November 21, 2023 • 61 mins
If western New York's Seneca Falls is the “real Bedford Falls,” then what can that town tell us about what happened to the people of that place in It's a Wonderful Life? We come to know real corollaries of the beloved characters from that movie today, learning about their hopes and struggles, and discovering much about the state of small-town America. Seneca Falls is filled with citizens who might remind you of characters from your favorite holiday movie. We come to know a major employer and the mayor, high school buddies in the vein of George Bailey and Sam Wainwright who have playfully fought over how best to navigate the future of the post-industrial town. A Bert-like cop, a Violet Bick-like hairdresser and a Nick-like bartender take us up-close inside locals’ experiences. A journalist who returns with his mother to her hometown comes away sure he’s missed a big story about the American small-town. SaveGeorgeBailey.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
All that's left of this landmark downtown Seneca Falls business
is a skeleton of scorched wood.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Literally breaks my heart, and it does.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Amy Padulla Kelsey is brought to tears talking about the
fire at Ferrara lumber over the Fourth of July weekend.
She owns DA's Liquors down the street.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We came to the corner here, which was as far
as you could get, and just to see it still burning.
It's a huge hit for our whole community, it really is.
It's just it's a huge hit for Seneca Falls because
everybody ran to Ferraras for everything that your house was
built out of Ferraras, or your house was remodeled out
of Ferraras, or you ran there to get you know,
round up during the summer. We're all tied together and
(00:54):
my heart is broken for them, it really is.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
This is where the yard was. He'd pulled down in
and you'd be able to get your lumber in through here.
The fire actually started over there on the outside of
the building in a PVC rack and it just kind
of like a matched box, you know, went through.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Like she said, you briefly met Mike Ferrara in the
first episode Town supervisor of Seneca Falls in western New York.
These are Mike's cousins, Sarah and Stefania, third generation owners
of Ferrara Lumber. Not long ago, their original store location
going back seventy years, caught fire. Here they've returned to
(01:41):
tour the burnt remains.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Independent lumbers are kind of a unique thing, right because,
I mean, so many stores closed down. I mean, obviously
there's a lot of independent restaurants and places like that,
but it's like, you know, the big boxes have taken
over for most industries.
Speaker 7 (01:59):
We had people in the.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
Community that you know, we've been customers of ours come over.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
And for their excavators, their excavators digging through, trying to
help us locate some of the more personal items.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
You know, as we said, we're their generation. So my
father passed away in two thousand and eight here at
the store of a heart attack, and so we had
his you know, he was here with us at the
store and we were trying to locate that we.
Speaker 9 (02:30):
Didn't get that.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
Lucky we got some of the urn, so that was good.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
All the workers start showing up. Obviously, the whole.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Town was pretty much here, and it was just like
you know, for five minutes.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
It was like, oh my god, what are we even
going to do?
Speaker 8 (02:43):
And then after that it was just like, well, we
know what we're going to do.
Speaker 10 (02:46):
We're just going to go back.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
And do it over at the other place, like we're
going to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But we did have a lot of help. We had
a lot of help from all of our customers. The electricians,
they came in, they got us going. They got i mean,
the people from Generations Bank, all of our contractors. People
are building desks, people are building you know, shelving, bringing
in whatever they could to help us.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
Hundreds of people by July five.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
We didn't pay for food or too much.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
We gave our guys food lunch every day for at least.
Everybody just gave us so much.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
They were just like, so, what can we do? What
can we do?
Speaker 10 (03:28):
What can we do?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
M It reminds you why you live in a small
town that doesn't maybe offer you, you know, tons of
shopping or restaurants or this or the entertainment, But it
reminds you why you live here. You live here because
when the when the chips are down, they show up
for you and they make you keep going.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Seneca Falls is a place that I'll reveal to you
here occupies the same location on your Earth as Georgia's
town does on the earth of his universe. As such,
the histories of Bedford Falls and Seneca Falls were similar
up to a point and then began to diverge. For instance,
(04:14):
in your world it was the Ferrara family who came
over from Italy instead of the Martinis. But you still
find a lot of people and stories in Seneca Falls
that bear a striking similarity to those you know from
the movie Wonderful Life. I'm going to take you to
get to know some of them in this episode. I
(04:35):
think they'll give you a sense of what has gone
very differently in your universe, one where you'll recall like
in Pottersville, George Bailey was never born.
Speaker 11 (04:50):
Buffalo Gald can't come out night, can't come out night,
can't come out night, Buffalo Gald can't come out night man?
Speaker 12 (05:01):
Why Jo?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, if you make me Joe, George, do you remember
that night at Martiniz Bar when you told me you'd
read someplace about making plastics out of soybeans?
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Chili bean?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You remember chili out of soy bean?
Speaker 14 (05:42):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, soybean Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, listen, that snapped up the idea, and he's going
to build a factory outside of Rochester.
Speaker 13 (05:49):
How do you like that?
Speaker 14 (05:50):
Why Rochester?
Speaker 12 (05:51):
Well?
Speaker 14 (05:52):
Why not? Can you think of anything better? Well, I
don't know, just why not? Right here? You remember that, uh,
that old tool on machine. It works. You tell your
father you can get that for a song and all
the labor he wants too. Half the time was thrown
out of work when I closed down.
Speaker 15 (06:07):
So I'll come Hey, that sounds great. Maybe I know
you've come through.
Speaker 16 (06:12):
This was my biggest thought about the movie.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You know, you remember Wendell Jamison of the New York
Times from the previous episode, the one who helped popularize
the upside downing of Wonderful Life in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 16 (06:29):
Manufacturing upstate in two thousand and eight was not doing
too great. There was at that time, as there still is,
a great deal of debate about opening casinos. It just
seemed like George Bailey worked so hard to keep manufacturing going,
opening up the old glass works.
Speaker 17 (06:46):
You know, he meant well, but I think he was
taking the town in the wrong direction, because soon enough,
in the nineteen sixties, that was all going to start
to just go away, and the towns like Saratoga Springs
that banked on entertainment and being a.
Speaker 18 (06:59):
Resort, they did relatively well.
Speaker 16 (07:02):
The Mitchell Moss is a very well known urban policy
professor at New York University. He's the one who took
actually the gambling analogy. He mentioned that David Patterson, who
was the governor at the time, was under a lot
of pressure to allow gambling upstate because there's so many
economic problems if manufacturing had just gone away. Hey, Mitchell,
it's Wendell Jamison.
