Sams point and Vicinity

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Met with Matt and Grace Rubenstein and saw their new home. Unfortunately, it still needs lots of renovations. We then set off on a combined trip to hike and pick blueberries in Sams Point, just outside of Ellenville in the Catskills, and to scout out sources of home improvement supplies. I will say this, if I ever decide to become a bank robber, I want Matt to drive my getaway car. Matt had called an attorney associated with the town government of Ellenville, who assured him that the blueberries would be at their peak this weekend. Nothing could be further from the truth. They will not hit their peak for at least another two weeks. Remind me to never use the services of an attorney from Ellenville. I suspect that they are all idiots. However, the trip was far from a waste of time. We did get to eat a few blueberries and Sams Point is a spot with great natural beauty. There was hardly anyone there and when on two occasions hikers walked by, I felt annoyed that someone would intrude into my delicious solitude.

I was first introduced to Sams Point shortly after we came to the United States from Germany. I had a hard time adjusting to city life. I missed the green meadows of my Saxon homeland. I was stunned at the way people threw garbage about. The streets and sidewalks of The Bronx fairly glistened with broken glass bottles. Hated the food, especially the crummy bread , like Wonderbread. And so, one of my father’s colleagues, a native of Ellenville, decided to take us to Sams Point in his old Studebaker to pick blueberries. This was in Late July, 1956.

It was raining heavily and the windshield wipers were vacuum operated. This meant that when you slowed down due to poor visibility, the engine vacuum dropped and windshield wipers slowed or even stopped. A scary way to drive in the rain. The car was so underpowered that it almost did not make it to the top of Sams Point in first gear. Plan B was to back up the mountain because reverse gear is always the most powerful gear. What a wonderful time we had when we got there though. We were away from the city and out in Nature with a whole mountain just covered with blueberries. On the way we passed shacks in which migrant berry pickers lived I took pictures of these shacks but they are just crumbling away. You are also no longer allowed to drive to were the berries are but have to hike there from the parking lot

Sams Point and Vicinity