Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Synchronicity: Piermont. Mill Towns, Flywheels, Wolf J. Flywheel

I would like to thank DV for the synchroncity title. (Classic pseudo or actually isn't it Steely Dan?). It's amazing how all these diverse topic threads eventually come together. Last Sunday I was dragged away from my blogging laptop by my wife and daughter to experience the fresh air and sunshine. I would like to think it was for my own health, but it was more like they needed a good wheel man. One of my few competencies is that I have a good sense of direction. Piermont is just over the Tappan Zee Bridge, just south of Nyack. A lot of theater people have or had homes there. It's very pretty down by the Hudson. Anyway, right in the middle of a newly refurbished riverfront is the mammoth flywheel, a remnant I suspect of an old paper mill (remember the Leacock image of the 1850 Lowell factory). About 100 yards from the flywheel is a plaque commemorating townspeople who served in World War II from the Robert Gair company. There is no indication that this company is from Piermont or what the company produces, but I put to use those brain cells that are still working: It's got to be a pretty big company (a lot of names) and it was some kind of mill that made use of the flywheel. An internet search proved that theory. Robert Gair was one of the leading producers of cardboard boxes, in fact the original Gair invented the technology. The company was located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn until 1926. The following slide show has images that I took of the area (Emma gets credit too) along with a few that I gathered in my search. A Mill town song by Pete Seeger would have been a better match, but I wanted to use Ella.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are also a master of passive aggression

Stephanie

Anonymous said...

We don't need you to drive us. You are just afraid we would spend too much money.

Stephanie and Emma

Anonymous said...

This was fascinating. I'm going to use this in my course.

Len

Anonymous said...

Can I use it for the NYLearns site?

Linda

Anonymous said...

The lyricist for Paper Moon was Yip Harburg, one of your Lower East Side pinko friends. More of your leftist propaganda I assume.


Rush Limbaugh

David Ballela said...

You're too stupid to know about Yip. Who told you?

Anonymous said...

William Kristol

Rush

Anonymous said...

I used to have a house right near Piermont and I once came to your school-more synchronicity.

Rosie O'Donnell

Anonymous said...

Synchronicity! I use cardboard boxes with the kids in just about every learning fair construction.

Sam

Anonymous said...

Leacock reference and I'm a closeted putz. Synchronicity!

Ed Koch