At the turn of the 20th century, the Hudson Valley was the brickmaking capital of the world, producing more than a billion bricks a year and employing nearly 10,000 people in more than 120 brickyards. By the late 1970s, the once-mighty molded-brick industry was no more. One by one, the great yards had closed their gates, leaving behind a small-but-colorful legacy of people who remember the industry in its prime.
A primer on Kingston’s own soldier/statesman.
![[Postponed] Christmas tree bonfire in New Paltz](https://hv1-dev.newsatomic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/xmas-bonfire-9s-436x291.jpg "[Postponed] Christmas tree bonfire in New Paltz")
The sixth annual Christmas tree bonfire, scheduled for Saturday, January 13, 5 p.m., at Hasbrouck Park in New Paltz, has been postponed.
The Rev. Miroslaw Pawlaczyk, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church on Delaware Avenue in Kingston, has his sights set high these days.
UlsterCorps’ ninth annual MLK Day Celebration of Service will be held on Sunday, January 14 from 3-6 p.m. at the Rosendale Recreation Center. (Monday, January 15 is the snow date.)
In Japan, mochi is comfort food: sticky balls of rice with a satisfyingly chewy texture, topped with a variety of sweet or savory toppings. It’s also said to bring good fortune, so it’s traditional to serve it at holiday meals. The New Year is an extra-special time when it comes to mochi: Not only are you supposed to eat it, but you’re also supposed to get involved in making it. Pounding the rice, or mochi-suki, is a raucous group ritual meant to purge yourself of all the things that you want to put behind you in the old year.
Thursday, January 11: “Captain Dixie” Kiefer was a US naval commander during World War II who saw so much action that his men joked that the ship’s compass needle always pointed to him, on account of all the shrapnel in his body. While awarding him a medal, the Secretary of the Navy dubbed Kiefer “the Indestructible Man.” But shortly after the war ended, Kiefer perished, along with five other Navy men, in an airplane crash on Mount Beacon. A group called the Mount Beacon Eight is working to attain recognition for those who died alongside Kiefer in the 1945 plane crash.
Maggie Carpenter is founder and executive director of Go Doc Go, as unique an NGO as you’re likely to find anywhere in the States, Africa, New Zealand or Central America, to name the four regions of the world where she has established beachheads of medical aid.
125 get a good meal and great company.
Books collecting the autographs of others, along with poems and other mementos, were once common. Today they live in only for special occasions, like weddings or graduations.