Dick Cowles - Snake Charmer

When I was researching Spanish Hill early on, I had the pleasure to meet Dick Cowles - who later would become one of the cofounders of SRAC and has been a good friend to me ever since. Dick is 89 years old and has lived all over the United States as well as all over the world during WWII.

Dick still drives down from Caton, NY every Thursday to give tours on the SRAC Exhibit Hall and when we get a slow time - we get a chance to sit down and just chat for a bit. In the past from time to time, Dick has told me about his experiences during WWII, living on a base in India right next door to the Taj Mahal for a while even, and about so many interesting things he did overseas let alone the scary war times as well...

The last chat we had a few weeks ago was about one of his experiences in India - specifically about a snake charmer...

Dick says that he was walking with his buddies in the streets of India one day and there was a snake charmer sitting on the ground "charming" a king cobra in a basket and with another huge snake wrapped around his neck. Well Dick then noticed that the cobra didn't seem too interested in being "charmed" and even seemed "drunk" - in fact, he said it wouldn't even come out of the basket until coaxed with a stick...So he decided to impress his buddies by paying the charmer to let HIM charm the snake... SO he bartered with the charmer and ended up giving him enough cash to buy his flute and then promptly sat down, crossed his legs and had the large snake draped over his shoulders and then the cover was lifted off the basket in front of him....He says that again the charmer had to prod as the king cobra but when he did - - the cobra came up, crowned it's head and stared Dick straight in the eyes --- to the point that Dick had to ask himself just what he had gotten himself into this time!....He then laughingly explained that although he couldn't say that he was playing a song on the flute, that there was alot of sounds coming out of it just the same!

Just then his buddy shot this picture:

Dick Cowles - Snake Charmer

Just yesterday we had our annual SRAC board and volunteer cookout at the house and I am reminded of just how blessed I am to know and volunteer with these wonderful people every week. We did have a short board meeting at the cookout - and the highlight for everyone was that Dick had brought this photo for me to see and I had him tell the story to the board members before we got down to business....

I know that my life has been forever changed and enlightened by being a part of this place we built to house local artifacts and yet has proven to possess so much more for everyone who walks in our doors...

Spanish Hill and Carantouan to be discussed August 6th at SRAC!

"Carantouan" shown on 1632 map

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Who were the first Europeans to have entered the Valley? Who was Stephen Brule - the namesake of "Camp Brule"? What does "Carantouan" mean? What was Spanish Hill used for by the Native Americans who lived here? All of these questions and more will be answered on Tuesday, August 6th from 6:30 - 7:30pm at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY by author and local historian, Deb Twigg as she presents, "Spanish Hill and Carantouan."

Nearly 400 years ago, the Native Americans living in the Valley were visited by strangers from a far away land and their lives were about to be changed forever. Go back to that time and see how different our Valley was and who the people were that lived here. Twigg's presentation will unfold the story and show the data that she used to prove our area was in fact "Carantouan" in an article published in the "Pennsylvania Archaeologist" journal in 2005, overturning prior archaeological stances on the topic and still standing unchallenged by archaeologists today.

Visitors are invited to come early as there is limited seating for this event, and to take time to visit the SRAC Exhibit Hall before the presentation. A general admission donation is requested of $6, with SRAC members $4, and students free, and admission to the Exhibit Hall is free during the event.

Mark Your Calendars! SRAC Auction August 11th!

The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) Fundraiser event dubbed, "Waverly's Attic" is gearing up to be an amazing day for the downtown Waverly area. With a huge auction jam packed with incredible local antiques, collectibles, and household items that will run from noon til 6pm and over twenty vendors in the street let alone the sidewalk sales, and other activities planned in it's first year- this may just become an annual event for the Valley!

A really incredible piece that was recently added to the auction is this coin/token machine that came from the Valley trolley system:

Vintage picture of Valley Trolley and workers

1930's - 40's Coin/Token mechanism

Below you can see a small sampling of the incredible items that will be in our auction - AND WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING ITEMS ! (VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR THE EVENT HERE!)

Stolen Artifact - be on the lookout!

Please see the following important information and report anything you may know. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Dear Deb,

I wanted to let you know about this, on the off-chance that someone in the local community of collectors might hear about it. We had a Danish Neolithic sickle stolen from the Anthropology Collections. It's 18cm (just over 7") in length, and has been broken and reglued. Photos are attached below. It's accession number 882.7.190 (written on the piece in red, if it hasn't been removed). Not extremely valuable, but it's an important piece for the Collections.

All best,

Fred

Frederic W. Gleach, PhD
Historical Anthropologist
Senior Lecturer and Curator of the Anthropology Collections,
Cornell University

Founding Co-Editor, Histories of Anthropology Annual

163 McGraw Hall (0ffice) 607.254.8688
fwg1@cornell.edu        (fax) 607.255.3747
fwg2@twcny.rr.com
http://anthropology.cornell.edu/faculty/Frederic-Gleach.cfm
http://www.archaeology.cornell.edu/faculty/fred_gleach.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Looking for Volunteers for Waverly's Attic!

VOLUNTEER at Waverly's Attic! 

