The James M. Cole Circus, Part Two

By Alice Askins, Education Coordinator at Rose Hill Mansion

The Cole Family

 In November 1943, the Geneva Daily Times reported

 Cole, Circus Owner, Inducted Into Army

Penn Yan, Nov. 9—James M. Cole, Penn Yan's 37-year-old circus owner and proprietor, passed his physical examination for induction into the U. S. armed forces in Rochester yesterday leaving Penn Yan with a group of inductees Monday morning.

Cole closed his circus several weeks early this Fall to come home and place his equipment in storage for the duration. He had previously been placed in Class 1A.

Married, Cole has a 3 1-2 year old son.  

You might wonder what the army saw fit to do with Mr. Cole, and in fact it used his experience well.  

Circus Teaches Army Says Penn Yan Soldier In Radio Interview

 Penn Yan, Jan. 17 [1944]—Pvt. James Cole . . . now with a Transportation Corps in New Orleans, Louisiana, recently was featured on a radio program presented by soldiers  . . . over a New Orleans station January 8^th[.]  Pvt. Cole told of the highlights of his career as owner and manager of the James M. Cole Circus  . . . He compared his training methods employed by men of the circus with those of the Army . . .  “In both outfits," he said, [“]it is a matter of drill, drill and more drill until each man or animal learns to do a certain job in split second precision."  Pvt. Cole also made mention of the problem of transportation—that of moving an army of entertainers as well as fighters.  He related that the Army studied the methods adopted by the circus in transporting their personnel and equipment.  Some of these methods have since been used, he said.   . . .   

Pvt. Cole's wife, Dorothy, and their 3 1-2-year-old son, Sonny, are . . .  looking forward to the return of Pvt. Cole when the family plans again to take up their circus life where they left off when Uncle Sam sent "Greetings" to "Jimmy" to become a part of the world's biggest "show.”   . . .

 A year after Mr. Cole left for Louisiana, his wife Dorothy and son came to live near him in their house trailer.  The Daily Times reported

Sgt. Jimmy is in the work he likes and understands—transportation, and no job in the Army has proved any more difficult than keeping a motorized circus on schedule in all kinds of weather and over all types of terrain.  Jimmy . . . is helping the Army maintain the fine job they have been doing in moving men and supplies to all fronts to bring Victory to the American forces and their allies.

In December 1945, the Times observed that Mr. Cole had been discharged, and that

. . . he no sooner had returned home than his workers began to filter back, some like himself, wearing the discharged veterans service button.  A lieutenant of Marines, still on duty in Guam awaiting his discharge, wrote to Jimmy this week seeking a job as secretary.  . . .  A discharged sailor of the Merchant Marine called on Jimmy this week to arrange for a candy floss and novelties concession.  "All those three years I was on board ship - even when the torpedoes were flying—all I thought of was that concession. I figured it all out and the minute I was out of service I bought that candy floss machine and now I'm happy," the sailor told Cole.

It is not unusual in post-war adjustments, Cole says, to find veterans eager to take up circus life.  They are restless, want to be on the move and the bustle of the traveling show business offers them the period of readjustment needed before stepping back into civilian life.  After the other World War, numbers of servicemen joined up with circuses to fulfill the urge to move with crowds.

Though German paratroopers did not rain down on the US, people must have seen images like this.

In The Decorative Arts of the Forties and Fifties writer Bevis Hillier studied the imagery of the post-war period in England, and found that circuses appeared frequently.  He believed that the circus stood for, and detoxified, the image of the army.  Mr. Hillier also argued that toy balloons stood for parachutes (something small, harmless, and fun that goes up, replacing something threatening that comes down,) and that mermaids, found frequently in post-war English imagery, replaced the threat of submarines.  I talked to a friend who experienced the post-war period in the US, and she thought this sounded a bit far-fetched.  She is probably right, but it is an interesting thought.  England, with its very different experience of the war, would have coped with it mentally in a different way than we did.  Still, if American soldiers after two world wars found themselves drawn to the circus – a situation where people and equipment move in organized groups for a purpose, but the purpose is fun rather than killing – it suggests that Mr. Hillier might have something there.  It seems reasonable that we would present ourselves with comforting images after stress and fear.