Speaker 19 (07:22):
How are you good, way, How are you good?
Speaker 18 (07:25):
Good? Good?
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Wendell is talking to Mitchell Moss, an urban policy professor
at New York University who has been described in the
press as a New York cologist.
Speaker 20 (07:36):
So, you know, I say you an email talking about
my idea for this story about how It's a Wonderful Life,
which so many people think of as a cheery holiday tail,
is actually a horror movie. Now, the funny flip side
of that is that the nightmare portion of the movie,
which which imagines Pottersville if George Bailey had never been born,
(07:58):
was actually occurred to be entertainment mecca even on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 18 (08:03):
If you remember, it's the streets.
Speaker 16 (08:05):
Are filled with revelers, the bars are packed, everyone's having
a grand time. What would you say about somebody banking
on entertainment as the future of bectorate both instead of manufacturing.
Speaker 21 (08:18):
I think the small towns have benefited from the rise
of recreation generally and entertainment as a draw that one
of the ironies is that people now have discovered the
small town as a place to escape to, a place
to kind of have close human contact and also to relax.
So in some cases that's gambling, because you know, gambling
(08:38):
has certainly thrived in outlying areas. But we also have seen,
you know, the rise of what kinds of outdoor sports.
You know, there's snow shoeing, not just skiing. And the
key part is that the small town economy is now
built really around visitors, not about manufacturing.
Speaker 16 (08:57):
That's the great final upside down thought economically. In the
long run, the people of Bedford Falls may have been
better off had George Bailey never been born, If mister
Potter had turned it into an entertainment mecca, Bedford Falls
would probably be thriving today. It would probably otherwise be
a dreary, dead faded industrial town.
Speaker 10 (09:18):
It's really fascinating, you know, to project a character like
George Bailey out over the rest of his life, or
if we do the math, he can live into the
nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties. You know, he very well
could pass away in Bill Clinton's United States, which is
kind of a fascinating kind of a concept.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Dean McKee got his PhD in American history at the
University of California in Berkeley before joining the Millers Center
in Virginia. He has plenty to say about wonderful life
and these small.
Speaker 10 (09:49):
Towns, and I think what we can say with certainty
is that he would have experienced a level of change
that would have been kind of aspiring to him if
he had not about that in nineteen forty five.
Speaker 18 (10:08):
But what was going to come?
Speaker 10 (10:10):
And again, I think that's really representative of that generation
that the world world of nineteen forty five was not
one that was stable. It was a moment in time
that was going to disappear. And we can boil that down,
I think at a couple of levels. I mean, I
guess generally for a place like Bedford Falls, you know,
(10:32):
which is essentially upstate New York, I guess if we
take the model of Seneca Falls and the Finger Lakes region,
that economy was going to in many places really go away,
and we think of that as a process that is
the nineteen seventies and eighties and nineties, but it really begins,
(10:52):
particularly in the industrial Northeast, not that long after World
War Two. There is you know, destabilizing that can change
coming for a community like Bedford Falls, and the range
of outcomes are pretty dramatic, depending on what else a
community has. And someone like Bailey is an interesting character
(11:13):
because it was people like Bailey who were going to
make decisions in terms of the direction of the community's
economy that would be really consequential. Are they able to
find means to transition to other sources of economic support
and viability. It's widely thought that Bedford Falls is based
(11:36):
on the town of Seneca Falls and of State New York,
and that's an interesting case to me because they seem
to have managed that transition relatively well compared to a
lot of places that completely lose everything, so that for
that specific community it hasn't been total. But it also
gets to the point that somebody along the way, George
(11:57):
Bailey made some decisions that were so somewhat foresighted and
taking advantage of whatever resources they had available to keep
that town's economic viability.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
At least two of Seneca Falls's most impactful town leaders
over the past twenty years are Mike Ferrara and Bruce Bonafiglia,
friends since high school like George Bailey and Sam Wainwright,
who also, like George and Sam, have a friendly rivalry
of sorts, especially when it comes to the direction of
(12:30):
their town. But when they graduated in nineteen seventy five,
the place was still booming. Here's Mike.
Speaker 15 (12:38):
When I was growing up, we had major industry here,
Grules pumps. We had the largest Savania plant where TVs
were made in Seneca Falls. We had a very very
industrial machine shopped and made precision tools. We had a
place called Guaranteed Parts, and my mother worked. If you
(13:00):
couldn't get a job in Seneca Follows, you were lazy.
Speaker 18 (13:03):
Now that's changed.
Speaker 22 (13:09):
It's not the fact that their predecessors invented the world's
first all iron pump in eighteen forty nine. What really
makes itt Goulds pumps different is when the chips are
down and that thing called a pump at the center
of your operation needs to be specked, upgraded, or just
kept running. These guys will move heaven and earth to
(13:31):
get it done. That's Goulds people, never arrogant, always innovative.
Itt gouls Pumps proof that being very good at something
doesn't mean you need to be anything but great to
work with.
Speaker 15 (13:52):
And Gooles Pumps is still the largest, well close to
the largest employer, but it's just a fraction of what
was at one time.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
Bloomberg News, April twenty second, nineteen ninety seven. Itt Industry
said yesterday that it had agreed to buy Gouled Pumps
Incorporated for eight hundred and fifteen million dollars in cash,
forming the largest maker of industrial pumps for chemicals, water,
and other fluids. Goules makes industrial pumps. Will Itt Industries,
which is based in White Plains, Connecticut, makes submersible pumps
(14:25):
for municipal water treatment. The combined companies would have about
fourteen percent of the fifteen billion dollar market for pumps,
valves and other flow control products. Set an analyst at
Lehman Brothers, you.
Speaker 15 (14:36):
Know, Goose Pumps employed over four thousand people at its height,
three shifts a day. I think they're about maybe maybe
eight hundred. Maybe that's you know, manufacturing done in a
less price in China, Mexico bottom line. So, like many
small communities in the United States, when the industry started
(15:01):
to dry up, uh, and our downtown started to be
negatively affected in the birth of malls and so forth.
I mean when I was, when I was young, downtown
was very vibrant. You know, you hit three men's clothing
stores and three women's clothing stores, and three shoe stores.