Waverly's Attic is going to be HUGE and SRAC is looking for volunteers to help us during the event! Volunteering opportunities can be for an hour up to the whole event and include: helping with food vending (selling water, sno-cones, cotton candy etc), helping in the SRAC gift shop (we can show you what you need to know!), helping with the auction (moving items and running sales slips, etc) Thanks for whatever you can do!

Call Deb Twigg at 607-727-3111 or email deb@teaoga.com to learn more!

Waverly's Attic & SRAC Fundraiser Auction

(Waverly, NY) The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) is planning a huge event for downtown Waverly on Sunday, August 11th, from 10am to 7pm, dubbed "Waverly's Attic." The event will take place on Broad Street between Waverly St. and Penna Ave and also include Park Avenue between SRAC and the Red Door Thrift Store.

The event includes many activities such as live music, sidewalk sales by local stores, a chicken barbeque by the Railhouse Restaurant, a dunking booth supplied by the American Legion and manned by Waverly teachers, a Chinese auction filled with items donated by local businesses, many craft and food vendors, a tour of the former Waverly Village Hall, and from noon to 6pm, a huge auction of antiques, collectibles items, and household goods that have been donated to SRAC to raise funds for the coming year. SRAC's Deb Twigg explains, "It is a coming together of many people and businesses to celebrate the continued revitalization of downtown Waverly while supporting our local museum, SRAC. We have alot of items for the auction, but anyone who wants to donate items can still do so by contacting SRAC at 607-565-7960 to arrange a pick up or they can simply drop it off." The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center is located at 345 Broad Street Waverly, NY and is a 501(C)3. All donations are tax deductible.

Twigg also noted that activities continue to be added to the event and a website has been created for people to see the event updates, items for the auction, and how they can volunteer or be a vendor, at www.WaverlysAttic.com.

"Spanish Hill and Carantouan" To Be Presented Tuesday August 6th

"Carantouan" shown on 1632 map

SHARE THE FLIER!

Who were the first Europeans to have entered the Valley? Who was Stephen Brule - the namesake of "Camp Brule"? What does "Carantouan" mean? What was Spanish Hill used for by the Native Americans who lived here? All of these questions and more will be answered on Tuesday, August 6th from 6:30 - 7:30pm at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY by author and local historian, Deb Twigg as she presents, "Spanish Hill and Carantouan."

Nearly 400 years ago, the Native Americans living in the Valley were visited by strangers from a far away land and their lives were about to be changed forever. Go back to that time and see how different our Valley was and who the people were that lived here. Twigg's presentation will unfold the story and show the data that she used to prove our area was in fact "Carantouan" in an article published in the "Pennsylvania Archaeologist" journal in 2005, overturning prior archaeological stances on the topic and still standing unchallenged by archaeologists today.

Visitors are invited to come early as there is limited seating for this event, and to take time to visit the SRAC Exhibit Hall before the presentation. A general admission donation is requested of $6, with SRAC members $4, and students free, and admission to the Exhibit Hall is free during the event.

SRAC Sponsors a Hole at DJ's!

Joel Sarta at Dj's Golf Center in Chemung offered SRAC a "hole" at their putt putt golf area to represent us this summer while families visit and enjoy the golf course. While he offered this for free to us as a nonprofit, it still meant that we were tasked with figuring out what to make and how to make it. I recall a board meeting where ALOT of great IDEAS came out, like 4 feet tall woolly mammoths and so on, and we settled on an arrowhead. But as with many short staffed nonprofits, when I asked who we had that could make it, the room went quiet. So then I made some phone calls and even called Peter Quilles who did our woolly mammoth - to no avail...

But if you know us - you know that when we decide to do something - that we will get it done one way or another - and this project was no exception...

This summer we were blessed with getting a couple of college kids who requested to work at SRAC for the summer - and I can tell you that one actually showed up and to my surprise 1 - really wanted to volunteer and 2- learn from SRAC this summer. Hannah Chelsey is originally from Washington state and has lived between her divorced parents since the age of three, literally living all over the country in her 19 years. So unlike many kids, her life taught her many skills that I didn't have at that age including how to make friends pretty fast anywhere she goes. In fact from the first day she came in - she seemed as though she had been with us forever! She currently is a St. Bonaventure at the Cuba, NY campus and majoring in Art History. More impressively to me, she is a mature 19 year old who has volunteered at SRAC just about every day SRAC has been open and done any and all tasks that we have asked of her with a "Sure - I can do it!" attitude...including doing tours and of course - designing and fabricating an SRAC putt putt piece...!

She actually went to Lowes and talked with them about how to make her design into a working piece and then worked for a few weeks in our cellar sculpting and creating and painting the final piece. Just last week, Tom Vallilee helped deliver it to the golf course:

Hannah Chelsy - 2013 SRAC intern

As the summer winds down and the next school year is closing in on us I want to thank Hannah for taking it upon herself to email me last spring and asking me if she could volunteer this summer... I am so glad that she did, as everyone at SRAC is, because she is now part of our family - and even expects to volunteer on Saturdays when her school allows during the school year.

As I sit here typing this I am reminded of how SRAC has touched so many people of all ages over the years, and in return, touched us as well - and THAT is the true magic of SRAC - I like to say it that we built a place where we can do good things and good things can happen.

SRAC's "Waverly's Attic" Coming Together!

We are still taking donations of items for this event! Please drop off your items or call us to pick up! 607-727-3111! Thanks for supporting SRAC! 

 

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