Coming Together by Jean C. Gordon

I love it when a community comes together for the good of all, whether it's picking up after a disaster, pulling together to save an historical building, or, like the village and hamlets in our township, finding a creative way to fund a community project. Keying off the fact that the village is a former rail hub, three years ago, our town started an annual summer exhibition of train sculptures.

Local businesses and individuals contribute to buy the forms and other supplies to create the sculptures. Potential artists submit sketches of their designs on a photocopy of what the undecorated train engine forms will look like. This year 20 designs were chosen and, since Memorial Day, the completed sculptures have been displayed along the streets of Ravena, Coeymans, Coeymans Hollow, and Alcove (the village and hamlets in our township). The week after Labor Day, the sculptures will be auctioned off at the Coeymans Marina and the proceeds will go toward youth programming for the community. Last year's auction funded a movie projector for the town's summer movie nights. The sculptures pictured are the ones I drive by on my way to the grocery store and church.

My next Love Inspired romance Holiday Homecoming (available now for preorder) features a community event, too, an ecumenical Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve. Pastor Connor Donnelly is done with romance. After proposing to his high school sweetheart, Natalie Delacroix, five years ago—and being turned down—he’s putting all his time and energy into his community. He’s determined to make the Christmas pageant he’s directing a success. But family and friends are set on fixing up the good-looking bachelor in time for the holidays. And now that Natalie is back in Paradox Lake—and helping with the pageant—they might just succeed. Because working so closely with Natalie stirs up old feelings…and Connor starts to hope for a second chance with the one who got away.

A Tribute to the Libraries of My Life

I know National Library Week isn’t until next month. But I recently received my author copies of my May Love Inspired, Winning the Teacher’s Heart, and that made me think of libraries. I generally donate a large print copy of my books to my local library.

Libraries have played a large part in my lifelong love of reading.  I struggled with reading in first and grades. Since I had a September birthday, I was one of the youngest kids in my class, and I had trouble sounding out the words. The summer after second grade, when my next youngest brother was big enough to make the walk, my mom put my youngest brother in the stroller and took my three brothers and me to the LaSalle Public Library in Niagara Falls every week to get our own books. That fall, a couple of weeks into third grade, I moved from the lowest reading group, not to the middle group, but right to the top one.

My next library was the Stephens Memorial Library in Attica, NY, where we moved the summer before I started sixth grade. At first, it seemed like a come down from the Niagara Falls library. The library was in a house on Main Street. But, it was here that I discovered wonderful books like The Secret Garden, still one of my favorite books. And I did research for my high school papers, with another discovery, inter-library loan. The library “house” was painted white when I used it. The addition with the more library look was added when I was in high school.

The Nassau Free Library in the Village of Nassau, NY, was our first family library. It, too, was in a renovated house. Don’t you love the rendering from the library’s Facebook page? Like, my mother, I took my kids there from the time they were toddlers. And the year my husband went back to college to pick up a drafting certificate and had time home during the day, he gained the distinction of being the only father who regularly attended the daytime weekly story hour.

My current library is the RCS (Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk) Community Library. It recently moved to more spacious quarters in the old American Legion building in town. My big discovery at the RCS library is borrowing eBooks, which sadly means I don’t visit the actual library building as often as I did with my other libraries.

What are the libraries of your life?

Unusual Place Names

Jean C. Gordon here to talk about unusual place names. When we travel, I like to note unusual place names. That’s how I came up with the Paradox Lake setting for my Love Inspired books, Small-Town Sweethearts (January 2012) and Small-Town Dad (January 2013). In the first book, Emily Hazard faces a paradox when she comes home to Paradox Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York to stay with her teenage niece while Emily’s brother is deployed to Afghanistan with his Reserve unit.  

Paradox Lake gets its name from a unique occurrence which happens every spring. Melting snow in the eastern Adirondack Mountains flows into the Schroon (not Loon) River. Paradox Lake's outlet also flows into the Schroon River, but due to the sudden increase in water, the outflow is forced back, causing it to flow in reverse.  In addition to the Schroon River, there’s also a Schroon Lake. From what I could find, the origin of that name is unknown. But it’s stuck in my mind because, on one vacation in the Adirondacks, our then-small daughter kept looking for “schroons” after hearing me mention the name of the lake to my husband.

The Village of Ticonderoga is also near Paradox Lake. Home of Fort Ticonderoga, which played a role in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, Ticonderoga comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways" (Lake Champlain and Lake George, joined by the La Chute River).

Closer to home, we have Hannicroix, Coxsackie, and Catskill. Hannicroix takes its name from the nearby Hannicroix Creek. According to an old story, early Dutch settlers saw a rooster floating down the creek on a block of ice, so the creek became known as the Hannekraai, meaning "cock-crowing" creek.

From what I could find, Coxsackie (pronounced coke-sah-key) is from a native word mak-kachs-hack-ing, which Dutch settlers wrote as Koxhackung. It is generally translated as "Hoot-owl place” or "place of many owls.” As for Catskill (the village and mountain range), the name has nothing to do with killing cats or, most likely. cats at all. The actual origin is murky, but “kill” is Dutch for creek. We have numerous “kills” in the area. A 1656 map of New Netherland located the 'Landt van Kats Kill' at the mouth of the Kats Kill. 

Finally, we come to my township, Coeymans. I’m going to randomly give away a copy of Small-Town Sweethearts to one person who posts how they think my town is pronounced — I had it totally wrong when we moved here — and one person who posts an unusual place name. I’ll stop back tomorrow with the pronunciation and the winners.

With the help of God and the love of Drew Stacey, a down-sized Wall Street analyst turned church camp manager, NYC assistant art director and former town misfit Emily, ne Jinx, Hazard finds the thing she wants most in the place she least wants to be — Paradox Lake. Through having to be responsible for her niece, interaction with the town's people, and falling in love with Drew, she learns the meaning of Christian fellowship. 

www.JeanCGordon.com
www.Facebook.com/JeanCGordon.Author
@JeanCGordon on Twitter