Editor’s Note: this article comes from a series of emails through the years from George Billy, who spent summers, and winters, in Smallwood NY in the 1950’s when he was a teenager. George and I worked together at Unisys in Long Island in the 1980’s thru 1990’s, and found out we both spent our childhood and teenage years in Smallwood — although I spent my childhood/teenage years there in the 1960’s and 1970’s (and our family still owns a cabin there now). George was an Amazing guy; smart and intrepid and athletic (good swimmer and skier) and a family man. He passed several years ago. We are publishing his emails as an ode to him and so that others can gain his first-hand memories of Smallwood, NY in the 50’s. Note — some of the stories cover the same memories more than once since they are from different emails.
By George Billy
I knew kids who lived up in Smallwood year round and they would let us borrow their guns (shotguns and 22’s) to go hunting with. For deer hunting we used 12 or 16 gauge shotguns and bought deer slugs for ammo. Shotguns had a range of about 150 yards maximum without much degree of accuracy. 22’s were low power rifles for small game. Believe it or not we took the NRA hunting approved course in the Bronx that let you get a hunting license under 18.
Hitch Hiking to Smallwood in the 50’s
My mom never knew we were going up to Smallwood when I was 16 (in 1953). I used to say I was spending a weekend at my friends house and we used to hitchhike up to Smallwood starting at the George Washington Bridge (No Thruway back then.) We went out on Route 4 for several miles and then up on 17 to Monticello and then 17B. Took several hours to get there. People did pick up hitchhikers back then. By 17 – 18 one of us had a car so we would drive up. Made life a lot easier. We had little money to bring with us. Hence, our reason for eating those rabbits and squirrels when we were able to shoot them. Actually, only ate them a few times.
Hunting and Fishing in Smallwood
Not many people lived up in Smallwood in the 50’s during the fall/winter so it was OK to hunt around there. And as I stated there were a lot of rabbits in the field behind Otto’s store and grey squirrels were all over the pines on the way to White Lake. Mountain Lake had some nice pickerel over by the Lilly pads and the biggest bass I ever caught was a 7 pounder down by the Islands on a trolled minnow. I remember I had about a dozen different bass lures but hardly ever caught anything on them. Most of the fish caught were on worms and minnows on plain hooks. Lots of yellow perch caught but for some reason they were a lot bigger (10 – 12 inches) when we first moved up there and got smaller through the years. Mountain Lake also had bullheads and some were nice size. We use to catch them off catfish rock (a flat rock that held several people). I wonder if it is still there? (Editor’s note: yes indeed Catfish Rock has been called that for generations and is still there.)
Summer Jobs in Monticello in the 50’s
Summer jobs I had up in Monticello included:
- Working in a produce/grocery store in the middle of town as a stockboy and general helper at 50 cents/hr. (below min wage). Perks — free devil dogs when the boss wasn’t looking.
- A gas pump boy and general new car cleaner at Riftkin Chrysler (??) which was at the end of Monticello before the down hill on 17 where you turned to go to the Concord.
- Working in an ice house where I loaded the 300 lb blocks of ice into the storage house and made chips and ice cubes. (Was let go because I kept breaking too many of the 300 lb ice blocks and we got overloaded with chips.)
- Grounds maintenance on a golf course. Only lasted a few weeks. Foreman was black and said he wanted to get his boys in there.
- Milkman’s helper in Smallwood and White Lake (all the free chocolate milk I could drink).
- And general construction helper for a contractor in Smallwood. We were putting in foundations and basements for people with the log cabins who wanted them.
And I did not have a car so I used to hitchhike back and forth to Monticello, which meant I had to get up early and walk out to 17B every morning and same thing in reverse in the evening. One thing for sure I never got heavy in my teens. This was between the years of 15 thru 18. At 18 I had already graduated H.S. and was working as a jewelry machine engraver in downtown Manhattan, but worked on Saturdays and on my two week vacation in Smallwood in construction as noted above.
The Lighthouse Restaurant in White Lake
The Lighthouse Restaurant at White Lake was our old swimming hangout. Our end of Smallwood used to go there since it was a bit less of a walk then down to the beach on Smallwood (Mountain) lake. Remember I lived up the road from Mosquito Pond. (Note – we never fished there but it was a great place to catch minnows for bait.)
