I happened to be going through some of my past blogs recently, and came across this one, which made me giggle. I thought you might like to see it again — or for the first time. I took the photos one morning last December when I was headed to the old Irondequoit Rec Center on Pinegrove Ave.
We all could use a little laugh right about now as Christmas-time stress compounds the stress we already have thanks to COVID.
So I thought I’d share these images with you, of a scene I came across in Irondequoit last weekend. All I could think was, “Arlo Guthrie told us all about the ‘Thanksgiving Day Massacree.’ How come we haven’t heard anything about this obvious Christmas Day Massacree?”
It got worse when I got to the Rec Center, where I saw clear evidence of a hit-and-run.
…that means it’s time for the first barefoot snow walk of the year.
I’m posting this today because I know a lot of people expect these photos every year. It’s a tradition handed down for generations from my paternal grandmother (Gia Gia), who originated the challenge about 75 years ago. One day in the dead of winter, she took off her shoes and socks and tromped barefoot in the snow to the far side of her yard and back. It was a distance of perhaps 100 feet each way. Pretty much every year since, my family has been holding annual barefoot snow walks whenever we get together for the holidays.
The photo below is of a Christmas-time snow walk we did in 2018. We called it the “deep freeze” walk because we were experiencing record low temperatures that day.
Even when we don’t get together — and we haven’t been gathering much lately — we still try to find any excuse to carry on the tradition. Like my Gia Gia’s birthday, or my mother’s birthday.
Or the first significant snowfall of the year.
Last year since we didn’t even come close to getting together for Christmas, we actually did an extended family barefoot snow walk via Zoom, which included my children in Cheektowaga and Gates; brothers in Pennsylvania and Connecticut; my sister in Greene (NY); my aunt and uncle in Cape Cod; nephew in Massachusettes; even my cousins in Corning and Arizona (where my cousin Laura put her feet in the pool).
Here’s the video from that craziness:
I hope you and yours can enjoy your family traditions this year. If you do anything particularly fun and crazy, let me know about it!
I’m calling it East Extra Afterthoughts, a completely separate blog page where I’m reprinting some of my favorite columns from when I was the Our Towns East Extra columnist for the Democrat and Chronicle.
In seven years, from April 2013 to March 2020, I wrote 350 columns about interesting and inspirational people, places and events from all over northeast Rochester. When the D&C discontinued the Our Towns columns, I was determined that all my hard work would not be lost. So I squirreled away several dozen of my favorites.
Recently, as I looked back through them, I started wondering about many of the people and places I featured. What are the people doing now? Are those businesses still in business? How did COVID affect that annual fundraiser?
Those questions led directly to the creation of East Extra Afterthoughts.
Once a month or so, I’ll post one of my old columns to that page, and provide an interesting (I hope) update on where that story went after its original publication.
Normally I plan to post just an introductory paragraph or two here, then invite you to click through to Afterthoughts for the rest of the story. But for this first installment, I’ll post the entire column and follow-up here. Today, as this is the holiday season, I look back at the American St. Nicholas.
In this column, originally published on Dec. 24, 2017, I interviewed Pittsford resident Richard Brookins, famous all around the country — and world — as the “American St. Nick.”
I picked up this column idea from a notice I saw on the Webster Museum website about a presentation Brookins was giving there on Dec. 9. I got some contact information from the folks at the museum and arranged to meet with him at his Pittsford home.
We sat at his kitchen table and he almost immediately made it clear that he didn’t trust reporters much. He had been interviewed hundreds of times about his experience, and too often found the subsequent articles were filled with inaccuracies.
As it was, every time a column of mine was published, I would worry that I had gotten something wrong or the subject wouldn’t like it. So his warnings made me that much more nervous.
Fortunately, he liked the article very much.
Pittsford WWII veteran brought joy to European village as American St. Nick
Here’s a charming holiday story, about a Christmas gift delivered to the children of war-torn Luxembourg. It’s been told many times, but its simple message of holiday joy deserves recounting.
The story stars Richard Brookins, a 95-year old World War II veteran currently living in Pittsford. Brookins has gained international fame thanks to one day almost 75 years ago, when he forever became known as the “American St. Nick.”
The story begins in December 1944. Private Brookins, then just 22 years old, and his buddies with the 28th Infantry Division had regrouped in Wiltz, Luxembourg, after helping drive out the German army. It was a fairy-tale-beautiful village, but the residents had suffered under the German occupation.
“The Germans just took over their life,” Brookins remembered. “They threw them out of their homes, took their possessions and the houses … They took away all their cultural things.”
