The Express Newspaper – March 23, 2017

1816: A Year Without a Summer – by Linda Sanders

Is this going to be another year like 1816?I found this story in the file that Mrs. Earl Hayner wrote in 1969 and thought you might enjoy it. I just hope this doesn’t come true again!

Linda Sanders, Town and Village Historian.

Eighteen hundred and froze to death is an expression heard now and then in speaking facetiously of a year whose date cannot be recalled, but that year in reality was no subject for joking. Weather wise it was probably the worst year this section of the state has ever experienced. New England, Eastern New York, and Pennsylvania all suffered from the freak weather. Records are lacking for it was before the Weather Bureau had been instituted.

Read the entire article in the 03/31 edition.

The Express Newspaper December 10, 2015

A Sports Legacy to Remember – by Sandy McBride

Time fades paint. It also fades memories. Mechanicville  has a proud history in sports, going way back before my time. Years ago, there were no state tournaments in sports, but there was very often the proud and glorious moment when our school’s team won a league, a sectional, or sometimes even a regional championship in any of several sports. A winning team pulls a community together. Perfect case in point is Lewisberry,Pennsylvania, population 363, whose Little League team this year drew more than 35,000 spectators to Williamsport each day to watch “their” boys play baseball.

Three Times One Hundred – by S. McBride

We’ve been blessed here in our hometown this summer to celebrate the 100th birthdays of two lovely ladies who were born here in Mechanicville in 1915, Mary LaVigna Canonica and Molly DeCrescenzo Bango.  A century in time, an eyeblink in history.  A life span rarely achieved.  Just what was life like a century ago?

Read the entire article in the July 16th edition.

The Three Bears and Traveling on Holidays – by S. McBride

When Tom and I gave up dairy farming with its 24/7 commitment 30 years ago and were at last able to travel, it didn’t take us long to make a vow that we would absolutely never travel on holiday weekends, especially Memorial Day.

We kept that promise for 29 years.  Here in 2015, however, we found ourselves on a road trip to Alabama for our granddaughter’s high school graduation, ironically taking place the day the holiday weekend began.  Oops!

Read the entire article in the June 18th edition.

Epiphany: The Rest of the Story – by H. Wessell

In the Irish half of this writer’s lineage, it’s often called “Little Christmas;” but it is much more than that. (Nor is it little.)
The feast of the Epiphany, or "appearance" of the Christ, traditionally on January 6, in Western Christendom not only predates Christmas Day as a celebration of the coming of a Savior into history, by at least a hundred years. What is more, that “Little” is a bit ironic: because in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar the feast in a way “outranked” December 25 for centuries until our own time, in 1970. The feast is still of about equal dignity.

Read the entire article in the Dec. 18th issue of the Express.