04/17/01

I’ve been home watching the baby today, keep getting one phone call after another. First it was Swami calling. He’s pissed as all can be that the bottle dig has been stalled out for days. He said he’s worried about Percy learning the awful truth that the dig has been going on without him.

You need to show up at the worksite and get busy like a beaver! I’ve been terribly disappointed by your malingering! Terribly disappointed!

I told him I’d show up tomorrow if he doubled my hourly rate of pay. I expected him to say, no deal, that’s thievery! but instead he said, ok, very well, so be it! But you must show!

Next Cupcake calls. She’s working this sultry bedroom voice with me. Look Joe, I want to apologize for the other day for the way things went down. The situation is: I have nowhere to put the camper right now. I know you said you wanted it moved right away but I just need more time to work something out. I’d just appreciate it if you gave me more time. Money’s been just a little short. If I could pay you rent I would. Maybe you’d let me do something for you.

Like what? What could you do for me?

I can bake. Do you like cupcakes?

Then Percy calls, complains his cricket team is in shambles. Says he’s been on the verge of disbanding it several times due to frustration with Fauntleroy. He said he can’t get along with Fauntleroy as the Captain and thinks he may need me making a firmer commitment to the team in order that I might help keep Fauntleroy in check.

I see how Fauntleroy behaves around you. It’s like he defers to you on everything. If you were at these crazy practices and you knew beforehand what I wanted, you could exert your influence so I could get the team headed in the direction I want. I mean, I’ll do whatever to help you too. You want me to store your guns at my house, I’ll store them at my house. But you have to tell Fauntleroy what to do for me. That’s the deal.

All I could say was I’d think about it.

I don’t know why I brought this up, but before I got off the call I asked Percy about Manuel Gonsalus. He’s one of my Dutch ancestors Percy listed in the research he did of my family genealogy.

Percy said he was amazed I finally read it.

You sure Manuel was really my ancestor? I ask. What’s the chance he was a normal Catholic Spaniard? What if he was really a Spanish Puritan like that one historian described him as?

Percy said he was quite certain Manuel was a Sephardic Jew, just like Luis Gomez was, except Manuel probably didn’t have the kind of political connections that Gomez had to be so overt about his faith. Percy emailed me a section of Smith’s Legends of the Shawangunk pertaining to Manuel’s grandson, Sam Gonsalus--- a colorful character to say the least--- for whom Sam’s Point is named. Sam Gonsalus is probably as controversial in today’s day as Tom Quick due to his legend as an Indian killer. This is what Smith wrote:

The traveler in the region of the Shawangunk has not failed to notice that remarkable feature of the mountain known as Sam's Point. Even when seen at such a distance that the mountain looks like a blue cloud suspended above the earth, this promontory stands out in full relief against the sky. The name has its origin in one of those quaint legends with which the vicinity abounds. The story as handed down by tradition, and still related by the residents of the neighborhood, is as follows:

Samuel Gonsalus was a famous hunter and scout. He was born in the present town of Mamakating; was reared in the midst of the stirring scenes of frontier life and border warfare, in which he afterward took such a conspicuous part; and was at last laid to rest in an unassuming grave in the vicinity where occurred the events which have caused his name to be handed down, with some lustre, in the local annals.

He lived on the west side of the mountain, a locality greatly exposed to Indian outrage, and his whole life was spent in the midst of constant danger. His knowledge of the woods, and his intimate acquaintance with the haunts and habits of his savage neighbors, rendered his services during the French and Indian War of inestimable value. He possessed many sterling qualities, not the least among which was an abiding devotion to the cause of his country. No risk of his life was too imminent, no sacrifice of his personal interest too great, to deter him from the discharge of duty.

When the treacherous Indian neighbors planned a sudden descent on an unsuspecting settlement, “Sam Consawley,” as he was familiarly called, would hear rumors of the intended massacre in the air by some means known only to himself, and his first act would be to carry the people warning of their danger. At other times he would join in the expeditions against bands of hostiles; it was on such occasions that he rendered the most signal service. Though not retaining any official recognition of authority, it was known that his voice and counsel largely controlled the movements of the armed bodies with which he was associated, those in command yielding to his known skill and sagacity. His fame as a hunter and Indian fighter was not confined to the circle of his friends and associates. The savages both feared and hated him. Many a painted warrior had he sent to the happy hunting-grounds; many a time had they lain in wait for him, stimulated both by revenge and by the proffer of a handsome bounty on his scalp; but he was always too wary for even the wily Indian.