We do have this Times article about bubbles and balloons from October 1945, that ring a similar note:

 Bursting In Air

 

Don’t be surprised if the next thing is a bubble party.  Or has it arrived, with youngsters blowing bubbles at pedestrians up and down Main street?  Who starts such fads, anyhow? Let there be more, for people need escape from the effects of other and sadder globular bursts in the air.
Speaking of these inoffensive, multi-colored spheres that provide a chuckle even when one bounces on the minister's nose or the teacher’s glasses, is this nation aware of the fact that the children of today have grown up without having had the fun of playing with toy balloons?  Toy balloon manufacturers went to war.  Their products became vital in meteorology and for other requirements of the armed forces.  . . .

It's refreshing to welcome back the legerdemain of bubble-blowing.  . . .   here’s to bigger and better bubbles.

Bowl made in the US during the post-war period.

Geography of Food in the 1940s

By John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits

“Food deserts” are a current topic in government and academic research. The US Department of Agriculture defines the term as “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. The lack of access contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.”[i]

One could say this doesn’t apply to Geneva; after all, we have Wegmans AND Tops! We’re a small city and one place isn’t that far from anywhere else. However, if you don’t have a car for whatever reason, you become dependent on friends, taxis, or the CATS bus schedule. Then you know that Hamilton Street is not, in fact, centrally located.

Many readers, regardless of where they grew up, will remember this was not always the case. The historical society is blessed with a fine collection of city directories that show the type and location of businesses around Geneva. Let’s look at what was available, and where, in the 1940s.

In the 1945 city directory, there were 46 grocery stores. Fifteen were part of chains: A&P, IGA, Loblaws, Market Basket (headquarters in Geneva), and Red & White. Based on surnames, many of the independent stores were owned by Italian Americans. The Market Basket and Red & White stores were out in the neighborhoods as well as downtown, often near independent stores.

There were 10 meat markets, not counting the Market Basket headquarters.

There were six bakeries.

There were two local dairies – AJ Tarr and Geneva Milk Company/ White Springs Farm Dairy (located at the same address) – on opposite ends of North Street. While it doesn’t fit the USDA definition of healthy food, there were seven confectioners selling ice cream and/or candy.

I mapped out the approximate locations of these businesses with the following colors: green = grocery stores; red = meat shops; blue = bakeries; and purple = dairies. I used a modern map and cropped the western section of the city that didn’t really develop until after World War II; there were no food stores south of Hamilton Street.

  

The heaviest concentration was in the downtown area. On Exchange Street, there were several stores in one block, often on the same side of the street. The working class neighborhoods of East North Street (“the Butt End”) and North Genesee Street (Torrey Park) were well-supplied with stores. The area with the fewest stores was the fairly new, at the time, neighborhood west of Maxwell Avenue.

There are several points to keep in mind. Downtown was the center of commercial, and often social, activity; people were accustomed to going downtown on a daily basis. A good portion of the city was within three blocks of downtown (if we include all of Exchange Street) – not a bad walk. There was a public bus, operated by Lont’s Bus & Cab Lines, that covered most of the city. Finally, the dairies and larger meat and grocery stores offered free home delivery.

There was greater access to food stores in the 1940s; obviously, wartime rationing, and poverty were limiting factors. Stores seemed to coexist with each other, particularly the chain and independent markets. It would take more research to determine the best prices – were goods cheaper downtown than in the neighborhoods? – and when small stores began disappearing.

---

[i] http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx

Christmas Musings

By Karen Osburn, Archivist

What did you ask for on your Christmas list as a child?  People who know me well won’t be surprised to know that every year I asked Santa, and later my parents when it became apparent that Santa didn’t get the message, for a pony.  I scoured the Christmas “Wish Book” for rocking horses and asking for one of those with the idea that Santa might go for that.  Sadly, Santa, my parents, my grandparents, my cousin, even my aunt and uncle couldn’t be persuaded to bring me an equine breathing or carved of wood.  Oh, everyone had great excuses from “a pony wouldn’t fit in the sleigh” to “we don’t have enough land.” The last phrase being a blatant falsehood since at the time I was asking we had 3 acres and our neighbors had 150 plus there were several horse farms in the area so zoning wasn’t a problem either. 