Speaker 18 (15:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 15 (15:22):
Heavy storefront was full, all owned by private end you know,
citizens of Seneca Falls, lifetime residents of Seneca Falls. You know,
second generation businesses, third generation businesses.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
I little George, he's always making a speech.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We just stopped in town to take a look at
the new factory, and then we're going to drive on
down to Florida.
Speaker 23 (15:45):
Oh, why did you have your friends join us?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
We sure, Hey, why don't you kids drive down with us?
Speaker 24 (15:50):
Huh?
Speaker 14 (15:51):
Oh, I'm afraid it couldn't get away. So I still
got the those of the old grind still today. Jane.
Speaker 17 (15:57):
I offered to let Georgian on the ground floor and plastic,
and he turned me down.
Speaker 14 (16:01):
Cold, don't rub it in.
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Well, I guess we better run along.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Like Sam Wainwright. Mike's friend Bruce Bona Figlia eventually brought
his family business, Bona Dent Dental Labs, started by his
dad in nineteen fifty, back to Seneca Fall.
Speaker 19 (16:18):
See how.
Speaker 13 (16:20):
Yeah, I think Sam was a good guy. He was
helping out his buddy. That was kind of that that, right,
you know, he was there for his buddy. I mean,
he's he was a flashy guy. He was okay, I
mean you know that was Sam Peel. He had a
pretty white, cool clothes, nice car, you know, and didn't
forget his buddy.
Speaker 23 (16:39):
Right.
Speaker 19 (16:40):
You go to Miami, you go to Beverly Hills, you
fit right.
Speaker 13 (16:43):
In with flashy. So it's it's all perception. It's all
what you want to do. When I was in my forties,
it was about being in Chicago and being in New
York City and Miami where I just went shopping. You know,
I was in Miami for two days with my granddaughter
shopping for a senior prom dress. And you know, there's
so many great, cool hit things about my aria. I
(17:04):
can never live there again. I could never spend a
great deal of time there. But I don't think today
the same way I thought twenty years ago. I don't
think anyone does. I think that as everyone you know
goes through life, you know, you tend to change your
outlook on things that you were so certain of in
your twenties that in your forties and then your sixties
(17:27):
and so on. Each decade kind of brings a little
bit of wisdom. In my opinion, it's wisdom.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
After Bruce returned to town in the year two thousand,
he quickly embraced a vision for the place quite similar
to that voice by Ryan Pole in an earlier episode,
the disnification of the main Street, the effort to make
Seneca Falls look as much like Bedford Falls as possible
(17:54):
to attract people to town.
Speaker 13 (17:56):
When I came back to Seneca Falls, right when I
brought the business back to Center the Falls, we opened
up and we didn't have this at the time. We
opened up a high end Paane restaurant. We opened up
a local pharmacy, you know, that was a break downtown
called the Fall Street Pharmacy, and we opened up Zuzus Cafe.
(18:20):
We actually opened up Baileys out back as well, which
was an ice cream stand, ice cream kind of like
a shop along the canal.
Speaker 19 (18:29):
So we did all of those three things.
Speaker 13 (18:30):
We thought, okay, having like a coffee shop at a Starbucks,
if you will, But it was Zuzu's cafe.
Speaker 19 (18:36):
Casey ran it for a little bit.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
You heard Casey running a cinnamon roll eating contest at
Cafe nineteen in an earlier episode, and we'll get to
know her better in a future one.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
And these were all buildings that were literally falling down,
so I purchased a bunch of buildings. Supervisor Ferrara, actually
Mike Ferrara helped us with the restaurant renovation a great
deal on the inside of that, it's all of our
friends did. But we did all of that to help
the communities. So you know, my croup, Mike Ferrara, and
I and we were the first ones to decorate downtown
(19:10):
Center Falls with my money and.
Speaker 19 (19:13):
Their hard work. We were the first ones to decorate
the town.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
You remember from an earlier episode that frand Carcillo, while
Village Planner, had helped build the case for the Wonderful
Life connection to Seneca Falls over the late nineteen nineties.
It was only two years after Bruce Bonifiglia returned with
his company and his interest in seeing the town rebound.
That Wonderful Life Actress Carolyn Grimes was convinced to come
(19:40):
out there. Eventually, the Wonderful Life Museum was created, the
five K Race was started, and the Wonderful Life Festival
grew and grew, all of which fit nicely with Bruce's vision.
Speaker 13 (19:54):
The fact of the matter is is that there are
other people that are responsible for It's a Wonderful Life
w and what they've done with the museum is I
mean that that's coming along. I think they have some
great ideas and the board and stuff, and you know,
fond Event and the Bontificular Family Foundation. We just help
It's a Wonderful Life Festival. You know, one of our
one of our key managers is one of the founders
(20:16):
of It's you know the race, Tina Ruck who's a
key manager and leader in the bond of organizations. And
she's also a local local girl that played basketball with
my daughter and played basketball for coach Mike Ferraro and
Mike Ferraar coach. They made that race, which is certainly
the signature event. I think more of a signature event
(20:40):
even than Zuzu herself, you know, Carolyn, who's just sweetheart
of a person. They they made the event what it
is today. We get we get thousands of people into
the village, the town of center call because.
Speaker 19 (20:54):
Of the race.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Bruce's small town nostalgia strategy has been working for Seneca Falls,
he feels, so it frustrates him when his vision can
be undermined at times by competing decisions by other town leaders.
Speaker 13 (21:09):
So I wanted to create this center in downtown Seneca Falls,
and we formed a downtown Revitalization committee fallse Street Pharmacy
that again, you want to talk about it, It's just
an awful, awful, misguided leadership that wasn't even leadership at
the town government level that were So we ended up
(21:29):
with a Kinney Drugs on the outskirts of town that
could have been someplace else but for a lot of
different reasons and visions, different vision and you know, I
fought for one side and maybe didn't get it, but
you know, you move on and you continue on.
Speaker 12 (21:48):
And Bruce was buying up property in Seneca Falls, and
that's why I got my building from him too.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Twila Keeler, the hairstylist, went to high school one town
over and knew Mike and Bruce, which ended up helping
her down the line when she wanted to open her
own business, a salon.
Speaker 12 (22:07):
I have a sister who was like five years older,
so I do her friend's here when they were going
out on a Friday night, and you know, I wanted
to give back, and I would do my mom's hair,
and I don't know if it came natural to me,
but I liked it, and I perfected it as much
as I could. And then I guess the aspiration of
(22:29):
opening a swan was seventeen years ago. Now, wow, that's crazy.
