57° F | Schenectady, NY
December '67 and '77 scrapbook
Boughs of holly seem to be everywhere in the Schenectady area during December. Folks just seem to love the holiday season.
In 1967, members of the Elks and Rotary clubs celebrated the yuletide with noisemakers and evergreens. Young people planned dinner dances; men and women in the Stockade rocked around the Christmas tree.
More of the same took place in 1977. Good deeds crews collected food for needy families. Singers prepared for late December concerts. And young children sipped sodas and gobbled snacks, and waited for their favorite holidays of early winter. Posted on December 10, 2012.
From left, Niskayuna Rotary men Al Irwin, Gene Sims and Bill Wagner show off some tall green during the 1967 Christmas season. The club sold trees at the town’s Balltown Road fire station.
Randy Blake, a third-grader at Riverside School, turns on the lights for the Schenectady Stockade’s Christmas tree in December 1967. William BeVier, chairman of the annual tree party, makes sure the holiday power is on.
Ed Campbell, left, president of the Men’s Achievement Center, shares 1977 holiday cheer with friends at the Carver Community Center on Craig Street. Among the revelers is Stanley Skinner, right, executive director of the center.
James Lafayette, left, and Chuck Carnegie of the Union Street Youth Center, load turkeys for the needy in December 1977. Lending a hand is Carmen DiPiazza, manager of an Albany Public Markets store.
Boy Scouts in Troop 1 (Second Reformed Church), look over packages of food gathered during the 1977 holiday season. From left are Brian Breslin, Janet Hamlin of Second Reformed, scoutmaster Mark Breslin, Jim Brooks, troop committee chairman Herb Roes, Bill Reynolds and Roy Morelli.
Members of the First Reformed Church Choir hit their notes during the Stockade's tree-lighting ceremony on Dec. 16, 1967.
Members of Carman United Methodist look merry and medieval for the Christmas Eve concert of Renaissance music. From left are Carol Cornicelli, Ruth Johnsen, Brent Wissick, Sarah Johnsen and Elizabeth Johnsen.
Onnie Nappi, left, and friends prepare for the 1967 edition of the Schenectady Young Adult League’s Christmas Dinner-Dance. Also making plans are Diane Santoro and Richard Fontaine.
Some December lovers look forward to January in 1967. Schenectady Elks planning the group’s New Year’s Eve party are, from left, Carl Ruskowski (seated), Robert Madill, Henry Hodorowski, John Rowbo and Joseph Berry.
