CT-242 CORNERSTONE TRAVELER AUG. 5 ‘14

Hi to all my readers of this bi-weekly newsletter, The CORNERSTONE TRAVELER both in print here at P&G’s and also on the web at cornerstonetraveler.com.

mid-Hudson Valley news: The Ulster County Fair was last week (July 29-Aug. 2). Fifteen dollars for the fair included parking, entertainment and rides. I didn’t go because my leg and back were hurting badly and I knew the most I would find at this county fair were food vendors and games of chance. There were music venues at the fair, but not in the afternoon when I wanted to attend.
Of the three county fairs in the mid-Hudson Valley (Ulster, Orange and Dutchess) the Dutchess County Fair is by far the best.
At the Dutchess County Fair you will see local artisans selling their wares. This is lacking at both the Ulster and Orange county Fairs.
At the Dutchess County Fair you will see blacksmiths, old printing presses and dozens of old wood fired steam engines doing everything from shucking corn, cutting wood and cracking stone. Year after year I have found the Dutchess County Fair to be the best of the local county fairs. At the Dutchess County Fair you will even see and go into an old one room school house with old style desks, blackboard and such.
Later this month, August 15, 16, 17, there will be the Rib Fest at the Ulster County Fair grounds in New Paltz. You can get a one day pass for this Rib Fest at hudsonvalleyribfest.org for five dollars or a three day pass for ten dollars.

observations: The chaos and blood shed in the mid-east between the Israelis and Hamas is continuing because for some silly ass reason Hamas wants the blood bath to continue with the thought that they can defeat the Israelis which they never will not only because Israel is protected by the Iron Dome against Hamas rockets, but also because America and European Allies will not allow this to happen.
You have to wonder why the Palestinians allow Hamas to let so many Palestinians to be killed? Why? Because the people of Palestine fear Hamas. One day and I hope it’s not too far in the future the people of Palestine will revolt and toss Hamas out of the country if not out of the mid-East all together.
I’m hearing on the T.V. news that more and more people in Palestine are becoming tired of Hamas.
I firmly believe that the religious leaders of Hamas either didn’t read the words of their prophet, Mohammed, or chose to ignore what he wrote. Because Mohammed wrote that innocent women and children should be spared and not attacked and killed. But the words of Mohammed fly in the face of these supposed religious leaders. They would rather cause death and destruction than heed the words of their prophet.

sports: After the All Star break the Yankees were looking strong. Now not so much. Their last ten games is 5 -5. And they are 5 ½ games back in the AL East with a season record of 56-53.
Speaking of the Yankees, the former manager of the Yankees, Joe Torre, was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Nothing against Joe Girardi, but the Yankee management should not of let Joe Torre go to another team.
The Mets on the other hand have good days and not so good days. They are 5-5 in their last ten games and are 8 games back in the NL East with a season record of 53-58.

other: As with all previous issues of this newsletter, everything printed here is either copyright protected or copyright pending.
The history of P&G’s follows this newsletter from 1900 when the building was first constructed to the mid 1930’s.
Following this history is a short story I wrote called The Spirit of Pale Hair. It’s a story about a warrior and spirit of the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph.

