PAST PERFECT

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE SOMERS RECORD (08-26-21)- Please remember small business in your town during this coronavirus pandemic

     I'm not writing about a concert in Bailey Park in Somers just because it's going to be fun. I'm not mentioning it just because I happen to be playing in it. It's not a shameless plug since I do feel a certain amount of shame. By the way it's on Saturday, August 28th at 5:00PM. I'm not trying to get you to come to park that evening just to say hi to me (although that would be nice). The purpose of this column is to point out that this event is brought to you in part by the Somers Historical Society, and history is important.

     I'm a great lover of history, since I've been living in the past my whole life until just this very moment. I used to write a column about the beginnings of Westchester County called "Historical Laughter," and I think it's a great idea to find out about the town you live in.  Wherever it is, it has a story. And some of them are real doozies.

     Like when the New York City Water Commission needed new sources to supply the burgeoning population and used the doctrine of "eminent domain" to buy up properties in Katonah, condemn them, and flood the entire town to build the Croton Reservoir. The townspeople bought their houses back at auction, jacked them up and moved them along soaped rails pulled by horses to their current locations. There are photos of these original "mobile" homes, residents living inside them during the trip. This was an inconvenience if you happened to be running away from home, because you had to run at least as fast as your house was traveling behind you.

     Or the time a receding glacier dropped a huge boulder onto four other rocks about 10,000 years ago in North Salem, where it has sat balanced ever since. It's a good thing it didn't land in the middle of the road, or traffic could have been snarled for centuries. Whenever I see a glacier coming I get the hell out of the way, as I prefer to remain unbalanced. You can check it out along Titicus Road, but keep your eyes peeled, because history often repeats itself. I know it did when I had to take it again in summer school.

     What about the time founding American statesman John Jay went to Paris with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to mediate the peace treaty after the Revolutionary War? You can find out all about it at the John Jay Homestead in Katonah. He demanded that the British recognize American independence and cede the territory east of the Mississippi. It was Jay who cut France out of the negotiations to forge a more favorable deal, possibly because he was angry that they had not invented champagne yet and he was SO looking forward to it.

     Here below Bailey Park are some of the several hundred acres once owned by Gerard Crane in the 1800s. He was an entrepreneur who became successful in the menagerie business, acquiring exotic animals and exhibiting them on tours. One was an elephant called "Little Bet," sold to him by Hachaliah Bailey, who also owned the famous namesake for the Elephant Hotel. They say an elephant never forgets, but I can't remember why. Another is the rhinoceros for whom the reservation visible along Route 202 near Heritage Hills is named. Here on this park's land, ostriches were trained to race with riders upon their backs. Back then a collection of unusual and dangerous beasts was a lucrative business, and the precursor to the modern circus. The closest thing we have to that today is the United States Congress.

     Before our concert the Elephant Hotel will be open for tours to learn about him and other historical figures. Who knows? One day you could go down in history. Maybe you'll invent something useful like an "easy open package" that's easy to open. Or a self-driving exercise bike. Or a binary computer code with only "ones" in it. If I ever go down in history I'm unlikely to come back up. But I do know one thing: People who fail to learn from the past find out the hard way that there's no future in it. See you on the 28th!