Posted tagged ‘Hasidim in Fleischmans’

End of the Road? Catskills/Post-Irene – Margaretville/Fleischmans

August 30, 2011

The above video (a bit less wobbly than some of my earlier ones) is of a Catskill Road in a valley outside of  Margaretville and Fleischmans, New York.  I haven’t been to Margaretville or Fleischmans since Irene==that would involve crossing what is left of the above road.  From the video reports, the towns appear to have been hit very hard, large sections destroyed. Both towns were home to many who were already struggling economically; it is difficult to imagine how they are coping with the losses caused by Irene.

What is also very sad is that each of Margaretville and Fleischmans are actual towns, with “Main Streets” and cafes, bakeries,restaurants,, actual smallish stores for food, clothing, guns, planting supplies, pots and pans, art materials, and (okay) antiques. (The nearest Walmart is probably an hour away.)

But they have character.  And sidewalks.

Fleischmans has both a fairly large Hasidic population and also, it seems Mexican immigrants.  When you stop there on the early morning bus, you see groups of young men in long black robes and hats with various colors of bath towels flung over their shoulders, while even the smallest dim shop sells those dark round slabs used for Mexican hot chocolate.

Margaretville has a library!  And ducks!  And some small platforms for skateboarders next to the ducks!  And a playground and the Cheese Barrel and the Bun and Cone.  Margaretville recovered from a major flood in ’96, but governments were different then. Hope that the town gets help now.