Hi everyone and welcome to another exciting and thought provoking issue of this bi-weekly newsletter, The CORNERSTONE TRAVELER. Also available online at www.cornerstonetraveler.com
I’m sorry if this newsletter is a week late, but circumstances prevented me from writing sooner.
mid-Hudson Valley news: I know I have written of this before, but there is a lot of history in the mid-Hudson Valley. For example: It was in Newburg at Washington’s Headquarters that General George Washington first proposed the awarding of a purple heart to all American Soldiers wounded in battle.
While driving through the different towns/villages in the mid-Hudson Valley, I see signs for the names of the towns/villages along with the date when they were settled.
For instance: High Falls was settled in 1669, most likely by colonists from Kingston. I have often wondered how the colonists found and traveveled to settle High Falls as there was no Rte. 209 or any other roadway. Why did they settle in what became High Falls?
There is Stone Ridge, settled in 1711. I have wondered where the ridge of stone is located that gave the name Stone Ridge to this village.
From New Paltz was the Ulster County Volunteer Militia that defended Cemetery Ridge from Pickets charge at the battle of Gettysburg. The battled that essentially settled the Civil War in the Union’s favor.
Of course New Paltz was settled in 1698 by the French and Dutch Huguenots trying to escape religious persecution in Europe. These Huguenots sailed from Europe on a ship called the Gilded Otter, the name of a bar/restaurant in New Paltz. I always laugh when I hear someone say the land was generously given to these people by the king of England. I laugh because it was easy for the king to be generous and give land away that wasn’t his or England’s in the first place.

observations: I saw an interesting if not disturbing show on Fox News last week entitled “I killed Usuma bin-Laden” It was an interview by Fox of the seal of Seal Team Six that brought down bin-Laden.
I was disturbed by this show because I was always under the impression that members of the Seal Teams wished to remain anonymous ( unknown). Fox news not only broadcasted the man’s name, but also his hometown. I thought this to be bad because what will it take for a lone wolf terrorist to take out this Seal Team member and his family because he killed Osama bin-Laden? ( what is the correct spelling of bin-Ladens name? Osama or Usama?)
I have to wonder of the thinking of Fox news with the broadcast of this interview. Did they not think that they were endangering his life and his family?
I do have to wonder the truthfulness of this broadcast.
Though I did learn of his name and hometown, I will not write of it because I don’t want to be party to his demise or his family.
I do have to ask; why did Fox news find the need for this broadcast that could only endanger the man and his family? Or did they put him in Witness Protection?
There was something about the man’s eyes. They seemed to dart around constantly and blink. This tells me that the man wasn’t telling the truth.
Think about it!

sports: Both the Jets and Giants are out of post season play. The Jets lost to the Bills and the Giants lost to . Maybe next year, but think I have been saying that for every post season for years and years.
Tom Coughlin resigned as head coach for the Giants. I have to wonder was he persuaded to resign by the Mara family?
NBA: The Knicks have a record of 21-22 and are 6 games back. The Nets are 15 ½ games back with a record of 11-31.

NHL: The Rangers have 18 points with a record of 33-15-5. The Islanders have 16 points with a record of 24-15-5.

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
The short story that follows this history, The BEACHCOMBER, I wrote after visiting my daughter in Trenton Maine where I made observations of the shoreline by her home and the bay of the Union River. 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.
The BEACHCOMBER

