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For the past six months, the East End Community Center has been hard at work to produce the 2nd edition of the Center’s Cookbook called “A Taste of Tradition II.” Both the new cookbook and the 2012 Cortland Sports Calendar (a joint project with the Cortland County Historical Society) will be available for purchase at the Great Cortland Pumpkin Fest this Saturday and Sunday, October 1st and 2nd, at the Courthouse Park on Church Street in Cortland.
Both projects have become great vehicles for community involvement, which is at the core of the East End Center’s mission and that of Cortland County Communities that Care. The Sports Calendar is a compilation of cherished old photos, each with a story and many memories. Through the process of gathering and identifying the photos, many friendships have been rekindled and stories shared about growing up in Cortland and the importance of participating on a team together. Photos came from as far away as the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, whose staff heard about the project during the production of the 2011 calendar. Cooperstown sent several rare photos of John J. McGraw a famous baseball player and manager who grew up in Truxton.
This year, Cooperstown sent an even rarer photo of the 1950 Homer Braves baseball team in uniforms they borrowed from the major league Boston Braves, thanks to Dewey Griggs from Homer, who was the team operator and a scout for the Boston Braves. Dewey recruited several Homer players who moved up to the Boston team and then to Milwaukee in 1953 when they became the Braves!
These are the stories that make the sports calendar project so fascinating to the residents of this community. Beginning last spring, they started sifting through attics, basements, and long forgotten scrapbooks to find photographs of their relatives and classmates. The response was so overwhelming to the first calendar that the decision was made to produce a second one for 2012.
The year before the first sports calendar project was launched, the East End Center put out a different call to the community, this time for family recipes and photos for the Center’s first cookbook. Published in 2009, the book, “A Taste of Tradition” was an immediate hit at that year’s Pumpkin Fest and completely sold out by the holiday season.
This project started as a huge community endeavor with the community center board visiting senior centers around the county to collect cherished family recipes that had been handed down for generations, many with stories attached, and some even with photographs! The joy on people’s faces as they brought in recipes handwritten by mothers and grandmothers was very touching. One woman told the story of her recipe for “Viennese Walnut Tortes” which came with her mother to the United States as she fled from Vienna during Hitler’s regime.
Now, this weekend, the Center is now ready to present, “A Taste of Tradition II,” which will be showcased at the Pumpkin Fest at the Community Center’s booth. The cookbook is packed full of family favorites and this year’s book focuses on photographs of old restaurants and bakeries. A must for any cookbook collector!
The Historical Society and the East End Community Center hope to see you at the Pumpkin Fest this weekend. For more information on the hours of the festival, visit their web site at www.cortlandpumpkinfest.org.
For information about the Cortland County Historical Society visit www.cortlandhistory.com and information about the East End Community Center can be found at www.eastendcenter.org. Both organizations promote and celebrate the importance of neighborhood attachment and pride in community that are cornerstones of the mission of the Cortland Area Communities That Care.
As young people learn to embrace the history and heritage of their community, these newest citizens will embrace the values that help this community continue to grow and prosper.
Cecile Scott is the Assistant Director of the Cortland Youth Bureau and a Board Member for the East End Community Center. She can be reached at 753-3021.
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