CT-244 SEPT 2 ‘14

Hi to all my readers of this bi-weekly newsletter, The CORNERSTONE TRAVELER available here at P&G’s and also on the web at cornerstonetraveler.com. I hope you enjoy it.

mid-Hudson valley news: The summer season is coming to a close with the last of the festival and fairs. Last weekend was the Woodstock – New Paltz Arts and Crafts Fair at the Ulster county Fair grounds on Libertyville Road here in New Paltz.
The annual Renaissance Fair will be closing in the next few weeks.
I unfortunately could not attend the three county fairs because of a torn meniscus in my right knee and I knew I couldn’t do the walk that was require at these county fairs.

observations: I sometimes purchase a strange monthly magazine called Atlantis Rising. I like this magazine because the writers write of some strange and less than normal happening on earth. Like in the last issue, I read where archeologists have found remnants of European visiting the New World before Columbus or pre-Colombian treasures. Such as an Egyptian replica of a one and a half ton Sphinx in the ocean by the Bahamas. The Sphinx couldn’t be dated because of corrosion, but the basalt it was made from definitely came from a valley in Egypt. Archeologists have estimated that the ship that carried this Sphinx replica sank over 3,500 years ago.
Even the name Tennessee comes from two Greek words: tenne meaning “land of” “Esse”, the Greek spelling of the Egyptian goddess “Isis”. Could be where that terrorist group in Iraq decided to spell the acronym of their militia group ISIS?
I definitely believe there were many Europeans who discovered the so called “New World” before Columbus.
Columbus insisted to his dying day that he discovered a route to China and India. But we all know he was wrong.

sports: The NFL season starts this Sunday, Sept.8. Go Jets. Go Giants.
Both the Yankees and Mets are having a difficult time trying to get into the post season in the MLB. The Yankees are 8 ½ games behind in the AL East with a record of 70-65. The Mets are 15 games behind in the NL East with a record of 64-74.
The HudsonValley Renegades are still No. 1 in the McNamara Division of the AAA. They are a AAA of Tampa.

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 about the mid 1930’s.
Following this history is a short story I wrote called GARGOYLES. I hope you like it.

Thank-you – Rik McGuire

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.

GARGOYLES

The lights that bathed the palatial church had been turned off fifteen minutes earlier and the gargoyles felt it safe to whisper to each other
The gargoyle at the left front corner of the church peered down and whispered “There are no living souls on this side.”
“None?” The center gargoyle asked.
“No. None, except for the lone stumbling and falling down drunk.” The left corner gargoyle whispered.
“On the right corner?” The center gargoyle said to the right corner gargoyle. “Is there anything on your side?”
“No one here. Nothing except for the lone pigeon who insists on dumping a load on my head. And it is disgusting. But other than that, there is nothing.”
There was silence among the gargoyles. The church bell rang twelve times to signal midnight.
The gargoyles guarding the French church had been hand sculpted five centuries earlier when the church was first constructed.
The hand carved gargoyles were first placed on the roof edges of the church to scare the devil and demons away from the church. Though this myth had been scoffed at in later years, the original architects and sculptors of these churches somehow knew intuitively of the need of these stone carved creatures, for they did indeed frighten what were called half demons from the confines of the church. The stone gargoyles came alive when it was learned that their mere presence no longer frightened the half demons from the church confines.
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As the half demons came to learn that these stone edifices could not do them any harm by their mere presence, the gargoyles came more and more to life, until their voices could be heard by the half demons. The gargoyles could not move and cause bodily harm to the half demons, but verbal warnings to the half demons of what awaited them in the land of the damned was enough that they no longer tried to enter the church and cause sacrilege to the insides of the church. That and the knowledge that the gargoyles could produce a void that no demon could ever hope to escape.
The gargoyles had to be vigilant because even the most innocent mortal entering the church could be a half demon in disguise as turned out to be the stumbling and falling down drunk that started up the front stairs of the church. The center gargoyle immediately sensed the evil and danger and issued a screeching warning to the half demon. The warning could only be heard by demons and not my mortals. The half demon, a scraggly bearded man of undetermined age held his hands to his ears to protect his ears from the pain. But he continued stubbornly up the steps to the massive front doors. He was insistent on doing what the real, whole demon had commanded of him.
The center gargoyle screeched a final warning to the mortal half demon. If you step through that door, you will be engulfed in an eternal damnable void for all eternity.
Though his hands were cupped over his ears, the half demon heard the warning from the gargoyle. He shrugged and stepped through the door and immediately fall into a vast void at the threshold of the church door. The half demon fell screaming through the void. The gargoyles quickly sealed the void with the same energy they had used to create the void.
That void was the last line of defense used by the gargoyles to protect the church from the
half demons. The real demons were easily spotted because the gargoyles could see the black light

