Published: September 22, 2008 03:45 am         

News was big 30 years ago

It was an eventful month back in September 1978, both globally and locally.

Camp David was a busy place, as President Jimmy Carter got Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat together. Some may recall the famous handshake between the three, as a sign of peace "" at least for the time being "" in the Middle East.

Vatican City was in tumult, as not one but two leaders of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul I and Pope Paul VI died while in reign, only 54 days apart, the latter being on Sept. 29.

The average national price of gasoline that month was 71-cents per gallon. A year later, it would be 36-cents higher.

Locally, verbal jabs were traded that month between former state Sen. Edwyn Mason of Hobart and retired State University College at Oneonta President Royal F. Netzer, regarding a proposed fieldhouse for the campus.

What we know today as the Alumni Field House had been proposed as far back as 1971. It finally opened in August 1999. Mason told The Daily Star that he would still oppose the fieldhouse, just as he had in 1971, because the entire state university system "grew too much, too fast," and should "settle down and stop asking for more buildings."

Netzer had hoped for a library, the present James Milne Library, which was completed in 1974, as well as the fieldhouse.

"It was that pipsqueak senator," Netzer said, complaining that if it hadn't been for Mason, there would be a library and fieldhouse by 1978.

Cooperstown had another museum at that time, a Carriage and Harness Museum, at the corner of Elk and Fair streets. It opened in April 1966, but ended its 12-year existence that month. The Clark family had built the carriage house in 1901.

F. Ambrose Clark was an internationally known sportsman who loved steeplechasing, riding with hounds and polo, but was particularly devoted to "sport driving," a term applied to the pastime of handling fine horses and well-appointed vehicles. That was the theme for this museum.

On Sept. 5, the first real move toward the creation of the Pony Farm Industrial Park began when the Oneonta Common Council approved a request by the County of Otsego Industrial Development Agency for an option on 20.1 acres of land near Interstate 88. The first tenant moved into the park in 1984.

It was confirmed on Sept. 11 that the downtown Sears-Roebuck store would close on Dec. 31, where the Ruffino Mall is found today. A catalog store later opened on South Main Street.

Nearly 70 exhibitors were busy preparing that week for the annual Home Show, sponsored by The Daily Star, at the city's municipal parking garage, expected to draw 25,000 people. This was the third year the show was held at the garage, formerly held at the Armory.

Hartwick College had an open house on Sunday, Sept. 24, to mark its 50th anniversary of being in Oneonta.

The city of Oneonta got a new seal that month. The old seal pictured an American Indian in full headdress. Oneonta's American Indian population did not wear war bonnets, and the new seal, which had been suggested as historically more accurate by Alderman Ron Whalen, took that into account.

For at least two generations of diners at the former Health Bar in Bresee's Department. Store, Sept. 30 was a bittersweet day. Muriel (Lawyer) Ross retired after nearly 45 years of serving up cups of coffee and lots of smiles.

Fred Bresee, or "Mister Fred" as she referred to him, probably had no idea that when he hired Muriel, he was employing a mistress of ceremonies.

Muriel told The Daily Star that when she went to the store and asked Mr. Bresee for a job, he asked if she was already working, and she said yes. He said he was sorry but he couldn't hire her.

"I told him if he'd wait right there I'd go quit," she said. Mister Fred did, and so did she, and Muriel began on Oct. 1 of 1943 or 1944, although no one was ever clear on which year.

This weekend: A visit to the old opera house in Delhi.

City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.