Along The Mohawk #8

For the Mohawk Valley, Central New York region. 

Along the Mohawk features local music and interviews with musicians, storytellers, restaurateurs, and manufacturers and also features Soundscapes with local naturalist Matt Perry. The show will also include a short weekly old-time radio serial, Annie and the Loomis Gang, written and produced by Sharry and performed by a cast of local voice actors. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_15 0:01

Steep Ponty Chevrolet and Herker, your local family-owned and operated Chevy dealer, presents Along the Mohawk.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Come with me as we travel along the Mohawk, sharing the stories of the people and places where we belong.

SPEAKER_15 0:21

Good morning. I'm Sherry Whitney. Thank you for joining me today as we travel along the Mohawk. I've always been fascinated by the Mohawk River that served as a vital transportation route and lifeline for the Hoden Oshone. The river runs through a natural corridor in the Appalachian Mountains, forming an important trade route that carried people west through the Mohawk Valley. In Rome, the portage between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek was known as the carrying place, a key passage for the fur trade, especially beaver pelts. I stopped in at the Marinus Willet Center in Rome to speak with park ranger Kelly Cardwell. We have currency, we have things that we buy today, but this was pretty much currency.

SPEAKER_14 1:03

Tell us a little about the fur tray and Rome, New York. So, as you said, gold and silver are the currency of the day, but not everybody has gold and silver. So most of the time you're going to be trading or bartering. Fur was the big trade item in the 18th century and earlier. So beaver felt hats were a very popular European design to the point where Europeans almost hunted beaver to extinction in the early 1700s in North America. And pauses were put on trade by the natives, both the Algonquins and the Hodenoshone. That's also their winter food stocks and all sorts of stuff. So fur is very important, but also the meat is very important. Animals like the ermine were hunted to extinction in Europe before being almost snagged up here completely. Over the course of a hundred or so years, over a thousand tons of fur or more were probably exchanged along this pathway. Just massive, massive numbers. Now this area was the this is a natural stopping place, the hub of trade. Yeah, during the Seven Years or French and Indian War, between 1755-ish and 1768-ish, it was said that the entire trailway, almost four miles worth of it, was filled with merchants one after another, all sorts of trade going on, including the fur trade. Funny story about beaver, we eat fish on Fridays because of Lent, but back in the 1700s, beaver was allowed to be eaten as well because it was considered a cold aquatic meat like fish. So at least in North America, it was another source for the French Canadians who were uh Catholic. But yeah, Europeans would have thought it crazy to eat things like bear and beaver and elk when they have perfectly what they consider normal food back then. It's like you plop somebody else on the opposite side of the world. Why the heck would they want to eat that?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Attention, listeners, your Mohawk Valley time travel experiment is about to commence. Stand by as we recalibrate the decades.

SPEAKER_11 3:12

Welcome to Utica 1978. It's a warm July morning, and runners have just started running outside the Utica radiator plant for something brand new in the Mohawk Valley, the very first Utica Boilermaker 15K Road Race. The event was created by Earl Reed, who was looking for a special way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Utica Radiator Corporation, today known as Utica Boilers. Working with a small local committee that included people like Tom Hubby and Joe Faco, Reed helped launch what many thought would simply be a fun community race. On July 16, 1978, 876 runners signed up to take part. By the time the race was over, 782 runners crossed the finish line, winding their way through Utica neighborhoods and cheering crowds. And here's something that's almost hard to believe today. The entire event was organized with an operating budget of just $750. From that modest beginning in 1978, the Boilermaker has grown into one of the premier 15K road races in the United States, drawing thousands of runners from around the world to Utica every summer. All from a simple idea and a $750 budget. Well, it's time to get back to the future.

SPEAKER_15 4:47

Coming up after the break, it's fishing season. So we talk brown trout at Oriskany Creek, just north of Deansboro. And after fishing, we stop in at Deansboro Superette, the perfect place to stop and tell your fish tales.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Come with me as we travel along the Mohawk.

