flew past about 30 yards out right in front of that sun! I watched them get smaller and smaller as they flew towards Blind Creek Cove at 60 mph...

I laughed. It was a glorious show. Sorry you missed it...

Lookit Dem BEANS!

2009-06-08T05:48:00.002-04:00

Thanks to brother Pete, I now have a supply of Grandma Brown's for the summer. I will gladly give a can to any displaced Central New Yorker who shows up at my doorstep. Maryland beans taste like ketchup mostly - I'm tired of them...

Mr. and Mrs. Bond

2009-06-01T22:04:00.006-04:00

[Photos shown are pages from the 1968 and 1969 SCCS Yearbooks.]

From: Nancy Bond

To: skappesser@hotmail.com

Subject: SANDY POND MEMORIES

Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 16:36:34 -0400

Steve:

I graduated from SCCS in 1955 and both of my parents taught there - Richard and Muriel Bond. I have very fond memories of our vacation times at Greene Point.

During the summers of the late 40s and 50s 8 of us ( my family of 4 and my mother's sister's family of 4 the Craines ) would rent one of the Greene Point cottages for a week, sometimes two. All of us, I remember stayed in one of the original large cottages and we also stayed in two of the smaller cottages. There were bunk beds on the screened porch and there we learned to play the card game "Authors" - sometimes singing our question to the other players of what we needed to complete our meld. It was a great way to pass a rainy day . My father Dick Bond loved to fish and took many a pike out of the pond -- and always said if we wanted to fish with him "we had to put the worm on the hook ourselves.".
One of our favorite pastimes was walking to the Greene Point headquarters ( the old original cottage where the Greene - Sawyer family lived in the summer ) and purchasing some ice cream or candy in their family store.
I am not good with changes, so was disappointed to see that mobile homes have now replaced the wonderful old buildings at the Point. Our memories will never change and be forever treasured.

Nancy K. Bond (daughter of Richard and Muriel ).

RE: SANDY POND MEMORIES‏
From: Stephen Kappesser (skappesser@hotmail.com)
Sent: Mon 6/01/09 2:47 PM
To: Nancy Bond

Hi Nancy - I was in 2 or 3 of your Mom's art classes and 1 of your Dad's study halls - I remember them well. Your Mom was especially good at what she did - I learned a lot from her. Thanks for your memories - I will post them on the BLOG now.

Steve

Stephen Kappesser

WEBLOGS:http://sandypondmemories.blogspot.com/

AND http://grandpastephenspage.blogspot.com/

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven... Ecclesiates 3:1

Grandma Brown's Home Baked Beans

2009-05-20T15:09:00.004-04:00

If you live more than say 100 miles from Sandy Pond then you really miss this food or you are oblivious of its existance.

Grandma Brown's Home Baked Beans.
I miss them.

The little company that produces these gems is located several miles south of Sandy Pond on Route 3 just as you are entering the village of Mexico.

No company that I'm aware of makes beans like these. They are truly unique. Growing up at Sandy Pond I took advantage of their existance and could takem or leavem. But now I missem.

I stumbled upon several dented cans of Grandma Brown's Home Baked Beans at an Amish food outlet near Quarryville, PA a few weeks ago.
I got so excited I bought every can they had. They were 35 cents each.
I have enough to carry me through the Summer of 2009.
I plan to buy a few cases when when I visit Sandy Pond this summer too.

We have an annual Spring BBQ planned at my workplace tomorrow and I volunteered to bring in the beans. They are in for a surprise, during and after...ahem.

For those of you who are unaware of this food - I will encourage you to try it next time you visit Sandy Pond. They are sold in all the stores in the area. I like to add maple syrup, brown sugar, and sweet onions to mine, and simmer them on super-low over a smokey charcoal fire for a little while.

OR, these days you can buy them on Amazon.com if you don't feel like waiting...
Click http://www.amazon.com/Grandma-Brown-Baked-Beans-12ct/dp/B001684OPM

WARNING

DO NOT drink a lot of BEER when eating Grandma Brown's Home Baked Beans.

The next 24 hours will be much more bearable for you if you drank wine or some other NON-CARBONATED beverage.

Otherwise, you will find yourself leaving a HUGE carbon footprint.

Brief Respite

2009-05-12T11:26:00.002-04:00

Currently I am working 20 hour days. When my workload lightens I will post another random Sandy Pond Memory.

If you would like your Sandy Pond memory posted on the "Sandy Pond Memories weblog", please send it to me. Photos too.
skappesser@hotmail.com.

Mark the email "SANDY POND MEMORY" in captial letters to get my attention, thanks.

I would especially like any memory from Sandy Creek Central School Alumni. Our Alumni Banquet is June 26th. Any former students who enjoyed Sandy Pond are welcome to send me their memories of their good times at the Pond to post here.

Thanks.

MAIL

2009-04-30T03:28:00.008-04:00

Dick‏
From:
(Jo Maas)
Sent:
Sun 4/26/09 9:59 PM
To: skappesser@hotmail.com

Thank you for remembering our family at this sad time. We didn't know how much we all loved Dick or how much he did for all of us until he was gone. I know he is in a better place but that doesn't help the void in my heart. We are a close knit family and able to work together so I know we will make it through this hard time.

Hope to see you in July. Jo Maas

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RE: Dick‏
From: Stephen Kappesser (skappesser@hotmail.com)
Sent: Wed 4/29/09 3:20 PM
To: sandypond107@aol.com
Hi Mrs. Maas -

You are welcome, Jo.

I hope and pray your children are OK. You will see Barb and I in late June too - we will be attending the SCCS Alumni Banquet. We have not been to the Pond since the summer after may Dad passed away. Barb beat cancer in 2006, recuperated in 2007, and I had a wicked corrective surgery last year. Now we are OK and looking forward to visiting this year. We might stay at the Wigwam, not sure yet - do they have decent rooms there?

I'm glad you like the Sandy Pond Memories site. I have only "scratched the surface" there...I needed to create something for my children and my grandchildren (#4 grandchild is due to be born any day now).

Please remember our thoughts and prayers are with you and yours!

Steve and Barb

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sandy Pond - The Maas Family‏
From: bernard carr
Sent: Mon 4/27/09 5:08 PM
To: skappesser@hotmail.com
2 attachments

Good Morning Steve,

Today I have been visiting your "Sandy Pond Memories".

As much as I have surfed the net, querried "Sandy Pond", walked Lakeshore Rd, and visited the beach; it is a wonder I do not know your name. Then maybe I did, and with aging memory it is just somewhere locked in that area between my hair and neck that no longer functions as it once did.

You and I definately have some in common. Sandy Pond of course. Sailors for sure, although I am sometimes referred to as the "shallow water" version. (In reality that was not so true, as 1/2 of my service was literally in the mid-Atlantic) Definately 50's R & R. I was also at Bob's Birthday party as I live about 5 cottages West of his. I too have corresponded with Jack Majors. (you may have read my stories on his site.)

I recently became friends with the Maas family. Although we first met last year, the connection was immediate. One of the things I looked most forward to this year, was to visit with them when I returned from Florida. When I saw Jo last week she told me the bad news. On the following visit she told me about your site. She emailed me this AM and here I am.

First, I would like to have your permission to place a link to your "Sandy Pond Memories" on my website.

Next I have attached a picture I took of Richard and Jo last Fall. I will resize for sending as it is very high resolution.

Finally, I have also attached a scan of a letter from the Navy I received last year. I was surprised how highly they must value us "Coasties" to make such an offer to someone my age. (After I checked out the latest recruiting poster on your site I just had to send it.)

Bernie Carr

Dick and Jo Maas

Letter sent to Bernie by the US Naval Reserve to ask him to re-enlist for big money ($20k) "do it for your country, your family, your career, for yourself."

