"Back in time: Summer style" by Type A to Z

Picnics, gasoline, ice and poultry on dinner plates are popular topics in 2008.

They were popular subjects during the 1920s and 1930s, too: Here are some tidbits from The Gazette's time tunnel.

Summer Bash

Walter Bradshaw might have been fat. But he was also fast.

Bradshaw won the "fat man's race" at the Schenectady County Farm Bureau's picnic on Saturday, Aug. 25, 1923. About 3,000 people gathered at Waldron's Grove on Duanesburg Road to watch Walt show off his speed. They were also entertained by other people, horses and machinery.

"The advent of the automobile and the passing of the horse was much in evidence at the picnic, for parking space for automobiles at the grove could almost be considered at a premium," the Schenectady Gazette reported.

Other cars were on the move. Ford auto races "with a weird twist" were one of the big deals at the picnic. Each driver had to stop his car, jump out of the front seat, run around the vehicle, stop at the front and crank up the engine. He then had to make another loop around the car and speed
to the next "stop," where the same ritual was repeated.

Harland Gifford of Duanesburg topped the field. Clifford Vedder of Schenectady scored second place.
The horse races were fast and frantic; sounds like jockeys had cranked up their transportation before the event began.

"Several times, the horses in the trial heats became unmanageable and it was impossible to keep them within their designated lanes," the newspaper reported. "The horses on several occasions headed straight for the bystanders, but the skill of the riders and the quickness of crowds in the
field prevented any accidents."

Charles Lewis had the best horse, and won $5 in gold. Levi Gifford was second, and took home an umbrella for his efforts.

Scotia beat Princetown in baseball, 8-6. The winners received a box of cigars - that's one box for the whole team.

Smokes were also the prize for the horseshoe tossers. Frank Berning and Charles Burhmaster were both richer in tobacco when they left the picnic.

Other stars of the day included Blanche Stead, who won the milk-drinking contest; Earl Crounse, who won the pie-eating contest; Stanley Alexson, who took the backward race; Leroy Lohman, who won the children's 100-yard dash.

Although Enos R. Lee was not in competition, he probably gave the best speech of the day. As president of the State Farm Bureau Federation, Lee stressed organization among farmers. He said the bureau, along with the grange, dairyman's league and other farm groups, all had their purposes.
He urged farmers to join all the organizations.

Lightning Power

Gasoline companies used to have creative gimmicks for their products. Texaco called their premium fuels "Fire Chief" and "Sky Chief." Esso (later Exxon) believed motorists could put a "tiger in their tank" by filling up at company pumps. And Mobil's famous symbol of power was Pegasus, the winged horse.

Too bad "Lightning" gasoline never became famous. During the summer of 1925, Schenectady's C.F. Williams & Co. promoted the product's high-mileage capability. Drivers could travel 160 miles on 10 gallons of Lightning, instead of the usual 120 miles.

"Lightning Gasoline gives the most miles, because it's the most combustible," raved a newspaper advertisement.

Five Lightning stations were located in the Schenectady area - Erie Boulevard, one block from State Street; Union Street near Niskayuna; Altamont Avenue at Hamburg Street; State and McClellan streets; and State and Martin streets.

Had Lightning lasted into the 1950s and '60s, the Madison Avenue guys could have cooked up some entertaining television commercials: "Charge up Your Car!" "Electric Power!" "It's Alive!" and "Make Driving a Blast!" come to mind.

No Knocks for Babe

Maybe "Lightning" just needed a famous pitchman. The "Tydol Ethyl" gas house gang signed up Babe Ruth for newspaper print ads during the summer of 1939.

Babe gave a "signed" statement to the advertising guys: "There are lots of noises I like," he said. "I'd be dumb if I didn't like to hear the fans shouting. I like the crack of the ball when it connects with the bat. I like the sizzle of a steak in a frying pan. But the one noise I don't like is the knock in my motor. That drives me wild."

In order to stay sane, the Babe implored fans to fill up with Tydol, the zero knock rating fuel.

"It costs but three cents more per gallon, and saves your car from the pound, pound, pound of the sledgehammer knocks in the cylinders," Babe said.

Yankee fans could use their hero's gasoline at Coyle's service station at State and Chestnut streets; Empire Filling at 312 Broadway; J.H. Pulver at 51 Sacandaga Road in Scotia; Union Garage at 1634 Union St.; and Peck's gas station at 108 Fourth Ave.

The Adirondack Power and Light Corp. had a winner - the utility company was selling electrical refrigerators during the summer of 1926.
In July, the company estimated about 500 of the new, General Electric-built inventions had been plugged into Schenectady homes. By 1927, the power guys figured 1,500 people would be opening and closing electric ice boxes.

"I wonder if the housewives in the vicinity of Schenectady realize that there is an approximate average of only 35 days a year in which the outside natural temperature is just right for preserving the family food supply as it should be, neither too hot nor too cold," said William Minot Thomas, a refrigeration expert from New York City who was in town helping the Adirondack Power cause.

Ice boxes just couldn't keep up. Thomas said the old-fashioned food storage boxes could keep food chilled around 50 degrees - safe enough to keep bacteria out of the mix.

"But a cake of ice in an ice compartment is bound to melt, and as it melts, it loses its capacity for cooling," Thomas said.

He said Americans used 58 million tons of ice every year.

"And yet, a substantial portion of our population does not use ice at all, nor any other efficient method of preserving the family food supply," Thomas said. "Milk bottles are often placed in water pans in cool cellars, lettuce is sprinkled with water, butter allowed to melt on the warmer days."

The hard sell really wasn't necessary. Refrigerators were moving in quickly, and ice boxes were on the way out.

Partridge Family Dinner

Hospital patients, children and senior citizens got happy in June 1928 - the partridge family was coming to some of their kitchens.

The Arrowhead Hotel on Saratoga Lake had planned to serve about 200 birds, with all the trimmings, to their guests. But Arrowhead proprietor J.S. Whipple had taken the partridges unlawfully. The state's Forest, Fish and Game Department had seized the birds during the fall of 1926.

The game had been stocked in a cold storage warehouse in Ballston Spa ever since. Law officials decided to move out the birds, and they were donated to Schenectady hospitals, men and women in the almshouse and residents of the Children's Home and "Old Ladies' Home."