SPEAKER_11 5:11

Big Apple Music in New Hartford has served Central New York and the best musicians since 1979. Guitars, amps, drums, sound systems, digital pianos, and school instruments, and providing sales, rentals, repairs, and musical instrument private lessons. Got an instrument that needs a little love? Let Big Apple Music repair it for you. Check us out for Sound System installs and repairs. The best brands for the best bands. Shop local, shop smart, shop Big Apple Music in New Hartford. Loving people for over 46 years. Check us out on Facebook and our website.

SPEAKER_07 5:44

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SPEAKER_11 6:08

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SPEAKER_08 6:25

You work hard here in the Mohawk Valley. You make a difference. You leave your mark. You deserve a financial advisor who works hard to make a difference for your future.

SPEAKER_06 6:35

Investing for retirement, college, thinking about your legacy. We have spent most of our adult lives giving you straightforward answers for your financial decisions.

SPEAKER_08 6:45

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SPEAKER_15 7:04

It's fishing season in New York. Over the years, we have visited fish hatcheries in Rome, Altmar, and Van Hornsville and watch spring fish releases in the West Canada Creek. Today I meet up with Utica DEC biologist Dave Irway at the Iriskany Creek Public Fishing Site just north of Deansboro. I talk with Dave while a fish culturist from Rome Fish Hatchery, Emily Cronell, arrives with her truckload of trout.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Hi Dave.

SPEAKER_15 7:32

Jeff. Oh hi Dave. Hi. Hey, both of you. Hi, Jeff. Nice to meet you. Nice day for a fish release, huh? Tell us what's happening here today.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Uh, today we're stocking brown trout in Blue Riskini Creek.

SPEAKER_15 7:44

And uh, how many are we dropping in today?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

There's gonna be about 2,100 uh yearling brown trout and another 260 two-year-old brown trout.

SPEAKER_15 7:53

And why do we have to stock the streams?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

We stock the streams to provide a fishery resource for a stream that might not be able to sustain it on its own to provide additional fishery resource for anglers.

SPEAKER_15 8:07

And where are these bred?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

They were raised at Caledonia Fish Hatchery, but there's two uh hatcheries in New York that have broodstock populations, and once those eggs are fertilized, they get transferred off to the other fish hatcheries to raise them and then stocked out.

SPEAKER_15 8:23

And then um what's the process like today?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Uh well when the truck gets here, we're going to uh most likely either net or bucket some fish right into the stream.

SPEAKER_15 8:32

Are you a fisherman? And why do you do this?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yes, I am a fisherman. Um I really I do enjoy fishing. I don't get out and fish as much as I would like to, but I do this uh because I love it. I mean, I my grandfather uh lived on Cuka Lake when I was young. We we would go fishing for lake trout all the time, and I just knew that I wanted to be outside doing something, so this is where my path took me.

SPEAKER_15 8:54

And why do you think it's important to for this to happen in New York?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Um it's important because it provides um additional places for folks to to fish, and a lot of times we're stocking them in easy, easily accessible places where there's there's public access, um, anybody can go there and fish.

SPEAKER_15 9:13

What do you know about this creek in particular?

SPEAKER_01 9:15

This is a very nice, it's one of our um better trout streams in this area of New York. We are stocking it. There are some wild trout in here, of course, but we are still supplementing that wild population with the stock trout.

SPEAKER_15 9:29

Do they breed with the wild?

SPEAKER_01 9:32

No, we we don't really see evidence of the stocked fish breeding with the wild population. No.

SPEAKER_15 9:38

And how big do these fish get in the course of the season?

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Uh well the fish now are stocked as nine inches, the yearlings. The the two-year-old fish are you know 12 to 15 inches, um, and they can grow another inch or two by midsummer.

SPEAKER_15 9:53

So, what's a good catch?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

For this stream, I've actually seen pictures of a 27-inch brown caught out of here, which is massive. And that would be a wild that would be a wild fish, yep. We've caught some wild fish that were, you know, in the 20-inch, 22, uh, 23-inch range in our surveys, too.