In September of 1758 a scalping party of Indians made a descent into the country east of the Shawangunk. The warriors were from the Delaware, and had crossed by the old Indian trail leading through the mountain pass known as “The Traps;” their depredations in the valley having alarmed the people, they were returning by this trail, closely pursued by a large body from the settlements. At the summit of the mountain the party surprised Sam, who was hunting by himself.

As soon as the savages saw him they gave the war-whoop, and started in pursuit. Now was an opportunity, thought they, to satisfy their thirst for revenge. Sam was a man of great physical strength, and a fleet runner. Very few of the savages could outstrip him in an even race. But the Indians were between him and the open country, and the only way left was toward the precipice. He knew all the paths better than did his pursuers, and he had already devised a plan of escape, while his enemies were calculating either on effecting his capture, or on his throwing himself from the precipice to avoid a more horrid death at their hands. He ran directly to the point, and pausing to give a shout of defiance at his pursuers, leaped from a cliff over forty feet in height. As he expected, his fall was broken by a clump of hemlocks, into the thick foliage of which he had directed his jump. He escaped with only a few slight bruises. The Indians came to the cliff, but could see nothing of their enemy; and supposing him to have been mutilated and killed among the rocks, and being themselves too closely pursued to admit of delay in searching for a way down to the foot of the ledge, they resumed their flight, satisfied that they were rid of him. But Sam was not dead, as some of them afterward found to their sorrow. To commemorate this exploit, and also to bestow a recognition of his numerous services, this precipice was named Sam's Point.

04/16/01

I reported to probation today expecting Cupid Boy would rake me over the coals for one thing or another, but I guess the shithead was out sick or something. I signed in, but then after a short while I was told I was OK to leave--- that I didn’t need to see anyone today. I felt like I was let off the hook or something. I thought about reporting to work digging at Swami Hard Salami’s archeology site, but then I thought about Swami laughing at me the other day for wanting to see Joe Dirt and I thought, screw that fucking bastard. So I hung around the farm all day. Talked to Tommy New Yawka next door for a while. He asked me if I could plow him up a garden. He gave me a big can of gas to fill the tank. So I put the plow on the tractor, plowed up Tommy’s yard for a garden, helped fork the pony shit from the Winter onto the soil. Tommy said one of the boys had his First Holy Communion coming up. He asked me if me, Phebe and Mookie could make it to the barbecue afterward. I didn’t know what to say. I said maybe if we were around that day. After that I went out to one of the hay fields and started plowing, don’t really know why. Phebe asked me about it later and seemed to get all pissed off that I had plowed a field without a plan what to do with it.

Funny you would care to do anything with the land you hope to sell soon.

I had the gas in the tank and the time to plow, what else do you want me to say?

I called Percy to ask him if he might hold onto my guns for me---said that I didn’t like that Phebe gave the guns over to Stash Skimington--- but Percy didn’t want anything to do with the idea.

I don’t need your guns. And it’s not like you’ll ever be free to have them again, he reminds me. What’s wrong with Stash making use of them?

For all I know that fucker tried to kill me!

Percy scoffed at that idea. Fucker.

Were you supposed to work for Dr. Hardik today or something? He started to tell me at the movie theater that you stood him up at one of his properties, but then he got all weird and denied all of a sudden that was the case.

What are you talking about, Percy?

At some point in the call I made the mistake of commenting on the Luis Gomez house in Newburgh. I admitted that it was surprising to me that one of the very first settlers here was openly Jewish. Percy said that the Dutch wanted nothing to do with the land that Gomez settled because it was near Danskammer, a place on Hudson the Indian’s performed what was perceived to be devilish ceremonies, now the site of the power plant.