I doesn't even feel like that. And Bruce found a
figure used to own that building, and I talked him
down on his price because I knew eventually that be
a good spot in some cafell that location right off
(22:53):
the Wonderful Life Bridge.
Speaker 18 (22:55):
It's such great that comes out this time?
Speaker 13 (22:58):
Right?
Speaker 12 (22:59):
Pretty good yourself? I'm a fifty minutes, yeah, a little early,
that's good, I did.
Speaker 18 (23:04):
I'm always irly.
Speaker 12 (23:08):
You're only like two minutes late today, maybe a minute? Yea,
you were good? So how's that?
Speaker 19 (23:14):
Look?
Speaker 25 (23:14):
Is enough?
Speaker 18 (23:15):
Wonderful?
Speaker 12 (23:17):
Hello? This is this is Zuzu from the movie Why is.
Speaker 18 (23:23):
My my salon gal mind than anything.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
I think you.
Speaker 14 (23:30):
She's mine too.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
We're inside Hair Elegance between Locks, a squat one story
shop a block from the Trust Bridge. During good Years,
Twila has employed up to nine Towns people at one
time there, including her daughter Carolyn Grimes, who of course
played Zuzu. Bailey has become a regular.
Speaker 12 (23:51):
She just called me every year to come back, which
is great. She always brings me a personal She always
brings me a present, she calls me.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
She's seen me for so many years.
Speaker 12 (24:02):
It was blonde, been not so blonde, and now it's
all bright.
Speaker 19 (24:08):
And it's all natural.
Speaker 12 (24:09):
It's pretty though she's seen it transpire.
Speaker 24 (24:14):
To the old lady here.
Speaker 26 (24:18):
Not only here.
Speaker 19 (24:19):
Yeah, about.
Speaker 12 (24:23):
Them, I don't know, I really don't. I think she
needed your hair down, and maybe maybe the Ghoul sent
you over here the first time, Like if you're looking,
I don't remember either.
Speaker 18 (24:34):
I used to stay at the bed and Breakfast too.
Speaker 12 (24:36):
Oh wo's so, because you know the ghol wasn't open.
Oh yeah, that's right. So I don't know. How how
long has it been since I've been doing your hair?
Speaker 6 (24:46):
To know?
Speaker 16 (24:47):
Well, I've been coming twenty years.
Speaker 12 (24:48):
This is a twenty years, so I might guess maybe
twenty years.
Speaker 16 (24:53):
Okay, I'll go with that.
Speaker 12 (24:59):
She's has lots of energy, she's kind o brandy, and
she's a delightful friend. Well, thank you, that's sharp, Trey.
I stuck with, Oh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Her wood paneled walls are sparsely decorated except for a
big poster of Marilyn Monroe with a quote that reads,
in Hollywood, a girl's virtue is much less important than
her hairdoo. This time of year is Some people in
Seneca Falls like to compare Twila to another hairdresser, George
(25:37):
Bailey's friend, Violet Bic.
Speaker 12 (25:39):
I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
Comy said it to me.
Speaker 12 (25:42):
I can't remember who, but I tried to take a
pence but I looked at it, but I could see
that hold on them get more ice.
Speaker 23 (25:48):
Cool.
Speaker 12 (25:51):
You know, I don't know if I quite fitch that picture.
But you know, I'm out and about. I'm very private
at home. I have noticed you didn't see anybody hanging
out here. But publicly, I'm out about all the time,
and I always probably looked like a party girl and
I'm not. But even though I am, but I'm not
now it made me giggle, like, oh, you're the bad one,
(26:12):
bad girl, the wild one, which I'm not wild, free spirited, right,
So I didn't mind it because people talk all the time, Okay,
So I am Violet. I believe in this little tunnytown
if I was younger. When I was younger, probably more
than likely or around it at least.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
For a year or two.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
And I really didn't care what people thought.
Speaker 24 (26:37):
Where are you going?
Speaker 12 (26:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Only end up down with the library, Georgie.
Speaker 14 (26:42):
Don't you ever get tired of just reading about things?
Speaker 18 (26:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (26:48):
What are you doing tonight?
Speaker 12 (26:51):
He changed because he was under so much pressure. In fact,
it wasn't worth going through because he wasn't strong enough
to go through it because he was such a loser
and failure and whatever happened, and her too, and every
other person in that community in that movie, they're all
heroes because they all came together for each other. So
(27:15):
when everybody was giving them money at the end, it
wasn't just for them. It wasn't just for him to
survive and her to survive and be happy. It was
for all of them. And look how they laughed at
each other and hugged each other, and they were all
doing it together. They were all hugging each other at
the same moment.
Speaker 23 (27:37):
Huh.
Speaker 12 (27:37):
You know, I thought they looked happily. Ever after, I
didn't think much more after that. Actually, I just thought,
it's good. It's all good. The community came together and
everything was going to be good, and everybody can count
on everyone again once again. Everybody can count on each
other as a community. That's why I go to Dewey's
(28:00):
for that commodity, because if I want to drink, I
can drink at home. It's the commodity of the community.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
How do you like those words? Had get those out quick?
Speaker 12 (28:13):
Well before we had Westcott rule here in Savania, TV schools, pumps,
the guaranteed parts, all kinds of business here. Plus the
army depot was out there in ovid or Romulus, so
it's all military out there. And if you if you
(28:39):
didn't like what you were doing, you could quit and
you'd have another job in a couple of hours that
would pay more. I mean, it was so lucrative here.
Everybody was having fun, everybody was making good money. All
the businesses downtown were thriving. And that slowly started going
(29:02):
away because I don't know why we can't advertise it
hown better, but Bruce was trying to bring that back.
I'm sure. So now it's like, I don't know, it's quieter,
there's not as much opportunity, and people are struggling. A
lot of people are struggling because companies went out, you know,
(29:26):
they moved, and they're not sure if they're going to
have a job tomorrow. And a lot of people here
for some reason. There's some jobs opening, but nobody, nobody
can find helpers, nobody can find workers, nobody can find employees.
So I don't know, it's just it's a weird time
of it's a weird time of life. I don't know
(29:46):
if it's like that everywhere, but I think it is
kind of.