SPEAKER_13 10:11

Okay, Mario. Hi, do you mind if sure? Oh god. I was just gonna ask if you need anything else from me. So you've done this before. Yes, this is my second season.

SPEAKER_15 10:20

Okay, so you really know how to flip those fish. Yeah, I've gotten pretty good.

SPEAKER_13 10:24

Should have seen me in the beginning though.

SPEAKER_15 10:25

Okay, oh, poor fish, right? Okay, tell us about Caledonia and how it's the first fish hatchery.

SPEAKER_13 10:31

Well, Caledonia isn't my fish hatchery, so I'm from Rome. Okay. Um, but I went to Caledonia to get the fish. Um Caledonia was started in the 1800s. 1864 was when Caledonia started. So they're one of the first hatcheries. The first, the first, the first hatchery.

SPEAKER_15 10:47

Western hemisphere. Okay. Yeah, okay. And uh, how did you get into this business?

SPEAKER_13 10:52

Um, I went to school for biology and field biology and ecology, and um I always wanted to work for a like state agency. And I worked for DEC um in 2019 down in the in New Palts for the Hudson River Fisheries Unit. And just being able to be outside and be on the Hudson every day was like the coolest thing ever for me. Coming to be able to do something like this was just kind of like the next step, you know. So, what did you not know? What's the most surprising thing you found out about fish in streams? You know, I really didn't know much about stocking before I started at the hatcheries, so it's really cool to see how the bio we work with the biologists to figure out how many fish need to be put in these streams for conservation effort or for just fishing angling effort. So it was really interesting to see how much we do for the angling effort. Because I always thought it was mostly just for conservation purposes. You know, most of it is for angling effort, so that was really cool and interesting to find out.

SPEAKER_15 11:46

If you're fishing the Oriskany Creek on 12B, there's not a better place to stop before or after than Deansboro Superet. They're famous for their monster subs, their homemade tabouli, hummus, giant cookies, and anything you need. It's a gazelle family tradition. Hey Michelle, I'm a little early. Good, how are you? You already got your crowd gathering. Did they ever leave? No. They stay the whole time.

SPEAKER_12 12:14

Tell me a little bit about where your dad came from and why he opened this. Okay, so my grandparents, both of them, owned little mom and pop stores. My grandfather had one in Irisony Falls where the old bank was back in the day with his brothers. And my grandmother's family was on Staben Street, the Nassimos family. Being all that said, my dad had his heart and soul in the grocery business. The Deansbrough Souparette came up for sale. A bunch of different people owned it, but they bought it from Frank and Mail Mabel CeeLo. So I don't know if it was CeeLo's or Oh, they had their names. Yes, yes, yes. Like ours is Dean's Bro Surette, but a lot of people call it the gazelles.

SPEAKER_15 12:52

Yeah, because most people name it after themselves.

SPEAKER_12 12:54

Right, right. So it came up for sale, and my grandparents told my dad, we're gonna buy this place and we're gonna we're gonna put you in there, and you're going to work, and the rest is history. And then, you know, my dad had four children, all four of us kids. We were helping going to school and working at here. And then my sister Kim and I, we we were here all the time, all the time. And then she got married and had her children and thought, well, I think I'll hang out back at the store. You know, we raise our kids here. My three girls were raised, born, and raised in the store here. I love it. I love the people. I lost my dad five years ago, and I took over the business, and it's great. I'm here with my daughter Tori, my sister Kim, she still helps me. Um, my sister Kelly, she works on Saturdays with me. Um, my daughter Sarah, she's helps out part-time. Daughter Lena, she has nothing to do with the business. She went and got a job outside the business, but it's nice. We like it. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of time. You're dedicated.

SPEAKER_15 13:54

Now, is this a grocery store? So it's a convenient place to pick up things, but it's more than a grocery store. Tell us about what it means to the community.

