Employees at Schenectady’s General Electric Co. were proud to light the world.
Members of the General Electric Athletic Association are pleased to travel the world.
“We’ve been to Germany, France, England, Australia, Italy and many of the states here in the U.S.,” said Grace Sgambelluri, secretary of the group of G.E. travelers. Sgambelluri joined the GEAA’s board of directors in 1978 and is still on the job for the board, currently as secretary.
The General Electric group shot is one of three gatherings featured in today’s Capital Region Scrapbook. School kids from Yates School on Salina Street in Schenectady and musicians from the Western Gateway Moose Band are other stars of the show.
Traveling club
The General Electric club was formed in 1917. Fishing and basketball were among the diversions, and the gang bowled on their own club-owned lanes. Square and folk dancing took place at the association’s clubhouse. Christmas parties meant dinner and dancing.
Participation in sports eventually declined, and members began traveling more. They’re still on the move today.
Yates school kids
In 1941, Carl Mancini and his friends from Yates School dressed up for a spring photograph.
“The kids were graduating from the sixth grade that year and leaving Yates school,” said Hanna Wagner of Altamont, Mancini’s granddaughter. “Because of the special day, they had to wear kerchiefs and vests.”
Before Yates Village was built, Wagner added, Schenectady’s Goose Hill section was a small and almost rural community. “Which is why my grandfather can still recognize almost every kid in the picture,” she said.
“He said with the exception of four, every kid in the picture was a child of Italian immigrants, which defines a lot about Schenectady and its neighborhoods in 1941.”
Moose Band
Charles Altieri of Schenectady one of the main men in the Western Gateway Moose Band. Drummers, clarinet players, trumpeters, trombone artists and tuba players all had spots on the bandstand.
Kathy Palmier of Schenectady said her great uncle owned Altieri Paint and Wallpaper on Jay Street.
“He was just a very quiet, reserved man,” Palmier said.
And he liked to play the clarinet.
Categories: Life and Arts