Phooey!  What did I get instead?  Well, Santa was generous. I have a vague memory of a Christmas morning with the floor under the tree covered with presents.  I must have been about 3 that year; I doubt I would have remembered a Christmas before that.  I was frequently given dolls, I remember a “Betsy Wetsy” though I don’t remember asking for a doll that needed to have its diapers changed.  One year I got quite a large doll, probably close to 24 inches high.  It was impressive, but dolls didn’t hold much interest for me until Barbie became available.  I think it was her clothes that appealed to me.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like my presents, it is just that they didn’t hold my interest and two days after Christmas, the dolls sat in the corner and I was back to playing with stuffed animals.

I just wasn’t a “doll-type” of girl much to my mother’s chagrin.  She always wanted dolls as a child and wanted me to like them, too.  These memories came flooding back to me when I was researching an article on the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the 1940s. I encountered an ad for Montgomery Ward after Thanksgiving shopping sale (Black Friday was alive and well in the 1940s).  The girls’ toys mentioned were a tea set, an Army Nurses kit complete with uniform, and a pastry set for “little mothers”.  I might have enjoyed the pastry set, though what being a mother had to do with baking is beyond me.  I would not have been interested in a nurse kit or a tea set.  Where were the cowgirl outfits?  Where were the stuffed dogs, cats, and bears? Where were the Lincoln Logs?  The 1940s advertisements seemed pretty stereotypical of what you would expect to receive if you were a boy or a girl of that time period.  Girls did not play solider or cowboy and boys did not play nurse.  Times have certainly changed!

I did some research on Christmas Catalogs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and found a few pages that were pretty representative of what I asked for and what I go instead.  Can you tell which was which?  I even found one page that I vaguely remembered that mentioned you could buy live pets, cocker spaniels and hamsters in this case, through the catalogs!  Of course this wasn’t a great idea then and would never work today, but it was nice to have my childhood memory verified.  I hope looking at some of this advertisements stir some pleasant Christmas memories for you and I hope each of you enjoys this beautiful season celebrating in you r own traditional ways.

Oh, I did finally get to ride an adult size rocking horse at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.  There is enough “child” in me that I would have bought one if I had money to waste and the space to put it.  I guess there are some things you do not outgrow.

Christmas Dreaming

By Kerry Lippincott, Executive Director

Seneca Street, ca. 1947

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas 

Just like the ones I used to know 

Where the treetops glisten 

and children listen 

To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

Some of my favorite memories are associated with Christmas - the Festival of Lights at Sonnenberg, seeing The Nutcracker at the Smith Opera House and A Christmas Carol at Geva, picking out a new ornament each year for the tree, having Christmas breakfast with my grandparents, and playing “Sleigh Ride” throughout high school for the holiday band concert.  One of my favorite memories is the year my brother and I left oats for Rudolph (apparently we thought he would share with the other reindeer).  On Christmas morning we discovered that Rudolph had made an absolute mess of the oats.  Not only were oats all over our drive way and front yard but on our roof as well.  I can still remember my brother and I watching from the living room window as Dad and Grandpa “investigated” the situation.  From then on we left Rudolph carrots.

As we prepare for our 1940s themed fundraiser in February I was delighted to discover that many of the things I enjoy about Christmas date to the 1940s.

It’s a Wonderful Life is not the only 1940s holiday movie.  Others include Miracle on 34^th Street, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Shop Around the Corner, Holiday Inn, The Bishop’s Wife, Christmas in Connecticut and Holiday Affair.

The 1940s may have been the era of big bands but the decade also saw the debut of several Christmas classics.  These songs include “White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Let It Snow,” “Sleigh Ride,” “All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth),” and “Meli Kalikimaka.”

When it comes to Christmas trees everyone has their own preference.  For me, it’s a real tree with white lights, ornaments, and no tinsel.  During World War II, however, with the lack of manpower to cut down trees and the shortage of railroad space to ship trees to market there was an actual shortage of Christmas trees.  So, people used smaller, table-top trees, artificial trees (made out of feathers, netting or chenille) and bottlebrush trees.