SPEAKER_12 14:02

Well, they come here, they have coffee, they hang out, they catch up, you know, what's going on in their families, how their kids are doing, how what you know, we we treat customers like they're at home, you know, they hang out here, some don't leave. Some come at when I open and leave, and then come back, and then you know, I got a coffee crew that comes at 6 a.m. in the morning, they come back at 2, they come back at before I close at 5, 5:30. You we'd all look out for each other. You know, so it is. It's like a family store. It's it truly is the roots. I remember your dad seemed to be a part with the guys coming in. He always seemed to catch up with them. Oh, yeah. Always, always, and they're still doing that today. They still come in and they, you know, check on our girls, and the girls, okay. You girls need anything, they run our errands, they you know, whatever we need, they do and they watch out for us. It's wonderful. So we have our um Middle Eastern food. We have um grape leaves, hummus, tabouli, babaganoosh, tziki, and we also make subs. You know, we're known for our subs. We have a lot of regulars, so we know what they like, and we have you know lunch specials every day.

SPEAKER_15 15:04

And which items do you make?

SPEAKER_12 15:05

We make everything, we do we make all our stuff homemade.

SPEAKER_15 15:08

The hummus.

SPEAKER_12 15:09

Hummus, tabbouli, everything. Oh, yeah, everything is is made here fresh every day. My daughter and I make it.

SPEAKER_15 15:15

Where do these recipes come from?

SPEAKER_12 15:16

So, my grandmother, grandmother Helen, she's Syrian, she was from Aleppo, Syria, and she came over here, Alice Island. When I was a child, I lived in the same house with her. We lived in a two-family house, so I learned, and then my girls, you know, were fortunate enough to know her, and she would teach them how to roll grape leaves and make the food, and it's great. Why is it important for you to carry this on? It's important because it's family, you know, and there's a lot of that's not around anymore. You know, I get emotional because I miss my dad. It's hard. Yeah, he was this place. He was. It's hard because my girls remember him. And it probably helped you through it. Yeah, yeah. Your customers, you know, they know, you know, the meaning of that. And see a lot of your dad.

SPEAKER_15 16:00

Everybody says that. Oh my god, you're just a speaking about your your personality, although you're a little softer.

SPEAKER_12 16:06

He was a little more corners. He's grown. Yeah, well, my girls tone me down on that because they're always saying, Mom, you sound just like Jinto. You can't talk like that. What did they call it? Jinnto. Jinn. Jinnto, grandpa in in Arabic. Jinnto. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They say that all the time. You sound just like Jinnto. Like oh is that a compliment? It is. It is, yes, it is.

SPEAKER_15 16:31

As I leave Deansboro Superet, I stop to talk to the guys hanging out at the front of the store. And why are you here?

SPEAKER_09 16:38

To support the local people.

SPEAKER_15 16:40

Did you prepare that answer out of time?

SPEAKER_09 16:42

No.

unknown 16:43

Nope.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Come on, hey. All right.

SPEAKER_15 16:46

So you're supporting them by being here? Yes. And then she has to kick you out when they close the door.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

No, we usually get the hint video.

SPEAKER_15 16:53

You can get the hint that she flashed the lights.

SPEAKER_09 16:55

When she turns the lights on, it's time to leave.

SPEAKER_08 16:57

Okay, scratch at comments. Subs are the best, yeah. Yeah, they crossed are amazing. Well, the raps, everything else. Cookies, they do an excellent job.

SPEAKER_15 17:06

Coming up after the break, I catch up with New Hartford native, musician Daryl Ron, living the life of a singer-songwriter in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Come with me as we travel along the Mohawk.

SPEAKER_11 17:23

Big Apple Music in New Hartford has served Central New York and the best musicians since 1979. Guitars, amps, drums, sound systems, digital pianos, and school instruments. And providing sales, rentals, repairs, and musical instrument private lessons. Got an instrument that needs a little love? Let Big Apple Music repair it for you. Check us out for Sound System installs and repairs. The best brands for the best bands. Shop local, shop smart, shop Big Apple Music in New Hartford. Loving people for over 46 years. Check us out on Facebook and our website.

SPEAKER_07 17:55

Since 1917, NGMs Flooring America has delivered quality floors and expert installations. Save on carpeting, laminate flooring, ceramic tiles, and more. Plus, we offer 12 months of interest-free financing for qualified buyers. Stop by our location today.