It was a relatively warm day in Trenton Maine for mid April. Warm enough that Wiley Baxter didn’t feel the need for socks as he walked along the bay of the Union River in his deck shoes.
It was low tide so he was able to scan the pebble and shell shorn beach for smooth, unique stone and shells that he would sell to the owners of the tourist shops near and around the Bar Harbor piers.
Wiley had a full time position as a second shift forklift operator at a trucking transition warehouse in Bar Harbor. He worked the four to midnight shift five days a week with the occasional Saturday. He was usually home and in bed by 1:30 in the morning.
As he walked the beach, he turned to his left and saw an orange boat buoy that had washed up to the high tide ridge of the beach. He wondered about the boat that had used the buoy to tie itself to the bay bottom. As he picked up the buoy he wondered of the boat or ship that had lost this buoy and would the owners miss their buoy. He took the buoy back to his home that sat maybe fifty feet from the high tide ridge bay. He took the buoy to the shed he used to keep and store all the artifacts he found on the beach.
He was in Bar Harbor by 2:30 that afternoon. He went to all the usual shops to sell his collection of smooth stones and shells. He did relatively well that afternoon, almost selling out his collection.
He was able to get to the trucking warehouse about ten minutes before his shift started and he sat in the cafeteria having a food stiff cup of black coffee.
Just as he was about to finish his cup of coffee, Roy, another forklift operator entered the cafeteria. After getting a cup of coffee from the vending machine, he sat across from Wiley at the cafeteria table.
“Did you hear?” He asked.
“Hear? Hear what?” Wiley asked.
The lobster boat, The Catch went missing yesterday.”
“First I’ve heard of it.” Wiley said.
“Wasn’t The Catch the same lobster boat that moored near your home on the bay of the Union River?”
Wiley scratched his head. “Now that you mention it, I think it was.”
“Well it’s been missing since yesterday. At least according to the Coast Guard.”
Wiley got up to get to his forklift to start the night shift of moving freight in the warehouse.
As moved one palette of freight from the warehouse to the trailer of a semi, he started to wonder if the buoy he found on the beach near his home was from The Catch. He could only wonder because the buoy had no markings on it.
As Wiley wondered about the buoy and The Catch, the captain and owner of that lobster boat lay at the bottom of the Union River with his three man crew.

Mark Philips and his lobster crew went on an all night bender at a local bar in Trenton the previous night, but were able to row a skiff to his lobster boat to sleep it off. Below decks of The Catch was the sleeping quarters for all four of them. They were all in a drunken sleep when a loaded barge with Maine hard wood slipped its moorings and floated down the Union River crushing The Catch to the bottom of the bay, killing all aboard. The Barge eventually came to rest on a sand bar downstream from The Catch.
But the spirits of the crew of The Catch were not at rest because they knew they could not ascend to the next level of consciousness until their bodies were found and given a decent burial acknowledging their lives when they lived.
So they had to focus their spiritual energies on whoever they thought could discover their bodies at the bottom of the Union River bay. They saw Wiley Baxter pick up the mooring buoy of their boat and thought he might be the one they should focus their spiritual energies on so their bodies could be found.

When Wiley woke the next morning at ten, he immediately put a kettle of water on a burner of his stove so it would be ready when he finished his shower. After his shower, he poured the hot water though the Melitta coffee urn with a paper filter and coffee grounds. After the water finished perking through the coffee urn and into his cup, Wiley took the coffee outside to his porch that fronted the Union River bay.
He sat on his chaise lounge sipping his black coffee, staring out into the bay. As he sat he turned his attention to where he remembered or thought The Catch had moored in the bay, he wondered if the rope was still attached to the anchor at the bottom of the bay. He thought he would check this out the next day because it was Saturday and he wasn’t scheduled to work Saturday night . This would give him all afternoon to explore the bottom of the bay to check and find the mooring and the line for The Catch.
After lunch he checked his shed to make certain his scuba gear was prepared for a dive the next day. He doubled checked his scuba tanks to make sure they had the proper oxygen pressure for a prolonged dive. After he checked his scuba gear and was satisfied the equipment was in good condition, he checked his wet suit to see if there were any tears or rips that would cause discomfort in cold water. Satisfied, he went to the beach to collect more smooth stones and shells for the tourist shops in Bar Harbor.
As he drove to the trucking warehouse he thought of the dive he had planned for the next day. Wiley was conscientious about every dive he took because even though he was certified by both the State of Maine and the Coast Guard, he knew what perils awaited the unprepared scuba diver.
That night at the warehouse, Wiley was so excited by the dive he had planned for the next day, he felt like a child on Christmas Eve.