The Germans also refused to allow the people to celebrate one of their most treasured holidays: St. Nicholas Day.
After hearing some of these stories from a local resident, Brookins’ friend Harry Stutz came up with the idea of hosting a St. Nicholas Day party for the children of the village. For gifts, the GIs pooled some of candy and gum they regularly received from the government. The cooks made cookies, and the nuns made a cake.
Still, one thing was missing: St. Nicholas himself. Stutz asked Brookins to do the honors.
“All you have to do is walk around, pat the kids on the head, chuck them under the chin, smile at ‘em, that’s all,” Stutz said. So Brookins agreed.
The nuns provided Brookins with a priest’s surplice (which had to be returned by 4 p.m. for Mass), a bishop’s miter, a broken and taped-up shepherd’s crook and a rope beard.
As St. Nicholas made his rounds, the children sang and performed skits. Not knowing the language, he couldn’t say much, so he just patted them on the head and chucked them under the chin. But that was plenty.
“They just really thought this was St. Nicholas,” Brookins said. “They were speechless.”
That day came and went, and the GIs and townspeople went back to their normal lives. Brookins eventually went home, mostly forgetting about the whole event.
Then in 1977, he received a letter from an official in Wiltz.
“He wanted to have a special activity, and wondered if I could come back and be St. Nicholas.” So that December, he and his family all made the trip back to Luxembourg.
“You couldn’t believe it,” Brookins remembered. “People were standing in line to see this goofy old guy, 55 years old.” To them, “I was America.”
This time, Brookins wore a professionally-made cloak, carried a steel shepherd’s crook painted gold, and sported a much more realistic beard.
“It was really an upgrade,” Brookins said. “I really looked like royalty.”
Brookins has returned to Wiltz to reprise his role seven times since then. Many residents, now in their 80s and 90s, remember when the American St. Nick gave them candy back in 1944.
Wiltz continues to celebrate St. Nicholas Day every year, and is already planning the 75th anniversary of that first visit. Brookins doesn’t bet on being around for that celebration, but several of his family members are already saving up to make the trip.
As often as he’s shared this story, Brookins makes sure to pass off most of the credit.
“I do this in honor of the guys who did all the work, for all of my buddies who aren’t here. They earned it. I didn’t have to do anything but chuck ‘em under the chin and pat ‘em on the head.”
But he added, “I just can’t tell you, as much as I try to, what meaning it has.”
In this image from Dec. 5, 1944, Richard Brookins rides a jeep through Wiltz, Luxembourg in his first of many appearances as St. Nicholas Photo Courtesy the WWII Foundation
Richard Brookins, the “American St. Nick,” is now 95 years old and lives in Pittsford.
As it turned out, Brookins wasn’t, in fact, around for the 75th anniversary. He passed away on Oct. 11, 2018, less than a year after my column. He was 96 years old.
The people of Wiltz, Luxembourg still celebrate the story of the American St. Nick every year, and did host a 75th anniversary celebration in 2019. Click here to read more about that, and see a few more photos from the time when some American GIs brought a Christmas miracle to war-torn Luxenbourg.
The anniversary was also commemorated in October of 2019 by the Luxembourg American Cultural Society, located in Belgium, Wisconsin. You can read more about that here.
Finally, click here to check out my new East Extra Afterthoughts page. There’s also a link in the right-hand column on this page. Then watch for more features to come.
Natalia (in green) in The Diary of Anne Frank, June 2021 (courtesy OFC Creations)Natalia in Anne Frank (A. Stornello)
When OFC Creations Theatre Center in Brighton stages its production of Steel Magnolias in January, Webster residents will see a familiar face onstage.
Natalia Stornello, a junior at Webster Thomas High School, has been cast in the lead role of socialite M’Lynn Eatenton, played by Sally Field in the 1989 movie re-make of the 1987 stage play.
The story is set in a small-town Louisiana hair salon, where a colorful and outspoken group of women gab about their neighbors and town, and have to come to grips with the death of one of their own.
Tackling the character of M’Lynn is just the latest in a long line of theater credits for Natalia. According to her very proud mother Amy, Natalia has been acting since she was six years old, from Schlegel Elementary School through Thomas. She’s also performed with NTID Performing Arts, RIT Players, the Multi-Use Community Cultural Center, and A Magical Journey Through Stages youth theater. Last summer she spent six weeks at Stella Adler’s Acting Studio in New York City.
