The August 8, 2014 Volume 2 Country Editor Number 16 Just good reading Delivered by the U.S. Post Office to over 26,000 homes in Herkimer County each week Tractor square dancing in Peppermint City by Al Dorantes made special cobalt blue bottles for Hotchkiss and The fabric of America is held together by our small later hand blown bottles were purchased from F. E. towns. Some towns have violet festivals and some Reed Glass Co. from Rochester, NY. Because pepper- celebrate strawberries and some jump frogs. Lyons, mint was one of the most important products in NY, once upon a time, was the peppermint capitol of Lyons’s unique history the town celebrates with America and to celebrate their heritage and affinity Peppermint Days. with peppermint Lyons holds Peppermint Days The 13th annual tractor show is only a small part including a tractor show. The 13th annual tractor of the festivities and the 70 tractors took both sides show is also home to what is believed to be the only of two blocks with the dynamometer off on a side tractor square dance in New York State. street. Rich Wunder, organizer of the tractor show, Particia Alena, Historian at the Lyons Heritage explained that most tractor shows have the tractors Society, explained the history behind Lyons’s con- separated into groups by make and model. “We blend nection to peppermint. In 1839 Hiram G. Hotchkiss them all in; it’s more colorful that way.” Also, most founded The Hotchkiss, International Prize Medal, tractor shows have exhibitors bring their tractors and Essential Oil Co. By 1844 Hotchkiss would and then the machines are parked for the duration employ over 100 people and produced more than of the show. At the Peppermint Days tractor show 1,000 pounds of peppermint oil a year. By 1860 Mr. there is stuff going on; barrel pushing, slow race, a Hotchkiss produced over 1/3 of the peppermint oil dyno, and the tractor square dance. Wunder said, in the United States and owned over 100 acres of “There’s always something to do. The tractors are peppermint fields in Lyons. Mr. Hotchkiss was inter- always in motion.” nationally renowned as the leader of the peppermint Carl Palone, from Clyde, NY, was at the tractor oil industry, so much so that he was sometimes show displaying his 1957 John Deere “620.” Carl got called the, “Peppermint King.” The Erie Canal made involved, actively involved in clubs, with tractors it easy for Hotchkiss to ship the oil to New York City around 1990 after retiring from the plastics indus- and Europe. The oil sold for $55.25 per pound and try. He said, “Small farms can’t exist anymore. at the time about 75 percent of the area’s farmland Tractor clubs help promote the heritage of agricul- was devoted to the cultivation of mint. One acre of tural methods and stimulate interest in farming.” land could yield about 12 to 15 pounds of oil. 21 The International Harvester Club of Bellona, NY, ounces flavored one ton of candy. H.G. Hotchkiss has attended the Peppermint Days tractor show for believed in presenting his products with elegant Partners waiting for the call at the Lyons labels and bottles. Ely Glass Works of Clyde, NY Tractor 3 Tractor Square Dance. Photos by Al Dorantes that surrounds the coop yard. One frog was foolish make before. It was nearly dark as I quietly enough to hop under the enclosure and was imme- approached the coop. I could already hear the hens Clucking clearly diately set upon by Red, one of my Golden Comets with their sleep song. They don’t exactly snore but to by Terry Berkson that looks more like a Rhode Island than the rest. my ear they make a sound that’s somewhere One morning a couple of summers ago, after I fed, She carried the squirming frog to a private corner between snoring and keening. This time, added to watered and let the chickens out, I noticed several where she could devour her catch without another the mix was the new sound so that it all blended into small frogs were jumping near the turkey-wire fence hen trying to steal it away. It all happened so fast a snore-keen-“ribbit.” When I entered the coop and that I didn’t have time to interfere. I had heard looked in the laying box, Red was still there with no somewhere that the skin of a frog was poisonous and egg to show for all of her efforts. Things didn’t look thought that Red eating the frog wasn’t such a good good. She wasn’t eating. I figured that she’d be gone idea. Before I could act, though, the frog was down in another day or two, so, I called my chicken expert, the chicken’s throat, so, I finished my chores and McNulty, who said, “A frog in her throat?” went back to the house. I answered, “And I don’t mean figuratively.” I didn’t think anything more about it until the next “Turn her up-side-down and try to ring it out.” day when I walked out to the coop to open the door. I took McNulty’s advice but once again all I got for All the chickens appeared — except Red. I found her my efforts was some fluid. When I finished I put Red sitting in a laying box looking like she was trying to back in the laying box and closed the coop door. push out an egg. At the same time she was making The next morning I was prepared for the worst. I a strange noise. It sounded like a cross between a even thought of a shovel in the shed that I would use cough and a “ribbit.” I hadn’t actually seen what Red to dig a hole. I pulled the cable that opened the had done to the critter before she ate it and I was chickens’ door. To my surprise Red was the first bird picturing a whole frog stuck in her throat. Later that day, when I went out to the coop to see how the hen Clucking 4 was doing, she was still in the laying box and still Customer Postal looking like she was trying to produce an egg. I Local thought of grabbing her and turning her upside down and trying to work the frog out of her throat *****************ECRWSSEDDM**** but that procedure hadn’t proven successful on another occasion so I decided to let nature take its RETAIL EDDM course. PAID Again, that night, when I went to close the chick- POSTAGE U.S. Red eyeing Jonah. ens in, I heard a sound I had never heard a chicken ECRWSS Photo by Terry Berkson STD PRSRT 2•August 8, 2014 THE COUNTRY EDITOR THE COUNTRY EDITOR August 8, 2014 • 3 What’s in a name? by Kelly Gallagher “Well, what name do you like?” Alan she said. “But after your father suggest- I’ve been considering what my future asked, pointedly avoiding the fact that ed that we call you Stevie after Stevie kids’ names will be since I was a little he was thinking about naming our child Nicks, well... I guess you could say I girl. When I stop to think about that, it after a character in a cheesy television NICKSed that name!” seems to me that an eight-year-old with show. “...Dad wanted to name me after an acute fixation on having and naming I thought about it for a second, and Stevie Nicks?” children is a bit concerning. Sure, then said a name I’ve been tossing “Well...I heard he wanted to call you many little girls dream about being around in my head since early high Gold Dust Woman...but turns out that mommies, but I was more apt to toss school. “Daphne,” I said. “It’s Greek.” was just a Rumour!” my baby dolls into drainage ponds to “No,” was his immediate response. “You’re no help.” see if they would float than to change “Why?” “I’m a riot,” she said. their pretend diapers and feed them “I just don’t like it that much. A lot of factors have been affecting my globs of fake food made of hard plastic. Daphne. Daffff-neee. ...Like that char- decision-making. What will go with our One could hardly say I was in serious acter from Scooby Doo?” tri-syllabic clunker of a last name, training to be a mom. More likely, my The doctor popped back in the room, Gallagher? What will the baby’s initials habit of imagining little people and and we halted the conversation. She spell? How fun is it to scream out the naming them stemmed from a deep- gave us a knowing look. She’d clearly name in question, as I will undoubtedly rooted desire to have an army of play- been privy to this exact discussion do thousands of times over the next 18 mates on hand at all times. They were between countless couples throughout years to life? Will strangers look at my characters to me, objects of fun. I could her tenure. kid’s name and just see an unpronoun- name them crazy things, like Tiger Lily, “The right name will come,” she said. cable combination of consonants, or Westy, Clancy, Little Bit and New “And when it does, you’ll know.” mistake his or her unusual name for a Jersey. And I did. Days after I received my good news, I brand of carpet cleaner? Or, on the Fast forward 23 years.