The spirits of Mark and his crew knew the intentions of Wiley Baxter and waited almost breathlessly for him to discover their bodies. They were that anxious for their family and friends to know of their demise.

The next morning, Wiley pulled his gear from his shed after he donned the wet suit with special rubber boots on his feet to protect the feet of the wet suit from the pebbles and stones on the beach, he carried his scuba gear to the edge of the bay. He slipped the oxygen tank onto his back after he put the dive fins on his feet. He slipped his face mask on his head along with the snorkel. He thought to use the snorkel as he swam up river to where he thought The Catch had been moored. He thought to save as much oxygen in his tank as he could because he wanted to spend as much time at the bottom of the bay as he could to find the mooring line of the boat. His tank held maybe thirty minutes of oxygen.
He casually kicked his way to the spot he had envisioned where The Catch was moored. He constantly checked for river traffic because a boat pilot would have a hard time seeing him as he swam just below the surface of the bay.
When he got to the approximate sot where he thought The Catch had been moored, he slipped the snorkel to his dive belt, he brought the oxygen mouth piece to his mouth and turned on the valve for oxygen from his dive tank.
Satisfied with the oxygen he dove head first to the bottom of the bay. It wasn’t a long dive, as the bay was at low tide and was only thirty or forty feet deep.
He found the wreck of The Catch almost immediately.
He poked around the hull of the lobster boat, wondering what had crushed it to send it to the bottom of the bay.

Little did Wiley know that the spirits of Mark Philips and his crew focused their spiritual energies on him. They wanted him to find their corpses so they would be recognized in death by family. Then and only then could they ascend to the next level of consciousness.
It wasn’t hard for Wiley to check The Catch below decks. There was a crushed doorway to below decks. It wasn’t big enough that he could squeeze his body through, but it was large
enough that he could poke his head and arm through.
He used his special light to see inside the below decks of The Catch.
He was shocked when he saw the bodies of the crew floating to the ceiling of the sleeping berth with crabs and fish nibbling on their obviously dead bodies. Seeing this, he wanted to spit out his mouth piece and hurl the contents of his stomach into the water.
He backed out of the cramped confines of The Catch and immediately kicked himself to the surface of the bay. He knew as soon as he got back to his home he would contact the Coast Guard to tell them of his discovery.

Mark and his crew were happy that their bodies had been found and their deaths would be acknowledged by family and friends. With proper burials and acknowledgement they could ascend to the next level of consciousness.

Wiley contact the coast Guard about what he had found at the bottom of the Union River bay. When they asked why he was in the area scuba diving, he explained how he was told about the disappearance of the lobster boat, The Catch and he knew it was moored near his home.
They accepted his explanation and it wasn’t long before a Coast Guard tow boat was where Wiley directed them from shore. The divers of the Coast Guard were able to secure lines to The Catch and bring it to the surface with the bodies of the crew.
The crew was identified by the coast Guard and Mark and his crew were buried as they wanted by tearful family and friends.
Wiley somehow felt the need to attend the funerals of the crew of The Catch. What he didn’t know was that the spirits of The Catch wanted him to acknowledge their lives and deaths.

Wiley, after the funerals continued to search and colleZct the smooth stones and shells that he would sell to the toZurist shops in Bar Harbor. But something was different and he couldn’t explain what it was.
Little did he or anyone else know, there were many bodies at the bottom of the bay of Union River.
The spiritual energies of the spirits of those bodies directed their attention to Wiley. It was enough that Wiley formed an archeological group to explore and study the bottom of the bay of the Union River.
Their underwater archeological study found the remains of many people’s going back hundreds of years. With the discoveZry of their remains the spirits of the skeletons were able to finally rise to the next level of consciousness.

10:00 p.m.
4/11/15
@P&G’s