Happy B’ day Andes Gazette!

I have a confession.

I have not lived in Andes long enough! I spent 18 years in Delaware County outside of Andes. Looking back I don’t know why.

My daughter would have been a good match for Andes Central School. Small classrooms and lots of attention could have made school a little easier. When I drove through town I didn’t look at the school which is now my neighbor. I know better and enjoy looking and listening.

There was always a “get-what-you-need and a little more too” store in the middle of town. I liked stopping there even if the face at the counter seemed a bit of a challenge. Gasoline and ice cream—what more could a girl need on her way through town?. That store sure has grown and gotten better.

During my daughter’s childhood and adolescence we lived at the Delaware County Fair, always the third week in August. First in a tent near the barn where we kept a recalcitrant strong minded stall jumping pony. We advanced to an old camper that wouldn’t blow away and more  to even tempered horses and ponies. But one of my favorite times during the fair was to go to the tent where they sold all the baskets. I still have some of them. I was genuinely surprised to hear the ‘Fair’ baskets came from a store in Andes. My daughter and I love a gift from Paisley’s.

There was and still is something so special about Main Street, Andes. Things change and stay the same.

Discovering the Andes Gazette at Hogan’s General Store was a delight. I never thought I could write an article ‘fit to print’. Another surprise Alice Jacobson, my mom-in-law keeps every issue. I just read the first Gazette. The Gazette has introduced me to my family. On the cover of the March 2006 is Mrs. Amanda Bramley Hurlbet Fletcher, 81 in 1953 leaving the Shavertown Store and Post Office. She is my husband John’s great-great-grandmother, born on April 4 a century ago. I share her birthday in 1953. The photo and story about her and towns swept away remind me of what challenges other folks have gone through.

Thank you Editors of Andes Gazette. Thank you!

Claudia Jacobson