The History of P&G’s from the Beginning

Travel back more than a century to the spring of 1900 as builder John H. Hasbrouck and his men construct a 50′ by 28′ building on the site of the current P&G’s Restaurant. Look around and begin to imagine.
The first floor features a fountain with water softly falling into a cobblestone basin. The exotic effect is enhanced with darting goldfish and blooming water lilies. Palms set liberally throughout the room, provide an air of privacy for those seated at the groups of small tables. Patrons, dressed in their finest, sit chatting, sometimes courting and enjoying the establishments fine refreshments.
The upper story is a promenade, opened to a full view of sunset over the Shawangunk Mountains. Live music gently eases you from afternoon into evening. Welcome to the ambiance and hospitality of the Casino.
The Casino’s owner, Mr Steen, had correctly envisioned the areas many tourists, summer boarders and trolley passengers stopping to enjoy the unique features of his establishment. The terminal station for the trolley line from Highland is located just across Main Street. It is said that Steen patterned the Casino after the famous Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.
On June 1, 1900 the Casino was officially opened. That evening “a large number of people enjoyed the ice cream, music and the lovely mountains views.” according to the New Paltz Independent newspaper. Music was provided by a band which included a piano and several other instruments. The Casino soon became famous for Saturday night dances held on the second floor of the open pavilion. It was decorated with flowers and vines suspended from the rafters. The crowds were so large that special late trolley cars were run to accommodate the guests and take the orchestra back to Poughkeepsie.
The electric power shut down at midnight. According to Independent writer Delia Shaw “…the time of closing and the departure of the last trolley (run by electricity) had to be reckoned with, but as was often the case, several folks ‘Missed the Last Trolley’… seems between intermissions the fellows would walk their girls down the street where numerous straw thatched summer houses were located on the banks of the Wallkill River and they were so preoccupied with making love by the light of the silvery moon that they forgot everything.” Shaw continued. “Saturday Nights In New Paltz Became A Legend! There was not a single hitching post available, nor an inch of space under any of the sheds of the five local hotels. The Casino drew people from surrounding towns and they came via hay loads and 4 seated carriages, while some men even walked and carried their dancing shoes. ‘Little Larry,’ the shoeshine fellow, did a landslide business on Sat. Nights! As did all the merchants and the stores open ‘til 9 p.m.”
By 1921 the Casino had changed hands and names, becoming the Blue Crane Inn. Ads of the era read.
The big Night at the Blue Crane Inn
Dancing Every Wednesday and Saturday Evening
In the Chinese Hall-Good Jazzy Music.

The cornerstone of nightlife in New Paltz continued to thrive.
In 1925, after 28 Years of service, the Highland to New Paltz trolley company folded. The demise of the trolley business and the affordability of the automobile meant peoples outings were no longer confined to the trolley’s narrow corridor. They could drive to any village hotel, restaurant, or scenic spot that caught their fancy. Indeed, New Paltz and the Blue Crane Inn lost their captive audience. The Inn, however, continued to accommodate people well into the 1930’s. Other establishments came and went until 1947 when it became Pat and Georges and ultimately was nicknamed the P&G’s that welcomes everybody.

The SPIRIT of PALE HAIR

The man woke in the early morning with a sheen of sweat covering his entire body and his heart was beating irregularly and rapidly. He sat up in bed and peered out of the east window of his home, the sun had just peeked over the tree tops and the early October morning temperature in his home was barely sixty degrees. The sweat in the cool room with his beating heart bothered Vance, then he remembered the last dream. In the dream he saw a native warrior with light brown hair, bordering on blond on a horse with a bow and quiver. The warrior notched an arrow to the bow and was firing from underneath the neck of the horse at a U. S. calvary soldier. He then saw this warrior reach back to his quiver and fire another arrow at another soldier from underneath the horse’s neck, never sitting up to guide the horse. The horse was definitely under his command.
Vance remembered hearing another warrior shout a warning at him, calling him, Pale Hair. The language wasn’t English and Vance knew it to be Nez Perce. Vance had never learned the language of the Nez Perce, yet he could understand it. After the warrior called out the warning, Vance felt a pain, as if a bullet had pierced his heart and the last he remembered was falling from the horse, but never hitting the ground. The warrior’s spirit just kept falling and falling through a seemingly endless void.
Vance Parton, a thirty eight year old history professor at a local university in Montana recognized the battle between the Nez Perce and the U. S. Calvary as the last battle the Nez Perce fought near the Canadian border. Chief Joseph was trying to reach Sitting Bull so they could ally themselves. It was the battle before Chief Joseph declared: “We will fight no more, forever.”
Vance, a history professor, taught many classes on the early history of America and what