Here’s a few more tidbits about Christmas in the 1940s

Our Boy's Fund sent Christmas packages to every Genevan serving in the armed forces.

• To me there is nothing lovelier than white candles in the windows of historic houses. As a symbol that everyone would return home, candles were placed in windows during World War II.
• Fewer men on the home front meant there fewer men available to play Santa Claus.  As they did in countless ways, women stepped in and served as substitute Santas in department stores throughout the country
• Scottie dogs became popular images on everything from greeting cards to wrapping paper.    This was due to President Roosevelt’s dog, Fala, who had become the nation’s unofficial mascot.
• Red, green and coral colored cellophane was used as wrapping paper and to make wreaths. 
• Many items made their debut in the 1940s.  New items that may have appeared under the tree or in stockings include paperback books, Slinkys, Legos, Little Golden Books, Silly Putty, Scrabble, transistor radios, Candyland and Clue.

This holiday season I hope you will join us for a 1940s Holiday Open House on Friday, December 5 and the 46^th Annual Wassail Bowl on Saturday, December 6.  Perhaps you’ll make some of your own Christmas memories.

Exchange Street, ca. 1943

World War II in the Geneva Daily Times

John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits

When we did our World War II project in the early 1990s, Kathryn Grover was hired to research, write, and lay out the exhibit and book, Close to the Heart of the War. As part of her contract, we received all her research notes for our archives. I recently pulled out one of the large boxes to look at her source material. Any project, i.e. an exhibit, book, or documentary, reflects the creator’s selection of what to include or leave out; it’s good to look at the research with fresh eyes.

In addition to newspapers and records from our collection, Kathryn used scrapbooks that were kept during World War II. She photocopied them so she could more easily flip through pages and make notes on the copies. Scrapbooks show the creator’s interests and are assembled in a unique way, which gives them historical value. In the case of these albums, the creator(s) kept a chronological collection of Geneva Daily Times articles that only pertained to Geneva and surrounding towns. These could be recreated from microfilm, but one would have to wade through all the national news, advertising, and sports to do it – work already done by the scrapbooker.

Regular columns included “Boys in the Service” and “News of Our Men and Women in Uniform.” (I can’t tell the difference in content, so I’m not sure why there were separate columns.) They were a collection of snippets about servicemen and women, often reported by relatives who had received a letter; news ranged from receiving a Bronze Star to confirmation that someone was still safe.

As I mentioned last time, Hobart and William Smith students researched Geneva and the war for a class project. One of them looked at these photocopies and said something to the effect, “They used up a lot of space talking about nothing, didn’t they?” Seeing things out of context is not limited to the young; it bears pointing out conditions in the early 1940s. Information was censored by the government for security reasons. Mail from the war theaters was very slow and sporadic; one local POW beat a letter home by nine months. Most Times readers knew someone in the war, so one sentence in the paper, for example, that PFC Rollo was safe in England was very welcome news.

When more information was known, there were longer articles on servicemen and women. It seems that the paper focused on success stories, i.e. survival and promotion, with the occasional humorous-with-a-happy-ending tale:

Sadder but equally important were the Killed in Action notices and photos. I hesitate to post examples; seventy years later, people are still alive who remember where they were when they received the news of a loved one’s death in the war.

These photocopied scrapbook pages are available to read during archive hours (Tuesday through Friday, 1:30 – 4:30 pm). Whether you’re looking for mention of a relative or just interested in how the war was reported, they’re a good read.

Dreams Come True: The James M. Cole Circus

By Alice Askins, Education Coordinator at Rose Hill Mansion

While looking for interesting topics from the 1940s, I ran across the James M. Cole Circus of Penn Yan.  This is a little of its story from the 40s, as reported (mostly) in the Geneva Daily Times.