SPEAKER_08 18:10

You work hard here in the Mohawk Valley. You make a difference. You leave your mark. You deserve a financial advisor who works hard to make a difference for your future.

SPEAKER_06 18:20

Investing for retirement, college, thinking about your legacy. We've spent most of our adult lives giving you straightforward answers for your financial decisions.

SPEAKER_08 18:30

We pride ourselves on being local, prudent, and trustworthy for you, Van Meter and Van Meter, with three offices to serve your financial future.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Sharing the stories of the people and places where we belong.

SPEAKER_15 18:47

Big Apple Music in New Hartford presents Music Along the Mohawk. Funny story, as I was driving home from dropping my son off at Syracuse Airport after his visit for Easter, I got caught in a whiteout. When I got home, I planned for my interview with musician Daryl Ron. I checked in on his latest work, and the first song I found was titled Lake Effect. I then dove into his other songs about losing touch with friends, reconnecting with friends. It seemed he had a song for every mood. The next evening, I donned my son's Daryl Ron fan t-shirt from college and called the musician at his place in Brooklyn. It's so funny because I was thinking, you have a song for everything.

SPEAKER_10 19:29

Yeah, that's my goal, I guess. I didn't know it until now, maybe, but I feel like for myself it's a goal, you know. It's like every feeling I have, I ultimately want to be able to get it out.

SPEAKER_15 19:39

So you've been writing music since you were a teenager. Tell us how you first got into music and how that led to song writing songs.

SPEAKER_10 19:47

I guess fifth grade, I started to kind of fall in love with a guitar, and my dad took me to uh The Last Unicorn and and he he got me like a stack of like the discount rock CDs. There was Aerosmith, Fleawood Mac, there was um some Zeppelin, just all these classic rock albums that I ended up really falling in love with, and and at that point I was just a guitar player, you know, wanted to be like a rock god in my mind or something.

SPEAKER_15 20:15

Oh, so you wanted to be a a musician. I mean, you wanted to be a rock star.

SPEAKER_10 20:19

Yeah, like stood in front of a mirror playing guitar. I was like, oh, this would be awesome to be. A little bit later in middle school and high school, that I my taste kind of changed a little bit, and I heard a song I realized lyrically moved me, and I thought, well, that's a totally different beast, and that's gotta be really hard to do. And so I I started to become enamored with trying to match lyrics and and then singing, which was even slower for me. A little quieter music, you know, indie rock as opposed to rock and roll, and then from there became indie folk, and then went back to stuff like Jim Croce and John Pry and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_15 20:54

So saying that you have a song for everything, and um how do you share that? It seems like you're giving up so much of yourself. How do you stay sane and keep yourself whole when you're giving away so much?

SPEAKER_10 21:06

Oh, that's an interesting question. You know, I think I still uh struggle with that. Well, in in recent times I've I've tried to become less autobiographical in my writing just to keep it A interesting and B just a little a little less of just me putting myself out there. But I think that it helps me to be as open as possible, and I think because that's a way for me to get through life and to find beauty in it all. So I think even if it seems, you know, even if it's maybe not as fun to talk about or it's it's a little more serious, which I've also tried to stray more from recently, it's still I think helpful, and I think my goal is just to to be as honest as possible while while um also making something that I would want to listen to.

SPEAKER_15 21:48

Tell me about what you thought being a rock star would be and the actual life living this leaving the central New York area, just ultimately a lot of people told me that.

SPEAKER_10 22:00

That was going to be necessary to try to have a music career, and um, that ultimately I think is true for the kind of career I wanted. I wanted to expand and and create bands and create records and Brooklyn and any any city that's not home is is a good place to do that.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 22:16

And I really want to grow always, and especially when I was when I was getting out of high school, it scared me a lot. Like I loved my home life, I loved my friends and my family, so it was hard to leave.

SPEAKER_15 22:24

But you do come home every year. And why do you do that? Why is that such a uh important thing for you?