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he perceived as injustices by the new American government against the native peoples. A view that was not well received by the other history professors at the conservative university.
The dream bothered him, not because it was as if he had died in the dream. But it wasn’t
him. The body was wrong and the hair color was wrong. Vance had black hair. But why did he feel the pain of the bullet piercing his heart and the falling, the falling through that endless void? He felt his chest and was relieved to find that there was no bullet hole near his heart.
As he showered and shaved, a thought hit him almost squarely in the middle of his forehead like a hammer. The spirit of that native warrior had found a new home in his body and mind. As he dressed and prepared to go to the university to teach the morning classes, he realized why his interest in history gravitated to the native peoples and especially the Nez Perce. Before he reached the building where he taught at the university, he decided he would visit the Ancient One at the nearby reservation. The Ancient One was wise in the history of the Nez Perce and he might be able to tell Vance who Pale Hair was and if he even ever existed in the past.
It was Friday and as was always the case on Fridays, he kept his classes short so the students could prepare to go home to visit their parents or do what college students usually did on weekends.
He decided to visit the Ancient One the next day. And the next morning he woke to the dream that the father of Pale Hair, Hank had married the mother Running Water, a member of the Nez Perce. Hank had very blond hair. He had been adopted by the Nez Perce after he had married Running Water.
He drove to the reservation and went directly to the mobile home of the Ancient One.
The Ancient One was sitting on a chair outside of his home and smiled when Vance stopped

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his Jeep Cherokee in front of the home.
After he jumped out of the Jeep, he approached the Ancient One with his hand out “Ancient One.” He said. “I need your help.”
The old man smiled as he shook Vance’s hand. “I know and I have been expecting you to ask for my help for some time.”
“I don’t understand.” Vance said.
“You will later.” The Ancient One said as he stood and motioned with his hand. “Please come inside and I will brew the coffee you like so much with apple bark.”
The inside of the Ancient Ones mobile home was decorated as usual with a wide range of feathers and flowers that grew in the area, with the occasional animal claw such as a wolf, lion or bear. Every time Vance visited the Ancient One in his home, it was different. As if the Ancient One had rearranged the decorations just to confuse Vance. Vance had been coming to the Ancient Ones home for over five years when he first started teaching at the University. He came to learn the history of the Nez Perce from the one man who was an authority on the subject. The Ancient One was so named because he was at least ninety years old and very learned of the Nez Perce.
After they had sat down at the kitchen table with their coffee mugs steaming the delicious aroma of apple bark coffee, The Ancient One spoke first. “You want to know about the dreams you are having about Pale Hair? Correct?” He asked.
Vance sat up and gasped. “How did you know?”
“Actually, I have been expecting you for some time after I had the same dreams of my great, great, great grandfather, Pale Hair.” The Ancient One said.

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Vance sat back in his chair, stunned. “I don’t know if I understand.”
“The spirit that is taking temporary residence in your body is my great, great, great grandfather, Pale Hair.”
“I am still confused.” Vance said as he sipped his favorite coffee.
“The spirit inside you, Pale Hair, was a valiant warrior with the Nez Perce. And he was so named because his hair was not black like his brethren, but light brown. He fought with Chief Joseph to claim the lands that were theirs, but taken away by the new American government. Pale Hair died in the last battle with Chief Joseph. He had children with his wife before he died and one of his children sired my great grandfather. I came about from this line. My mother, wanting me to know Pale Hair, named me Iron Hair, and that had been my name until I became the Ancient One.”
Vance was still confused. “What of these dreams I am having?”
The Ancient One only nodded. “Pale Hair is trying to come out with the knowledge of the Nez Perce and he is using you for that purpose.”
“But why me?” Vance almost cried out.
“Because the spirit of Pale Hair knows you are a student of the early American history and he also knows that you will be more able to explain the story and history of the Nez Perce to the people. And do it truthfully.”
Vance held his mug of coffee thinking before he spoke. “I need to know everything you
know about Pale Hair.” He said. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything written down would you?”
The Ancient One smiled. “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. I have been writing about the

