Oct 12,2024
Maria: What do you love about Rosendale? We’ll go around the circle, I’ll start!
So many things, but I had a beaver who lived across from me last winter in the Roundout Creek wetlands. So I had this beaver that was my neighbor and it was no end of entertainment for me. I was on beaver watch and I just totally nerded out on this beaver. So I love that. I mean and I live within walking distance of four restaurants in High Falls and yet there’s a beaver. So that’s something I love about Rosendale.
Mike: I love the unpredictability of Rosendale. I mean there are things that really make sense to me, like the library makes sense. I love their attitude towards people who come in there, and then there’s the movie theater that has a marquee that no one can read.
Amanda, laughing: It’s so true!
Mike, laughing: I think it’s because the movies they play are unwatchable. So they want to trick you! but yeah that kind of thing.
Others: We love the Rosendale Theatre!
Kitty: We do love the theater! What’s really nice about the theater is that there’s a variety of things. In the winter time we go to plays – we’ve seen Christmas Carol. I don’t know what all. A couple of different things. It’s like, it’s just wonderful. Yeah, it’s a movie theater, but there are some live plays, stage plays. I think that’s just fabulous. I hadn’t thought of it before you said it.
Mike: They have writers reading their writing.
Maria: There are a lot of artists and writers and musicians in this area.
Kitty: Yes, which makes events and and possibility of events like this group really interesting because there are a lot of people who are artists or have other specialties that they’re interested in sharing with the community. Like Bob today at Fiddlehead Farm. That was so fun!
V: Yeah, that was amazing. Good.
Maria: Yeah, I love that too.
Kitty: Yeah, Rosendale, I’m with you with the with the beaver watch thing. I do birds, and this was my father. I grew up with the whole family loving bird watching and fine fine fine, but I, you know, have been living the past whatever 35 years in Manhattan. The park is fabulous. I have found out, but I didn’t know before. But since I’ve been living up since the pandemic, we got bird feeders and I sit with my binoculars on the couch and look out my windows at the feeders and I am up close and personal with their entire neighborhood of birds and I know them individually and I just love it so much. I love the spring with all the sticks and the gifts and the offerings and the nestings and the babies and everything and then everything. It’s just it’s just so good.
Maria: Sweet. Yeah, really sweet.
Kitty: Yeah, community. That’s wonderful. Community and nature.
Judy: I’m Judy and I live in High Falls. My nearest neighbors are a flock of cows. They’re wonderful to watch. I try not to think about the end they’re going to come to. Every so often a heron flies overhead and I love being up there. I’m also a city creature and what I love about Rosendale – it’s my go-to place for so many things. Music, you know the different theatrical performances. The Garden Cafe which I love and now this wonderful little spot (Soy) which is also outdoors, and Rosendale just keeps opening up more. I know there was discussion last time we met about “should there be all the artwork depicting roses for Rosendale when it doesn’t really represent what Rosendale stands for”? Well, I think it does. You don’t have to take it literally but think of the flower opening. When I first came here in 1990 I thought Rosendale looked like the perfect little hippie town but it was sort of unfortunate because most of the stores were closed. There seemed to be very little life other than, you know, people left over fromthe 1960s, which is what I often felt about myself but it has grown wonderfully in good directions. Something closes – I miss the cafe so much and their wonderful music – then something else opens. Now there’s a bookstore. Now there are five, six restaurants, different nationalities, food, and sidewalks you can walk down and stroll and window shop and go to a great place.
Amanda: The marquee of the theater also bugs me because I can’t read it and I thought it was just me. They digitized it and it definitely was not an improvement but maybe it’s easier for them. But anyway what I do love, though I live on the street, you know and I can walk out the front door and see a friend or meet a new friend and go to five or six restaurants, the bookstore, all these other places, but if I look out my back window or go out the back there’s bald eagles! I can sit in my bedroom and watch a bald eagle. Herons — there are great egrets they’re three feet tall with black legs. They’re white with black legs gorgeous. Oh beautiful and they were they’re just migrating you know and in the spring I see the duck babies but they’re not regular ducks they’re merganser babies. They are so cute they’re so cute – little stripes.
x: where do you live?
