Don't Let That One Stoplight Fool You!
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© Gerry Preece
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30 Fun, Easy, Cambridge-area Stories to Brag About and Impress Your Friends.
The Cambridge area has contributed in ways vastly disproportionate to our modest population, and this podcast presents brag-worthy proof. This is a 30-episode podcast; each episode is about 10 minutes; 1 per week for 30 weeks. It's about people and events from our past, people and events that have influenced our community, and in many cases, our country. While most stories are Cambridge-specific (I treat Cambridge, Jackson and White Creek as one place), I also borrow from other close-to-Cambridge communites.
The Cambridge area has contributed in ways vastly disproportionate to our modest population, and this podcast presents brag-worthy proof. This is a 30-episode podcast; each episode is about 10 minutes; 1 per week for 30 weeks. It's about people and events from our past, people and events that have influenced our community, and in many cases, our country. While most stories are Cambridge-specific (I treat Cambridge, Jackson and White Creek as one place), I also borrow from other close-to-Cambridge communites.
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THIRTY Cambridge-area stories to brag about? Nope. How about FORTY?! Or more! In this bonus episode you'll hear about ten more impressive local stories. You'll also learn how the many Cambridge-area contributions span eleven different categories, all at remarkable levels. Indeed, the Cambridge area has made contributions to our community, our nation, and our world vastly disproportionate to our modest population. This is the ultimate episode for Cambridge-area bragging.
The dude was short, real short. A runt. A pipsqueak. Shorty-short-stuff. Diminutive. And he was sickly to boot. Only five-feet three-inches tall with what’s now called Trigeminal Neuralgia. And yet, this guy fully earned the title, “Giant”. His is this season’s final episode, the capstone episode, for a reason. This Cambridge short-guy was as BIG as it gets.
Movie kingpins George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg are two of the greatest storytellers of all-time. They tell stories through thousands of frames of film. Star Wars. Jaws. Indiana Jones. But there's one storyteller Lucas and Spielberg look up to as THE greatest because he told great stories in just ONE frame. He was local. So were some of the faces in his famous frames.
Seventy-eight years old and what to do, what to do? Raise chickens? Nah. Pancake dinners? Nope. I know! I'll order that paint set from the Sears catalog, hang a painting in the White House, put some on postage stamps, and get my mug on the covers of Time and Life magazines. Yah, that's what I'll do!
Big global pharma companies do NOT illegally exaggerate claims about the efficacy of their products, right? RIGHT?? Get your bragging pants on because here's a fun story about one of the world's first global drug businesses, one that made big claims but always kept it legal.
You already know JB Rice ran a seed company here. But did you know how big it was? Did you know about his Civil War service? His work with the Fire Department? The Police Department? The local water company? The Fair? The Niagara Falls Bank? He planted it all . . . and indeed it grew!
His was the biggest machine ever built in the 19th Century. Its physical size was enormous. So was the impact it had on societies, urbanization, and (sadly) the slow decline of the world's small milltowns. You'll never see the sign for Greenwich's Corliss Avenue the same again.
Hey, if Buffalo Bill Cody thought she was cool, then she was cool! U.S. Presidents also thought she was cool. Queen Victoria too. Congress thought she was cool-maybe even cool enough to be carved into Mount Rushmore. All that, and she was worried nobody would take her seriously? Oh, you've gotta hear this one!
Mohican War Chief? Tribal Orator? Native leader who dealt with English Governors? Who met with Henry Hudson? Did you know that a great Mohican Chieftain made his home and headquarters right here in what we now call Eagle Bridge? Learn about all this and why we call the Owlkill . . . the Owlkill.
Of all the places to live, this dude chose to live here. Why? Because, according to him, “locality gives art”. But apparently it does not give expertise at farming with cows. Oh, and who knew that’s what "peripatetic" means? . . . Umm . . . this will all make sense when you listen to this episode.
The United States Constitution is one of the greatest political documents in human history. Did you know that events near here and one particularly angry, sort-of-hermit-who-ended-up-in-our-local-hills-guy was a key figure in bringing about that famous document? Come take a fun “audio-hike” in our hills and let's explore a bit of American history.
The "Shot Heard 'Round the World" was not fired in Cambridge, New York. But for sixty years, the pistol believed to have fired that world-famous shot was kept, yes indeed, right here in Cambridge.
The world would be different if not for the American Revolution, and the Revolution if not for Saratoga, and Saratoga if not for Bennington, and Bennington if not for . . . why yes, a man from Cambridge. Too much of a stretch to say all that? Maybe not.
There are few guiding-principles documents that endure for centuries. E.g., the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution, and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. Did you know one such enduring document springs from this very area? It's still in use today, and it helps keep us safe.
Think the European settlers were the first to discover this beautiful area? Maybe the Mohicans or Iroquois? Oh, no. This place we call home—it goes waaayyy back.
From the Cambridge Band to the World's biggest stage. Go ahead and Google Camille Saint-Saens, then consider how big you'd have to be for Camille to dedicate a composition to you. A giant? Heck, yeah.
". . . Charles J. Gateau shall be hanged by the neck . . . until he be dead . . . " Never heard of Guiteau? How about Lee Harvey Oswald? John Wilkes Booth? A Cambridge man takes center stage.
Civil War Surgeon? Poet-Pal with Walt Whitman? Landscape designer for PT Barnum? Oh yes, and this Cambridge native did much more to shape and sculpt his amazing contributions.
Did you know our area can brag about a Major League Baseball pitcher? This one was coached by a Hall-of-Famer and umpired by an ump immortalized in a Norman Rockwell painting that hangs in Cooperstown. And our pitcher put his promising career on the back burner to serve his country.
Who gets to move the body of Ponce de Leon, famous explorer and conquistador? Not you or me. But, one Cambridge native did just that—and did it in broad daylight!
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