Natalia has also completed many film projects for RIT film students in their new MAGIC Spell Studios. One of those productions, called Bond, recently won an award at the Buffalo Film Festival.
I sense that this young lady will be one to keep an eye on.
Steel Magolias will be presented at the OFC Creations Theatre Center, 3450 Winton Place, Brighton, in four shows January 14 through 16. General admission tickets are $12 and can be purchased here.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Webster Museum.
I mean, they don’t just have one or two Christmas trees set up, they have 11 them, four-foot tall artificial trees placed on the counters, in the classroom, and tucked among the exhibits all through the museum.
The trees are part of the museum’s annual Festival of Trees Christmas tree decorating contest, where individuals, families and organizations adopt trees, decorate them however they like, then put them out there for community members to vote on for a chance to win a $25 prize.
All of the trees have been decorated and are on display, awaiting visitors’ votes. Votes will be accepted through the end of December.
The Webster Museumis located at 18 Lapham Park in the Village of Webster. They’re open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Call 585-265-3308 for more information.
I’ve put photos of some of the trees here, but you’ll want to visit the museum to see the rest of them. Or, you can see all the trees and vote on the Webster Museum website.
If you’re not tired yet of reading about the lost-then-found GoPro camera and how it sparked a wave of kidness, you might be interested in this. The story was picked up by Spectrum News and was finally broadcast yesterday.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, a brief summary:
On Nov. 1, DP (Don) Dunn was walking along the pier and found a GoPro washed up on the shore. He emailed me a few photos he was able to pull off the SD card. I posted a blog and within two hours the owner had been located. Ollie Bartholomew, who lives in Westchester County, had lost it in the lake while visiting some friends over the 4th of July holiday. (Click here to see the follow-up blog I wrote.)
The story didn’t end there. Don’s small kindness has spread in ways we never expected.
A few weeks ago, Andrew Freeman from Spectrum News interviewed Don, Ollie and me, and did a very nice job weaving together the many parts of the story.
It’s a heartwarming story perfect for Thanksgiving Day. Click here to check it out. Once you’ve had a chance to do so, please consider helping spread the kindness by visiting Kevin Woolever’s GoFundMe page which you’ll learn about in the video.
A few days ago I posted details about this year’s White Christmas in the Village celebration on Dec. 4, but in that blog I neglected to include all the great events and performances the Chorus of the Genesee has planned for that day and evening.
The Chorus will be singing a few Christmas numbers at Gazebo Park that afternoon, and — along with several quartets and other musicians — will be performing at the Harmony House throughout the day and evening. There’ll even be a few community sing-alongs in which everyone is invited to participate.
Not only that, the Harmony House will host a Craft Fair and Bake Sale beginning at 2 p.m., and 30 or more vendors are expected to participate. It should be a great chance to get some Christmas shopping done.
Plan on stopping by for dinner as well. They’ll have lots of food available and a cash bar with seasonal specialty drinks, open before, during and after the parade.
Details for all of these event are still in the works, so stay tuned for more information. The Harmony House is located at 58 East Main St. in the village.
Looking ahead, the Chorus of the Genesee’s popular Soup & Caroling Night will be back this year on Tuesday Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. More details to come about that, too. This is always a fun event, and I like it because I get to sing Christmas carols, in a group that is so large and talented that no one can hear me.
The Daisies of Webster Girl Scout Troop 60344 got an inside look at the Pirate Toy Fund warehouse recently, learning about the great ways this organization gives back to the community, and getting the chance to help their cause.
The Pirate Toy Fund is the only nonprofit organization in the country dedicated to distributing new toys year-round to children in need throughout the Greater Rochester region. It was co-founded by local children’s entertainer Gary the Happy Pirate and Dave and Lorrie Simonetti. Since 1995 it has distributed almost 400,000 toys through more than 70 program partners including camps, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and law enforcement agencies throughout Western New York.
The Daisies first got a personal tour of the warehouse from Otto Harnischfeger, the fund’s Executive Director. After the tour, they girls were given a snack and special Pirate Toy Fund pins to proudly display on their uniforms.
The Daisies were working on their “Make the World a Better Place” Daisy Petal, one of ten petals on their uniforms, each representing one line of the Girl Scout Law. Troop 60344’s Brownie was also on the tour; she was fulfilling some of the steps for her “Give Back” badge by learning about a business that gives back to the community, and supporting that mission. Every girl brought at least one new toy to donate.