The writers sounded a little envious of Mr. Cole – they always referred to him as a man who had fulfilled his dream.  As the Times put it in 1947,

James M. Cole . . . has the unusual distinction of choosing his life's work at the earliest age on record.  When a little over three years of age . . . his first circus  . . . . made such an impression on his infant mind that  . . . before he was five years old he had formed a fixed determination to travel with a circus.  However, it was not until he had reached sixteen that . . . he joined a travelling show that had visited his hometown.  From water boy to circus owner is a long way and Mr. Cole has seen his dream come true. 

Mr. Cole started his circus in 1938 as an indoor show that played in schools.  In 1940, it started in Penn Yan and traveled through Canandaigua, Waterloo, Watkins Glen, Ithaca, Whitney Point, and Geneva.  The next year it opened in Dundee and went on to

Bath, Hammondsport, Syracuse, Utica, Cortland, Herkimer, Little Falls and several other cities in the Mohawk and Hudson valleys.  After that it went on to schools in New England.

By the summer of 1941, the Cole circus was doing outdoor shows as well as indoor, and the Penn Yan Democrat said that it “has branched out into a canvas show, with a spring and summer schedule.”  In 1943 the show even did a tour through the southern states.

The school shows were often benefits for Senior class projects or other causes, and the Coles continued their good works with the outdoor shows as well.  In May 1947, for example, all tickets bought before circus day in Penn Yan benefitted Rotary Club youth programs.

The Cole circus featured such artists as Miacuha, the Wonder Girl of South America, a wire walker; Millie May, Queen of the Air; Mademoiselle Margurette, an aerialist; the Great Bartoni troupe of bareback riders; the Aerial Smalls, stars of the double trapeze; and Billy Barton, 14-year-old artist of the Cloud Swing.  By 1946, Cole had signed up the Conley troop of bareback riders; Alvarado, the Latin American wirewalker; Capt. Eugene Christey and his jungle cats; and Tama Frank, famed knife thrower

James Cole Jr. with Frieda

Though the circus included a variety of artists, the Coles were best known for their elephant acts.  First came Jumbo, who, the Times explained, belonged to Captain Rudy Mueller and was “the only elephant to appear in a current success on Broadway.”  The show was Billy Rose’s Jumbo, which was later made into a movie.  Based on newspaper account “she can draw herself a drink from a tap, and in fact . . . can do anything she is told to do.”  Jumbo performed with a trained camel named Sanya, a Great Dane named Aster, and a Shetland pony named Prince.  Unfortunately, the paper did not describe the act, only mentioning that it was one of the finest animal acts ever presented.  Jumbo  occasionally appeared in movies, like Elephant Boy with Sabu, and performed on radio where she trumpeted on cue, “sang,” (again, not described,) and did “several other acts calling for unusual animal perception.”

Eventually, the Coles seem to have wanted their very own elephants.  Their first, Frieda, was a veteran of five other circuses and joined the Cole Circus in April 1946.  Not only was Frieda the star of the Cole circus, she was often in the paper.  In October 1946, for example, she led the children through Penn Yan on Halloween. 

“Frieda" . . . will be prima donna of the giant community Halloween celebration and parade planned for the youngsters of the community . . .  [she] will lead the snake dance which is scheduled to form at the Wagner Hotel at 7 p.m. and proceed down Main street . . . With the big elephant will be cows and other animals, and pets of the children taking part. . . .

This sounds like a delightful experience.  Did anyone out there dance with Frieda, cows, and others on Halloween?

Frieda was also a troublemaker.

—Frieda Does It Again—

Elephants Take Moonlight Walk in Penn Yan Streets

Penn Yan, May 27 [1947]—Freida [sic] has done it again.  Or at least [she] is being blamed for an escapade which saw two elephants on a middle-of-the-night parade through the Main street here . . .

Frieda has a known penchant for releasing herself and other elephants of the Cole herd from their shackles, and last night she must have done it again.  Frieda and Dorothy, the circus pet, a 290-pound baby elephant strolled down the street about 2:30 a. m., through the business section from the fairgrounds to the post office.

Then, nonchalantly, they turned around, walked west to Maiden Lane where they were met by the village police officers on duty, Charles Pitcher and Robert Alexander. . . .

Jimmy Cole and the elephant trainer, John Pugh, showed up about then, having missed the elephants from the lot.  Quietly, they herded the non-reluctant elephants back to the fairgrounds.