SPEAKER_10 22:31

I love where I came from. I love my home, and I I I I try to stay in touch with as many people and places as I can. I figure, you know, if I'm gonna be home anyway to visit family, playing a show feels like a really cool, fun way to to kind of connect the dots back and and it's kind of a way for me to take stock of my life and career and be and and see what happened within that year. It's just really cool. You know, it's challenging to play for people I grew up with or that have known me forever because it's especially vulnerable, maybe, but you know, I started playing shows up there when I was 14 or whatever, so way before I put on an enjoyable show, you know, I think, in my opinion. It's really cool for me to be able to come home and and kind of keep trying to prove myself to my younger self.

SPEAKER_15 23:18

I gotta see what he's been up to, and I find like effect. Tell me about that song and um where it came from and its reception.

SPEAKER_10 23:25

Yeah, that song came to me pretty recently. I wrote it when I was visiting home for Thanksgiving. It was very literal beginnings where I was sitting in my my folks' house just drumming the guitar, and I landed on this this little drony finger-picked part that was kept coming back to me. I I kept playing it. My sister in the other room was like, I like that, and and that was cool for me because that you know, I always figure she's just annoyed if I'm if I'm playing in the other room. Sister will tell you the truth. Yeah, she'll tell me the truth. And if she liked that, I was like, okay, well maybe I should see what what this is. So I kept just singing some melodies over it, and and the first line about the lake effect rolling in came to me, and and I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool, because it that's an experience that not everybody knows. Intense sometimes, um, and also beautiful, and it just it just kind of reminded me of being home.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Lake effect rolling in from the north. I was wishing that I brought a coat to the porch as the last of the smoke from my torch floated away.

SPEAKER_15 24:32

Um, what are you currently working on?

SPEAKER_10 24:34

I actually have two albums done that are not released yet. I've released a few songs from it as singles so far, and it's coming out at the end of May. And that has Lake Effect, and that has uh two other songs that I've released in this past year. And before that, I had made an album with a friend of mine at his studio in Brooklyn, and we actually just added another song to it yesterday, so still so now it's it's done again, but uh essentially, yeah, I'm putting an album out this spring.

SPEAKER_15 25:01

Well, thank you. This was fun. Yeah, of course. And um, yeah, I'm looking forward to the album.

SPEAKER_10 25:05

Yeah, I I'm I'm really uh that's really cool that that you found that song very nice. Awesome. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05 25:13

To hear more of Daryl Ron's music, visit our website alongthemohawkradio.com You probably walk in the subject of coffee so you don't wish the patient you go wage dance, even this is Mohawk Valley Soundscape.

SPEAKER_09 26:05

The first warm days of spring do not arrive quietly. They announce themselves in voices rising from the thawed margins of water, high, ringing, and insistent. Tonight those voices belong to spring peepers and wood frogs. The peepers call with a clear bell-like note, each one a bright thread. Woven together they form a shimmering chorus, filling the air with a sound that feels almost electric. Beneath them, wood frogs answer in a different tone, a soft clucking chatter like distant ducks murmuring across the water. This is the sound of another amphibian breeding season underway. Drawn by instinct and lengthening light, frogs and salamanders travel sometimes surprisingly far, over cold ground, across roads, and through leaf litter to reach still waters. Vernal pools, temporary and fleeting, and the steadier margins of beaver ponds become gathering places. Here, free of predatory fish and rich with opportunity, the next generation begins. For a few brief nights, the ponds pulse with life. Males call, females arrive, and the water itself seems to vibrate with movement and intent. And then, almost as suddenly as it began, the chorus fades. The peepers fall silent, the woodfrogs retreat to the forest. But for now, on this warm April night, the wetlands are alive with sound. A reminder that spring is not just arriving, it is here.

SPEAKER_15 28:03

Thank you for traveling with me today. And thank you to all who inquired about our young actress who portrays Annie, who's been under the weather. We're happy to say she's back in the saddle, and our serial drama Annie and the Loomis Gang returns next week. Until then, hope to see you along the Mohawk.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Come with me as we travel. Along the Mohawk, sharing the stories of the people and places.