False Advertising

 

Downsville, New York, July 5, 2008

A Tree Grows in Downsville

Flickr: Northern Magnolia

I found this lovely photo of a star magnolia while perusing Flickr for photos tagged "Downsville".

Yes, it's Coach Mom's back yard.

Flickr

Downsville Opera House Poster

 

The poster above is a new donation to the Colchester Historical Society, from the Opera House in Downsville, which burned down many years ago.

The movies Gunga Din and Renegade Trail were released in 1939, so the poster is probably from 1939 or 1940.

It's really in remarkable condition for being almost 70 years old. The back was used to keep score for some game, in pencil, but the colors are quite vibrant.

My Hometown Hits The Front Page of the New York Times

James Estrin/The New York Times
In the Town of Colchester, in the Catskills, court is in the garage.

Broken Bench
In Tiny Courts of New York, Abuses of Law and Power

Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge’s bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings.

A yearlong investigation by The New York Times of the life and history of New York State’s town and village courts found a long trail of judicial abuses and errors — and of governmental failure to curb them.

Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many — truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers — have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school.

But serious things happen in these little rooms all over New York State. People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse.

These are New York’s town and village courts, or justice courts, as the 1,250 of them are widely known. In the public imagination, they are quaint holdovers from a bygone era, handling nothing weightier than traffic tickets and small claims. They get a roll of the eyes from lawyers who amuse one another with tales of incompetent small-town justices.

In the 8-page article itself, there is no mention of the Town of Colchester. The audio slide show in the left column repeats this photo, but again no detail about Colchester. I wonder if we will be featured in Parts II or III of the series? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I am informed by a reliable source (thanks Coach Mom) that the court pictured is in Cooks Falls, one of the hamlets located within the Town of Colchester. That tiny court hears traffic tickets. There is another, larger court facility where Town Justice Theodore Fonda, a former New York City police officer, hears cases.

Downsville Girls Soccer Team: New York Class D State Champs

Downsville beat New Lebanon at Union-Endicott's Ty Cobb stadium on Saturday, ending their season as state champions, and the only undefeated girls' soccer team in the state! This is the first state championship in the history of the tiny school, boys or girls.


A PERFECT ENDING: Downsville girls win state title, finish 24-0

Some factors to consider when reflecting on Downsville’s 24-0 season:

• Not only did the Eagles go undefeated, they never even trailed this season — that’s one day and eight hours worth of soccer.

• They won the first state championship of any kind in the school’s history.

• They outlasted a talented Tigers team that had won 10 consecutive Section Two Class D titles and won state titles in 1992 and 1994.

• They outscored the opposition this season, 140-12.

Girls Soccer: Hoyt's goals help top Eagles' perfect season
Downsville wins first state Class D title


It must be noted that some of the great Downsville girls soccer teams of the past never had the opportunity to compete for a state title. For example, Downsville girls went 50-0 in 1978, going undefeated in soccer, basketball and volleyball. But there were no state tournaments for the girls then. Many of the players on the field for Downsville this weekend were the daughters of those players who never got the recognition they deserved. They made sure this team got feted. The firemen met the team bus at the town line and paraded them through, sirens blaring. People were standing in their driveways to cheer. The bridge over the creek in the center of town was festooned with purple and white balloons. Fans lined the sidewalks of Main Street, waving Downsville flags and blowing horns.

On to basketball season, where Downsville girls were state runners-up last year and plan to win it all this year.

Congratulations, and good luck!