Next Saturday (Aug. 8) in Focus on History in the Daily Gazette, the main topic will be Amsterdam’s rocket man—Rocco Petrone who was launch director for the Apollo moon missions.

Also we’ll have a correction pointed out by many readers regarding an earlier column about Susie Sardonia. I thought Susie Sardonia was a relative of Angelo Sardonia, managing editor of Amsterdam’s South Side Servicemen’s News. However, “Susie” was Angelo Sardonia’s nickname and we’ll have more on local nicknames next week.

Monday at 8:35 a.m. on my AM 1570 WVTL radio show will be an interview with Wanda Burch of Johnson Hall in Johnstown. With the Saratoga horse racing season in high gear, Burch has done research on horse racing in Colonial days.

Both Native Americans and colonists appreciated fast horses. As Burch says, “The sport of horse racing was an integral part of American culture long before the American Revolution.”

The first running of the Travers Stakes in Saratoga was in 1864. One-hundred years before that, colonist Sir William Johnson was complaining, according to Burch “that most of the good New York horses were snatched up by New England and Philadelphia jockeys at ‘Extravigant prices.’ This was in 1748.”