(I used to think that NAVY is an acronym for Never Again Volunteer Yourself...)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RE: Sandy Pond - The Maas Family‏
From: Stephen Kappesser (skappesser@hotmail.com)
Sent: Wed 4/29/09 3:02 PM
To: Bernie Carr

.logs and Websites are in the public domain so legally no permission is necessary to post a link to it and I am guilty of doing just that out of expedience, but thanks for asking - that is polite of you.

Of course, you can post a link even if I said NO. HA HA!

Yes I will be there the latter part of June for the Sandy Creek Central School Alumni Banquet weekend and we plan to visit Mrs. Maas. I enjoy your site too. Yours and Jack's helped inspire me to do mine! Take care and I hope to meet you maybe someday.

Steve

The Annual Break-Up

2009-04-26T03:08:00.016-04:00

Come think of it, the spring ushered in a most spectacular transition every year, and I now regret taking it for granted: the disappearance of The Ice on Sandy Pond. God could really put on a show with this.

I understand that The Ice on the pond was unusually clear prior to it's break-up this year, and there were some fools out fishin' on it up to just a week before it slid under the whitecaps on a blustery day.

It always takes a blustery day to usher The Ice out. There were often some "icebergs" remaining after the blow that gave me an opportunity for play many years ago...

This was emailed to me by Denise Yerdon (Miles). Apparently these fools were fishin on this ice-raft on Oneida Lake...

Women can be foolish too, believe it or not! (I mean this in a GOOD way...)

When I was about 12 or 13 yr. old and ignorant and I'm sure my Dad would have tanned my hide if he ever knew that I did this:

I would motor out to the ice floe and push the the huge slabs around for no good reason. I'd motor the boat up onto them part-ways and climb out on to the rafts. Some people fished from them. I would even try to break up the thin ones, imagining I was piloting an ice-breaker through an Alaskan seascape. It was glorious!

All this activity was accomplished with me piloting my intrepid Lonestar 14' aluminum boat that weighed maybe 150 lb. The Lonestar was equipped with a massive 4 1/2 horsepower Johnson 2-stroke outboard motor and a 6 gallon fuel tank that enabled me to run for DAYS without re-fueling. I still have that motor and a slightly larger Starcraft aluminum boat in which to play here on the Chesapeake. Trouble is I haven't ran it in over 30 years. Boating is recreation, you see, and I have not devoted much time to frivolities. Maybe when I get old, I might get-r-goin' one of those days.

[Invariably a foolish pilgrim "from the big city" (which I used to think Syracuse was) would venture out on the thinning mass in his vehicle...]

The ice was much different on The Lake. The ice hills along the shore that were formed by the incessant wave action became caves to explore. We would motor out onto the lake and cruise down to Sandy Island Beach. There we had an audience in case something went wrong maybe somebody could save us from our own doom.

We would bring the boats in and around the ice hills, which were hollow. Some were open like caves and we could go in and marvel at the structures. Only God could fashion these. Some were very low and and could barely fit under them while others were like huge domes.

That was fun but looking back at it now I realize it was dangerously foolish. We had no Cabela's safety equipment, radios, helmets, life-jackets etc. and our parents did not know exactly where we were or what we were up to. No cell phones back then, scooter - we were on your own relying on our own grit. My only regret is that I wasn't into snapping photos yet so I have nothing to show for it.

Then came the grisly part part of Spring: those poor fisherman who broke through the ice, drowned, and got listed as 'missing not recovered' during the winter season would make their appearance after the ice disappeared...

As a kid I remember a puffy-looking corpse of a man being discovered on shore near the location of the Comfort establishment. The Sandy Creek Fire Dept. (or as we affectionately called them - "The Sandy Creek Cellar-Savers") Fire Chief and a State Trooper car came screaming down to the Pond with sirens wailing as word spread quickly. Whole families gathered around the surreal scene as officers covered the corpse with blankets and wrote things down on clipboards. Nobody said much until an old woman said a prayer for the poor man's soul...

Spectacular Sunsets at Sandy Pond

2009-04-21T09:54:00.012-04:00

Looking from where the "Comfort" nightclub used to be...

Looks like a view from Seber shore.

View of the Lake from in front of where the old Sandy Island Beach concession stand used to be.

this photo by Jack McCain, 2005

Sandy Pond has spectacular sunsets. Situated on the eastern shore of the Lake, the vibrant sunsets are attributed to the low average humidity of the climate, which enhances the clarity of the air. I think...

Every time I visit I am taken aback by the vivid blueness of the sky. It's rarely that blue here on the Chesapeake Bay, where the humidity usually very high and unbearable. When it is blue we call it a "Sandy Pond Day", especially if there are cumulus clouds and cloud-shadows...

Also, I like watching Northern Lights and the Milky Way at Sandy Pond. Best viewing is mid-February when it is zero degrees and zero humidity out in the middle of the Pond laying on the ice. We had a 250x Stellar telescope for those nights. Spectacular show courtesy the Almighty Himself...

Photos From Jack McCain

2009-04-18T05:12:00.032-04:00

Thanks for these precious photos, Jack.

Rob Smith tries to get Bobby Newton, um, wet.
Summer 2000

Pete Kappesser reads a space-navy adventure book. "Space-navy" - sounds so cool. I never read this one but I understand it was a good book...(2000)

Kip reads. Notice the book title. He's still challenged by his spinal injury...(2001)

Bobby Newton and Ross McCain try to get each other wet...(2000)

Ruth and Ed Kappesser enjoy another sunset at Sandy Pond. They enjoyed over 18,000 sunsets together...(1990)

Ross McCain, George R., Bobby Newton, & Rachel Newton scream across the Pond in the over-powered boat...Bobby loved SPEED and POWER...(2000)

Caption by Jack McCain...(2000)

OK what is going on here? XTREME driftwood collecting?

"The Mighty Castle". The next day the Nature Conservancy arrested everybody who built this hideous structure and put them in eco-jail...(2000)

Kip arrives in his duck-boat...(1989)

Jean and Rege Cannon enjoy the water's edge...(1989)

Patty Newton enjoys an adult beverage while working on another vicious sunburn...(1989)

Rex climbs aboard the dreadnought "Mother Goose"...

All full ahead, matey, on the Multi-Use Aquatic Party Platform Vehicle...(2000)

Beachin' it...(2000)

Kip Kappesser, Bob (Hoppy) Hopkins, and Rex Newton enjoy some time together...(1989)

Elizabeth Smith, her friend Sully, and Ross McCain at the beach...(2001)

Ready to go home...(2000)

More Sandy Pond Stuff

2009-04-17T08:52:00.004-04:00

email from Jack Majors - -

Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 11:38 AM
To: stephen.kappesser
Subject: More Sandy Pond stuff

Steve,
I just read your Sandy Pond blog and got a kick out of the Bartlett stuff. I remember the bait shop. Anyway, one of the new stories on my website concerns an uncle, Tony Kane, who indeed was a rum-runner who drowned after his boat was hit by gale-force wins in January 1931 near Main Ducks Island (which was new to me, despite all my years of going to the lake). I finally found some stories about Kane's "accident." Though the Coast Guard wasn't chasing him at the time – only an idiot would be out in the weather that came through that day – they did list his death among rum-runners they had successfully pursued. What I I got a big kick out of was the way he was listed in some stories as Capt. Tony Kane, just because he had a boat. However, he was only a crewmember on his fatal voyage.
Jack

From: Kappesser Stephen
To: Jack Major
Sent: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 7:53 am
Subject: RE: More Sandy Pond stuff

Hi Jack- Great story!May I have permission to add this story to the Sandy Pond Memories site?Thanks.
Steve

From: Jack Major
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 12:12 AM
To: Kappesser Stephen
Subject: Re: More Sandy Pond stuff