Speaker 18 (29:51):
Nighttime.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
The moon hangs brightly above the Trust Bridge, reflecting in
the river below it. Twila locks up her salon and
walks the block to her regular bar, Dewey's, a place
that with a quick glance you might easily mistake for
Martinis bar in Bedford Falls.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I was yes thinking of a flaming rum punch.
Speaker 14 (30:17):
No, it's not cold, nothing of that.
Speaker 27 (30:18):
Not nearly cool.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
This guy I got it.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Marld Whine heavy on the cinnamon and light on the
clothes off with Jimmy light and be lively.
Speaker 17 (30:28):
Hey, look, mister, we save hard drinks in here for
men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't
need any characters around it.
Speaker 14 (30:35):
Give the joint atmosphere. Is that clear and you'll have
to slap your my lift for a convincer.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
It's here at Dewey's that the town's working people gather.
The bartender is Jan Meckley. She has a quality like Nick,
the hard to read bartender in George Bailey's hangout. When
a new customer asks Jen if he can have a
flaming rum punch, she tells.
Speaker 16 (30:59):
Him no, I want to come back here and make
it yourself.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Jan was a school psychologist in the area for many
years until she walked away to become a bartender, and
she gets a very upclose experience of the people of
Sendica Falls and their problems.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
First off, I've been bartending since i was twenty one
and I'm forty seven. I bar attended going through college
and grad school, and I did it on the side
when I was a school psychologist. It's going on a
ten years. Senett Dewey specifically and left my other jobs.
I have a few customers that I know of that
work for Walmart. There's a lot of customers that I've
(31:40):
known for years and I don't know where they were.
There's some that were in fire and auto, ones that
work for Bonadens for Gouls which is now like itt,
some that work for the local bank. I mean, there's
all kinds of a couple of women that come to
mind that work as verses as ones of traveling nurse.
(32:02):
He works all the way in Ithaca right now. Definitely
have our share of prison guards and various other people
that work there in different capacities. There's couples, there's groups
of friends. Occasionally my mom and dad come down because
I work there, and there's people that come out with
their kids or something to have a bite to eat. Yeah,
(32:24):
there's working class. My half times favorite is like the
good old Boys Crew. And I'm saying that with sarcasms,
you know, the white male privilege. I've got a little
extra money than the rest of these people, and so
I think the world owes me something, including you, and
I think I should get better service, and I think
(32:44):
I spend this much money here, so you should cater
to me. And they act like their name is on
the door, not my bosses. Sometimes when people come out
to drink, they're coming out to get away from their problems,
to distract themselves from those things. They're not coming out
out to have meaningful conversations about them. People don't talk
about that stuff, particularly men. In our culture. Men are
(33:08):
taught to pull their big boy panties up and rub
some dirt in it, and you don't talk about it
because if you do europussy. Granted, sometimes that happens accidentally. Literally,
was just having this conversation with a guy last night
who has suffered from depression and he didn't get help
and it ruined his marriage. Now he's getting help and
(33:28):
he's getting therapy and he's seeing things, but at the
time he didn't see it. He made an analogy where
he put his hand right up in front of his face,
almost touching his nose, and he said, this is where
I was, and I didn't see all the things in
the periphery. I didn't see it until I got some
help and I stood back and I looked at it
from a different perspective, without all of the desperation and
(33:51):
the depression. But that's a rare conversation on a quiet
night when nobody is listening and it's dead because post holiday,
and it's just the two of us in there. And
he even made the comments because it's not a normal
conversation that you would have with a bartender. He's like,
you're kind of different. It's that's why I like coming
here when you're here. But for the most part, Dewey's
(34:13):
is usually busy and there's not time for that stuff.
So I don't know what's going on in people's lives.
And honestly, sometimes because of the way that people act
when they drink, the ones that are probably most likely
to be having the problems because they're such backfles, I
avoid them like the plague and just wait on them
(34:34):
and go about my business. So I don't see that
a lot, but I see it in life. I see
it in people.
Speaker 23 (34:41):
I know.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
I have a friend right now who is going through
a lot of shit with being unemployed and you know,
an abusive alcoholic acts and his sixteen year old is
suck in that situation, and he's getting just trying to
get himself back on his seat from dealing with a
depression and a work injury and being on disability and
(35:04):
getting a job and packing up and moving across the
country for what he thought was his dream job, only
to get there for a week and a half and
be sent home because they changed their mind and decided
to fill it with somebody from inside the company. And
then he comes back and he's homeless. He's gonna live
out of his car. My daughter is an old soul.
(35:27):
She takes on all the social injustices in the world
and tries to be a voice for people who are
too ashamed or too scared, or too poor or too
oppressed to speak for themselves.
Speaker 23 (35:44):
She's an amazing human being.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
I've learned a lot from her. I'm a much less
ignorant person than I used to be just because she's
my daughter. Damn, I wouldn't be the person I am
today without my daughter. If it wasn't for her, I
don't think I would have had the courage to leave
my career for a job. She is the only person
that wholeheartedly peer leaded and said fuck yeah, like I
(36:08):
see what this is doing to you. She was the
only person that didn't say, are you crazy? What about
you know this is a state job? What about your retirement?
What about blah blah blah. What about all the time
you spent in college. You're just gonna throw that away?
She said, yes, she believed that it was the choice
I should make more than I did.
Speaker 12 (36:37):
George. You know my kid brother, George.
Speaker 24 (36:39):
I'm gonna put them through college.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Yeh, you want to get here all this afternoon.
Speaker 26 (36:47):
I thought I'd give the.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
Kids a treat.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
College graduate, yo, Joe, collegeway and ride a coffee.
Speaker 17 (36:52):
Well, freshman, looks like you're gonna make it after all that.
Speaker 24 (36:54):
Yet, Cootfalls and the basic idea of it's a wonderful
life was real, and in some places it still is real,
and there's a very powerful American nostalgia for that.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Before leaving for the city to become an investigative journalist,
Brian Alexander grew up in a small town in Ohio.
Whenever he would watch Wonderful Life as a youth with
his parents, Bedford Falls struck him as eerily familiar.
Speaker 24 (37:28):
Now, we have to say that this is a kind
of a white nostalgia that this existed for white people.
It wasn't a great time to be black in this country.
So that is a shadow that hangs over all this discussion.
But white people, white working class people have lost a
(37:51):
lot of what they had during that period, not completely.