Swimming in White Lake and Working at Yasgur’s Farm
In White Lake the water was always clearer in summer because this lake was much deeper than Mountain Lake and there was little to no buildup of green algae. Like Smallwood Lake there was a raft 75 yards out in the water (around 10 feet deep) and a small sand beach. The actual lighthouse was gone even when we swam there in the early to mid 50s. The Lighthouse Restaurant had a small side place that sold soft drinks and snacks if you wanted them. The lighthouse had collapsed years ago not sure why. But the foundation was still there underwater about 8 foot deep. You could swim down to it and see rock bass and sunfish swimming around. We actually swam across White Lake to Kauneonga Lake and back, a few miles swim. Some of girls we were with were stronger swimmers than I but we all made it. I believe I told you I used to work as a milkman’s helper in Yasgur’s Dairy in White Lake. I guess he was the one who had the Woodstock concert in Bethel on his field? We used to deliver milk to Smallwood and also to all the camps around the White Lake area.
The Beach at Smallwood Lake & the Sweet Shop
I don’t ever recall a life guard at Smallwood beach. The beach did have a fence and gate though but I am not sure if it was ever locked. Just outside the beach there was a place called the Sweet Shop that had a juke box and we used to dance there on occasion. But most of the records were old and not rock and roll of the 50’s.
On the side of the beach where the water spilled over into the stream were beach changing houses for guys and girls but no bathrooms. Unfortunately some of the guys used the place for a toilet. I remember the guys had made peep holes between the two changing rooms that they then plugged. I don’t ever remember looking but most of the girls that we hung out with knew about this and would tease the guys but not really show anything when changing so I am told. Most of the lake was quite shallow probably under 6 feet. The deepest water was actually where the beach area was and that was about 9 or 10 feet. Mountain Lake in August if you remember used to turn green with algae and you could not see more than several inches underwater.
The Country Club
Most of our social life was at the high end country club at our end of Smallwood (editor’s note: by Mosquito Pond). I am sure long gone. We used to go to square dances there every Tuesday evening for a quarter fee or something like that. Maybe free I forgot. On Saturday nights they had formal dances there for the older crowd with a band and full bar.
Down at your end of Smallwood there was another Country Club on Pine Grove Road. I guess that is what is now known as the Community Center. I am not sure if it was used for dances or just community service. (Editor’s Note: in the 1970’s there were weekly Square Dances at the Community Center on Pine Grove Road on Tuesday nights).
As a teenager in the fall we would go up to Smallwood and go deer hunting in the woods (a lot of pine) behind Mountain Lake towards Beaver Pond (not sure if it is still there). It was a bit of walk to the pond and their were supposed to be beavers in it but we never saw any. Remember the far end of the lake was all woods, no houses and no road around it back then. We also used to hunt by the golf course. Funny we saw more deer in Smallwood itself but none in the woods and we could not take a chance of shooting at them because of the houses . I guess the deer knew what they were doing. We also hunted rabbits in the field behind Kelly’s (Otto’s) store with 22 rifles and mentioned to kill a few. We ate them after cleaning them and soaking in salted water for several hours. They tasted OK but nothing great sort of like dark meat chicken. Also hunted squirrels in the cow field next to the road that went to White Lake in our area. We skinned and cleaned a few. Looked like rats. Tasted about the same as the rabbit.
Hunting and Getting Lost in Smallwood in the 1950’s
We used to hunt by the golf course for deer that used to feed on the grass in morning and evening. And also back behind Mountain Lake where there was a large stand of pines and a swampy pond we called beaver pond because beaver were supposed to live there but we never saw any. Once you got into the woods behind Smallwood it was easy to get lost. I was hunting with a few of my friends one afternoon in late November and got separated from them. (They thought I had turned around and went back home.) Anyway I realized I had lost my bearings and it was getting late. What I did was find a small bluff put my gun down and climbed a tree. Off in the distance I saw a puff of smoke coming from one of the cabins. That was enough to get me in the right direction and back on track to the end of Pine Grove Road as it got dark. Don’t think it would have been much fun to spend a night in the woods with below freezing temperatures.
BTW Smallwood must have been up in the hills a bit. When I used to go to work at 7 AM during the summer the temperature was usually 52 degrees most mornings and sometimes in the mid 40’s. By 9 AM the temperature was up around 75-80 and climbing.