Steve,
Check out the full story. Just go to www.major-smolinski.com, you can't miss the Tony Kane tale. Do with it what you will, but I wouldn't have found it if it weren't for the website I credited.... I think it's www.fultonhistory.com. If you haven't found it before, try it. The guy who does it must work with libraries. On this site you can access an incredible number of old newspaper pages from small publications in New York, including a paper in Mexico.
Jack

Hello From Marie Mitchell Rieger‏

2009-04-16T12:58:00.003-04:00

Today's correspondence:

Hello From Marie Mitchell Rieger‏

Sent:Thu 4/16/09 10:21 AM
To: Steve Kappesser (skappesser@hotmail.com)

Hi, Sure you can post my email. Molly (Milner's) mom was killed in a car accident quite awhile ago. The father also passed away. Molly is married to Dick Wilson ( His parents had a cottage on the sandbar up from Milners. He had 2 sisters, Janie and Joni. Their cottage was the last one before all the new building took place and they play together in the band Ontario. On Saturdays they were at the Wigwam and Friday at Rainbow Shores. If you and your wife get up north be sure and look them up. I'll check for pictures when I'm up north.
Marie

From: skappesser@hotmail.com
To: Marie Mitchell Reiger
Subject: RE: Hello from Marie Mitchell Rieger
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:46:56 -0400

Hi Marie -
I always wondered what happened to Molly Milner and her Mom. Her Mom was such a pleasant soul. As a youth I did a lot of odd jobs for the Barrett Family, whose camp is located on the base of Hog Nose Point (now the Murphy camp, Mr. Barrett's daughter). Molly's Mom would visit often and she was so nice always with a smile and something funny to talk about. Nice to hear from you. Nice to hear your Dad made it that night. My Dad never mentioned yanking him out of the water. Yes, the current was a challenge sometimes and I should have mentioned that in the posting. May I have permission to post your email on the BLOG? I am looking for photos of the old Bayview Hotel, The Comfort (remember Joe Ferrara?), and Sandy Lodge before it became The Lodge. Do you have any and can you send them? I will scan them for the BLOG and send them back immediately.

My address:
Stephen Kappesser
312 Philadelphia Road
Joppa, Md 21085
Thanks.

Steve

From: Marie Mitchell Reiger
To: skappesser@hotmail.com
Subject: Hello from Marie Mitchell Rieger
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:15:51 +0000

Hi Steve, I just finished reading your blog about smelt and it brought a story to mind. My dad, Bill Mitchell, was quite a story teller and one important story that he loved to tell was about "going smelting with Ed at Port Ontario." My dad and your dad would make plans at the Bayview and then late at night after closing the two friends would drive to Port Ontario. I don't know if you went with them or not. On this particular night the creek was swollen from melting snow and the water was moving rapidly. They began walking the bank and netting the smelt. All of a sudden my dad lost his footing and fell in the creek. Dad was not a good swimmer and also the water was moving at a fast clip. Dad thought this might be it. All of a sudden Dad felt a hand on his shoulder and he was quickly thrown up on the bank. Ed said, "Where do you think you're going?" After the near miss the two friends called it a night as both were cold and wet but planned to go again in a couple days. I'm really enjoying your blog. I spend summers up at Sandy Pond so will look for pictures for you. Last summer we spent many a Saturday at the Wigwam listening to the band, Ontario. Molly Milner sings and plays a guitar with her husband. I also ran in to John and Jim Beach. That's how I got in contact with Mariann Beach after many years. So glad to read your memories.

Marie

Heartfelt Condolences to the Maas Family

2009-04-15T09:54:00.004-04:00

My heart was suddenly saddened this morning to hear that Mr. Maas had passed away. Dick Maas was one of the best friends and neighbors anyone could ever ask for. He taught me how to paint a vehicle the "old-school" way when I was an ignorant youth and even let me paint our '55 Volkswagen microbus in his heated garage one spring. He was always there to help if you were in a bind. I will miss him.

Jo, Brenda, Jerry, Pam and Dan - my prayers are with you this week. I hope to visit this July. Take care and may God hold you in His hands and comfort you...

Here is a piece that I have pinned next to my parent's photos in my office:

"Do not stand on my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the countless glints in the snow.

I am the sunlight on the ripened grain, I am a gentle Autumn rain.

When you awake in the morning hush, I am the swift uplifting rush.

I am the birds in circled flight, I am the bright stars shining at night.

So do not stand on my grave and cry,

I am with God... I did not die."

(Mary Frye 1932)

"Shmelts"

2009-04-13T03:58:00.022-04:00

Every Spring after the ice disppeared Dad would get out the Coleman gas lantern and clean it up and burn in a new mantle on it. His Coleman lantern burn unleaded gasoline. In those days unleaded gasoline was not sold at any gas station - you had to buy it at the store in 1 gallon containers much like Coleman fuel comes in today. Unleaded gasoline was also called "white gas".

Thus when he burned in a new mantle I knew it was time for smelting. Dad jokingly called them "SHMELTS" with a thick Sargeant Schultz German accent. The Kappesser ancestry is German-American and we in that we consider ourselves fortunate...

Some readers may need to become familiar with smelts. They are little salt-water fish that look and behave like Atlantic Salmon. And they are tasty. Every Spring they used to come in from the North Atlantic Continental Shelf, all the way up the St. Lawrence River through specially constructed fish-ladders around the Seaway locks, and into the Great Lakes. Then they would swim up all tributaries: stream, creeks, & rivers to spawn and die.

Fish-ladder.

From Wikipedia"..."smelt dipping" is a common group sport in the early spring months (generally late April, when the stream water reaches approximately 4°C, 40-42f). Fish are spotted using a flashlight / headlamp (the best smelt dipping is in the middle of the night from 10:00pm – 2:00am) and scooped out of the water using a dip net made of nylon or metal mesh. The smelt are cleaned by removing the head and the entrails. Fins, scales, and bones of all but the largest of smelts are cooked without removal.

Many of these streams were narrow enough for a person to straddle and get a good catch of smelt by dipping a bucket. Smelters with their bright Coleman lanterns would line both shores some nights, almost elbow to elbow. Nobody complained about "personal space", we all just wanted to fish and enjoy it.

Elbow to elbow along both banks we fished...

One year circa 1970, Dad went up to the the Lacona Supply and asked Mister Tanner to special order a 20 foot fur pole for him. He affixed the biggest smelt net he could find the end of that pole. I could barely lift it but it was no problem for Dad. He used his mega-net to gain another 8 foot advantage on reach over any store-bought net.

Typically we would smelt along the mouth of the Salmon River near the old Selkirk Lighthouse or the inlet at Selkirk Shores State Park. There would be dozens of other people there with their families dipping away with an occasional shout, the smell of Coleman lantern fumes everywhere. I love that smell.

Selkirk Lighthouse, also called Port Ontario Lighthouse.

This is the inlet at Selkirk Shores State Park where we used to go smelting. This photo was taken July, 2005 while we rented a cabin there.

Dad trained me to be his bucket-man. He would dip the mega-net in a long fell swoop against the current and bring up the floppy little fish sparkling in the moonlight. I would be positioned nearer shore within his reach to empty the net into a big 5 gallon bucket. I had to seperate the moon-eyes from the smelt. He always say "hurry-up, hurry-up". Then he would dip the giant net again. This went on for an hour or two. It was glorious.

On a good night we would bring home 4 or 5 buckets of fish. He wouldn't catch more than he could clean. Mom and Dad would clean the smelt for hours into daylight, sometimes having them for breakfast.

Later, typically on a Friday or to treat some friends or family, Mom cooked 'em up in a deep fryer with her secret breading. We would dip 'em in Tartar Sauce. They were eaten bones-in matter-of-factly. You could not find fish better than that in any restaurant, anywhere, I don't care who you are.

More Fun With "The Pittsburghers"

2009-04-08T21:01:00.030-04:00

Bobby, Regis, and Doc. This boat was Doc's joy. I remember when Alice handed Rex the checkbook and strongly suggested that he buy a new motor for it. Alice believed he was spending too much time fixin' the old motor...but I suspect that was fun to Rex. (1984)

The "Kappesser Kids" 1984

Kap and what's-his-name, Clambake, 1984.