Frieda once released the whole herd from their shackles, even to carefully removing their head-stalls.   . . .

 At one point the Coles had five elephants, but the ones the papers mentioned most often besides Frieda were Elizabeth and Dorothy.  I did not find much on Elizabeth, but Dorothy came directly from Ceylon at nine months old.   Baby Dorothy was also very popular.  She was billed as the smallest elephant in the circus world, and the paper reported that she searched through peoples’ pockets in hopes of finding treats.  By the time he was seven, James Cole Jr. was working the elephants in their act, and for some years he was “the youngest elephant trainer in the country.”

Coming up next, the circus and World War II.

James Cole, Jr. with Elizabeth, Frieda, Dorothy

Rationing and Recipes

By Karen Osburn, Archivist

When I was in high school girls took “home economics” classes and boys took “shop” classes.  I remember coming home from the first cooking class in home economics and showing my mom what foods they were going to teach us to prepare.  My mother was not impressed, for that matter I wasn’t either.  I only remember 3 or 4 of the recipes, but one was broiled grapefruit.  My mother said she had learned to make broiled grapefruit in her home making class three decades before mine and her comment was “Why on earth don’t they teach you cook something useful, like a roast or vegetables?”  I tended to agree with her.  By the time I got to this “cooking class” I had been helping her cook and bake for several years and I would have been happier learning to do woodworking in shop class then broiling a grapefruit.  Why would you want to cook a perfectly good grapefruit?  I think it is pretty tasty in its natural, raw state.  In the 1960s the idea still lingered that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.  In all the years I have cooked I have never had a man ask me to make him a broiled grapefruit just like his mom used to make.  I have been asked for apple pie or pot roast perhaps, but a broiled grapefruit, never!

Flash forward some four decades and I find myself looking for recipes that accommodate the rationing of scarce ingredients, such as butter, eggs, white sugar or milk during the years of the Second World War. The historical society is hosting an event at Club 86 in February revolving around WW II music, food and entertainment which prompted me to research recipes and I found some really interesting ones.  One that sticks in my mind is a British recipe for imitation mashed bananas using parsnips, sugar and banana “essence” (extract?).  I am not sure I can see the point of imitation bananas, except if you don’t care for the taste of parsnips the whole concoction may taste better disguised as bananas.  What surprised me was locating a recipe that I had made in home economics class and liked! 

I really like chocolate, the darker the better and one of the food items we made was a chocolate cake that you mixed right in the baking pan and put in the oven.  It had vinegar in it and didn’t sound great but sure tasted good and there was much less cleanup without the extra mixing bowl.  There in the midst of my World War II recipe research was the one useful, tasty thing I learned to make in that class.  I had no idea it had come from that era.  I was quite pleased and I’m looking forward to trying it again. 

There were some really interesting recipes from the era of rationing and shortages.  One was a cake that had no eggs, butter or milk in it.  Someday I may try it if I am brave enough.  It sounds a bit like a fruit cake.  See for yourself:

  

Eggless, Butterless, Milkless Cake

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups hot water

1 tsp cloves

2 Tbsps.  Shortening

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp soda

1 package seedless raisins

Method

Boil together the sugar, water, shortening, salt, raisins and spices for five minutes. Cool.  When cold, add flour and soda dissolved in a teaspoon of hot water.

The recipe makes 2 loaves. I suggest using greased loaf pans and baking about 45 minutes in a 325 degree oven.  The cake has a good texture and will keep moist for some time.

*From Cooking on the Home Front: Favorite Recipes of the World War II Years.

Another British recipe is called Raisin Crisps:

6 oz. self raising flour or plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp. dried egg

2 oz. Sugar

2 oz. margarine

2 oz. raisins, chopped

A few drops of almond essence (extract)

Method

Mix the flour, dried egg and sugar.  Rub in the margarine and add the raisins, essence and enough mild to bind into a firm dough.  Roll out thinly and cut into 2-inch rounds.   Cook in the center of a *moderate oven for 20 minutes.

*I would expect a moderate oven to be about 350 degrees.

