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Flashback Friday Archive 2019-20: Flashback Friday: Week of November 13

November 12, 1870 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

LOVELY SCENERY
       If our readers desire to revel in the beauties of autumn and gratify their senses by gazing on some of the loveliest scenery in the world, we know of no better way of attaining the object than by taking a sail from here to New York on the Magenta or Adelphi which are the only boats now plying on the lower Hudson.
       The scenery in the spring and mid-summer is surpassingly beautiful, but now that the leaves are decked with such gorgeous coloring and nature seems nodding before she goes to sleep, it is to us the season of all others which we enjoy the most.  The miracle of the burning bush seems to be repeated in endless forms, and the whole landscape to be but a glowing picture of something we dreamed of in the long ago.
       We know that the brilliant tints will soon give place to the somber grey; that the white sent from the north will cover from sight the emerald beauties that have gladdened our eyes for the last six months; that the wild, fierce winds will sweep and howl through the leafless branches their requiems for the glories of summer buried in the embrace of winter; but we know, too, that as the soul shakes off its swaddling-clothes of mortality and soars up into the realms of endless summer when life’s fitful fever is over, so too will life come from the grave and again and again so long as the world stands will seed-time and harvest be renewed and the whole earth be clothed with the robes which make her queenly and so beautiful to look upon.

November 12, 1920 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland News

MEIGHAN AT PIERMONT
[Image: Thomas Meighan (1879–1936) was an American actor of silent films and early talkies. He played several leading-man roles opposite popular actresses of the day, including Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. At one point he commanded $10,000 a week.]
       Thomas Meighan, the popular movie star, and a company of Famous Player-Lasky artists have been at Piermont for a few days taking scenes for a new picture. One of the scenes was a funeral procession which passed through streets.

COMPLAINTS
       Complaint has been made to Town Clerk Esser of boys under sixteen hunting on South Mountain with guns and licenses belonging to some other members of the family. Boys under sixteen cannot secure a hunting license and are not legally entitled to hunt.

HELD TORCHLIGHT PARADE
       The little village of Palisades polled the largest Republican vote in its history last Tuesday and celebrated the event with a torchlight parade Wednesday night.

November 12, 1970 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

WOMEN’S LIB TOLD MEN DON’T HAVE IT SO GOOD EITHER
       A Women’s Liberation crusader and County Legislator Robert Connor collided in West Nyack last night.
       When the smoke cleared, members of the West Nyack and Central Nyack Democratic Clubs may have reached the conclusion that some of the problems facing American women are brought on by a society that is restrictive to men and women alike.
       Mrs. Joyce Stedge, an active member of the League of Women Voters and the mother of six children, told the gathering of many of the problems women face today. Connor said men don’t have it so great, either.
       Mrs. Stedge’s topic was “Women’s Liberation as a Political Force.” She said most women in this country aren’t free to run for public office, because they have too many responsibilities at home.
       “Most men aren’t free to run for political office,” Connor politely heckled from the audience.When Mrs. Stedge said that women are “second-class citizens,” Connor replied that a man is too.
       “He’s a slave to the paycheck,” he said.
       Mrs. Stedge, who holds a degree in clinical psychology, mentioned men who eat lunch and drink martinis in restaurants, while housewives are home “with the kids and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
       Connor said that most men aren’t in this category but go to the same dull job every day. He said that most men have no opportunity to vary their work schedule and can’t “read a novel” instead of going to work immediately.
       Mrs. Stedge opened her remarks with some background information on the fight for women’s rights, tracing the movement as far back as 323 B.C., when she said, “women protested sexist laws.”
       “She said that early suffragettes were bombarded “with showers of tomatoes” when they marched in this country.
       She told the audience that the Seneca Falls Convention, which sought voting rights for women as one of its goals, was held in 1848, but that women were not awarded this privilege until 1920.
       Mrs. Stedge spoke of inequalities in the law.
       She said a woman can be imprisoned for a longer period than a man for the same crime, and that a prostitute can be imprisoned for three months while a patron would be sentenced to fifteen days.
       “Women are considered children, and wards of the state,” she said.
       She said women suffer from “aloneness” because they’re at home with the children all day.
       She said men are away from the home for ten or more hours every day, and that society’s emphasis should be changed so that men have a share in raising the family.
       “Other countries consider the raising of children to be much more important” than it is in America, according to Mrs. Stedge. She said other societies provide day care centers for all children, not just for the poor, and give women an opportunity to work.
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This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

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