Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I went back to Tivoli this weekend to attend a high school reubion. The school closed in 1965 and the reunion was for all the graduates ever. It will probably be the last since every body is at least 60. Although I had gone back to Tivoli fairly often over the years, I hadn't seen any schoolmates in 50 years or so. It turned out that Mary Alices's cousin had worked for IBM Kingston and built a house up Kerley Corners Road looking down on the village with the "million dollar view" of the Catskills. He retired and sold it four or five years ago and moved to Pine Plains.

About 100 people showed up at noon on Saturday for a cookout at the American Legion Hall. The old hall next to the Fire Station had burned down some years ago. The new one is a lot farther from the road. A good venue for this sort of thing. We had hamburgers, sausages, etc. The main thing was meeting everybody and finding ou t what people were doing.

I walked all over the village, reminiscing, and reliving the old days. The school is still there. It and the gym have been divided into a dozen appartments. The village has been transformed. It used to be a poor place with rundown houses and buildings. Then, the Beehive was active as a garment sweatshop. It now houses some Antique dealers. The village is now yuppified with an influx of people from Bard College. There are at least 5 restaraunts on Main Street. One is in the old Methodist Church. Wally Moore's soda shop was vacant for a lot of years and is now a Deli. Most properties are painted and fixed up with a vibrant pallette of colors. St Paul's is still going strong. The rectory has 4 or 5 apartments and the parish hall has disappeared. The field across Woods Road is a 20 house subdivision. Trinity Church closed a long time ago and is now a private residence.

Later we had a roast beef dinner with about 150 people. I sat with Vera Rifenburg, my only classmate present from 1948. There were 5 of us. Betty Downing married Bill Lasher and both have died. Bob Assanakis is in Florida and Buddy Moore is down south somewhere. I also sat with Betty Moore and Dan Takacs who were married in 1952. Dan was the Superintendent of Schools in Wappinger Falls. Lois Rockefeller was also at the table. She is quite infirm.

Other people in the class of 1949 or 1950:

Present:

Jean Pillon still lives in Tivoli. Her brother, Bummy, was killed in Korea.

Peter Sturges still lives on the family farm

Absent

Lloyd Demboski studied to be a mortician, but got into New York State politics and is still involved up in Albany. Audrey Lester lives in Virginia Veronica Lester lived in France and Belgium for many years, but is now living down south somewhere. Larry Takacs lives in Poughkeepsie, He had an accident the day before and couldn't come. Michael Teck, Rosemary (Tootsie) Coon and Mary Downing have died.

A lot of kids went to Plattsburg State Teachers. A lot of people have been priced out of living in Tivoli, but a fair percentage (50% ?) still live within 30 miles. As a group they are good, low profile, ordinary people. The salt of the earth. I'm happy to have gone to school with them.

That's about it. By the end of the evening, I was into sensory overload. If you have questions, I'll try to remember more.

Victor Dowdell