Hoosick Grange met on Wednesday, November 12, with Master David Cornell. After the business meeting, the Lecturer, Corinne Philpott, reported on the New York State Grange session in Cortland, NY. She was a delegate, and her husband, Carleton went too. They worked on resolutions that were sent in by Granges across NY State. She had chosen the Health Committee to work on. That evening they went to the banquet and the Lecturer’s program. The State Lecturer, Nelson Eddy, had the Sweet Adeline Chorus perform and then had a tableaux of the different months, using State officers in them. They were great.
The next morning we had to get the Sponge Cake judged. We were not the winner. Albany County came in first. Next year it’s a Cherry Pie Contest. We went to State session, heard the State Master, Oliver Orton, give his report and then had 5 minute reports from other officers. We went to our health committee meeting. You can learn a lot at these meetings.
Saturday evening we had the sixth degree. We really enjoyed it. We had a National Grange Executive Committee Board Member there, Pete Pompper. He is also Master of New Jersey State Grange. He was a great speaker. On Sunday morning they had a memorial service. The State Chaplain is Martha Woolley. She did a very good job. At nine o’clock the Youth Officers opened the meeting. They had a very energetic drill team. It was exciting. We heard many more Committee reports, in the afternoon the Junior Grange officers opened the meeting. Those little children did just wonderful. New York State Grange has a museum in Cortland. They dedicated a brick sidewalk with grange names on the bricks. After that you could tour the museum and the State Headquarters Building. They also had a Tour of Cortland and a mansion built in 1890. It was built for industrialist Chester F. Wickwire. It was just beautiful. After that we went to see the Bicentennial Barn that had a mural which depicts Cortland business of past and present. Later we had dinner with the other area counties and then reconvened to act on committee reports.
On Monday they had electing of new members. We heard from Patrick Hooker, Commissioner of Ag and Markets. He expressed his gratitude for our organization in being “A trusted conveyer of issues to the government at all levels.” He was a very good speaker and very interesting. We had recess at noon and reconvened at 1:45, had more reports and took action on them. At three we had a fire alarm that took everyone out of the building, a real awakening event. It you were sleepy you weren’t then. Three fire trucks arrived laying out hose and sirens screaming. There was a fire in another building. It was electrical. Some of the grangers had to move their stuff. We were lucky it wasn’t raining. We reconvened at seven, took action on reports and closed at 9:30. On Tuesday we had the last of the reports and installed new members and concluded business. We were all packed and ready to go home.
After the State Grange Report the Lecturer talked about some of the resolutions that were interesting. She had a game of Songs of the Good Old Days and for Veterans Day or Armistice Day; she told that it was the ninetieth anniversary of “the war to end all wars.” They sang “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and had a closing thought. Our next meeting is December 10, our Christmas party and covered dish supper with two dollar grab bag; invite family and guests. It was pie night, and they had delicious pies. It was also shoe box night for the children at Christmas time.