And again there's still some great small comms and George
Bailey still exists, but a lot of that has been lost.
And the power of that nostalgia and that emotion is
something I need. I think that all of America needs
(38:11):
to reckon with. My mother invented to visit her old
town and we were there about fifteen minutes and she
began to cry because the town really had fallen on
hard times.
Speaker 19 (38:26):
She didn't even get out of the car.
Speaker 24 (38:28):
I said, what do you want to go here?
Speaker 18 (38:29):
You want to go there?
Speaker 24 (38:30):
No, let's just go But Main Street used to be
packed with stores, but now there was a big hole well,
an old building collapsed in on itself. There used to
be merchants in those buildings. So I began to wonder
what was really happening in this town. And I realized,
even though I've been a reporter and a journalist for
a long time I've written other books, that I had
(38:52):
missed a really important story. We haven't figured out yet
how to replace the old manufactur sharing base in a
lot of these towns. And until that happens, and it
may all the cool micro breweries and coffee houses aren't
really going to turn your economy around because people are
(39:13):
just going to sell coffee to each other. I mean,
what is coffee houses are great, and they're actually really helpful,
but what does somebody who works in a coffee house make?
You need some really good, well paying jobs. Do you
really want to have an artisanal scone based economy.
Speaker 22 (39:32):
Let's start with ABC's Tom Yamas, who has been with
Trump's campaign.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Since day one. Good morning, Tom, Robin, good morning to you.
Speaker 10 (39:40):
Donald Trump called this he predicted an election night shocker,
and he was one hundred percent right, despite nearly all
national polls showing him behind before the voting started. Donald
Trump is now President elect Trump.
Speaker 24 (39:53):
Very early in the morning, California time, I got a
call from Ohio from a woman who's fun is one
of the main characters in the book.
Speaker 19 (40:04):
And she woke me up with the call. I picked
up and I said, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 18 (40:08):
What's going on?
Speaker 24 (40:09):
This happened to be election day of twenty sixteen. She said,
I just voted, And I said, oh great, who'd you
vote for? And she said Trump baby and started laughing.
And I said, Melinda why why Trump? And she got
(40:33):
really quiet and then she began to cry and choked
out the words I just wanted to be like it was.
I think that many people in this country who live
in cities and have jobs like I do, and you know,
(40:55):
work at universities or law firms or hedge funds or
where they were, really don't have any idea the depth
of emotion that people in these towns feel about their places.
Speaker 19 (41:11):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 18 (41:13):
I just they have a love of place and.
Speaker 19 (41:18):
They miss it.
Speaker 22 (41:19):
Okay, all, Josia.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
In an earlier episode, I mentioned Carolyn Grimes being escorted
to the five K Race by the town's former police chief.
That's Fred Capos, who annually volunteers to drive one of
Seneca Fall's to vip vans to shuttle Carolyn and others
to and from various events. When Fred started with the
(41:45):
police force here, he still walked the streets like George
Bailey's friend Bert the Cop. By the time he retired,
Fred the Cop has seen a lot of change.
Speaker 14 (41:56):
Hey, George, George, you all right? Hey, what's the matter?
Speaker 12 (42:03):
I got out of here?
Speaker 14 (42:04):
Bird? I hit you again?
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Get out of here?
Speaker 14 (42:06):
What the sam hell you yelling?
Speaker 19 (42:07):
For George.
Speaker 14 (42:10):
George Beck, you know me, know you you kidding. I've
been looking all over town trying to find you.
Speaker 17 (42:18):
I saw your car plot into that tree down there,
and I thought, maybe, hey, your mouse pleading?
Speaker 19 (42:22):
Are you sure you are right?
Speaker 27 (42:23):
When they're on the bridge and bird is telling George,
you know who I am? You know think and there's
this connection. I think that was profound. My dad was
a seabe during World War Two, so we got a
GI loan, bought a home. We weren't wealthy, but we
never knew that we weren't wealthy. There were five of us.
We had one bathroom, you know, three bedrooms. There was
a very loving and warmhome. We had everything we ever needed.
(42:46):
My dad worked two jobs. My mom stayed at home
for a while until we got school age, and then
she went to work. When I was like in seventh grade,
I knew I wanted to become a police officer, and
I was very lucky when I was twenty years old
to get a job while I was in college with
our local Sheriff's department and worked very hard to be
able to come up through the ranks here in Seneca
(43:08):
Falls and then be able to be the chief of police,
the chief of police that was here before me. He
had been chief for a little over twenty five years,
and berta Coffee. He's the depiction of what a small
town police officer was. He would walk down the street
and be able to talk to people, know people. He
knew who George Bailey was, he knew who Potter was,
he knew all these people. And that's a small town
(43:29):
police officer. And that's what a lot of Seneca Falls
is all about. There's not very many people that are
in the community that I don't know. So I've been
all over the United States, and I have to honestly
tell you that there's no place that I've been to
that I can compare what my life would be, you know,
outside of Seneca Falls. I was offered a job in California,
thing in southern California back in ninety six, you know,
(43:55):
interviewed for it, did very well, was one of the
top two candidates. Came home, talked to my wife. Our
two sons were in school at the time, and and
we waited out and I decided, you know, this is
where I want to be, you know. So to answer
that question, I can't think of anyplace else in Seneca
Falls that I would want to live. The downtown business
(44:17):
district is not like what it was back in the forties, fifties, sixties,
and early seventies. There aren't as many stores downtown. They
really aren't.
Speaker 23 (44:24):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:25):
It's the I think all small communities found out when
you know, big chain businesses come in on the outskirts.
Everybody can go to one stop shopping.
Speaker 23 (44:34):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:34):
The it's a blessing. And also the detriment is Walmart.
You know, Walmart comes in. You know, the saying is
if Walmart doesn't have it, we don't need it. You know,
think you don't need to have a shoe store anymore.
You don't need to have a men's clothing store, women's
clothing store. Everything is at that store. The thing it
goes to the corporate office.
Speaker 13 (44:55):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:56):
Yeah, definitely definitely leaves your town. You know, we used
to have a downtown business Association that used to meet
every Thursday, no Wednesday morning at seven o'clock. And I
used to go to the meetings when I became chief
and when they talked about when Walmart was coming in,
how it was going to change the face of nowtown.