Under the Bigtop at the Clambake. Barb and I were on 30 days leave from US Naval Facility Argentia, Newfoundland.

Waterfront shot - August 1994.

Mom wore a Statue of Liberty costume to the clambake one year. This is the sign she carried. Mom was one-of-a-kind.

The big Whiffle-Ball game at the boat beach.

Midgets Sherry and Bob frolic with Rob.

Egg-Toss, summer '83.

Dangle-Ball competition, Summer 1983. Think this would get a few hits on YouTube? NOT!!

Amy and Me in my crackerjacks. Summer leave, 1984.

Not sure what Kip is doing in this snapshot. I'll leave that to your imagination. Summer '84.

Patty freshens her beverage-of-choice. Unc. Geo worked beer-keg security that day.

Summer 1984.

Egg-toss. Kap's wearing size 13 vintage NIKES, when the swoosh was BIG.

Amy enjoys the Clambake, Summer '83.

By the water, summer '84.

A couple of birthdays celebrated, Summer '84.

Lake Ontario yields another beautiful sunset. Summer '84.

Kappy's Boats

2009-04-04T03:15:00.022-04:00

I have this sign in my workshop today.

My Dad inherited the "caretaker of the right-of-way" role for the Franklin Tract at Sandy Pond. Roughly, it included all the properties from the Bayview to Tott's Pavilion (also known as the Poor Girl and later The Beacon) to County Route 15 to water's edge. The right of way was established to let all property owners gain access to the Pond at the end of Ontario Avenue.

Dad inherited this role from Scotty Hayward in the mid 60's. It used to be Scotty's Boats. Scotty was a great guy. He always had a stinky cigar in his mouth. I bought nightcrawlers from him for my boyhood fishing excursions. His wife May was a saint and baked some dynamite cookies.

Dad inherited 6 Starcraft and 1 Lonestar aluminum rental boats and from Scotty. I think he paid May for them anyway. I still have one of the Starcrafts now. He also got a dock and a boat lift. Dad expanded the facility with another very long dock built by Mr. Bardechewski the welder (Bardy) over on South Pond. I worked for Bardy one summer as a youth, welding ski lift assemblies for the Greek Peak ski facility. Dad rented dock space to summer residents. He also bought another used boat lift for our family boat, a 16 ft. MFG runabout with a 40hp Evinrude outboard.

I spent a lot of time pumping gas and maintaining /renting out the boats at the livery. We got $3 a day for a row boat and $10 a day if you wanted the motor on it with a half-tank of gas free. My folks gave me the Lonestar boat and a Johnson 4 1/2 hp outboard when I graduated from 8th grade. I rented that out a lot. $10 was a lot of money for a teen in 1968. I still have the Johnson motor too.

Kappy's Boats, August 1984. This a view from the end of the Long Dock...

One time as a teen I was mowing the lawn on the waterfront on a beautiful sunny summer morning. The docks were full of boats and many neighbors were on the docks and in the boats. I ran over a yellow-jacket (bees) nest in the ground and they swarmed out after me. I left the mower running and ran as fast as I could towards the water. I ran down the boat ramp and lunged out in a running dive, taking in a huge breath of air. I dove down and held my breath for just as long as I could, praying that the yellow-jackets would fly away.

Then I started to the muffled sounds of people screaming above water.

Oops. Sorry!

The angry yellow-jackets lost me so they started attacking everybody there. I came up fast, took another huge breath and dove down again. As I was up there I glimpsed people flaying their arms and swatting and screaming. I kept coming up for air and going back down several times until the attack was over. Several other people jumped in and did what I was doing. I don't know how many stings everybody else got but God shone on me that morning - none at all.

I don't think anybody knew they had been chasing me...

On calm days when the surface of the Pond was like a mirror, we used to have a BB-gun contest on the end of the Long Dock. The boy who could shoot straight up and have his BB come straight down closest to where we were standing was the winner. Bloop! That was fun.

I came in from duck hunting just after sunset on Halloween in 1979, and there was Dad, feverishly trying to finish off the freshly-poured reinforced concrete boat ramp all by himself. The water was abnormally low that fall, and Dad took the opportunity to construct the ramp. He needed help so I dropped my duck gear and grabbed a float and we floated that thing by the headlights of our cars until it was too set up to work and our arms were about to drop off.

It is a huge boat ramp.

While we worked we had a real good talk. Dad was concerned about my future. I hadn't done any thing of value since college. He didn't know that I had enlisted in the Navy the day before. I told him so and he stopped his work, choked a little, and cleared his throat. "I met a lot of good men who were Navy... OK let's finish this thing and have a beer". I think that was his way of telling me that he acknowledged me as a man that day.

Kappy and "Kappy's Boats" and are gone now, like a vapor in the wind, but that huge concrete boat ramp is still there today. It has survived the pounding waves and thick cold ice of Sandy Pond for the past 30 years. To me it's a wonderful monument to that time with Dad...

Brother Pete at the end of the Long Dock, 1982

Pulling out the family boat.

Kip and Daughter Stephy at the end of the Long Dock, August 1984.

Kappy's Boats was next to the Mayer Camp, which used to be part of the Jappyland dance Pavilion.

Mr. Perry Bartlett

2009-03-27T11:08:00.016-04:00

This photo is from the “Sandy Pond Memories” book produced by Sandy Creek Town Historian Charlene Cole a few years ago. Thank you Charlene for graciously granting me permission to use photos from the books you and your crew put together.

The Sandy Pond Memories books inspired me to establish this web log.

If anyone would like any of their Sandy Pond memories, photos, etc. posted here just email them to me. skappesser@hotmail.com. Please put "Sandy Pond Memories" in the subject line of your email, thanks.

This site is intended to be a permanent record for our children and grandchildren…

OK back to the photo. This is Bartlett’s Bait Shop, also known as Bartlett's Marina. It was owned by Mr. Perry Bartlett, who was already an old man when I was a youngster during the ‘60s.

Mr. Bartlett had an ice-house built into the hill next to the road (County Route 15). Perhaps you can still see the remnants of the entrance to the underground ice-house across from Sandy Pond Marina's pizza parlor and boat ramp area today.

In this photo the entrance to the Mr. Bartlett's ice-house would be to the left and behind the photographer.
(Photo posted with permission of Charlene Cole, taken by Phyllis LeBeau.)

During the 60’s there were still a number of summer residents who were using the old-fashioned ice boxes instead of refrigerators, and they relied on Mr. Bartlett to periodically deliver the big blocks of ice. I remember my summer friend Michael Savage’s grandpa “Joker” Savage had an ice-box in his garage for his Piels beer. He said it needed a new block of ice once a week. I wouldn’t doubt that ice-box is still in that old garage…

During the winter Perry would monitor the thickness of the ice on the Pond until it was just the right dimension. Then he would spud out some starter holes for his big ice saw and start sawing the ice in long strips.

He had to carefully guide the saw on the cross-cuts in order to make good square blocks that would fit in a standard ice-box.

Then he would bring them in and stack them the ice house, opening the doors on the coldest winter days to get the ice as cold as possible. It would keep well into the late summer. I remember ice-block deliveries into late August. My Dad bought ice from Perry from time to time to cool down food and beverages for their clambakes and square dances in the driveway.

These guys are trying to figure out how the old-timers did it...

Ronny Whisnant used to hang out a lot with Perry in the big old workshop/bait shop, earning a few bucks tinkering on whatzits and thingamabobs. Ronny was a skilled jack-of-all-trades who worked as a handy-man for many residents and summer people. He used to plow the snow out of my Dad’s driveway with his old red and white ’46 Willy’s Jeep. There was a rumor that after he passed away his relatives found thousands of dollars of cash in his home - that he had a bathtub full of coins - pocket change saved for many years. Not sure if I believe it though.

