Exploring our neighborhood

This morning we went for a walk down the road past our little complex. There were more abandon, run down old places than there were with people living in them. And then in the midst of all of them there was this beautiful park with a huge pond in the middle with a walking path around it that is stocked with three types of fish, a huge play toy for kids to play on, a really huge dutch oven-bar-b-que pit, covered pavilion with picnic tables, even restrooms, and a massive tennis court area that was very nice. It had about 8 different courts all together. A huge project that the sportsman federation and Garden club, and Renaissance company built. Very nice.

From what we have gathered, this area was a huge resort place in the 50-70's. The Mofia had a lot of summer homes here. Huge homes. Then there was "Woodstock" in 1969. It is in a little place called Bethelwoods that is about 10 minutes from where we live. Much of the places here are abandon. They are trying to bring it back to life again with out much success. The state of New York has a lot of housing assistance in this area. "Section 8" housing. Many people don't like the city so they come up here and the government assists them. Many don't have cars up here. Now that is crazy because everything is so far apart. Hence the reason we become a taxi service for many to get to church and other activities. The younger Elders are not allowed to have any one in their car with them, mission rules. Many of the abandon places are little bungalow housing areas.

It is still a summer resort area for all the Hasitic Jews who come here. They have huge bungalow resort areas that they fence off. Most all of them drive mini-vans and and they all dress the same. The men down to the little toddlers wear dark pants, white shirt, dark long taled suit coat, little black caps with tall top hats as well. The women all dress in dark skirts and are always very modest. The men don't shave the hair on their heads in the temple region. So they have these ringlets down both sides of their faces and the rest of their hair is short. During the summer months thousands of them infiltrate this area. Come fall, they all head back to the city. They don't like to mix and mingle with the "Gentiles" other people like you and me. They are crazy drivers and the locals get really frustrated with this time of year. It is a real oddity for a couple of westerners like the two of us.