The terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 changed the world
It was on a Tuesday 17 years ago that the Al-Qaeda faction of the Sunni sect of the Islamic religion, through suicide radicals, attacked the United States by hijacking planes and flying them into major buildings in our country.
The attack on the World Trade Center in New York was successful, the attack by Flight 77 into the Pentagon was also successful, but through the bravery of those on board Flight 93, the attack on Washington was not.
This Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, the Old Men of the Mountain met for breakfast at the Country Café in Schoharie and remembered a Tuesday 17 years ago and how it not only changed our country, but also the world.
Life goes on, as it should, but life is full of remembrances. That is what makes it life. Some remembrances are sad, but, thank goodness, most are mundane and happy ones. At the breakfast, we took some time to reflect on the sad memories; however, most thoughts are the happy ones.
All around Cock Robin’s barn
Tuesday morning, the talk was on how to get around the closing of Route 157 through Thacher Park. The detour signs direct the uninitiated all around Cock Robin’s barn.
Traveling east from East Berne or west from New Salem on Route 157, there is Beaver Dam Road. (Be sure your brakes are in good working order when heading east.) However, if you are driving a big truck or camper or hauling a trailer, this is not the road for you.
One OF told of how he once met a big truck at the turn getting onto Route 157 from Beaver Dam Road at the bottom of the hill. He had to get out of his car to help guide the truck around the turn. He also had to hold up traffic so the truck could enter Route 157. The truckers and campers better follow the detour signs.
Remember the old song that tells of the singer’s regrets for the choices made in life.
Detour, there’s a muddy road ahead,
Detour, paid no mind to what it said,
Detour, oh, these bitter things I find,
Should have read… that Detour sign.
Ill-gotten treasures
The OFs started telling tales on themselves. When young people are traveling in groups or just standing around, adults have a tendency to keep an eye on them — as they should.
However, according to the OFs, when the seniors (let’s say over age 65) are in groups and go traveling together hither and yon, it is a good idea to keep an eye on them also. Snitching something to keep as a free souvenir is not beneath them.
One OF said, “And I don’t care how many diamond rings they have on their fingers, they still think nothing of snitching a little something.”
Another OF said, “And it is the ladies. When they get back on the bus, they take the silverware, or fancy napkin, or fancy glass out of their pocketbooks and start giggling like schoolgirls over their ill-gotten treasures.”
You gotta watch those seniors.
The nose knows!
On the way to the Country Café, most OFs have to cross the bridge that travels over the Fox Creek. On Tuesday morning, just on the Schoharie side of the bridge, a skunk had been hit. This little altercation was recent because the smell brought tears to the eyes.
Some of the OFs commented by saying, “Did you get a whiff of that skunk by the bridge?” or “That was so strong, I thought I hit the thing.”
But there were a couple who never smelled it. One OF said he has lost his sense of taste and smell; another one said that he gets so full of allergies that he can’t smell much at all. This OF said that, when he starts out each day, he makes sure he has a pocket full of tissues.
Then there were a couple of the OGs who said they smell everything — pleasant or unpleasant. One OF thought we have glasses to help us see, hearing aids to help us hear, but nothing to help us taste or smell. The OFs wondered what a smell aid would look like.
Scottish Games
The OFs are — for the most part — an active lot. One of the OFs is heavily involved with the Scottish Games at the Altamont fairgrounds. It is his band that sponsors the games at the fairgrounds each year.
To pull off an event like the Scottish Games takes a lot of work by all members of the band. Being in a group like pipe bands, fife and drum corps, or drum and bugle corps take dedication from those who have joined them and also from their families.
The Scottish Games at Altamont, according to this OF, can have from 20 to 40 bands, and 40 to 50 vendors and sutlers at the event. (To clarify the term “sutler,” it is an old expression for a civilian merchant who sells provisions to an army).
To round up all these people is no easy task. For those who have not heard the massing of the bands playing altogether at the end of the day, you are missing a very stirring time.
One OF thinks that, with all the costumes, and the music, and the drilling, this is theater at its best. This OF suggests it is like the arts where there is no generation gap.
A talented 15 year-old can play alongside a seasoned veteran and be on a par, behave the same way, and talk the same language as one who is twice his or her age. Becoming involved in the arts and in music is something you can do until you meet the big band in the sky.
Playing football, you are limited to age 35 if you make it big, or until you are out of high school or college if you don’t (make it big). The OFs bit of philosophy for the day — learn to play the fiddle.
Those OFs who made it to the Country Café in Schoharie today and headed home without the shock of 17 years ago were: Miner Stevens, Roger Chapman, Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Bill Lichliter, Dave Williams, Chuck Aelesio, Richard Frank, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Roger Shafer, Pete Whitbeck, Art Frament, Marty Herzog, Lou Schenck, Mace Porter, Jack Norray, Herb Bahrmann, Wayne Gaul, Rev. Jay Francis, Duncan Bellinger, Jim Rissacher, Warren Willsey, Gerry Chartier, Mike Willsey, Elwood Vanderbilt, Harold Grippen, and me.