And I was a little bit skeptical when they were
(45:17):
talking about it, But I've seen that.
Speaker 26 (45:19):
Meet the walt Inns. From the outside, they look like
your average family, but they're actually the richest clan in America.
They're collectively worth about one hundred and sixty billion dollars.
That's because they founded the world's largest company by revenue.
You may have heard of it, Walmart. In less than
sixty years, the company has grown from one store well
over eleven thousand locations. Brothers Sam and Bud Walton started
(45:43):
the empire after serving in World War Two. Sam and
Bud both began franchising Ben Franklin variety stores in Missouri
and Arkansas. The five and dime stores were so successful
that Sam decided to.
Speaker 7 (45:54):
Start his own chain.
Speaker 26 (45:55):
In twenty eighteen, Walmart generated more than five hundred billion
dollars in due and with the company also continuing to
invest in the future with initiatives like blockchain powered delivery
truck fleets, in store, drone assistance, and wearable tracking devices
for employees. The retail chain isn't going anywhere.
Speaker 25 (46:13):
You know, there's like a million George Bailey moments in there.
That town's history where the whole well I'll give I'll
give a check to your you know, baseball teams with
names John's General Store, right like those, the whole community
coming together to do it with stuff.
Speaker 14 (46:29):
Yeah, fuck that.
Speaker 25 (46:30):
I want to buy a Jim Carrey movie free pack
for seven dollars. So fucked the old movie theater with
the Worlitzer, Oregon.
Speaker 5 (46:37):
This is Louis c. K the comedian, talking about the
very thing we're exploring here to Opie and Andy the
radio DJs.
Speaker 19 (46:46):
But it's not Walmart's fault.
Speaker 25 (46:48):
It's the fault of the fucking people. I used to
have a house upstate, in upstate New York, and I
and there was there was a town that held these
beautiful old diners in general stores, and they all close
one by one because of Walmart. But it wasn't fucking
Walmart's fault. It was the people who lived in that town. Yeah,
but don't give a shit about their neighbors. But is
it if the American basic consumer who's like, well, okay,
(47:11):
I could spend I could spend thirteen cents less on
a mop, so fuck my fucking neighbor.
Speaker 5 (47:22):
Walmart first arrived in the Seneca Falls area in the
nineteen nineties, as it has in so many American towns.
When their new store opened in two thousand and nine,
it was hoped that taxes the store would pay might
provide some amount of solution for the missing money to
fund the area's continually needed infrastructure update essential if you
(47:46):
want residents and visitors to feel like they're in a
thriving Bedford Falls. Here's Mike again.
Speaker 15 (47:53):
So one of our major employers in the community is Walmart.
Having a Walmart in your community, they're you know, it's
a great company, it's a great store, but certainly took
business away from the heart of downtown.
Speaker 5 (48:06):
And Mike isn't entirely clear on where the money goes
that's spent at that Walmart.
Speaker 18 (48:11):
Doesn't go to Seneca Falls and hold that.
Speaker 15 (48:14):
Obviously, it's a major corporation and has stackholders and so forth, So.
Speaker 18 (48:19):
Obviously it's corporate America.
Speaker 15 (48:21):
Obviously, money spent in local businesses gets reinvested in the community.
Money spent at Walmart, it's not getting reinvested in the community.
It's getting invested in stackholders type of thing.
Speaker 23 (48:33):
Finger Lakes Times, November twenty sixth, twenty nineteen. After ten
years of trying to get its Seneca Falls store assessment reduced.
Corporate giant Walmart has got a judge to agree, reducing
the Town of Seneca Falls assessment and its retail store
from nine point five million to eight point seven five
(48:55):
million for twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen and eight zero
point two five million for twenty nineteen. The reduction means
Seneca County, the Town of Seneca Falls in the Waterloo
School District, must refund taxes to Walmart for twenty seventeen,
eighteen and nineteen taxes paid.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
Of course, the most ironic corporate taxpayer to come to
town arrived six years ago. In an earlier episode, I
brought you to the Wonderful Life Festival as an annual
capra dinner for local donors. I didn't tell you where
it was taking place. It was the ballroom of their
new casino. Yes, that icon of Pottersville.
Speaker 28 (49:40):
The De Logo Resort in casino was officially opened in
Seneca County in the town of Tire. You know, the
state awarded the owner's a casino license more than two
years ago, and now they've built this four hundred and
forty million dollar project. It includes an entertainment venue, restaurants, shops,
and hotel. Plus there's going to be lots of gambling.
Jennifer Luki was there for the riven cutting this mor
and she's joining us now with a special look.
Speaker 7 (50:03):
The doors here at De Lago actually just opened a
little more than an hour ago, and you can see
it is already packed with people. There are two thousand
slot machines, seventy seven table games, and fifteen poker tables.
Speaker 14 (50:16):
Here are.
Speaker 15 (50:26):
Final the money you spent in the casino. It's a
corporation is now owned by Churchill.
Speaker 5 (50:33):
Downs, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, where they started with the
horse track known for the Kentucky Derby. Churtill Downs Incorporated
has become a publicly traded company with the annual revenue
of over one billion dollars. Their De Lago Casino employs
twelve hundred people in Seneca County, and some who once
(50:57):
would have built things in factories now deal cards. You
remember how you fell to each year watching Wonderful Life
During the part where Clarence tells George that he'd never
been born and George runs through Pottersville is town now
dominated by Henry Potter, and you see all those casinos.
(51:20):
If your gut made you feel this was wrong somehow, Well,
times change, I guess.
Speaker 15 (51:27):
I think George would advocate for a casino in the sequel,
maybe the third sequel, but I think he would have
advocated for businesses to come into the community and to
enhance the life of its citizens.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
But the most shocking change to the town I haven't
gotten to yet. There had been a small landfill outside
of Seneca Falls since the nineteen fifties, trying to raise
missing tax dollars. In the nineteen eighties, town leaders accepted
a deal with a Canadian corporation so that as the
landfill grew, so too with the money paid to Seneca
(52:03):
Falls in to the tune of four and a half
percent of their gross revenues, and grow it did. Today,
it's the largest dump in New York State. That's a
lot of tax dollars, and on summer days, when the
winds blow in a certain direction, the town's people can
(52:28):
smell it.
Speaker 18 (52:29):
New York, every small town had their own dump, and
those dumps became taxic waste sites because.