Finally from Cookes.Com recipe search is a recipe for World War II Syrup Cake:

1 c. Karo Syrup

2 eggs

2 c. Flour

¾ c. Butter or shortening

½ c. Cocoa

3 tsp. baking powder

1/3 tsp. baking soda

1/3 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. all spice

½ tsp. nutmeg

Method

Mix well, bake at 350 degrees in a loaf or Bundt pan until done (a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

I am glad we don’t have to use recipes like this anymore.  Perhaps it was enduring some of the lingering war-time ration recipes as a child that made me a bit picky today, but I am not fond of parsnips or raisins even now.  Still there is that quick and easy little chocolate cake.  Give people a few basic ingredients and a way to prepare them and you can be very pleasantly surprised by the result. I think I am going to go make up that cake now and see if it still lives up to expectations.

Throughout the year groups and organizations often use a month to raise awareness of an issue, commemorate an event or group, or celebrate something.  For example,  May is Asthma Awareness Month, National Bike Month, Zombie Awareness Month, National Pet Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month.  November is New York State History Month.  The purpose of this is to celebrate the history of the state and recognize the contributions of state and local historians.   What can you do to celebrate New York State History Month? Keep it local!

• If it’s been awhile since your last visit to the Geneva History Museum, come and check out the exhibits. 
• Attend one of our World War II themed programs. 
• Like the Geneva Historical Society and Rose Hill Mansion Facebook pages
• Visit or attend a program at one of the many history museums in Ontario, Yates and Seneca Counties.  Here’s a list to get you started -

                 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse

                 Clifton Springs Historical Society 

                 Ganondagan

                 Granger Homestead

                 National Memorial Day Museum

                 Ontario County Historical Society

                 Phelps Historical Society

                 Seneca Falls Historical Society 

                 Sonnenberg

                 Women’s Rights National Historical Park 

                 Yates County History Center

World War II Revisted

By John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits

In February 2015 our fundraising dinner and music event will have a 1940s theme. “Wining and dining” events are always popular; as a historical society, we are building more educational programming around our fundraisers. While significant events took place between 1946 and 1949, World War II dominates the popular conception of the 1940s.

In 1995 we opened a major exhibit, Close to the Heart of the War: Geneva and World War II, and published a companion book. We conducted “history harvests” to identify people with stories, artifacts and photos. A researcher recorded many hours of oral history interviews and scoured local newspapers and records. So, why do World War II again? Is there anything left to say?

Of course there is, and here are three reasons:

Younger audiences. The youngest children of WWII vets are probably around 50 years old. Increasing numbers of visitors have no living relatives from that era and don’t feel a direct connection to the war. Museums, and our special collections in particular, can tell stories that engage visitors in ways that facts and statistics cannot.

New Genevans. Older residents, and followers of the historical society, are aware of the huge impact of the war on Geneva. To new arrivals (and the city does attract new residents every year), “Sampson” is a state park and “the ordnance depot” is home to a herd of white deer. The construction and operation of those two facilities brought thousands of new people to Geneva, whether on a 6-hour leave from training camp or to live. For new Genevan interested in history, it’s an important time period to understand.

New angles. There is always new information to discover. In 2008 we acquired a foot locker and other possessions of Robert Linzy, an African American staff sergeant from Geneva. Letters and photos continue to surface that weren’t available in the early 1990s. Of all the information that was generated during the earlier research, only a portion of it was used in the exhibit and book.

Robert Linzy

Geneva Night Out, Friday November 7, will incorporate all three of these elements in one exhibit. Students from the Public History course at Hobart & William Smith will present posters on aspects of Geneva and World War II. Issues closest to their hearts influence their research. Some are interested in the how the war affected the Colleges, others are looking at the social scene and nightlife during that time. Some are influenced by their other classes; one student is interested in the environmental impact of war efforts such as the Ordnance Depot and Sampson Naval Training Station.

All the students are charged with coming up with something new, rather than pasting sections of Close to the Heart of the War on a poster. It means moving past their own generational perspective, learning more about Geneva so they can evaluate the war’s impact, and looking for new material that wasn’t used in the previous projects.