Percy emailed me a bunch of Luis Gomez shit after the call, including this old verse that was once spoken of the Danskammer site published in a book by Marc Newman:

For none that visit the Indian's den
Return again to the haunts of men,
The knife is their doom, oh sad is their lot,
Beware! Beware of the bloodstained spot!

And then there was this excerpt by Benson Lossing from his 1866 book The Hudson:

From the gravelly height the Highlands, the village of Newburgh, and a large portion of the lower part of the "Long Reach" from Newburgh to Crom Elbow, are seen; with the flat rock in the river, at the head of Newburgh Bay and near its western shore, known as Den Duyvel's Dans Kamer, or the Devil's Dance Chamber. This rock has a level surface of about half an acre (now covered with beautiful Arbor Vitæ shrubs), and is separated from the main-land by a marsh. On this rock the Indians performed their peculiar semi-religious rites, called pow-wows, before going upon hunting and fishing expeditions, or the war-path. They painted themselves grotesquely, built a large fire upon this rock, and danced around it with songs and yells, making strange contortions of face and limbs, under the direction of their conjurors or "medicine men." They would tumble, leap, run, and yell, when, as they said, the Devil, or Evil Spirit, would appear in the shape of a beast of prey, or a harmless animal; the former apparition betokened evil to their proposed undertaking, and the latter prophesied of good. For at least a century after the Europeans discovered the river, these hideous rites were performed upon this spot, and the Dutch skippers who navigated the Hudson, called the rock Den Duyvel's Dans Kamer. Here it was that Peter Stuyvesant's crew were "most horribly frightened by roistering devils," according to the veracious Knickerbocker.

Percy said Gomez was not taken in with superstition about Danskammer the same way the Dutch were and he worked to learn the Indian languages and build strong trading partnerships with them. Percy said a lot of Rabbis back then encouraged respect for the Indians because it was thought they might be one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.

04/15/01

Since Percy had Fauntleroy, Swami Hard Salami and me captive in his car yesterday he must have thought it was high time to punish us for Joe Dirt. He gave us all a field trip to various historical places around Newburgh before dropping us off like, I don’t know, two hours later. Man that fucker loves to blab!

First was the Balmville Tree: a 300 year-old Cottonwood recently saved from the chainsaw by this intricate system of braces you see. The tiny parcel it occupies comprises the smallest state forest in America.

Then it was up to the Gomez Mill house, the first known Jewish homestead in America, dated to 1714.

Luis Moses Gomez was a Sephardic Jew who obtained an Act of Denization from Queen Anne to obtain 6000 acres here. He established a fur trading post at this home and was very successful. With the wealth he gathered, he helped build the Mill Street Synagogue in New York, the city’s first.

Then Percy takes us to the statue of George Clinton, the great native son, on Fullerton Avenue:

Not only was Clinton placed in charge of defending the Hudson at the highlands soon after the start of the Revolution, he was also appointed the first Governor of New York in 1777. Ruttenbur said Clinton was to New York State what Washington was to the country.

Percy said the Clinton statue was originally located in a square down on Water Street down near the river, where the whole area was leveled in the 1970’s as part of a huge urban renewal project. He said a famous painter from Newburgh named Chatterton had a well-known painting of the now extinct neighborhood called “Clinton Square”. At some point they moved the statue to the West End in the Colonial Terraces neighborhood, which has become the new “Clinton Square.”

Meanwhile Swami is lavishing all kinds of praise on Percy, his comedic partner and cheerleader, says he should write a book. Of course Percy has to point out that he is writing a book, and then he starts going on and on about his Crypto-Judaic research shit into families of Sephardic descendent driven into Holland after the Inquisition who ended up making their way to New Amsterdam as Dutchman generations ago.

You certainly sound like you know your sheet, as they say, Swami comments.

I sure wish someone thought I knew my sheet. . . Then again, that might make me sound like a Ku Kluxer.

Anyway, today we went up to jail for Easter. That’s what every good Christian family does you know—visits jail on Easter. I’m not sure why Phebe left me in the dark about this---seems she knew this before now--- but I just learned today that Rocky now has at least 20 years total to serve with the new sentencing on manslaughter.

Damn that sucks to think about.

Oh, yeah, and Rocky’s being sent way far away upstate now too.

Really sucks to think about.