March 2, 2025, Shari (S) and Amanda (A)
A: Okay, so we are here at the Rumpus.
S: There is Rumpusing going on!
A: There is Rumpusing going on! One of the questions that we start with is “What do you love about Rosendale?” and another question that we ask is “What do you think could make it even better?” and “What are your ideas for the future?”. You can just talk to me and tell me whatever comes to mind.
S: I love that Rosendale has always had so much involvement in community, the people here, like Fre and her drum parade. And Frozendale, and the Street Festival and the Grateful Dead music on the water. I love that, and I love all the family…you know even there, that’s a family event [Gratefully Yours], and people are really community-minded.
What do I think would be better? Just being here at the Community Center and having this room available that’s so full of children-supported stuff, games and everything, crafts, and people that want to “do”, how could it be better? I guess the only thing that [could be improved] is just more communication and getting support for all of these events and, reaching out to community to involve them even more.
A: I feel the same way with community. I feel like there’s not just one place for us to find each other, it’s like you connect with people, different things, but we don’t all come together in one place, I feel like different people in this town have different centers of gravity, and it would be really cool to have like a town wide event. Do you live in Rosendale?
S: I’ve never lived in Rosendale. I’ve often thought of living [here]! I guess cost is out of our reach at this point. I think even just scheduling events and publicizing them…I mean, I think they do a lot of that though, even the Rosendale Theater. There’s just so much available here, and spaces to actually do community events, like the Rosendale Theater, like this space for kids.
A: The Rec Center, I went to game night there the other night it was really fun.
S: That’s great
A: They do that every couple of months. The Rec commission or the Rec committee just has a game night, and they bring a bunch of games and some snacks and set up tables and chairs and you can bring your own game.
S: Is it age [restricted]?
A: It was mostly adults, it was really for adults but there were some kids there…but it was really more like an adult game night. So we were playing, I was playing Catan, and some other people were playing chess or Scrabble, different people who are interested in different things.
S: How often is it?
A: I think it’s every couple months.
S: Oh they should do it more often!
A: I know every month I think that…
S: I think that people if they have more consistency…there’s a Bingo night, right? And Bingo night happens at least once a week.
A: Does it? Where is .. Bingo? Is there a Bingo around here?
S: I don’t know about around here, but I know in Sullivan County and in Middletown they have Bingo. A lot of my clients will go. But if there’s something like more weekly, or even once a month, that meets like every third of the month, the consistency brings a more consistent crowd maybe?
A: that’s a good suggestion. For [the Rumpus], I decided to start doing a regular first Sunday, so that people would just know that every first Sunday we’re going to have this.
S: Yeah it would come to them, and they would actually schedule it on their calendar.
A: That’s a good idea, I think I’ll suggest it because I know someone on that committee, to say can you do it every third Thursday or something? Sure it may not always work out, but that’s a good idea…
S: Do you feel like there’s been a lull in community activity, with COVID?
A: I think so but – we did the Joppenbergh Jam concert in September,
S: What?
A; The Joppenbergh Jam…but as you see, not everybody knew about it, we need to publicize more.
We had a good turnout for that musical event, and then, we’re doing a monthly stroll through town or through…to different areas, and I want to ask some of our members, some of our people who come to things to give us suggestions [of places] for us to go.
S: You know who would be great? My partner Vince. He’s all about this history here. He has some personal history here, for years I mean like old, old family stories of the quarries, and his great grandfather who grew mushrooms in some of these caves. And once they had a flood, and he was flooded up…he had to run out of there because he…all the mushrooms were washed out. He almost got washed out with them.
A: That’s a great story!
S: Yeah there are a lot of stories, so if he was to choose sites, he could choose some really nice…he could maybe even lead some of those walks.
A: That would be amazing, I absolutely would like to talk to you more about that because I’m limited in that my history in this area goes back a few years but people who’ve had family in this area or grew up here have a whole different depth of knowledge. Yeah that sounds really fun!
S: A lot of fun and funny stories
A: I’m sure, I’m sure. I’ve heard a few! But okay i’m going to stop recording. I think that was pretty good.
Thank you!
