What the hell were you doing there? I used to drive through it a fair amount, and downtown was like a ghost town. It emptied so fast it didn't have time to go ghetto. Nice spot, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
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What the hell were you doing there? I used to drive through it a fair amount, and downtown was like a ghost town. It emptied so fast it didn't have time to go ghetto. Nice spot, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
Did you bring your skis?
OMG. Iceman snowmobiles in jeans!
No all my shit is in Utah, I went out there a couple times. I brought hockey skates but didn't get much use out of them, it was a weird warm winter in the east that year. Or at least in the northern Mohawk Valley it was.
ha, I was involved in this weird project that didn't pan out. While I was there the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame moved from Amsterdam to Wichita Falls, Texas. We were so bored we had finally decided to go check it out and we drove down there and it had closed two days before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
As far as the spot, yeah you can see why they settled there. River right there, up on a bluff overlooking it, good farmland in the river bottoms, decent pasture in the hills, lots of timberland to the north. But it's like somebody set off a neutron bomb in the city except on the outskirts where it's all Walmart and shit.
i have driven route 8 and route 30 many times over the years and you know land is cheap there because there are Amish farmers in the area
One day while I was there I went out for a drive just to get away for a bit, just driving, and I came around a corner and this barn was just burning like a motherfucker. Straight up blazing. Nobody around. I banged on the door of the house next to it and nobody answered. I had no cell reception, and I didn't even know the name of the road I was on. So I watched it burn for a while and went on my way.
Everyone was probably out at the sauerkraut festival.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
The people they don’t know upstate think this is a bad joke. Those that know are nodding yes.
This checks out based on my experiences in lovely Warren County, NY. Actually, I just realized how weird it is that my parents have two homes in two different states, but they're both in Warren County.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
hey now - i'm from warren county - laughing
warren county isn't the worst duty - you can commute to saratoga or albany for work and live minutes away from lake george
Haha, that's one way to look at it I suppose. I had some good turns at Hickory Hill about 15 years ago, do they still turn the surface lift on at that place from time to time? They have a place near Loon Lake, I skied at Gore a lot as a kid, and Oscar's bacon is part of my genetic makeup.Quote:
Originally Posted by DBdude
I always preferred the areas further north and in the High Peaks: it felt that much colder and more isolated.
Beautiful shots in that clip. That climate resonates with me.Quote:
Originally Posted by m2711c
We should probably leave that out of the Pure Upstate campaign.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
My problem is I’m not close enough to a sauerkraut festival. Fuck, I miss the days when I had the largest Oktoberfest outside Munich in my backyard. Sauerkraut balls, tube meats, pretzels and tasty beers galore. Man I could go for some of that right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by EWG
amish lightning.....Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
hickory is pretty hit or miss on whether they open. I skied there about ten years ago and I know they were open after thatQuote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
gore has really improved
I had a blast in my teens partying at the Garrison in Lake George and in Saratoga at the Tin and Lint and a truly memorable night after "white night" at the Golden Grill which resulted in me spending the night in jail
We covered the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area a page ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
See? This is becoming a one stop shop thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
Hickory hasn't been open for years. The co-op went under about '04, sat dormant, and then some dude with some play money bought it, but the weather just didn't co operate for his first four or five years. I don't think it's opened since, but haven't paid much attention lately. Only got one day there. It was an intense, steep hill with launcher pumas. It needed snow, but, if the snow was good, I'd drive a half hour further to Gore, which is a much better experience.
the poma lift was a blast, as was the cabin at the top of the hill
what is funny is how steep I thought it was in high school and when I came back years later not being quite as impressed
I believe some people have been pruning lines there.
Yeah but I didn't weigh in. There is something about those two towns, and that valley, that's like worse than decayed, it's menacing. I always feel like I'm coming into Mordor. I don't know what it is, something about coal and steel and decay and rust and... yikes. Always looks better in the rearview.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
look at that!
that is the bottom poma. the top poma was faster with moguls in the track. you could launch going up and down the hill
back in the day pico had a similarly gnarly poma
hickory is done forever, warrensburg may be peak upstate.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
got any pix?
i miss that place so much.
i used to drink at a bar called the brew and stew in Warrensburg - it was a dive
the guy that owned it had a place in Lake George called Tops on main street - it was awesome
Richard Russo has written some great stuff about that region. He grew up in Gloversville. It's kind of striking how fast all of those towns died. They were busy, vibrant places in the 60s to early 70s, then, just, poof, all the industry was gone. Like I said, no time to transition to ghetto. No minorities anyway. The people who I worked with in Saratoga would describe Schenectady in the same period, and thousands would pile out of the GE factory and that locomotive manufacturer on the other side of town, and it was one big party. Now, nuthin'.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
Russell Banks has written a lot of great stuff about that upstate world, too.
Nobody's Fool written by Russo and made into a movie with Paul NewmanQuote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
The Russel Banks book Sweet Hereafter was heart breaking and made into a movie
Schenectady, the main drag looks pretty good, that theatre there, I can't remember the name of it, all renovated and nice. GE supports the area, they want it to look decent so people won't point at GE for destroying it. Which it pretty much did. Away from there it's on the desolate side although it's not a bad drive to Albany so it hasn't completely dried up and blown away. A lot of classic buildings available for short money.
Yeah, Sweet Hereafter and Affliction both made it to film. Not happy stories.
when Union College gives directions for campus visits, the directions avoid the worst parts of schenectadyQuote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
the bottom was a t-bar. the t-bar was free and you could ride it up to the lodge from the parking lot to buy your ticket. I fucking loved that place. Hudge moguls and $1 hot dogs. byob.Quote:
Originally Posted by DBdude
This sounds like my kind of place.Quote:
Originally Posted by m2711c
That winter was so fucked up. Mt biking in t shirts on Xmas Eve, 60's for most of January and I had 5" of snow for the whole winter if you didn't include the 17" that shut down Halloween 2 weeks after we got slammed by Hurricane Irene.Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
I have lots of close friends that graduated uni of Scranton. That town could fucking party.. lots of bars. That was in the early 90s though.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
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The “U”....lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Skidog
All those bars ur remembering are all basically gone....people still party though.
Da U!!! Tinks...if you know you know.
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Hickory Hill was stellar, when there was enough snow, which happened about twice every three years. I did ski there on a pair of Spatulas one day, and their use was justified. Not exactly a ski that you can relax on a surface lift with though.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
Yeah, they graduated around 1980. Sounded like it was a bit of a party town then too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skidog
Yeah, that’s gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnwriter
Haha I know. I took a cruise in town last time I was home. Things were different.
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Yeah...can’t bar hop all night then drive home like the good old days....the 90’s were a good time.Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnwriter
I spend a good portion of two years traveling around PA.'s old oil towns: Oil City, Titusville, Franklin, etc. Just like that. Always thought it was strange how a few of the towns became sort of artsy/touristy and the rest just died...they're all kinda the same, so why was one spared...and, just up the road, another was a ghost town?Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Ummm....the residents?!?!?! Some cared and had some level of means to help and others didn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by smartyiak