Memories of Liberty

There is little that makes Liberty, New York, truly stand out. It is another exit on Route 17 (which the signs inform you is the future I-86), which is a long stretch of highway that goes from around Harriman, New York, to Binghampton, and perhaps even beyond.

Liberty is at Exit 100. Such a perfect number. I remember there was an unjustified sense of pride for me whenever I thought about this at a younger age, when such things occupied my mind and seemed far weightier and more meaningful than they seem to me now.

But what that exit takes you to is a town that has little to make it stand apart from other towns in any real sense. Liberty is, actually, fairly depressing these days. There seems to be more life to the downtown area than once existed, but it is hardly what most people would consider "thriving". There are restaurants offering various kinds of cuisine, but the main lifeblood of these seem to straddle the highway, and clearly more for these travelers, than to entice people from the outside for a visit of the town. There are hotels, but the resorts that used to thrive here, when this was an actual tourist destination, are for the most part largely in a state of severe decay.

Yes, Liberty, and the entire region of the Catskills of New York, used to attract far more people. It is a region blessed with unspoiled natural beauty, with wooded foothills and pristine streams and rivers and lakes. It is quiet. It is almost heavenly in it's beauty, when you explore it.

Fewer people are choosing to do so, and like so many other towns in upstate New York, Liberty, and perhaps especially some other towns in the surrounding area, has suffered as a result. There are signs of the former prosperity in this area. Again, those hotels, and I remember when they were open, although they were already in a state of decline by then. There were stories of how Jerry Lewis used to perform there, as well as other big names. Muhammad Ali used to train there, and Mike Tyson, more recently, also used to train in the area.

So, there are some legends attached to this place. But by the time that I was growing up, in the eighties, those were mostly memories.

Liberty, these days, almost feels like a place that time forgot.

When I go there for a visit, as I did earlier this month, it just feels depressing, honestly. There are signs of happier, more profitable times. But those times have largely passed this place by.

It still means something to me, and my family. My brother and I went on that trip that I mentioned (and have been writing about, the trip included SUNY Orange and SUNY Sullivan, the Red Apple Rest, as well as Woodstock). it was a trip for reminiscing, and yet, there was definitely and undeniably a bit of a depressing feel in it all.

Truth is, Liberty felt like much more than this to me, when I was younger. Liberty was something I associated with my grandparents, on my mother's side. It was my grandfather's calming presence, and it was my grandmother's kindness. It was my grandfather's stamp collecting, and teaching me chess, his personal library (which was fairly sizable, actually), and watching football games together (he got me into football). It was my grandmother, buying my brother and I (and even my parents) all sorts of stuff. Often, with exquisitely bad taste. I still have nightmares about one such "gift" that she got me when much younger. There were these bright neon socks for boys. For almost the entire academic year, I wore them, and the other boys in class would tell me to show them my infamous socks, which were really horrendous and repulsive. Why I didn't just "lose" them, is beyond me. I felt a gift was a gift, and should be appreciated as such. But I was made to suffer as a result. I'm not even entirely sure the scars have fully disappeared, although by now, maybe my former classmates have forgotten? I don't keep in touch with any of them  so I wouldn't know.

Anyway, yes, Liberty meant so much more to me back then. It seemed to have so much more life to it, and there are things, plenty of things, that still take me back there, that allow me to revisit it, in a way, with a flood of memories. The taste of melon still takes me back to those days. So, for that matter, does borscht, which is more relevant now, with Basia specializing in Polish dishes, which includes borscht. Also, there are bottles of sliced beets in juice of sorts that really reminds me of those olden days, although back then, I thought this in and of itself was borscht (which I was apparently wrong about, as Basia is quick to point out). I already mentioned the stamp collecting, but the smell and site of pipes reminds me of my grandfather's calming presence, as well. So does chess.

Yes, and I remember Sullivan's, and Jamesway. Department stores are not usually necessarily endearing places, but these were to me. They reminded me of Liberty as I knew it during what seemed at the time to be happier days, more innocent days. Days that were not nearly as cluttered with complications and stress as the present day tends to be. That is why I remember these in a positive light, as opposed to, say, a place like Walmart or Target in the present day. These places were not so huge and.....well, corporate, and symbolic of "globalism" in all it's worst contexts, as those places are now.

My grandmother used to like a store that was not actually in Liberty, but which, since I came to associate with her, meant that I indirectly associated with Liberty. That would be Playtogs, in Middletown. She would find incredible deals that she could not resist there, although we tended to sometimes wish that she missed them. The aforementioned neon socks were one of those incredible deals that I wished she had not discovered. It probably never occurred to her that the reason that the price was so low on them was because nobody in their right mind would actually choose such ugly, horrendous socks for a boy. But I won the lottery, unlikely though it may seem. Yes, I was that lucky recipient of those socks! I still kick myself for not having "lost" them, or perhaps simply burned them. Something. Anything, really, but to do what I did, which was wear them, almost horrified to go to school and be the object of ridicule once again. My stupification at her choosing them is perhaps only matched by my own bewilderment in asking what the hell was I thinking in wearing them. Maybe I did not have the guts to stand up for myself yet.

In any case, the point that I am trying to make is that Liberty may not be remarkable or memorable for most. But actual people come from there, and lived there. My mother was raised there, my grandparents lived there for pretty much all of their adult lives. I still have some family there. And when I visit, the flood of memories is strong enough that it cannot be dammed. It is home to many personal memories, mostly pleasant.

And so, it is for that reason, that I now dedicate this blog entry to Liberty, New York.

This was the old logo for the Sullivan's Department Store. There was one in Liberty, New York, that served as a local landmark. There was also one in a mall in Middletown, about half an hour or so away. Both are long gone now. Still, I was a kid back then, and had pleasant memories for the old, overpriced store! And so, I put the logo here, and honor the memory of it now in so doing. 

SUNY Sullivan, which is not technically in Liberty, but so near to where our house is, that it is within walking distance. We visited it, and I was, frankly, amazed at how small it was. It felt like a slightly oversized high school. It might be a bit big for a high school, but small for a college. Yet, it has dorms, and is an actual college campus! And one way or the other, it was pleasant to visit it, and to actually go inside, which was only the second time that I think I've actually been inside the place.

Liberty Elementary School, which used to be Liberty High School for the first two years that my mom attended high school. The banners read: "LIBERTY PRIDE", and "Home of the Indians"

The "Great American" grocery store in town. There used to be two of them, and the other was next to Sullivan's. But it closed a long time ago, although this one remains, surprisingly. My grandmother used to shop there frequently.