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shadowing the real demons.
Two days after the latest half demon tried to enter the church another half demon was able to sneak into the church on the pretense of attending a funeral and stayed in the church after everyone had left to go to the grave site.
That night, after the church bell rang twelve times, the half demon scrawled demonic curses on the church walls, tore the cloth vestments from the altar and peed into the chalice held in the tabernacle. When the half demon completed all the sacrilege scrawling and damage, it stood in the center of the church and admired its work. When it tried to leave through the front door, the center gargoyle sensed it presence and immediately summoned the left and right corner gargoyles to marshall their strength and create the eternal void at the doors threshold. The half demon fell through the void screaming obscenities and crying to Lucifer for help.
The gargoyles could spot the real demons from a great distance and once spotted they armed themselves with all the myth and magic they needed to defeat the real demon. It was not unusual for a real demon to crash through the tall stain glass windows to avoid the front entrance to the church and thus falling in that never ending void. But if given sufficient warning, the gargoyles could magically produce a void that surrounded the entire church, so even a demon crashing through the window would be sucked into that damnable void for all time.
The gargoyles also had the Angel from above to help them locate a possible real demon attack. The Angels had proved to be vigilant against real demons. The real problems were the
half demons because they looked so mortal , but the gargoyles had become so adept at spotting half demons they could see through the mortal disguise and vanquish half demons.

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The latest attack on the church by the half demon, though not enough to cause any real physical damage and only massive cleanup for the church maintenance. The workers who would have been summoned to clear the demonic mess, would only guess at who caused the sacrilegious damage to the church. But there was enough damage to the structure of the religious integrity, that the foundation rumbled. The rumbling was loud enough to be heard by all in the village and awoke everyone. They came to the source of the rumblings, the church, and watched in horror, as the church crashed onto itself.
The gargoyles that protected the church came crashing down last on the heap of stone that was once the church.
As everyone gathered and witnessed the destruction of their church, a lone timid child climbed the heap of stone unnoticed by anyone and she reached a gargoyle. She wrapped her arms around the gargoyle as if the stone creature was a teddy bear or doll. She whispered. “I love you.” To the gargoyle.
The gargoyle whispered back. And we all love you.
The little girl was comforted by the whisper of the gargoyle and laid her head against the stone cheek with her arms around the neck and stayed there until the grey haired priest of the church spotted her. He carefully climbed the stone heap to the little girl and with difficulty pried her arms from the gargoyle.
“But he’s dying.” She protested as the priest carried her down the stone pilings.
“They died trying to protect our church.” The priest told her. “They did a magnificent
job for well over five hundred years, but they were tired and they lost the battle to evil.”

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“But. They will come back.” The little girl sobbed.
“They will, I am sure.” The priest soothed the little girl.
The gargoyles whispered among themselves. “We will come back with new faces when
the new church is built and we will be that much stronger.”
The gargoyles whispered in agreement. They all knew they were needed to defend the new church and the world against evil.
But the demons were not to be deterred by the efforts of the dying gargoyles. They launched a new offensive against the fallen and injured gargoyles, crushing to stone and powder the massive head sculptures.
Little did the demons know that though, the original gargoyles were destroyed, their essence was transferred to the new gargoyles, especially sculpted for the new church.
The architects hired to build a new church to replace the fallen and destroyed church wanted to replicate the old church exactly and even hired sculptors to hand carve the gargoyles.
The regenerated gargoyles relished their new power against evil and protected the new church with even more power.