The Outdoor Movie House
I remember when we used to go to that old beat up outdoor movie with the rotted benches just up the hill from the Sweet Shop, most of the girls brought sweaters to wear. Us guys never bothered. But it did get chilly at night if you remember. I think they charged us a quarter to watch a 50’s western and a few cartoons. We used to only go to make out with the Smallwood girls as we called them. Most were die-hard Catholics who would never go beyond the act of making out in the movie but it was still fun. I ran into one of them years later out here in Massapequa. She was married and her kids went to the same school as mine did. Small world.
Taking a Bath in Smallwood in the 1950’s
One of the strange things about the cabins and bungalows in Smallwood a lot of them had no showers or even tubs. The bathrooms had a sink and a commode. I never understood why even though the water as you remember was at ground level and was turned off after September. We used to bring up large milk jugs and take them to a pump for water if we came up in wintertime. Maybe back in the 30’s and 40’s when Smallwood was being built they figured that people would get clean by swimming in the lake. Beats me?
I remember if we going out at night and I worked in a garage we would run to White Lake and take some soap with us. Not very sanitary or good for the lake either. Or else I would fill up a tub with water outside and wash myself down there in a bathing suit. Guys did not care but I guess it was rough for the girls. But it beats outside pumps, outhouses, and no electricity. Our first bungalow was outside of Port Jefferson and we had no amenities what soever. Used kerosene or gas lanterns. outhouse was about 75 feet in back of the house and we had a water pump next to the house where we washed up.
Having a Row Boat on Smallwood Lake
When we bought our used rowboat for Mountain Lake back in 1951 my father paid $30.00 and it came with a pair of oars. Bought it over in White Lake and put it on top of the car. Dropped it in Mountain Lake where the stream flowed into the end of the lake. Had it their for 4 years chained to a tree and no-one ever bothered it. It fit four people but you were pushing it.
After I returned from the Navy many years later, I came up to Smallwood to see what it was like and looked at our old house which my dad had sold years ago. It had not changed. I went down to the lake to see by chance if the rowboat was still there. It wasn’t. I drove over the beach to look around and looked over the spillway and sure enough their was the remnants of my old boat spilled over into the stream all smashed up. I guess my dad never told the new owners that we had a rowboat tied up down at the lake.
Smallwood’s Elevation
One thing about Smallwood that you have to remember is that it has about an 1800 – 2000 foot elevation overall. And that is enough to allow snow to fall when other regions in the area can get rain. When we went up to Smallwood in the winter time there was always a foot or more of snow on the ground. And Mountain Lake was frozen solid. And that was true even if there was no snow cover all the way up to almost Monticello. Even in summer no matter how hot it was our outdoor thermometer registered 52 degrees at 7 AM most mornings. By 9 Am it was already pushing near 80 most days. I even saw it drop into the 40s some nights up there.
I remember a few times when we had to come home during the Summer heat. We left Smallwood in the evening when it getting cool out. When we hit the Bronx I remember the searing heat coming through the car windows (no AC back then). You could definitely feel the difference. My daughter has friends who moved up that way past White Lake several years ago. They like it up there. I am not sure if their house is on 17B or on 55. Lisa my daughter talks about moving up to that area someday with her husband but at present I guess they are locked into Long Island. I guess if you live up in Smallwood all year round you need a well for water. I remember that they turned off the water supply after September and you had to lug up your own supply. At one time there was a pump just down the road from our house. I wonder if it is still there? (Editor’s Note: no — long gone.) It was where the old stores used to be. I believe they all burned down or were torn down. I am sure the old clubhouse right below my house and the tennis courts are long gone too. I believe my house is still standing based on Google earth but I could not get a good view of it due to the trees.
Stores in Smallwood in the 1950’s
There were two back to back Log cabin stores up by me in that are now an empty lot in High View. Opened of course only during the summer. I believe the last year I was up there for the summer they were closed. One store sold produce. The other was a grocery store that also sold some meat and poultry. There was even a summer-only post office on the side before it moved down next to Kelly’s (Otto’s). Almost across from the pump up the hill a bit was the Smallwood Highview lodge for our area before it burned down. That is where we had square dances on Tuesday nights for the kids (teens). Two local women played the music – one on a piano; the other had the fiddle. They also played old fashion music for us to slow dance to. Boring! No rock and roll up there yet. And on Saturday night they held Adult formal dances with a band and they had a bar and all. I ordered one of my first beers there when I just turned 17 and they never proofed me. (There was also a bar called Mulligans, your mom probably went there. It was just down the road from Jessup’s across the road from Otto’s gas station. We used to go there and drink beer before we were 18. Again a place that never proofed.)