Amanda: right down the street here so right near the river by the creek. Oh yeah I look right out on it I’m much closer to the water than we are here . It’s not perfect – there’s certain issues like I got a lot of noise from the construction happening (on the bridge) right now but it’s temporary. The river is forever, so I love that. I love I’ve been in town for nine years and people keep sending me oh you can buy this house here you can buy this house here. I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to go up the road I want to stay in town, so here I am.
Everyone is pretty much as a friend and it’s quirky and weird and wonderful and it’s home.
x: yeah it’s sweet yeah
Sharni: We’re just new here in Rosendale so for like three years what I observe is that people are friendly, sweet and though we have some differences about food of course but because I am a vendorI feel like if you give them the need, then they will probably feel this kind of warmth and the welcoming spirit in town. The thing that I really want is the nature, yeah I love nature we always go out and you know sometimes we do some short hiking, the rail trails – it’s like when you just go out and you just want to breathe , it’s something that you really need. Sometimes we forget that this simple thing, like just for you just to have a good life: this what it’s called the air, it’s wonderful compared to the City. We’re happy and for the birds every time you say “what’s that oh it’s a woodpecker”
x: where are you a vendor?
Sharni: The Rosendale Farmers Market. it’s Filipino food but it’s plant-based. After October we’re done.
Naim: I agree with everything my wife says and there are very nice restaurants here. We do miss the the Rosendale Cafe. Something is supposed to open up there I think.
Amanda: yes yes the French Bistro and I met the people who are opening it you know so I didn’t ask when it was happening but hopefully soon.
Naim: Okay that’s good and I just found out that we need birdfeeders. We love birds. We don’t get enough of them around we definitely need birdfeeders.
Maria: so are there any other things that you love about Rosendale that we haven’t covered yet?
Naim: The farmers market is nice. we met quite a few people. we have a great stage over there yeah. we need some more music there, and I guess on the next round we’re gonna talk about ideas.
Chris: My name is Chris and I’ve actually lived in Rosendale a pretty long time at this point
I think maybe almost 30 years. I really like it here a lot. I lived in the city, I lived in Jersey City and California and alll kinds of places. One of the things I like about it is you can wake up in the morning and potentially see a bear or an eagle or a coyote and then just ride your bike into town and you’re in town.
I think there’s a lot of adjoining large expenses of woods that allow these animals to kind of coexist, so I enjoy that.
I absolutely love the rail trail. I think it’s really central to enjoying the area being able to get to the Rail Trail Cafe, Kingston here and there without too much riding on roads, even right into town really
Maria; We rode our bikes to the Kingston farmers market today, so it’s easy.
Chris: it’s like an artery yeah It’s really and such an improvement now that we have the trestle because we used to have to drop down and drop back up to go anywhere, but now the trestle is an amazing improvement. It made it really usable.
X: I always mention that another good thing about being here is we’re in between four really nice towns: Kingston, New Paltz, Stone Ridge, High Falls. Best towns, we’re right in the middle, it’s centrally located.
Sharmi: and the good thing about it is we have very good reception…
X: very good cell phone reception
Chris: Another nice thing about Rosendale is that there’s so many artists that live up here and it’s kind of been this way for a long time it’s sort of on the map for some people, so for instance, if you there you might see a screening of the film that the director lives in Stone Ridge and he was it’s maybe much bigger than that Rosendale theater would ever really be able to afford but they might be interested in showing it and they might show up!
So you can go to screenings and often you can get the director to come up in the city and give a talk I’ve been to concerts with like surprising surprisingly number of people are keen and happy to come up for a special show or a screening and give a talk like, it’s outsized I think compared to its actual size.
Amanda: and the buses right there right so it’s easy for them to get out yeah so
Chris: and and the same I would say the same dynamic really helped the Rosendale cafe for years had great really outsized level acts that would be happy to come play them it was a cool place and fun yeah so that’s sorely missed
Amanda: Chris’s band used to play on New Year’s Eve at the Rosendale Cafe
?: what’s your genre?
Chris: well it was really primarily a children’s band,, but we had an adult version like a dance band, so yeah, we played for years. we played New Year. It was great we really fun for us to. Dog on Fleas or the Bedtime Kissers.
