Join us for a sneak preview at the Chapman Museum
Remember the show `The Newsroom?' It was way ahead of its time
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This project was a year in the making.
The goal was to create something so beautiful everyone would want to see it during the holidays.
Ultimately, it would draw more attention to the Chapman Museum and its mission to tell the story of Glens Falls.
For years, people have been visiting what we at the newspaper called the "Griswold House" over on Clayton Avenue in Glens Falls. Paul Smith's collection of lights and displays is an attraction that has been the holiday standard for decades.
It is another one of those things that makes Glens Falls totally unique.
It's what we were hoping to start at the Chapman this year.
Another tradition.
Another way for us all to love this city.
This week, we finished.
As I left the Civil War-era DeLong House Monday afternoon, I had a smile on my face.
There were six dazzling Christmas trees, a display of hand-carved German Christmas nutcrackers, the complete collection of presidential ornaments from the White House Historical Association and a penguin habitat upstairs that I doubt anyone has ever seen before.
There is also a model train display arriving Thursday.
Outside there are wreaths on all the windows, the porch adorned in holiday greenery and new festive lighting that lights up the house like never before.
I'm proud of the work our decorating committee has done and I'm inviting you all to see it in a special sneak preview Sunday afternoon. I'll be there to show you around with informal tours on the hour to answer questions about our creation.
We'd like everyone to donate $10 - all goes to the Chapman Museum - and a chance to talk you in to becoming a member of the Chapman and supporting its mission of local history. It's just $25. It's time for the Chapman and the history of Hometown, USA to take center stage.
Last December, I formed a decorating committee to raise the standard of holiday cheer and my first recruit was my late wife Gillian whose talent for decorating was unparalleled. Honestly, she didn't want to do it, at least at first. She was not a joiner, nor a public person, but she came with me to the meetings and as we walked around the old house last December, she saw the same potential.
And the ideas began to trickle out.
I was looking for like-minded people I had met over the years. I got Paul Smith, the visionary behind the "Griswold House," to advise us early. I asked for volunteers from the Chapman Museum and got Andrea Matte and family friend Meg Hagerty on board. After doing a story about a retired DPW worker in Queensbury whose home-made penguins, polar bears and ice sculptures adorned his corner lot in Queensbury, Rich Elmer joined up as well. And when our electrician, Tony Derrick, started telling us about his own decorations, I knew Tony was a kindred spirit.
Most of us had not met before that first meeting in January. What I remember most about that meeting was someone asking how much was in the budget.
"There is no budget," I said. "We are going to ask for donations. We are going to rely on the kindness of the people of Glens Falls."
And we did.
Gradually, calls and emails arrived from people downsizing, cleaning out their basements, but most of all wanting to find a home for a lifetime of family heirlooms they held so dear.
An elderly couple had a box of 58 home-made Christmas stockings to hang by the chimney with care. The wife wanted to know how many I wanted. I took them all and they are all on display, even thought the Chapman has just two fireplaces.
Another person donated their pristine collection of ornaments from the White House Historical Association.
And from the beginning, I promised everyone we would have a penguin habitat unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
There was skepticism in the air.
When I asked Dustin St. Andrews at Ace Hardware if he had any leftover product from the previous Christmas, he told me could donate 16 wreaths and two nine-foot Christmas trees for the front rooms at the DeLong House.
By summertime, we had enough decorations to do a dry run to see what the outside would look like. There in the heat, we hung our wreaths as shorts-wearing pedestrians strolled by as if Christmas in July was the most normal thing in the world.
We had discussions with the Upstate Model Railroaders Club about building a diorama to reflect downtown Glens Falls - complete with running trolley line - circa 1890 or so.
To fund that project, several citizens reached into their pockets to fund the endeavor and when we came up a little short, the Sandy Hill Foundation made up the difference.
Over the past three weeks, we put our plan into action.
First was the outside of the house where our electrician Tony installed new lighting for a new era at the DeLong House.
