Bound Volumes, Hometown History
November 27, 2025
135 YEARS AGO
The amount of bounty paid by the Town of Unadilla on woodchucks’ tails amounts to $257 and some odd. At 10 cents the tail, it accounts for 2,570 hapless chucks that lost their tails and their lives. So says a Unadilla correspondent, but a man who claims to be better posted asserts that the boys not only cut off the tails and let the “chucks” go, to be the parents of other burrowing rodents, but that they invaded other towns well, and that Sidney and Butternuts woodchuck farms have been pretty thoroughly cleaned out of chucks with tails.
November 1890
70 YEARS AGO
A musical product of France, born during the WWII resistance movement, will be heard on Tuesday in the State Teachers College Auditorium. Les Compagnons de la Chanson (The Companions of Song), nine personable young Frenchmen, plus a feminine solo pianist are visiting America for the seventh time and making their second concert tour in the United States. They met and came together for the first time during WWII in southern unoccupied France where they had fled to escape the Germans. They formed an ensemble to earn money and soon became known throughout the resistance movement. Following D-Day, they enlisted in the French First Army. They were organized together as an entertainment unit for the French Army. The group met internationally-known Edith Piaf who was also active in raising funds for the free French movement. Piaf engaged them to tour along with her and they accompanied her to Norway, Sweden, England, Italy and Egypt. They accompanied her to New York City where they became an instant hit. Howard Barnes, of the Herald Tribune, described them as “the funniest gang of singing comedians who have hit town since the Marx brothers.”
November 1955
40 YEARS AGO
Some farmers in Otsego County applying for food stamps find it painful and ironic. “It is degrading,” said Faye Meadows, a Milford farm housewife. “The first time I had to go to apply for food stamps I had tears in my eyes. Farmers produce all this food for the nation and they don’t even earn enough money to put food on their own tables.” The family received about $150 in food stamps this month. “We always felt we had enough pride to feed our family,” said Mrs. Meadows. “Now, we find we can’t do it anymore.
November 1985
20 YEARS AGO
November 2005