Amanda: Darlings has space really they could have a little thing going on in their beer garden which by the way is full of native plants
Maria: This is the “Idea round”. The question is: what kind of ideas do you have for Rosendale that would enhance it or fill a need that we aren’t filling right now. Anything come to mind?
Chris: well something that comes to mind for me, I think anything that gets people out hanging with each other, meeting each other, no matter whether it’s 10 people or 200 people – I would advocate for anything that gets people out of their houses, and just talking, looking, meeting people, just every single thing you know Joppenburgh Jam, walking on the farm, walking around the parking lot, coming here, I think it’s tremendously beneficial for the community in general just to evolve to work things out when there’s conflict to figure.
?: what about some kind of connection to the theater that tried to generate ideas that community could participate in? you know like a musical thing or a comedy thing that’s a great idea you know just you know whatever
Chris: well I wonder I bet you they have a suggestion box at the theater right ? volunteering at the theater is great it’s really fun and it’s a way to canoodle with people for sure. Things here are small enough that like if you suggest it, you know you might be prepared to participate in making it happen.
Maria: all right we’re gonna pass this on and you said yeah
Naim: I would like to see some kind of dance come to Rosendale. I’m interested in learning had Lindy, and Sharni likes it as well and maybe we can invite an already established dance studio let’s say from Kingston to come here and do one night a week at least, you know I think they would do well and we would do well with that.
X: They had dance nights at the Rosendale for years
Maria: they had salsa dancing nights every week , every Thursday.
Naim: there are places here that are for rent, there’s a small place over here I don’t know probably I’m not sure if it’s big enough. It’s like a store and one of these houses when these buildings here
Maria: I’ve taken Lindy classes but I really suck! I can always use more.
Amanda: I haven’t heard that one yet yeah so that’s novel. I love it
Sharni :Right now well I haven’t think of any, because I’m still trying to feel the vibe of the town, but yeah probably next time when we meet again, I can you know make –what do you suggest? maybe we made a conversation before that I just missed now, but yeah
Naim: more restaurants I think you mentioned
Sharni: which is like plant you know vegan or vegetarian restaurant because actually, I’m a foodie! I’m a foodie ,so yeah something a cafe, like that maybe a pop-up restaurant or something yeah
X: there’s a pop-up Afghan restaurant I think once or twice a month How about once a month Filipino?
Maria: great idea
Sharni: thank you for sharing it
Judy: okay I love music and dance and the arts, and the one thing I would love to see more of
though in Rosendale in the surrounding area that would help connect it more to, the surrounding areas, is more of a connection to history, toward the growth of the town. a couple of you have heard me say “talk to Bill Merchant at the D&H Canal Museum” because there’s such a natural relationship there, and I’d really like to see that happen, more of that.
Amanda: Do you have a reationship with him?
Judy: I know him, but I think it would be more powerful if you look to see who was on his board. I’m sure some of some of you would know some of them, because that would be the best
Maria: Henry, who’s on the RH&S core team, is director of the
Widow Jane Mine / Snider Estate and they work closely with the canal museum. I know Bill too as an antique dealer and neighbor so yeah he’s great
Judy: they’ve done some musical events too. this celebration of I forget his name who identifies with the Woodstock Chimes. anyway they had an amazing audience show up, of musicians and you know with the accolades and yeah I was like as well as performers
Maria: the thing about this area there are so many people with amazing talents. It’s wonderful you just never know who you’re gonna be talking to.
Kitty: what about a multicultural festival oh what a great idea at the rec center
wouldn’t that be great?
Maria: that would be great – love that – what would it look like? You could have food, you know you could have tables, dancing on tables? can we have dancing on tables?
Amanda: food and dance man you know food and music and dance yeah maybe
?: I’m sure that everyone knows at least one person or family you know like they ask you’re in the Filipino community . Robert Browning who was the founder and executive director of World Music institute lives close to there Eddyville yeah well well
Maria: One thing I miss from living in the city is the lack of diversity up here. We do have certain kind of diversity here but we don’t have much racial diversity.
Maria: when we did when we did the research for who lives in Rosendale we looked at the census records and there are not a lot of people of color who live in Rosendale but They are here – they just aren’t seen.
?: I’ll bet the Garden Cafe would be a huge source. Nahita’s from Morocco I think oh yeah Jordan Palestinian by way of Jordan.
