The weather continues to be terrific!

Low 90s, a bit humid and a breeze off the ocean. Perfect!

The wind off the Atlantic picked up last night. At least 30 miles per hour. I could hear it and the palm trees banging against the house each time it woke me during the night.

Yesterday was a usual day for me. A little paper work in the morning, the Coffee House to read the newspapers and then a visit with Lisa at the time when the grandkids were coming home from school.

Robert looked terrible. Sweaty and quiet. He was coming down with something. Lisa just telephoned. Said Robert was up all night upchucking, be here by 9 to babysit. I will be. No golf today.

Lisa said bring popsicles for Robert, also. He has not eaten. It will be easy. I have a box in the freezer.

I stayed in last night. My neck was still bothering me. As I have beeen reporting, it is good in the morning and then gets progressively painful durng the day. But it hurts less each day so I think I am getting better.

I am glad I stayed in last night. Got to watch Drums Along the Mohawk. A 1939 movie with Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda. About the 20th time I have seen the movie. I always enjoy it. Probably because the setting for the movie is where I grew up.

The movie concerns the Mohawk Valley in New York State. My home for 71 years of my life.

Utica is set in the center of the Mohawk Valley. Mountains all around. Everywhere you look. You must look up to see them.

Fonda and Colbert settled in Deerfield. Deerfield is a suburb of Utica.

The movie tells amongst other things of the Battle of Oriskany. Oriskany is 6 miles west of Utica. General Herkimer and a band of farmer soldiers met the British there in one of the significant battles of the Revolution.

The British had a much larger force. 1,800 strong. They were on their way east to join up with the General Bourgyone at Albany.

The British troops never made it. Herkimer and the colonists held them up in a vicious and bloody battle that lasted long enough so that the British failed to make it to Albany. As a result, Bourgyone was beaten some days later by the Americans at Saratoga.

The battle at Oriskany has been described as significant in the subsequent defeat of the British at Saratoga. The battle at Saratoga has been described as the turning point of the war.

The battle at Saratoga again was a most important one. When Bourgyone surrendered at Saratoga, the French joined the colonies in the war effort. Louis XVI thought it was a good time to stick it to the British. France’s support caused the British to have to expand its fighting to the West Indies and parts of Europe.

Ultimately the battles at Oriskany and Saratoga aided the colonists in winning the Revolution.

I felt like sharing a bit of my local upstate New York history with you. The movie brought it to mind.

One more item. The movie Drums Along the Mohawk was based on the 1936 best seller written by Walter D. Edmonds. Edmonds grew up in Boonville. About 15 miles to the west of Utica. Boonville sits on one of those mountains I described earlier.

Edmonds loved the Mohawk Valley, its history and waterways.

His family home still sits in Boonville. I have partied there many times. But that is another story. One which I will share with you tomorrow.

I am off to babysitting.

Enjoy your day!

One comment on “

  1. Re: Drums

    Don't you think that movie is a little pro=big government propaganda? In '36, the country was teetering between empire and isolationism as was before Wilson and WW1. It was progressive Hollywood that wanted big government. Even back then. Every time I've seen it, especially the ending, it smacks of propaganda.

    imho
    p.s., hope your neck and the kids all get better soon

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