Do real pictures always tell a real story? Do we want them to?

Saratoga is not known for the unknown.

Saratoga built itself on being known by the known for very known reasons, if you know what I mean. It is a tourist destination and always has been. From the Native American's who sought out its mineral springs to wealthy New York socialites who also sought out the mineral springs when they weren't busy gambling or ambulating in the park for a late afternoon constitutional. Then came the late summer of 1863 when a local casino owner/former boxer decided in the midst of the ongoing emotional and physical horrors of the Civil War to open a horse racing track. Saratoga (perhaps like your community?) likes normal. It breeds it like the thoroughbreds who draw thousands of tourists every year. Even the local catalog of hauntings and unexplained phenomena seem to follow a strict code of formality. Ghost Hunters filmed an episode here in -wait for it- a popular tourist spot and former casino. That's not a criticism of the show. I get how picking popular spots benefits them and the nature of these locations often make filming easier. I get it. The point is that in Saratoga even the paranormal fits into preset parameters.

Or does it? Here's my point and the purpose of this post.

I need help. I need to know what I am looking at. I need to know my mind is not playing games with me. Damn it. I hate that phrase. A game is something you win or lose. A good game teaches something in the process. So if my mind is playing a game then is there something to win? To lose? Who decides which is which? Is part of my mind trying to teach me, the core me, something? But if it is making a decision to play or teach or both does that mean IT is the core? We're all made of parts. You can watch yourself think. You can watch the part watching the thinking happen in real time. Crap. I'm doing it now.

I've digested a lot of movies, books, graphic novels, poems, videos, games, and other stuff. Lots. There's stored and cross-connected information in my mind I don't remember putting in me. So I read into things. I make leaps. I solve puzzles before all the pieces are on the table. I pull answers out of my ass that smell like dew slick lilacs. I hope that resonates with you. I really, really hope you can relate to that because I need your help.

What am I seeing in these pictures? My mind, some part of my mind, keeps connecting them to form a narrative and I can't stop it. What kind of cruel game is that! Here's an example of what I mean...

Found this in a parking lot this Spring. That's a pair of torn baby pajamas next to...what?...the graffiti of a ska music fan? A fan who carries a container of paint to pour and not a rattle can with which to spray? What if that is an acronym? Or worse, a signature right next to torn baby's clothing. Proves nothing, I know. Humans litter and vandalize every day. Plus, the proximity of two objects does not equal a common source. I get that. But can I sweep the image aside and stop myself from thinking about it? No. Why? Because a couple days later I found these.

The wooden matchsticks caught my eye. Don't see those too often, do you? Then I saw the mask. It looked like someone was waiting, doesn't it? Light a match. Smoke a cigarette. Light another match. Smoke another cigarette. Waiting for what? The person in the mask? There's the mask. Where's the person? It's a cheap mask you can buy anywhere at Halloween for like $2. Probably some kid dropped it. Again, proximity doesn't equal connection. So, what about this?   

At least finding a ski mask(?) makes some sense given the asshole long winter we just had. But what about the clothes? Why are they there? More littering? But TWO masks! When was the last time you found two masks within a couple of miles of each other? Weird coincidence, right? But is that the answer for everything? Find an 'out of place object' and simply write it off as littering or coincidence. Here's a question: how many times does coincidence have to happen before it stops being coincidence? Deadpool called convenient circumstance "lazy writing". Step out of a movie theater and I call it lazy thinking. Sorry. That was not fair. You don't have all the pictures, do you?

nice path to...

 

...a respite for those without a home.

Or at least it used be.

Where they are now is a mystery.

Mystery masks. Out of place objects. An empty encampment. You see it, right? I can't be the only one pulling these pieces together. Has the gestalt of the normal affixed blinders to most of those around me? Do you believe me when I say I never went looking for the unusual? I mean, I do try to pay attention to detail when I am out in the world. Huxley had a point when he observed our minds are tools of reduction. Our normal state is one where the multitude of input we could perceive from all there is around us is nearly infinite. Therefore, it could overwhelm us. Case in point, when was the last time you smelled your own nose? Am I subconsciously fighting against this natural defense? God help me, I feel like the unreliable narrator of a Lovecraft tale. An unsettling quote comes to mind.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Lovecraft

Remember his story The Dunwich Horror? The great smashing of trees as Wilbur's brother fled the ancestral home?