Maria: I think that’s such a cool idea
Sharni: dances and music we can showcase our like national dances. oh so awesome you know with the in our term we call it “Filipiniana”, baroque Tagolog, we call it. I know some!
X: All you need it time! One to model and all of us to learn!
Amanda: Where are you from Naim?
Naim: I’m from originally from Brooklyn. My parents are from Albania.
Maria: Mari, the guy who owns the pizza shop next to the Creekside is from Albania.
Naim: I saw the Albanian flag on his pickup truck
Maria: yeah we interviewed him a couple weeks ago. He’s really nice, Mari,
Amanda: That would be amazing, Nahita brings out her drum and she will belly dance also on a happy occasion. if you’ve ever been there
?: you know just the belly dancing and just to entertain us.
?: I’ve seen her do that ata restaurant yeah that’s
Amanda: yes it’s spontaneous, that’s a main street thing when you hang out here long enough. that’s a great idea I wonder what it. would take to have something like that?
Maria: that would be fun love that idea yeah We’re gonna start taking quotes from these these interviews that we’re doing and throw them out in social media – by the way it’s all first names only so don’t worry – and you know just seeing what people think. You dream these ideas and you put them out there and sometimes they catch fire.
?:the idea of someone just mentioned main street you know that could be like aframing of some sort of you know way that we would do something like you know like like “what’s on main street?” from there you know you have could have that could be a title or something or or just a concept where then you fit all these other ideas into
X: Japanese food must be good for inspiration
Amanda: I think so I really needed I need those nice carbs and nice warm rice and vegetables
Kitty: I like the Soy salad dressing I use it as a dipping sauce
Maria: okay let me taste it
Kitty: it does it kind of brings back the Rosendale cafe yeah this is really good
Maria: it’s peanutty it was just really good spicy
X: what about a pre-holiday know kind of sale things people could buy for Christmas you know
Marai: I think that’s what frozendale’s gonna be. I like going to the holiday sales at the firehouses where there’s like homemade stuff that some it’s really goofy like a reindeer had made out of a light bulb! I love that kitsch stuff!
Judy: they have a cookie sale in one of the churches – I don’t know Stone Ridge that we go to sometimes . that’s really good for people that want homemade cookies for entertaining but really don’t have time to make them.
Maria: I make them but I’m not good at it!
?: it’s a good for a cookie exchange too, to like go and get somebody else’s cookies and maybe bring some of your own
Chris: we were in Kingston today weirdly it was like it was a free book exchange so in a little park down the end of Front street, it could have been a thousand books there right? and there was a woman who kind of must have organized it and people brought their book collections and they wanted to get rid of and you were encouraged to browse and select books that you wanted to give to somebody else as a gift for free, but the only you had to write each person to know you have to think about this friend and and a reason why you might want to grab this book for them
?: was it outdoors ?
Chris: it was really fascinating. It was the right in the corner of Front and Wall, to the right of that bar there, overlooking the parking area that goes down to Hannaford Plaza.
Maria: and they had a little clothes line set up to pin your note.
Chris: I mean there were people’s book collections, there was a really cool books.
?: well that would be a good event we could copy
Amanda: that book exchange I have a lot of books that I will exchange for it thank you
Maria: I have a bunch of cookbooks I’m gonna unload now that I’m not working on a cookbook writing project
Judy: well you know they do have the library the Stone Ridge library fair. it’s really cut back quite a lot. it was just basically a book sale and then they had a bake sale, like a baking contest which was the real draw of the day
Maria: I’m reading a book right now “the nature of oaks”. it’s a year with with an oak tree hanging out and it talks about all the different insects and birds that need oaks they live on oak trees yeah it’s fascinating all these are your bugs yeah and oaks have like all of these allies and you know of other species that don’t hurt them. They’re symbiotic and it’s this web of life. The guy who wrote it is a proponent of planting native plants, because these European plants that we are from other countries are insect resistant means that insects can’t live on them, and without insects we don’t have birds, so the idea is to plant more native plants, have more insects and have more birds. Because the insect populations are plummeting right now apparently.
Chris: The bird population is plummeting.
?: Plant exchanges are really good things
Maria: we went to one earlier this year – a plant seedling exchange at the rec center, the permaculture group put that together.