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history of my people for many years. Most of what I have learned is handed down orally with a few books I had read, written about the Nez Perce. I tried to blend the oral history with the written history accurately. Though I am sure many of your scholars will disagree with my accumulated historical text, but I can assure you it is as accurate as any scholar can produce and maybe even more so.” The Ancient One said as he rose from the table, went to another room and returned with a very large leather bound book. He handed the book to Vance.
Vance opened it and quickly scanned the pages. “There must be a thousand pages here.” He said.
“There are 1121 pages. I tried to write everything about my people, the Nez Perce, from the very early days before the arrival of the white man to almost the present. You will find there are many, many pages of the time of Pale Hair and Chief Joseph. I think you will be impressed.”
“I’m sure I will.” Vance said as he rose. “May I take this to my home and read.” He said as he walked to the door.
The Ancient One waved. “Just be careful with that manuscript. It would be a shame to lose it, because I don’t know if I have the energy or time to recreate it, considering my age.”
When Vance reached his home, he immediately went to his easy chair in his study with a
bottle of beer and sat down to read the manuscript.
He only scanned the first few hundred pages before he came to the twenty or thirty pages
about Pale Hair. After reading these pages, he sat the manuscript down, rubbed his eyes and thought while he sipped his second beer. It was evident that the Ancient One spent considerable time

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researching his great, great, great grandfather. Everything he had written about Pale Hair’s life seemed to be very precise even his death was very precise. Vance learned that the warriors wailed over Pale Hair’s death. The wife of Pale Hair mourned his death so much that she
wouldn’t take another mate. Pale Hair’s children learned of his valor in battle and orally told their children of how valiant their grandfather was. This oral history was told from generation to generation.
Vance sat back in his easy chair and thought. “I must try to understand what Pale Hair wants of me. And I must learn precisely what he wants of me.” Vance thought that he didn’t want to disappoint Pale Hair. He went to his bookshelf and grabbed every book he had on the history of the Nez Perce. He thought he had accumulated more volumes of the Nez Perce than any other history professor, in fact he thought his collection rivaled most university libraries. In all of his books he marked pages that were significant to the Nez Perce. In one book U.S. soldiers were reported to be stunned by the Nez Perce warriors command of their horses. They couldn’t believe that a warrior could hide his body on the side of a horse and shoot their arrows from underneath the charging horses neck. Much the same way that Pale Hair did in Vance’s dream.
In the Ancient Ones manuscript, Vance read that the Nez Perce were willing to share their
land with the American government, but not give it up entirely. The reason why Chief Joseph
led his people north to ally with Sitting Bull, just over the Canadian border. Chief Joseph
thought that if he could ally Sitting Bull’s Souix with the Nez Perce, his people would have a better chance to exist.

7. Vance knew the reason the American government wanted the Nez Perce land was
because it was believed to have silver. And the new American government needed this silver to bolster their treasury. There was disagreement over whether it should be gold or silver as the backup for the United Sates treasury.
After Vance finished a third beer, he crawled into bed exhausted from his readings and the three beers. He slept fitfully with dreams of Pale Hair and the Nez Perce. In his last dream before waking, Pale Hair pointed to a mountain, claiming the American government wanted that piece of land because it was thought that silver could be found there. The Nez Perce didn’t want to give up that mountain and the surrounding land because of the abundance of game to feed their people and also it had a spiritual need for his people hence the undeclared war.
Pale Hair explained the frustration of Chief Joseph with the American government in the language of the Nez Perce, that his people didn’t want to give up this land they needed for their survival and spiritual needs. Pale Hair explained to Vance that the Nez Perce were afraid that the American government would take more and more of their land until they had little or none and that was the reason Chief Joseph decided the need to fight.
Vance woke in the morning with the determination to write a paper, maybe a book on the plight of the Nez Perce and he would write it from the perspective of Pale Hair instead of Chief Joseph.
He started writing the paper that would later become a book. As he wrote he did the
usual research that most scholars do when they write about history. When he first started he did
extensive research, but as he wrote more and more, Pale Hair appeared in his dreams to point out