George’s Cabin at “The Back End” of Smallwood
My house was on the second road past the pump going up the hill. Actually there was a small grown-over field after the road made a right turn. And there was a dirt path back then that went almost directly to my house about 400 yards past the pump. We had a pretty good view of the Catskill mountains from our porch because their were no trees to obstruct our view. Someone said the people who owned our house before us stayed all year round. We had a coal stove in the living room that heated the entire upstairs of the house. We also had a cellar (just a door underneath the house built on top of rock) and a small room downstairs that you had to enter from the outside that was not heated. Since our house was built on a hill it sort of stuck out with the porch on top without an outside door. I guess the people who used to live there used the pump for water. No baths?
The houses on the next road above us were up about a hundred feet higher than us and even had a better view if their were no trees to obstruct.
Our property was fairly large. It went up the hill a few hundred feet and was several hundred feet wide. All wooded of course and unmarked, no fences. For some reason our area were all hardwoods while down by you (Pine Grove Road and Orange Ave area) it was mostly pines. Our driveway was actually just dirt cut out from the side of the hill. For some reason we had a paved road up to our house that went dirt just beyond it, even though there were several more houses after us. It might have had to do with people living in our house all year.
As our road angled up the hill there were no more homes and it went down through the woods to come out on the road that went partially around the lake near Catfish Rock I believe that road now goes completely around Mountain Lake (Editor’s Note: what in the 70’s was the Dirt Road). Since our road sort of angled its way down to the lake I used to take a shortcut by walking up away’s and then cut through a small patch of woods and went through Kelly’s (Otto’s) field to come out by the bridge by the stream where my rowboat was tied up just before the stream entered in the lake. Most of the people back then with canoes or boats just found a spot to tie them up and left them there. Lots of Lilly pads around that part of the lake as it was shallow. That is where I caught mostly pickerel when I went casting.
Sheriff Sharp & His Old Gray 1935 Ford
Of course by the time you were old enough to know the area it had all changed. No more outdoor movies where most of us teens had their first real kiss and a little bit more. The dances were now held down in the lodge in your area. More restrictions on boating, etc. etc. etc. The old toboggan run into the lake just a memory. And no more Sheriff Sharp in his old gray 1935 Ford chasing us kids on those dirt roads because we were hot rodding in our 1940 Fords, etc.
Winter Time in Smallwood in the 1950’s
We used to toboggan on a worn out toboggan run down by Mountain Lake. It was in disrepair but still useable when we used it. We used to fly down the hill on the run and it took us out pretty far on the lake — about 100 yards or so. We never checked the ice depth so we always took a chance that it would hold us. No one ever fell in however.
I tried ice fishing a few times on Mountain Lake. We caught a few pickerel and some perch but no bass.
As kids we used to drive on the lake all the time especially when it was frozen with no snow on top. It was fun to jam on the brakes and see how many times we could spin around before stopping.
We also used to ice skate up on Mosquito pond at night. One of the local guys had a plow on his truck and he would go out and clear a nice skating area for us. We used to build a bon fire right on the pond using old car tires. Ah memories.
George’s Smallwood Stories
Finally — George provides two stories of adventures he had in Smallwood, in a separate email.
Episode 1: The White Lake Halloween Dance
The White Lake Halloween Dance. I am 16 years old and my folks have had the summer house in Smallwood for several years. I have just told them that I am going to spend the weekend with a friend of mine who lives in the Bronx about a mile from where I live. But in truth I am going to hitch-hike up to Smallwood with another friend to hangout at our summer-house which has a coal stove for heat and yes we did have electricity up there too. Why did we elect to go to the Catskills in the middle of February? Well for starters because it was just something to do. No adult supervision for the weekend. Free to do what we wanted which was really only to hangout, do some ice-skating on the pond down the road, go tobogganing on the hill and essentially be free. And for some reason we were always able to hitch-hike the 100 miles without incident. Something amazing within itself.