We assembled the committee on consecutive Mondays - when the museum is closed - to transform the house.
I now hold the record for most trips to the third-floor storage space, but it is done.
Along the way, we had setbacks. My partner, the creative genius behind all things Christmas left me in August leaving me with a vision I struggled to articulate. This past weekend, with our work almost done, I still was not satisfied with the look and I said to Meg we needed to "Gillian-ize" the decorating.
So that's what we did.
I didn't want it to be just beautiful, but unforgettable.
My penguin promise languished for most of the summer as life got in the way.
Ken Wheeler, a local artist with the train club, offered me up some scrap pieces of foam insulation and showed me how to chisel out a form.
But I procrastinated, and procrastinated some more as the spring turned into summer and summer turned into fall. Finally, late one October evening, I pulled out one of those scrap pieces of foam insolation and started to chisel out my iceberg.
I showed up a couple days later at the Chapman armed with a couple of large plastic tubs; one was filled with penguins, the other the decorations my wife used on her own penguin display in our home a year earlier.
I had no idea what I was doing, I thought, but as it turned out I must have paid picked up something during these past four decades. Or maybe there was someone whispering in my ear.
When I was done, I looked at my creation and said to myself, "There is no way you did that."
Later, I added a new chapter to Glens Falls lore with the story of the Adirondack Penguins. You will have to visit to hear that part of the story.
So I'm hoping you will join me Sunday and let me show you around.
It's not an official tour.
It is not a learning opportunity.
It is just a chance for you to see what a group of people can do to make the world a little more colorful in these difficult times.
I hope you pony up the $10 to help with the holiday expenses, and also become a member of the Chapman Museum - it's only $25 - as we continue our journey in telling the rich story of Glens Falls and its surrounding communities. Maybe, you might want to join our little group next year.
These past few days walking through the house wondering how to make it even better, I started to think of all the Christmas celebrations held in this house in the past.
The house felt alive like I have never seen it before. As you go tree by tree, you realize, it struck me how all those donated ornaments represented stories of so many families all across the city.
The ornaments they held so dear had new life.
In our house, where the hostess made each Christmas more dazzling than the last, we saved the final present each year for her.
It was always a large rectangular box.
Each year its contents contained a hand-carved nutcracker from Germany.
Gillian loved those nutcrackers.
They are alive again this year as well.
I hope you love them as much as she did.
Voting statistic
Generally speaking about 50 percent of eligible voters turn out for most most presidential elections - sometimes a little more.
When I was editor at The Post-Star, the editorial board encouraged everyone to vote.
But when you see a statistic like the one from the organization Data for Progress, that idea seems misplaced.
Data for Progress reported in a new study that people who paid "a great deal" of attention to politics voted for Kamala Harris by six percentage points.
Those who said they did not follow politics at all voted for Donald Trump by 19 points.
Mandate?
The voting trends for the presidential election have reversed this year.
In 2020, Donald Trump took a big early lead and Joe Biden gradually overtook him as the mail-in votes were tabulated.
This year, Trump took the early lead and Kamala Harris could not overtake him, but as the remaining votes are counted, the race has gotten closer and closer.
Statements that Trump won an overwhelming victory are not true.
It was close.
The Cook Political Report reported over the weekend that Trump's share of the popular vote was down to 49.96 while Harris was at 48.24. Still a clear victory for Trump because of the Electoral College, but still razor thin. It is expected to get even closer as some of the rural California districts report results.
The Newsroom
I was a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama about a TV anchorman called "The Newsroom."
The opening episode has a Sorkin-esque speech about why the United States is not the greatest country in the world anyhmore.
Listening to it again this week, it seemed to apply more than ever.
The episode first aired in 2012. Aaron Sorkin was way ahead of his time.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Nice and comforting to read about what a small group of dedicated people can do when they work together from their hearts. Congratulations!
What a wonderful way to honor Gillian's passion for celebrating Christmas, as you promote support for the Chapman Museum. See you on Sunday! 🎄