On May 9 we will wander to Forest Hills Queens to visit the neighborhood and the former Tennis Stadium which was the home of the US Open from 1915to the mid 1970s We will see the site of Helen Keller’s home, as well as the home of Branch Rickey of the Dodgers. Forest Hills is also the former home of Trygve Lie, the first Secretary General of the United Nations. Teddy Roosevelt visited Forest Hills and Robert Kennedy campaigned there. A most interesting piece of New York City
David Mace, Joe Spain
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DMA members and their spouses are taking exciting boat Cruise Around Manhattan on May 30th that will provide a relaxing and breathtaking way to enjoy dramatic sightseeing and iconic landmarks from the unique perspective the water. It’s the only sightseeing cruise that completely circles Manhattan including all 3 rivers. Along the way, DMA members will see approximately 130 landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, United Nations, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Yankee Stadium, Spuyten Duyvil, the Cloisters, the newly constructed Hudson Yards neighborhood, One World Trade Center and revitalized Wall Street area, the newly gentrified Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, the Hoboken & Jersey City coastline, the Highline, Little Island and too many tugs, ferries and cruise ships to count all while going under 20 bridges including the Brooklyn Bridge and G.W. Bridge.
HIKING GREENWICH AUDUBON CENTER
GREENWICH, CT
10 AM MONDAY MAY 20, 2024
Greenwich Audubon Center is a 285 acre sanctuary which opened its doors in 1943 as Audubon’s first nature education center in the country. Located on land donated by Eleanor Clovis Reese and H Hall Clovis the center includes over 7 miles of trails through a rich diversity of hardwood forest, meadows, lakes, streams and vernal ponds. Also on the property are an expansive Nature Education Center, an old apple orchard and original New England homestead buildings.
We plan to meet in the main parking lot at 10 AM and hike for about two hours over varied terrain including one steep climb and several sections of rocky trail. We rate this as a hike of moderate plus difficulty. We hope to see migrating birds but our wildlife scorecard has not been good! As always, guests and spouses welcome but NO DOGS. If the weather is iffy, contact one of us to see if we are hiking.
Optional lunch after at Ole Mole at 1030 High Ridge Road in Stamford
The Center is located at 613 Riversville Road in Greenwich on the north side of the Merritt Parkway. Exit at Round Hill Road and use GPS to get you to the center.
CONTACTS: Dave McCollum 203-858-5688 and dgmccollum63@gmail.com and Robert Plunkett 203-246-2898 and rgplunkett1@gmail.com.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”
At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.
Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.
Coordinator: Alex Gibbons
“China’s economy has been booming for decades now. Keyu Jin, an economist who was born in China and educated in the United States, brings her fluency in Eastern and Western cultures together to offer an explanation of how China became such a successful economic story. This book is a guide to the Chinese economy as it has shifted from being based primarily on state-owned enterprise to being based on entrepreneurship and participation in the global economy”–
Possible Revolutionary War Soldier Burials, Ridgefield, CT
In December 2019, the discovery of skeletal remains beneath an early 18th Century house near the site of a pivotal Revolutionary War battle could be the first time in state history that soldiers from the Revolution have had their remains recovered from the field of battle.
Subsequent excavations by the interim state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, with assistance from the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology, Inc., and University of Connecticut graduate students, have yielded skeletons of robust adult men lying in a mass grave that appears to be haphazardly dug. The burials are located in the area of the Revolutionary War Battle of Ridgefield (April 27, 1777) and may be associated with the battle.
The current state archaeologist and the state archaeologist emeritus will discuss the Battle of Ridgefield, archaeological excavations, material culture studies and the projected forensic analyses of these potential military burials.
Dr. Nicholas F. Bellantoni serves as the emeritus state archaeologist with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut. He received his doctorate in anthropology from UConn in 1987 and was shortly thereafter appointed state archaeologist. His duties primarily included the preservation of archaeological sites in the state. He serves as an Adjunct Associate Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UConn and resided as former presidents of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut and President of the National Association of State Archeologists.
His research background includes the forensic archaeology and faunal analysis from eastern North America. Nick is the author of two books written for the general public: The Long Journeys Home: The Repatriation of Henry Opukaha’ia and Albert Afraid of Hawk and “And So The Tomb Remained”: Exploring Archaeology and forensic Science Within Connecticut’s Historical Family Mausolea. He has been excavating in Connecticut for almost 40 years.
Speaker suggested by Gary Banks.
The Art and Craft of Dowsing
Dowsing is a technique for searching for underground water, minerals, or anything invisible by observing the motion of a pointer (traditionally a forked stick) or changes in direction of a pendulum in response to unseen influences. Leroy Bull will take us through the art and craft of dowsing including: how we presently intuit these techniques work; different types of dowsing using information, maps and remote viewing; establishing a signal system so you can understand the answers you get; and more.
Leroy Bull is an international master dowser, author, prior president of the American society of dowsers, (ASD) and the international coordinator for the ASD. Bull served on the ASD board of trustees for 14 years. He has been dowsing for over 68 years on all kinds of targets: water, people, pets, minerals, pipes, wires, time capsules, and more. Leroy has successfully dowsed over 3300 water wells on 4 continents and 4000 earth energy projects. He has taken 12 trips to Japan to find time capsules for schools while on T.V. Leroy has been in the New York Times three times, in Smithsonian and more recently in Outside magazine.
Speaker suggested and arranged with the help of Ric Grefe.