Troop co-leaders Linda Meyers and Daniela Viavattine knew this would be a valuable opportunity for the young ladies. Linda said,
We thought it would be a great idea for our girls to see a wonderful Rochester-based organization that’s helping the community all throughout the year, and especially at the holidays now. Fortunately, our girls come from homes that can generally provide presents for their children, and we thought it would be great for our girls to help out for children and families that maybe aren’t able to do that.
Webster Troop 60344 has 15 Girl Scouts, 14 first-grade Daisies and one second-grade Brownie. The Daisies come from Klem North, Plank North and Dewitt elementary schools. They are Adriana Gringer, Alayna Henrichs, Alexa Weber, Avery Ganter, Charlotte Lloyd, Claire Frisk, Emerson Ganter, Harper Bozzelli, Julia Meyers, Kennedy Kleps, Lily Pettit, Mackenzie Johnston, Natalie Wigton and Penelope Patterson. Brownie Sophia Elias attends St. Kateri.
I thought I’d give everyone who’s following the GoPro story a quick update.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, a brief summary:
On Nov. 1, DP (Don) Dunn was walking along the pier and found a GoPro which had washed up on the shore. He emailed me about it and sent some photos he’d pulled off the SD card. I posted a blog and within two hours the owner had been located. Ollie Bartholomew, who lives in Westchester County, had lost it in the lake while visiting some friends over the 4th of July holiday. It took four months for it to wash up on the shore. (Click here to see the follow-up blog I wrote.)
The second half of this story, and perhaps even more heartwarming, is that Ollie offered to donate $100 in my name and Don’s name to charity as kind of a reward. Don and I chose to donate to a GoFundMe page for a friend of his, Kevin Woolever, who is fighting ALS and is in danger of losing his home.
And now the update:
On Friday Nov. 5, Don had packed up the camera and shipped it back to Ollie, who received it the following Monday and was kind enough to send along some close-up photos of how somewhat battered it was from its time in the drink.
But then he sent the following little video, which is priceless. Ollie actually encapsulated the camera — and therefore the whole fun story — in a display case for his office.
Last Thursday, Andrew Freeman from Spectrum News put in a marathon day interviewing all three of us for a piece which will air sometime this coming week. Don told his part of the story at the lake, where it all started. Andrew came to my house and we talked as I sat at my dining room table/office. Later that afternoon, he and Ollie talked via Zoom from Ollie’s high-rise Manhattan office.
It was a really fun day, and I’ll let you know when I see the story pop up online.
Ollie in his office
The view from Ollie’s office
Don chatting with Andrew at the lake
I’m also very happy to report that several very kind people have donated to Kevin’s GoFundMe page as a result of my blog. My sincere thanks to those folks for helping continue to spread the kindness.
Click on the link above to read more about about Kevin’s story.
A new museum is taking shape at the West Webster Fire Department on Gravel Rd., and it’s pretty neat.
The museum is located in its own bay on the north side of the station, specially designed for that purpose when the new station was built in 2019. It’s not a huge space, but it’s packed with old artifacts representing the WWFD’s long history.
I got a personal tour the other day from Al Sienkiewicz, one of about a dozen WWFD members who have been working on the museum for more than a year. Al gave me a quick lesson in the department’s history, including how it was created following a fire in 1925 which devastated West Webster.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is a 1935 Ford pumper engine. Surrounding the engine are displays of old communication equipment, nozzles, first aid equipment and more. Three mannequins illustrate the transition of turnout gear, from a long overcoat to today’s short coat, bunker pants and complete equipment ensemble.
The WWFD also has a 1974 Cadillac ambulance, which replaces the pumper in the museum for six months of the year.
There’s still a lot to do before the committee considers the museum finished … if they ever do. For example, they’re working on restoring a huge 1924 map of the fire district for one wall and figuring out how to best use another large, blank wall on the south side of the bay. They’ll be adding informational placards on some of the exhibits, and Al would like to create a display about the civil side of the department.
The museum isn’t officially open to the public yet, although many people got a sneak peek at the WWFD’s Fire Prevention Open House last month. In the meantime, they continue to collect items for more displays and fine-tune their current ones.
They’re still on the lookout for antique fire equipment to include in the museum, especially anything from the WWFD. If you come across something in your attic that you’d like to donate, drop them an email at info@westwebsterfd.org or call them at 585-671-4141.
I feature the people and places and events that make Webster the wonderful community it is — and throw in some totally-not-Webster-related personal ramblings every once in a while as well.
I love it when readers send me news about the great things happening in their schools or the community, so please email me anytime at missyblog@gmail.com
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