All the other trees were intact. What happened here? What split the tree? Do you see it?

Look closely...

See it? It is split in two directions. Two. What PUSHED this tree over? And why. What wears a mask and can push over a tree? NO. I can't go down that road. It's disastrous. Insane. See? That's why I need your help! I need answers. I need alternate explanations I need to know why this was next to the tree.

"Meaningless COINCIDENCE!" I can say it as well as you can. That doesn't make it true. A gear is but a means of transmitting power. Power to...I don't know...tear open the side of a tractor trailer. 

Should I keep telling myself, "That's an odd coincidence." or "That's interesting."? How many times must I say these words before I question if I'm using the correct words? Here's the kicker: these are only a few the "things" I took pictures of. I've seen more. I've probably seen more than I've realized. Or have I? I don't know. Have you seen things, reader? Did you ever see something that gave you pause to wonder how or why it was there? Or, did you brush it off? Did it make wonder if you or anyone really knows what happens when we're not paying attention? Did it make you wonder if there is a price to pay for paying attention? Ultimately it doesn't matter if you live in the communal 'everything is right as rain' narrative of Saratoga. What is important is whether you truly want to know what might be happening around you.  I'll post more pics as I come across them in the hopes of crafting a compass of value for this strange land unfolding around me.

To end the piece but not the mystery, let me ask you this: do you ever ask yourself what in the world you might not be seeing?

 

Chipping Away at the History of the Potato Chip

Take the humble potato chip. A loyal citizen of the Snack Food Kingdom, it fears not a dip covered death. It is consumed around the world draped in a cornucopia of flavors studiously crafted to suit local palates. You long for borsch flavored fried potato slices? Search no more, brothers and sisters. The Table of Spud has a seat and a warm, starchy hug reserved just for you. 

But lo! Humans haven’t always had the blessings of The Chip! Great wailing and the gnashing of teeth was the daily norm for humanity for untold eons. Eating, sleeping, reproducing, wailing, gnashing, and the occasional boring alien abduction was all a lowly human could expect in life. Thus scientists, historians, and gamers split history into BC & AD. “Before Chip” & “After Dip”. 

Okay. Okay. Enough joking around. I like potato chips and if you are even remotely human then you likely do as well. I also happen to live in the place where they were invented! Awesome, right? Here’s the story via Wikipedia: By the late nineteenth century, a popular version of the story attributed the dish to George Crum, a half-black, half-Native American cook at Moon's Lake House (located a few miles outside the city of Saratoga Springs) who was trying to appease an unhappy customer on 24 August 1853. The customer kept sending his French-fried potatoes back, complaining that they were too thick, too "soggy," and/or not salted well enough. Frustrated, Crum personally sliced several potatoes extremely thin, fried the potato slices to a crisp, and seasoned them with extra salt. To Crum's surprise, the customer loved them.  They soon came to be called "Saratoga Chips".

 Or is it?

That’s the story! Nothing else to see here. Move along, citizen. All known facts support the above tale without exception. Spending just a few minutes online totally doesn’t yield odd, conflicting variances at all! None! It’s not like George never took credit for the potato chip. It’s not like a common date given for his death (July 22, 1914) doesn’t match his tomb stone. 

George's grave in the Malta Ridge Cemetery. If you hurry you can follow my footprints to it.

It’s not like his BOUGHT AND PAID FOR biography never mentioned the potato chip. 

 

 

It’s not like his SISTER took credit for inventing them while they were both were alive in 1906.

Ah crap. Looks like it’s time to deep dive into the primary resource pool. Tap into the local historical societies. This will take a long time and involve arcane devices like this:

I cannot stress how fun it is to use a microfilm reader. Being serious!

This will take me a long time to compile information, double check local records, contact local historical societies, build a timeline, and then maybe MAYBE craft a fact-based picture of the past without too many holes. History is generally cataloged in detail only when circumstances deem it "important". The first thing I did was look into the sources referenced in the top search results for the chip's inventor. Take the above photo of George Crum, who actually went by George Speck for legal matters.

Who really is this handsome couple? Good question. Perhaps YOU will find the answer!