Dad never made a habit of bragging and telling a lot of stories about his 25 year career as a State Trooper, but if you were peristent you could get one out of him eventually. This one about Mr. Bartlett is one of my favorites:

My Dad was a State Trooper from 1936 to 1961.
He heard stories from the older Troopers who enforced the Prohibition laws in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s.

One of the stories Dad relayed to us when we were kids was that Mr. Bartlett was under surveillance for a long time in those days because he was suspected of “Rum-Running” -transporting illegal Canadian liquor by boat into New York State.

It was alleged that Mr. Bartlett would wait until very late into the night and sneak a small sail boat with a black sail (an original "stealth boat" you could say) out of the Pond out onto Lake Ontario where he would either rendezvous with larger boat that had made it through the Coast Guard’s “Rum Line”, or come ashore at a pre-determined location where a load of liquor had been stashed earlier by the party who had transported it from Canada. Allegedly, Mr. Bartlett would take on the load of liquor and bring it in to for someone to pick up in a vehicle. For his clandestine activity he was allegedly well-paid.

Apparently this alleged information about Mr. Bartlett came from semi-trusted local sources but was legally hearsay. The authorities needed to catch Mr. Bartlett red-handed. Unfortunately the State Troopers simply did not have the resources in those days to watch Mr. Bartlett twenty four hours a day. The Troopers suspected that Mr. Bartlett would just bide his time and wait until they weren’t around, then slip out on his black sailboat to pick up the next load…

The State Troopers never caught him, and to the best of my knowledge Mr. Bartlett never confirmed or denied he was a "Rum-Runner".

Frolicking at Sandy Pond in 1932

2009-03-25T14:32:00.003-04:00

My brother Kip brought a shoebox of old photos to scan while visiting us here in Maryland a while back.

Browsing through them I found this.

My Dad, Ed Kappesser is the guy on the far right. He was 17 years old when this was snapped...

Reverse Side

They are definately at the beach on the lake. I think the guy on the far left is Don Dix, Dad's good friend. (I talked about Don and his magnificent ice boats in the earlier posting about ice boating.)

Here's another story I heard more than once.

One time, about when they were about this age vacationing at Sandy Pond from North Syracuse, Dad and Don decided to swim across the Pond just after they both ate a whole blueberry pie at the Bayview.

Don was in the lead but became sick and out came his blueberry pie. He didn't say anything and kept swimming, not missing a stroke. Poor Dad swam right through it on top of the water and almost lost his blueberry pie too.

The old friends always thought that was a funny story and we heard it many times. I don't know why. We thought it was pretty gross.

Plane Crash at Sandy Pond

2009-03-09T08:21:00.013-04:00

C-47 cargo transport aircraft

Since I was a boy I have always been interested in aviation. If I heard a plane I would run outside to look at it. I still do that sometimes.

One day while surfing the WWW, I stumbled on information concerning a plane crash at Sandy Pond.
It happened in 1944 during the War.

2 other planes went down in this area in 1944 - a B-24 Liberator bomber named "Getaway Gertie" offshore in Lake Ontario about nine miles east of Oswego and another C-47A cargo transport in Oneida Lake. Both crews perished.

Fortunately the 2 young pilots of this plane were rescued by some brave and quick-witted residents of Sandy Pond.

If anyone knows more about this, please tell me.

SANDY CREEK NEWS
SANDY CREEK, N.Y., WEDNESDAY JUNE 28, 1944
PLANE CREW IS RESCUED FROM LAKE ONTARIO

Lt. Frederick Frenger, pilot and Lt. Curtiss L. Aultman, co-pilot and crew of a C-47 transport which crashed into Lake Ontario last Friday afternoon, undoubtedly owe their lives to the quick action of Mr. and Mrs. Elwin Kast, Mrs. Robert Sawyer, Miss Clairene Greene and Miss Faith Sawyer who went to their rescue in a speedboat, pulling them from the icy waters of the lake when they were all but exhausted.

Mr. and Mrs. Kast were painting their barn located near the Oswego-Jefferson county line of the Scenic Highway when they heard the motors of a plane which sounded as if it were having engine trouble, although the plane was not within their sight. They then heard the motors of the plane cut out, followed by an explosion. Phoning nearby Greene Point, they notified them of the explosion and preparations were made to start a search. The inboard speedboat, Miss Binghamton, owned by Gilbert Whipple of Endicott, which had recently been brought to the Point from Oswego, was gassed up and blankets placed in the boat in case of a possible rescue. Miss Faith Sawyer of the 4th grade SCCS, who had been shown by Mr. Whipple how to start the motor, was one of the rescue party.

Going out into the Lake from the Pond they were unable to see either a plane or anyone in the water, visibility being poor owing to a mist over the water out from shore. However, they did spot what appeared to be a couple of ducks, but on closer inspection proved to be the two pilots, struggling in the water. On reaching them the rescue party assisted into the boat the exhausted pilots who were suffering from the cold and shock.

On reaching Greene Point, the party found everything prepared by Mrs. Faith Greene to make the two pilots more comfortable. A warm fire, hot coffee and plenty of blankets were waiting for them, while other cottagers on the Point assisted in their care. Dr. H.L. Hollis was contacted, came immediately and gave them medical attention. Everything was done to make them more comfortable while waiting for the ambulance from the Syracuse Airbase which arrived about two hours later.

It is believed the plane crashed shortly before 2 o'clock about three-quarters of a mile out in the Lake just north of the cottage on the lake shore owned by Delmar Hawkins of Skaneateles. The crash was seen by cottagers at Montario Point and several boats went out from there to the spot where the plane was believed to have gone gown. Because of their dazed condition due to the shock of the crash, the pilots appeared to have been swimming south, parallel to the shore line rather than in towards shore, for they were picked up by the rescue party about a mile from the spot where the plane crashed. Owing to the poor visibility, the boats from Montario Point failed to see the pilots in the water, or the rescue boat and were still searching at 6 o'clock when they learned of the rescue.

The pilots reported that they were piloting one of the oldest planes at the Air Base, on a routine low altitude training flight from Syracuse to Rochester when one of the engines began throwing out oil. Due to their low altitude, they had little chance to manipulate the plane, although the plane pulled up from the water once, only to crash again. They tried to radio for help, but the radio was damaged.

FBI men and a couple officers from the Air Base came here Saturday and operations have been continued since to locate the wrecked plane, but without success.

Position of crash offshore from the channel.

SANDY CREEK NEWS
SANDY CREEK, N.Y., JULY 12, 1944
SEARCH DISCONTINUED FOR C-47 TRANSPORT
Oswego and Galloup Island coast guardsmen have temporarily discontinued search for the C-47 transport plane from the Syracuse Army Air Base which crashed into Lake Ontario some distance north of the channel into North Pond. The fruitless search has been continued since the accident more than three weeks ago, planes and dragging operations by the coast guard failing to locate any evidence. The search will be resumed upon order of the army authorities.

OSWEGO PALLADIUM-TIMES
OSWEGO, N.Y., THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1944
WRECKAGE PIECES FROM LOST PLANE FOUND NEAR LAKE
BELIEVED TO BE PARTS OF C-47 WHICH SANK NEAR SANDY POND RECENTLY
PULASKI - Two pieces of wreckage, believed to be from a plane, were picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario Wednesday by Gordon Gerowe of Adams, opposite the northern end of Sandy Pond, and directly inshore from the point where a C-47 from Syracuse sank several weeks ago. The Wreckage was turned over to Sgt. Barnard Sockman of the Pulaski sub-station who has notified Syracuse Air Corps officials.