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errors and offer more than books in his research provided. This continued until he had accumulated a few boxes of notes and Vance was almost ready to start the book, when Chief Joseph appeared in a few dreams to explain his decision to fight and how it was a very painful decision. Chief Joseph explained that he respected the Hopi thought that war should be the last and final option, but he felt he didn’t have a choice considering the plight of his people.
Vance spent the rest of the semester writing his book when he wasn’t teaching or preparing for classes. He declined the chance to teach during the summer break and instead concentrated on finishing his draft of the book before the fall semester.
He finally completed the final draft and was able to find a publisher. He was exhausted with all the research, writing, rewriting and the constant letters to publishers. He figured the stock in major coffee producers went up, considering how much coffee he drank.
He was visited one more time by Pale Hair. In the last dream, Pale Hair appeared before Vance atop the hill where a major store chain was planning on building a Super Center. Pale Hair explained to Vance that the hill contained the remains of many of the Nez Perce who had died in their tribes battles and if the store built the planned store on that particular site the spirits of the Nez Perce interred there would be displaced and that cannot be, according to Pale Hair.
Pale Hair showed Vance an opening in the hill where the remains of many of the Nez Perce were interred and where Pale Hair himself was interred. Pale Hair explained that he and the other spirits interred there did not want to be displaced. In the dream, it was apparent that
Pale Hair wanted Vance to stop the planned building of a Super Store.
Vance woke that morning with the intention of visiting the University archeologist and

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anthropologist to explain that the burial ground of the native Nez Perce should not be disturbed.
He was pretty certain that with the help of the archeologist and anthropologist he would be able to stop the desecration of the ancient Nez Perce burial grounds. If that didn’t work, he would go
before the Montana State Government to halt any excavation of the native peoples burial
grounds.
Pale Hair had shown Vance where the burial ground was in the last dream and Vance would be able to lead the state government inspectors and the store executives to the site of Pale Hair and his tribes remains. He would plead that the area should not be disturbed. It needed to be protected like any cemetery in any town.
Before he led the state inspectors to the site, he brought the school archeologist and anthropologist. They spent three days and nights exploring the burial cave. The anthropologist was impressed that the entrance to the burial cavern was decorated with many red, yellow and green painted stones on the ground at the threshold of the burial cavern. He was especially impressed with the white stones that depicted images of people planting and harvesting of plants or the hunting of animals and finally scenes of battle with the U.S. calvary. The anthropologist was so impressed with these stone images he spent hours examining the stones, making notes and even taking photographs and then placing them precisely back where he had found them.
When they finally entered the burial cavern, Vance was attracted to one mound on the dirt floor, that he knew to be the final resting place of Pale Hair. He reached down and picked up a bow and quiver that was laid on top of the mound. As soon as he picked it up, in his mind

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he saw the image of Pale Hair dying in the last battle between the United States and the Nez Perce in his mind. Before he could react to the streaming images of Pale Hair in battle and dying, the archeologist and anthropologist admonished him for disturbing an archeological find.
In the end the store was forbidden by the Sate of Montana to build their super store at that
site on the mountain and the store opted for a more suitable place that wouldn’t disturb the native peoples burial grounds.
It was a lot of hard work for Vance and he was visited one more time by Pale Hair and Chief Joseph thanking him for his efforts.
When Vance’s book finally hit the store shelves, it was hailed as an in-depth critique of the Nez Perce and had gotten good reviews by the critics. It was accepted by all except the conservative radio talk show hosts who claimed it was just another liberal attempt to put down the American government of the mid nineteenth century.
Vance didn’t care what these talking heads said about his book. He only cared that his students realize the research that went into his book. When he taught the classes of early American history of the plight of the native peoples, his book was not required reading in any of his classes. But he was pleasantly surprised that many of his students had read the book and wanted him to autograph their copies.
Even after he had gained such notoriety for his book, he still met with the Ancient One on a regular basis. The Ancient One told Vance, that though his book was a great boost to the
history of the Nez Perce, there was more he had to do with other tribes who wanted their stories told.
Pale Hair and Chief Joseph appeared one last time in Vance’s dreams. They pointed to the

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north to Canada and the spiritual images of people Vance knew to be Sitting Bull and Crazy
Horse. Vance knew upon waking his next book would be on the Souix and the Battle of Little Big Horn. And after that who knew where the spirits will guide him.