Dave's sabbatical

[fiona]

Dave: Did you go away on your sabbatical? Can you tell us something about it? I have not been working on my history because I'm conflicted about it. I'm walking a very thin emotional line between honoring that history and how do I approach this current crisis (as a historian) and put this all into perspective? I never want anyone to think I am callous or am disregarding their problems, because I choose to focus only on the past fire. I guess I am experiencing cognitive dissonance. I hate to just let the project lie fallow. What does anyone think?

[keith]

Fiona,

I have enjoyed your postings on the Olbiston. I've driven past it countless times during the past 25 years without realizing what was there except a big old apartment building. It's understandable though that you may need to step back from it for a bit.

[Dave]

Stepping back may well be understandable, but lamentable, too. Fiona, you've done a great deal of very high quality work on the project. If you need to move it out of the forefront of your mind for a short time, by all means do so. But I hope you won't drop the project for good.

I would think it might be useful for you to consider your role in the Olbiston as a concentration of your talents on what you do best. The evidence from this project is that you are artistically and honestly bringing forward an historical work that honors the people of the past and their dreams and accomplishments, as well as their sins and their human frailty, people who can no longer speak for themselves. And although the troubles of the current residents are real, there is probably little you can personally do to help them. But there is a great deal of good you can do by narrating the history of the building as an emblem of both hope and folly. The Olbiston and the Latchers and the Woods and even the composite character Annie Sullivan have something to teach us.

And not to be uncaring, but a year from now (or in less time) the current residents will be housed and settled while the story of the Olbiston, its heroes and villains, will have gone untold if you stop now and don't return soon to the project.

[fiona]

Dave and Keith: Thank you for your comments. You are both right. Part of my personal esthetic is that I subscribe to the "Butterfly Theory" of life and I strongly believe in latent energies. This does not mean that I believe I had anything to do physically with that fire, but it spooked me, as well as others, that the irony of the situation was thus: I am going to do a talk on the Great Fire and then, a week before the talk, the ceiling of the OCHS falls in for no apparent reason and the week after that someone tries to burn down the Olbiston. People commented to me on how ironic it was that there were so many similarities between the GF and the current fire. That got me thinking about how all that info is out there, easy acess to anyone with half a brain who has a computer, which is everyone. Also, several weeks before I had hung posters in the front lobby with all the lecture info as well as the websites. There are just so many unstable, mentallly ill people in and out of that building, that when it happened I said to myself: OMG! What if...? After thinking it over for several weeks, that idea was still pecking in the back of my brain like a dark little bird. Because you were on sabbatical I talked it over with Clipper who neither agreed nor disagreed with me, but said: wait and see. the truth will come out. And, for the most part it has. The investigation is still ongoing which is good. That is part of the reason why I thought: Should I continue this history? And yes, when I saw the faces of Mary and Sarah, those eyes always tear at my heart. I realize that the project has to go on and if I stop now, I will find 100 reasons not to return to it. You are correct in that. I will have to force myself through the eye of the needle, that's all. I also recall the great story you wrote about the Indian Chief. That " fire takes it's time. fire can wait. fire has all the time in the world." How true, how true. On the upside, I have been doing a lot of work for LandMarks Society at the Conkling House. I am a docent there. As you know Julia was Sarah's aunt and Mary's great aunt. On the 16th of October they are having an event there called "Spirits In The Night." Landmarks had a group of "ghost busters" , paranormal investigators come through there. They found a lot of paranormal activity in both no's 1 and 3. In one of the upstairs bedrooms, so I have been told, a teenage girl named Mary came through. This girl stated she was disabled. I am of course going to the lecture and am laying very low on this. I want to see what they have to say. Thank you all again for you kind comments. Keith: any comments on the pics I posted of the Corinthian columns with the carved pomegranets?

[dicknaegele]

I think you made the right decision after we spoke Fiona. You left it to fate, and as it turns out, the perpetrator has been arrested and the investigation continues with more arrests probable.

I was as conflicted as you were about the things we discussed, but it seems that time has proven your instincts to be spot on. There seems to be a real connection between you and the spirit that IS the building, as well as those that formerly occupied the old GF.

I truly enjoy the history that you post on here and have missed it the last few weeks. Hope to read new "stuff" soon. Wish I was savvy enough to research the sources that you guys find on the computer and wish I was able to join the fun and the worthwhile work of documenting all that local history for future generations of readers.

Utica has SO much history and people like yourself and Malio and other historians are true assets to my old hometown. Seems as though there is a urgency to get it all documented before the decay and decline destroy some of the wonderful old structures. Thank you.

It seems that there are so many old houses, such as the one that you live in now Fiona, that are significant and stately, but are being divided into apartments and are sadly being infiltrated by some folks like your unsavory neighbors that make your life miserable with their trashy ways. You have my utmost sympathy and respect for sticking it out in the inner city and for fighting to preserve it.

[fiona]

I deleted my last post as it was inappropriate for this thread and possibly this forum, but I will live to comment another day, thanks be to Cyber!

[Dave]

I'm not sure I remember it, but it couldn't have been THAT bad!
Dave