The larger piece was a shelf like structure, open on the front and top, about 30 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 15 inches high at the rear. Two inch high cleats separated the bottom section into three parts. Two hinged legs were attached to the front. Underneath, was printing "To Service Receiver Remove Hex head bolts as indicated by arrows." Also on the bottom was part of another compartment about 10 inches square by three inches in depth, labeled "Stow-age for pyrotechnic pistol and Amun."

The second piece was a block of heavy wood nearly two feet long, five inches across and four inches high, semi-wedge shaped on one long side. A half inch white cotton rope whipped at the free end, and about eight feet long was driven through a cable in one end. There was an open glove at the other end of the block, about the size of the rope. The piece was painted green with the number "160" stenciled on it. The larger piece was of plywood; painted green with the lettering in yellow.

A restored C-47 painted with the white invasion stripes used on D-Day.

It was believed the larger piece was the foundation of the radio set with the compartment underneath for a Vary pistol and signal ammunition. The smaller piece looked like a wheel chalk or something similar. Serial numbers were stamped on both pieces. From the condition of the paint the wreckage had not been in the water long, and those who saw it believed it was probably from the lost C-47 rather then the bomber, "Getaway Gertie," lost in the lake last winter.

OSWEGO PALLADIUM-TIMES
OSWEGO, N.Y., SEPTEMBER 11, 1944
PLANE WRECKAGE FOUND ON BEACH NEAR SANDY POND
THOUGHT TO BE MORE PARTS FROM C-47 LOST IN LAKE THIS SUMMER
PULASKI - More airplane wreckage, believed to be parts of the C-47 transport from the Mattydale field which plunged into Lake Ontario early in the summer, was washed ashore on the beach at the north end of Sandy Pond, near the Oswego-Jefferson county line late Saturday afternoon. The wreckage was found by Mrs. Betty Sheldon, Pulaski, and Mrs. Dorothy Correll, Sandy Creek, sisters-in-law, and was near the point where wreckage came ashore several weeks ago. It was reported to the state police with Trooper Donald Murphy investigating, and to the Rome Air Base.

The wreckage consisted of a 10-foot section of either wing or tail surface, a switch board with release attachments, a first aid kit, and various medical supplies which are parts of a long range plane equipment. The C-47 went into the lake about one and one-half miles southwest of Montario Point, and its two occupants were rescued by a boat from Sandy Pond. Dragging operations later failed to locate the plane. The point where the present wreckage came ashore was about due east of where the plane hit the lake, and it is believed the heavy seas of last week were breaking up the ship.

It is regarded as certain that the wreckage came from this plane and not from the big bomber which is believed to have sunk in the lake some 20 miles southwest during the winter and carrying its entire crew to death.

C-47 Drawings

THE SANDY CREEK NEWS
SANDY CREEK, N.Y., SEPTEMBER 13, 1944
PLANE SECTIONS ARE FOUND ON LAKE BEACH
While walking on the Lake Beach between the Hawkins cottage and the Renshaw late Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Axel Correll and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Sheldon discovered five pieces of various types that appeared to be airplane wreckage. The matter was reported to the State Police sub-station in Pulaski and the Rome Air Base.

It is presumed that these pieces which included part of a first aid kit and some medical supplies, a ten foot section of airplane wing or tail, and a board with switches for the releasing of some mechanism, are a part of the wreckage of the C-47 transport from the Syracuse airport which crashed in the Lake near this point early last summer.

THE POST-STANDARD
SYRACUSE, N.Y., JUNE 25, 1944
SWIMMING OFF LOS ANGELES PIER HELPED SAVE PILOT OF PLANE IN ONTARIO CRASH
Youthful stunt-swimming around the Los Angeles pier in carefree childhood summers paid heavy dividends to Lt. Frederick Frenger, air transport pilot from Syracuse Army Airbase who was rescued after his plane crashed in Lake Ontario Friday. "We didn't have Mae Wests, or a life raft, or anything," reminisced yesterday, interviewed in his room at the base hospital.
Yet for 30 long minutes, in the icy waters of Lake Ontario, and hampered by his full army uniform, Lt. Frenger kept himself afloat, and helped his tired co-pilot, Lt. Curtiss L. Aultman. Both men were recuperating from shock and exposure yesterday at Syracuse Army Airbase, where they have been stationed since May 11. "The right engine cut out - that's all I remember," explained Lt. Frenger. With Lt. Aultman at the controls, the men fought to gain altitude with only one engine. But is was impossible

"So we ditched it, with the tail low," Lt. Frenger continued. In about 10 minutes, the plane nosed under. The men were about a quarter-mile from shore, off the Sandy Pond peninsula. They heard boats, and shouted, but none came near. They ripped off their shoes, and Lt. Aultman unzipped his summer flying suit, and kicked it off. Half stunned by the terrific impact when the plane hit the water, they struggled towards the distant shoreline. Lt. Frenger was uninjured except for shock; Lt. Aultman was cut on the scalp, and blood trickled down his face.
"You can keep those babies flying on one engine if you have altitude," explained Lt. Frenger. "But we were on a low altitude navigation training flight, and were flying between 300 and 500 feet." Both officers had high praise for the efforts of their rescue party, led by Mr. and Mrs. Elwin Kast of Mannsville RD1. They told of blankets being wrapped around them, of stimulants being administered, during the hour and a half while they waited on shore for the arrival of the airbase ambulance.

The Kast boat knifing thru the water toward them was a sight they won't soon forget. "I guess we'd have made it, but I don't know," said Lt. Aultman. "I've never been so tired in my life; I got tired from the hips down."

ANXIOUS TO TRY AGAIN

Both officers expressed a desire to climb right back into a plane and fly again "as soon as they'll let us." Lt. Frenger, 25, whose home is in Los Angeles, enlisted in March, 1941, and received his commission and the silver wings of a pilot June 30, 1943. Lt. Aultman, 22, of Lynnhaven, Fla., entered service Feb. 1, 1943, and was commissioned in April, 1944.

The possibilities for salvaging the plane remained undetermined yesterday. Capt. Jerome Entis, airbase adjutant, said a board of inquiry had been assigned to investigate the crash, the first accident involving planes reported on the base since the air transport training command started operations two months ago.

Footnote:
According to warbirdcrash.com, during World War II over 7100 Army Air Forces aircraft were involved in fatal accidents in the US, killing over 15,500 fliers.

Clambakes With "The Pittsburghers"

2009-02-27T09:50:00.037-05:00

I found these photos in our “Honeymoon” album. Barb and I were married June 26, 1982 when we were both active duty Navy stationed at Naval Facility, Argentia, Newfoundland.

A few weeks after we were married we took leave to visit my folks at Sandy Pond and her folks in Illinois.

Our longtime friends from Pittsburgh: the Newtons, Hopkins, Schaefers, and Cannons held the annual clambake at their rented cottage that year – that’s where these photos were snapped. There was always some goofy lawn games held and it was a real hoot. We could really laugh - the neighbors could hear us within a one-block radius. This was real fun.

I know my Mom did a lot of cooking for the annual clambake and it was all gooood – Seneca Chief corn on the cob picked fresh from Dad’s garden, Mom’s Manhattan clam chowder, raw and steamed clams, homemade potato and macaroni salads, Hoffman’s hot dogs (courtesy Uncle George), burgers, etc.

Sometimes the clambake was held in Dad's back yard.

It was always the biggest party of the year and we all had a great time.

Offshore shot - Barb, Uncle George Kappesser, Dad (Ed Kappesser) waving.

Under the Bigtop...

Barb and Me - Beach the day after....

Pete

Kip and former girlfriend Dana

Kip, what's this all about?

What are they doing? I don't recognize the guy in the yellow shirt, but there's Kip Kappesser and Patty Newton.

Peg Hopkins and Ms. Cannon is in the yellow shirt - not sure who's wearing the blue pants.

Another round... what's the name of this game?

Now they are mixin' it up.

My Uncle Al Glosky, Cousin Jim Kappesser, some guy in a green hat, and Doc Newton toss eggs...