But anyway it is Saturday night up in Smallwood and one of the local kids tells us that there will be a teenage Halloween dance over at White Lake just a few miles away. Being sixteen it sure beats staying in my folks’ summer house feeding coal into the coal stove and listening to an old radio that had more static than stations. The dance was fun, a combination of square dancing and slow dancing with some of the local girls — although some of the local guys were giving us looks of disapproval and we wondered if we were going to have to meet any of them after the dance.. (Rock and roll was in its infancy back then and had not yet reached up into the hills of New York State.)
Anyway, after the dance we started the two-mile walk back to my house and we decided that it would be easier to cut across a section of the lake and shave off maybe a 1/2 mile walk. Seemed like a good idea at the time and nobody dies at 16. So off we went across the frozen lake. It was pitch-black on the lake and for some reason I had taken the lead about 25 feet ahead of my friend when suddenly I heard a crack and then another crack and I felt the ice give way beneath my feet. But then something odd or miraculous happened — both my feet sank about 8 inches or so and then stopped. I had bottomed out but that was not possible. White Lake is a deep water lake and we were a few hundred yards from the shore where the water depth was at least 25 feet perhaps more. Was it possible that I had just broke though a thin ice crust to hit thicker ice just below the surface of the water? Could be but ice does not normally melt like that. It usually melts from the bottom up. Anyway, I turned around and cracked through the ice a few more times as I ran back until my footing was once again on firm ice. Needless to say we both made a beeline for shore and the only thing that befell me was two mighty cold feet by the time I got back to the house. Again, God protecting a child or maybe at sixteen — a fool?
Postscript: The experience I had on the lake that winter night still baffles me. The only logical explanation was that the ice had melted on top forming a body of water with ice underneath. Then when it got cold a new layer of ice had formed on top of the water above the ice and that is what I crashed through.
The dance I believe was in the gym or the cafeteria section of the old White Lake elementary school but I am not certain. At one time that school also covered High School I believe. Past the school was a Pizza place where we spent many an evening eating pizza, drinking soda and listening to rock and roll on the juke box there.
Episode 2: A Casual Summer Swim
I am 17 years old and spending my summer working up in Monticello while staying at Smallwood, N.Y., again in my folks place. My mom is working full time so she is not coming up for the summer. My dad is loaning out the house to some of his friends and their wives and children he works with. But that does not bother me for I have a room downstairs that is separated from the main section of the house. The only problem is using the bathroom which is upstairs; but that is not a problem for a teenager at night with several acres of woods behind the house. But let me get back to my story.
I am working in Monticello at an ice house this summer but have weekends off. One Saturday I get up and go down to the small beach by the Lighthouse Inn in White Lake expecting to find my friends and a few girls I know there. No-one is around so I take a swim out to the raft and sit there for awhile. While there I start up a chat with a fellow a few years older than I and he asks if I am a swimmer. And I reply yea I am, although I have been smoking cigarettes for a few years. He then asks if I want to swim with him across White Lake and not to be out done I agree.
Now White Lake is about a mile long and wide and intersects with another section of a lake whose name I forgot (Editor’s Note: Kauneonga Lake). I had swam across the lake with friends the summer before, where we stopped on shore, took a break and than swam back. So no big deal I though and off we went. The swim across the lake was uneventful but when were a few hundred yards from shore the fellow I was with said let’s swim back to where we started so we will not get leg cramps. Foolishly I agreed. About half way across I noticed I was getting tired and started to tread water to gain some strength to swim again. Meanwhile the guy I was swimming with did not look back and kept swimming and I realized I might be getting in a bit of trouble here, since any direction to shore was more or less equal distance.
So I kept swimming to the beach we came from. But I soon found myself getting more and more tired. I was not yet in panic mode but getting scared. As I looked around one more time I saw a guy in a rowboat about 100 feet behind me. Dropping all pride I waved at him and he rowed over and I told him I think I am in trouble. He said “I have been following you for the last 10 minutes — you looked like you might need a hand.” I thanked him and held on while he rowed me to shore. As I thanked him again he said “I saw your friend take off leaving you stranded, some friend you have there.” When I went up on the beach my fellow swimmer was no where to be seen. At turning 17 I think that old proverb about God protecting fools may be more appropriate than the one protecting children.
The stories show the stupid chances I took as a kid and a teenager but managed to survive them. Most of us have similar stores if not exactly what I went through. Was there an angel looking over my shoulder? I guess I will never know until it is lights out for me.
Peace, George
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