And here is the source image. Several sites note the woman is his wife without any proof. No dates. No locations. No indications of where in New York this was taken. In fact, if you do an image search in Google you will find this picture on sites with nothing to do with George or the TWO women he spent much of life with. How do I know this? Verifying the sources yielded a surprise. Turns out someone else had already done much of the primary source work I was in the midst of doing. Lots of largely ignored work, in fact. Enter the efforts of Dave Mitchell.

Props to Dave's work. He asked lots of good questions to lots of the right people. That's called research. Bask in its goodness.

Start here:
http://chipscrumsandspecksofsaratogacountyhistory.com/2013/06/18/saratoga-springs-new-york-birthplace-of-the-potato-chip/ 

Then here for information on George's very interesting life:

http://chipscrumsandspecksofsaratogacountyhistory.com/

And finally:
http://chipscrumsandspecksofsaratogacountyhistory.com/2013/06/29/saratoga-potato-chip-stories-traditions-myths-and-legends/ 

These links are worth reading as they expand on most of the topics mentioned here plus others. If you have any interesting in truth digging please read them and review his resources. 

Evidence suggests this is indeed George. The woman's identity is unconfirmed.

Here's the long and the short of what I have found to date, in part augmented by Dave's work. Quick note. If you visit the Saratoga Room in Saratoga's public library to review the same primary sources I did, be prepared to leave your jacket or purse at the door. They take security and theft seriously.

1. The story of the potato chip was not a subject of wide reporting until several years after it became popular. Even local surviving Saratogians reported not hearing about the Who and When of the chip until their adult years as this 1983 folklore research piece found.

Here's the link to the academic site I found the full piece on. It is free to sign up and a cool site for those with a nose for research. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499968?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.


2. The basic recipe for potato chips had been around before 1853. Cutting up potatoes, cooking them in oil or fat, and then salting them was NOT a new idea. Dave and others have found references in articles and cook books. Perhaps it was a local (but not exclusive) variation of the recipe that we call a chip today. That is possible.

3. As I showed above, George's sister took credit for the invention. George never did in any resource I have found. What does this mean to me? Not sure. Taken at face value, George did NOT invent the chip as he never disputed her claim. I want facts I can deposit in the bank. Consider this and ask yourself what YOU make of it and what questions you want answered.

Curiouser and Curiouser

4. George owned a popular, well liked business in a town that the famous and wealthy vacationed in. He, at the very least, was a powerful part of popularizing the chip. By all accounts the food he served was topnotch. The rich and poor enjoyed his food. When the socialites of  New York City returned home to regale their peers with stories from The Spa, the most excellent products of his kitchen were recommended.

The End!

Wait, what? So, here we stand. We have the story of George and the disgruntled customer. We have deeper dives into the story and the lack of any currently known evidence supporting said story. We know the chip gained popularity amongst socialites and commoners alike in the mid to late 1800's in the Northeast. We know it is a common theme to link Saratoga to this popularity. We know George and Kate are part of this timeline somehow. And that's about it until more facts are found or pieced together. The story of the potato chip is a fun example of the contrast between a popular telling and currently known (keyword: currently) facts. We actually have a hazy veil surrounding the birth of the chip. Did George invent it? In the strictest sense of the word: No. Did Kate? Maybe. The cooking method was not new, remember. However, it is possible their establishment via Kate had a popular, localized variation. Popular city + Famous patrons + Favorite local eating hole + Word of Mouth = Inventor of the Potato chip. That's my theory.  Not much of a climax, I know. Very frustrating for me too after all the effort I invested. Lots of huff and puff with no real satisfaction. That's history sometimes. Such a delicious tease! I know George's name will keep being thrown around but I hope at least YOU will know the story is much more than a graphic or meme shared without thought or care. YOU might be the person who finds the missing evidence. There's a lot to still explore. For example, many sources list the July 27th, 1914 issue of the Saratogian newspaper as holding an obituary for George that mentions the potato chip. BUT DAMNED IF I CAN FIND IT! I poured over this date and the two before and after it. If you find it, let me know.

ARGH!

 

If I see another advert for Minard's Liniment or Uneedo Biscuits I'm going to punch myself in the throat. While it was amusing to find a story about five hoboes in Mechanicville that a judge gave exactly ten minutes to leave town, this is what really caught my eye:

Any place I can have my hair done, buy an imported bird AND get an electric massage is swell in my book. I could really go for an electric massage right now, in fact. Follow it up with a big bag of chips.

That spells history no matter how you slice it.