More fun with the dangle-ball game.

Cousin Jim Kappesser

Ms. Cannon (sorry I have forgotten her first name!) and beau.

Sandy Island Beach the day after: L to R is Barb, Martha Liszewski, the Liszewski boy (I forgot his name), Mark (Goose) Liszewski, Kip, and Dana.

Aunt Esther Kappesser is up to something here. Do you recognize the children?

They really liked the dangle-ball competition...

From another clambake I think - Nancy (Newton) Smith, Peg Hopkins, Amy Kappesser, (I don't recognize the young lady in yellow), and Jean Cannon subjecting theirselves to the egg-toss competition. Bob "Hoppy" Hopkins is seen walking out of the photo to the left.

Now Rob and Nancy (Newton) Smith's company owns the cottage where these 2 clambakes were held - The "Acutech Lodge" I believe they call it. Elisabeth Smith, their daughter, writes that she has hosted an annual 4th of July party there for the last 8 years now.

The Ghost Channel

2009-02-25T10:51:00.015-05:00

Here is an old photo - not entirely sure when it was taken, but I seem to remember my Dad telling us a story something about a flood or storm in the 50's before the St. Lawrence Seaway was controlling Lake Ontario's water levels.

In the foreground you see 3 people observing a flood of water covering the relatively narrow peninsula that separates Sandy Pond from Lake Ontario. Judging by the whitecaps on the water there is a strong wind too.

This area of the peninsula is where the tall tree-laden dunes end about 150 yards north of Hog Nose Point. The photographer was facing south when he snapped this, the lake is on the right, the last big dune (covered with trees)in the middle, and Hog Nose Point in the Pond is on the left. This "Ghost Channel" as I call it existed quite some distance south of the current channel. Maybe some old-timers remember this and can correct any of this sketchy info I am posting here.

A couple years ago I found an old geological survey map at a that showed this new channel, and as soon as I locate it again I'll add it to this post.

I marked on this photo the approximate area where the "Ghost Channel" was...

Apparently the Ghost Channel was there for a few years after it formed. I also recall something about somebody either filling it in doing some kind of construction (or destruction) related to this that would be illegal on many levels today. The "Nature Conservancy", if it had existed then, would have had a big issue with that, you betcha.

Today the area where the Ghost Channel existed is filled in with sand and trees and cottages are built here. You would never know there was a channel there at one time.

Celebrating Life in Upstate New York

2009-02-23T12:58:00.016-05:00

Growing up and living in Sandy Pond for the first 25 years of my life seemed very normal to me - until I moved away.

Let me illustrate...

Jeff Foxworthy on Upstate NY:

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Upstate New York.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE UPSTATE NEW YORKER WHEN:

1. "Vacation" means going South past Albany for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

6. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

7. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

8. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

9. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

10. Down South to you means Albany.

11. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

12. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

13. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

14. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Upstate New York friends.

You Might Be From Upstate New York if....

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work
there, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might
live in Upstate New York.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE UPSTATE NEW YORKER WHEN:

You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including
weddings).

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave
both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend / wife
knows how to use them.

You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

A brat is something you eat.

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

You go out to fish fry every Friday.

You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

ICE BOATING ON SANDY POND

2009-02-17T16:18:00.007-05:00

Growing up, living at Sandy Pond, for me was a wonderful time in my life. It was like living in a paradise without the tropical weather. I am so glad that my folks decided to live there and raise their family there. There was always something fun to do and I don't believe I knew the definition of "bored" until I got older and moved away from there.

No matter what time of year it was, Lake Ontario would sporadically generate a "3-day blow" - that's when the Lake roared and wind would howl and buffet and bend big trees back and forth for about 3 days on average. The Winter winds would blow in off the Lake over the Pond as an unending, mindless force that could freeze your eyes open.

Any ice on the Lake was hazardous at best but the ice on the Pond would get to 3 feet thick by mid-February. As kids, if the ice was clear of snow, I remember my brother Kip and I and some of our friends ("The Pond Boys") would take our metal-runner sleds out on the ice, sit down, unzip our coats and hold them open as sails, and the wind would wisk us away at an alarming rate. Sometimes we did it on ice skates but I wasn't very good on skates so I usually stuck with my sled. Now that was FUN! I wonder if kids still do that there...?

I was introduced to ice-boating when I was about 12 years old around 1966. My Dad, Ed Kappesser (or "Kap" as everyone called him), had an old friend named Don Dix who lived near Oneida Lake and owned and raced ice boats. (Kap and Don grew up together in the Syracuse area and often visited Sandy Pond for fun when they were teens in the early 30's).

Anyway, if the ice was clear and the wind was right, Dad would call his buddy Don and he and another buddy would tow their ice boats up for a day or sometimes the whole weekend. This was a standing arrangement between the 2 friends for 20 years or so in the '60s and '70s when I lived there. Mr. Dix didn't have the small factory-made ice boats that you may be familiar with. His ice boats were hand-crafted out of mahogany and maple and they were long and wide with huge light-weight sails. I don't remember if he said he built them himself or hired a boat builder.

The principles of ice boating are similar to sail boating except the speeds are much higher and so it could be dangerous if you lost control and let the wind tip you over. The runners on Mr. Dix's magnificent craft were about 2 or 3 ft. long and made of sharpened steel (like skates) and were arranged in a triangular pattern, the front one being the steering runner and the 2 back ones stationary - like a tricycle. Believe it or not, if conditions were right he said you could get them up to 70 or 80 miles per hour. When your were piloting one of these you sat only a few inches off the ice so it seemed like you were going 80 when you were probably only going 40.

If I remember correctly, Mr. Dix had 2 big racers and one smaller trainer and he let us kids sail the trainer. The trainer could probably do 60 MPH on a good day but I was pretty nervous with it and didn't get a lot of practise in so I don't think I ever got it above 40. My older brother, Kip, who is a natural athlete, got her up to top speed in only one afternoon of practice. It was glorious. You could tell you were at the max speed it could do with the wind you had when one of the back runners would lift off the ice a foot or so and you shot down the ice on only 2 runners.

If you went parallel to the direction of the wind then you would eventually match the speed of the wind and when that happened things got peacefully silent and all you could hear was the noise of the runners sliding along the ice. It was like being in a bubble with the landscape whizzing by - what a rush! You could get a lot more speed if you went crossways with the wind of course. An getting back involved a tacking zig-zag pattern as you could expect.

I have told this memory to many people from all over the country for many years since I moved away from the Pond, and I have almost always received a reaction of dis-belief. It's not surprising if you come to realize that there are probably not a lot of locations in the country that have the ice and the strong wind like from the Lake for some real fast ice-boating.

Eventually, after Dad retired and I had joined the Navy, he and brother Kip bought a couple factory-made ice-boats. They were smaller than Mr. Dix's but I understand Dad still had a blast "not acting his age"...

My Sandy Pond - The Secret Paradise of Home

2009-02-13T06:58:00.006-05:00

This is one of my favorite photos. It brings me back to my youth, enjoying a place called Sandy Pond. This would have been a quiet evening, perhaps 80 degrees outside. You're sitting at the end of the dock with your friends. The fresh sunburn on your back itched a little as you closed your eyes and listened to the long drone of an outboard motor - somebody's out for a sunset ride...

I lived my first 25 years at Sandy Pond. It's located on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. It is a resort community with a population of thousands in the summer and a few hundred in the winter.

You knew your neighbors...

THIS IS AN AERIAL PHOTO OF THE CHANNEL AND SAND DUNES THAT SEPERATE SANDY POND FROM LAKE ONTARIO. THAT'S THE ISLAND IN THE POND. SOME CALLED IT SNAKE ISLAND, SOME CALLED IT SAWYER'S ISLAND. GREENE POINT IS TO THE RIGHT.
THESE DAYS THE SAND DUNES ARE PRETTY MUCH OFF-LIMITS AS A PRESERVE.

