Uncouth Reflections

Fenster writes:

Some folks associated with this blog are fans of upstate New York.  Here are some snaps of its charms.

First, the quite atmospheric village of Pultneyville, on the shore of Lake Ontario some 25 miles west of Rochester.  Pultneyville, like so many other attractive places, had a heyday and went into decline.  It was a fairly significant port by the early 1800s, a site of some fighting in the War of 1812 and a last stop on the Underground Railroad a little later.

Pultneyville was home to a good number of Great Lakes sea captains, some of whom were involved with international trade via the St. Lawrence River, but the coming of the railroad some miles south began the process of putting it into an extended sleep.  Today it is one of those rare places that is both well-kept and essentially free of significant development from the recent past.  There aren’t that many homes in the village, but what is there is quite nice, a fine grouping of Federals, Second Empire and Greek Revivals.

And a park on the water, too–though you have to watch for the goose poop.

That’s not all in the charm department.  Sodus, the next town over, has also gone into a deep sleep but it is shall we say still a bit run down, so its charms are not as apparent.  The best you can say for downtown is that it won’t support a chain restaurant, though there is a CVS and also a couple of dollar stores.  Rents are low and a couple of places are boarded up.

That didn’t stop one enterprising soul from avoiding the hustle, bustle and high rents of Main Street altogether, opening a beauty salon in the far back of a nondescript building, along a blank concrete wall well off the main street.  You can’t even tell the place is there except if you happen to be in the CVS parking lot.  From there you espy an odd little door, burnished to a high sheen, across the far end of the lot.  From up close it looks OK, in an almost French countryside rustic fashion.

Dolly back, however, and you get the full upstate NY treatment.

Charm comes in many flavors.  Which reminds me to add that maybe the crowning glory of upstate, especially at this time of year, is ice cream.

Here is a medium size cone, partly eaten already, from the Happy Days Drive-In in Meridian, on the way to Syracuse.  About $2.

And the view from out back.  Happy Days.