BACK IN THE DAY WE WOULD PLAY IN THE DUNES, AND SNOWMOBILE ALL OVER THE AREA. WE DID A LOT OF DUCK HUNTING IN THIS AREA - BUT NEVER GOT TOO MANY DUCKS.

Two teenagers, Tom Snow who's family lived in Potsdam NY and had a camp near the Elms Golf Course and his buddy Mike McGuane who's Mom owned a store on Route 3 near the "4-Corners", drowned tragically near that island while duck hunting one fall. Their shallow duck-boat overturned in bad weather. A third boy - my friend Danny Lapham, survived.

Being a "native" of Sandy Pond is much different than vacationing there. It's not better or worse - just different.

You endured the climate. The winters were cold and windy with abundant snow and ice. I remember the ice getting as thick as 3 feet. The springs were chilly and sunny, the fall seemed cloudy and damp. But the summers were perfect...

We attended Sandy Creek Central School. Kindergarten through 12th grade at one location. There were 62 people in my graduating class. After 13 years in the same class, we knew everybody. You just don't get that kind of schooling everywhere and I cherish it.

Growing up, exploring the world, we were blessed with the massive playground called Sandy Pond, 24/7, a permanent vacation of sorts, it was like a dream you did not want to awake from.

This web log is for memories of this place I used to call home...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SOME FAMILY HISTORY

My Dad first visited Sandy Pond in his youth during the 1930's. Dad and his good friend Don Dix would visit often, having youthful fun at this little resort. Dad (in the middle) with friends at Sandy Island Beach, Sandy Pond Circa 1933.

After World War II, Dad, a veteran and a State Trooper, married Mom, a Nurse, in 1948.

Dad on his Harley Police Special

Mom

They bought about a half-acre of land on Ackerman Tract on the south shore of Sandy Pond. It was originally called Ackerman's Grove.
They cleared the land, Mom contracting a wicked case of poison ivy when she was wafted by the smoke of the burning brush.

They built a small house (with a nice fireplace) out of cinder blocks and wood. I don't know why Dad used cinder blocks - perhaps he liked the security they offered. He was a policeman and veteran, and it was the atomic age with the Soviet menace armed with nuclear ICBMs. Or maybe he just liked to do masonry work. In any case he did a good job and their home still stands firm 55 years later.
Mom started having babies in 1953. They had 4 children and I was the 2nd born.

Pete, the youngest, hadn't been born yet when this photo was taken.

Brother Kip, Me, Brother Pete, Sister Amy, Halloween 1963 - (3 weeks before president John Kennedy was assassinated...)

Dad built on to the original house doubling it's size and adding a basement (which they called a "cellar") and attached garage. It was all cinder block of course - and grey. Some visitors would chuckle and say it resembled a bunker. We called it home.
After a few years Dad walled off the garage and built two more bedrooms... This photo shows the part of the house Dad added as their family grew. I have not yet found a photo of the entire house.
The old garage of course is at the head of the driveway - the 2 side-by-side windows in front of the mini-van were installed at the header of the old garage door. That's bro. Kip getting the winter salt off his car...

Snowbelt! Winter Life in Upstate New York

2009-02-10T14:36:00.003-05:00

Lake Ontario shoreline in February at Sandy Island Beach. The wave action continuously pushes the ice up to form these hollow ice hills. In the spring, despite dangers, we would cautiously explore them.

Here is an AP news article from last winter about a blizzard in the Snowbelt Region of Central New York where I lived my first 25 years.
I added the photos and captions.
The town of Redfield referenced in this article is situated a little east of my old homestead at Sandy Pond on Lake Ontario. Redfield usually got a few feet more than we did. Sometimes we would go there to play in it.
I miss snowmobiling, ice-boating, and ice-fishing, but I don’t miss all the work getting it out of the way!

Village May Set N.Y. Mark for Snowfall
Feb 11, 2007 10:45 PM US/Eastern By WILLIAM KATES Associated Press Writer

REDFIELD, N.Y. (AP) - This village in upstate New York's snowbelt gets a lot of snowfall during the winter, but last week's total—more than 11 feet, unofficially—might be an all-time record.
Before it began to wind down Sunday, persistent streams of squalls fueled by moisture from Lake Ontario during the last week consistently dumped lake-effect snow in this western New York region.

Figure 1. Pine trees laden with snow. It makes the tall pine woods very quiet and serene...

All that's left—apart from the massive dig out—is to claim the record for the most snowfall in a week. Redfield's total of 136 inches would break the state record of ten feet, seven inches that fell in nearby Montague over seven days ending Jan. 1, 2002, said Steve McLaughlin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo. A National Weather Service official will travel Monday to verify the amount.
"In all my life, I mean my entire life combined, I've never seen this much snow at once," said Jim Bevridge, 47, of Timonium, Md., who drove up Thursday for a long weekend of snowmobiling.

Figure 2. Significant snowfall like this can cave in a roof. Rooves are specially constructed to withstand the snow load. First you shovel the roof, then the driveway...

McLaughlin said the proper way to measure snow requires taking readings about every six hours. It's very important with lake-effect snow.
"It can be light and fluffy. If you did hourly measurements, you might come up with 24 inches, when there's really only 16 on the ground. It needs to be able to pack some," he said.

Figure 3 After you dig out your car you have to open the hood and scoop out all the snow packed around the engine and electrical system...hopefully you haven’t left a window cracked open…

The heavy snow is common along the Tug Hill Plateau, a 50-mile wedge that rises 2,100 feet from the lake's eastern shore. It usually gets about 300 inches—roughly 25 feet—of snow a year.

Figure 4. At this point you can't feel your arms anymore. 4 foot snow loads like this weigh more than a ton...
We also weren’t allowed to play on the snow-banks or drifts along the road because once you reached the top you could touch the wires.

The hamlet of Hooker holds the state's one-year record with 466.9 inches, about 39 feet, in winter 1976-77. Redfield receives an annual average of 270 inches—more than 22 feet.
The weeklong snows left behind surreal scenes. One house appeared to be in a cocoon. The only signs of parked SUVs were their radio antennas or roof racks rising above the snow. Dug out sidewalks looked like miniature canyons.

Figure 5. These guys are under at least a ton of snow... They have drank too much wine or are nuts- or both!

Some of the more hardened locals, however, aren't impressed.
"It's snow. We get a lot of it. So what?" said Allan Babcock, a lifelong resident who owns a popular diner in this village of 650 people located about 38 miles northeast of Syracuse. (Al was a star football player at the old Alma Mater a couple years older than me.)

Figure 6. My Mom used to require my brother and I to shovel out the kitchen window after we I finished the roof!

Roads were mostly cleared Sunday as workers turned their attention to removing the snow and trimming down 10- and 12-foot-high snowbanks.

Figure 7. Obviously roads need heavy equipment to clear them. That is a huge, truck-sized, snow-blower clearing drift-bound Highway Rte. 3, about 5 miles south of the old home. There was always rumors about somebody's dog getting chewed up in one of these monsters...

Figure 8. All clear. My brother and I encountered a skunk in one of these canyons after the blizzard of '78 near Barnes Corners NY. That’s when I learned that you can't run very fast with a snowsuit on!!

The intense blast of snow hasn't been blamed for any deaths in Oswego County. Elsewhere, however, more than a week of bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 25 deaths across the northeastern quarter of the nation—five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, seven in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, and Maryland and elsewhere in New York, authorities said.

Figure 9. This is a power plant on Lake Ontario about 20 mi. from my Parent’s house.
That's a car buried in the foreground.

Figure 10. Icicles are a hazard. They can weigh up to 100 lbs.If one breaks off on you it can ruin your day.

My alma-mater Sandy Creek Central High School usually had one of the best high-school wrestling teams in the region. It’s because most of the guys have wicked upper body strength from – guess what? – shoveling snow!