Speaker 15 (52:34):
People dumped everything and anything. About thirty years ago, this
dump was privately owned. It was on the outskirts of
our town, and then it was bought by a private
individual from Rochester, and then it was by Corporate America
Waste Management and has grown to become the largest landfill
in New York State.
Speaker 18 (52:54):
The landfill is the tap controversial issue.
Speaker 15 (53:00):
In our community. There are people who want it closed.
The landfill is looking to for an expansion. They would
like to use that space for another fifteen years of
taking in garbage. They are a major contributor to the
town of Seneca Falls accountanmy. We have a hoaxed agreement
with them where they contribute a percentage of their revenue.
Speaker 18 (53:21):
So over the last six seven years.
Speaker 15 (53:24):
It's been between three and three point four million dollars
per year. Seneca Follows, like every other old community, has
infrastructure that needs to be taken care of. You've got
one hundred year old pipes in the ground, sewer lines
that are compromised, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, updates need
to be made to water treatment plant, update needs to
be made to waste treatment plants.
Speaker 18 (53:45):
For that all to happen, it would be a very
high tax rate in Seneca Fallows. We're able to keep tax.
Speaker 15 (53:51):
Rate at a very reasonable number in the ten dollars
per thousand range. So we're trying to make Seneca Falls
a affordable place. Nobody wants the landfill, but it's here
and it's an essential business. We all generate garbage and
it's got to go someplace. I'm in favor of keeping
the landfill open. I'm in favor of negotiating new host
(54:13):
agreement with them and to better enhance even more for
Seneca Falls.
Speaker 5 (54:17):
Here's Bruce bona Figlia again.
Speaker 19 (54:20):
What in what industry is left in Seneca Falls? There?
Speaker 13 (54:24):
When you so when you look at Seneca, Paul, what
industry has left you have? You have goals pumps. They're
a major employer, but they are they are shrinking, right,
They're their employment numbers are shrinking. You know, one of
the largest employers in Seneca Seneca County is the county government. Yeah,
so that's that's a whole other that's a whole other interview,
(54:45):
right when you talk about county government bureaucracies and so on. Right,
because if their county government is one of the major employers,
and and it is in many small communities like ours,
that can kind of be an issue when you don't
have industry and again we only we only employ about
(55:07):
two hundred people here in Seneca Falls, so we're not
we're not employing a thousand people. But if you don't
have industry coming into a community, and we don't, we
don't have industry coming in in this community. We have
a casino that's out by the true way, right, it's
not really in Seneca Falls. In the town of we
have the casino. They employ people, they do, they employ
(55:30):
They employ a lot of people, the casino and hotel.
But if you don't have industry, I think you don't
get middle you don't get middle class to move in.
Now you have another you know, one of the other
employers in Center County is the is the landfill. Right,
so if you have a landfill that's really close to
(55:52):
the community, it's one of the key words on Zillo landfill.
You know. That's so we've got all these different challenges.
But there are some people that think we can't live
without this landfill. Uh and and I think it's a
huge detriment. Would you tell the count of Skinny Atlas that,
(56:15):
would you tell the town of Aurora that what you
really need to floorish? Would you tell Isaka that what
you really need to flourish is a landfill you need.
What you really need to flourish is the landfill tax revenue.
That's what you really need to flourish. And and look
how our community is flourishing. That was a bit of
(56:36):
sarcasm by Sam Right.
Speaker 9 (56:45):
George Bailey was never born. Visit Savegeorge Bailey dot com
to join the mission. There you'll find links to works
by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to celebrate
George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually the
second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own Wonderful
Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to this show, subscribe, like, comment,
(57:08):
and post about it on social media hashtags Save George Bailey.
Subscribe to our patreon to hear uncut interviews and bonus content.
Podcasts also available on YouTube. iHeartMedia presents a double asterisk
iHeartMedia co production in association with True Stories Created, written
and directed by Joseph kurt Angfer and Rayno Vashlski. Kurt Angfer,
(57:31):
producer and supervising editor Reno Vashlsky, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus,
editor Roy Sillings narrator George Bailey, theme song by Carolyn Sills.
Buy Your Albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter by his
Albums and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever
you get your music. Malory Keenoi co producer, writer's assistant,
(57:55):
archival producer and fact checker, John Autry sound engineer, additional editor,
sound design and mix Executive producers Dave Cassidy, Kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethann Macaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vaka for True Stories, Reyno Vshchewsky for
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankouch Associate producer, Brandon
(58:20):
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar, contract Legal,
Peter Yazi Copyright and Fair Use Legal, Mattie Acres archival specialist,
ron Kaddition and Benji Michaels. Publicists Kavyasanthanam and Marley Weaver.
Marketing and promotions. Art and web design by Aaron Kim.
(58:40):
Interns were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart, and Tia Wilson.
Podcast license for Philip Van Doren. Stearns the Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
episode featured, in chronological orders, Sarah Ferrara, Stefania Ferrara, Wendell Jamison,
(59:04):
Mitchell Moss, Gan McKee, Mike Ferrara, Bruce Bonifiglia, Twila Keeler,
Carolyn Grimes, Jen Meckley, Brian Alexander, and Fred Capose, with
appearances by the casts of Wonderful Life and the brief
voices of Louis c. K Opi and Andy an unknown,
Itt promo video narrator and TV news media professionals, and
(59:25):
some of the brief music and artistry of others via
clips used under the still existing legal doctrine of fair use.
The Potters are working on that one, though some original
reporting by Wendell Jamison.
Speaker 18 (59:36):
For this episode, the voice of.
Speaker 9 (59:38):
A news article about the Itt Gould Pump's merger was
played by Keith Murray, voicing portions of an original article
written uncredited for Bloomberg News. The voice of a news
article about the Walmart tax assessment was David l. Shaw
voicing portions of his article for The Finger Lakes Times.
Seneca Fall's lodging for Crew provided by Twila Keeler. If
(59:58):
you're in Seneca Falls, visit the Wonderful Life Museum, Ferrara Lumber,
Hair Elegance Between Locks, Woman Made Products, Dewey's Third Ward
Tavern Cafe nineteen and I Guess If you want the Casino,
the Walmart, the Kinney Drugs and the trash Dump. Oh
and check out Vonadet Labs online.
Speaker 18 (01:00:17):
Go to Double.
Speaker 9 (01:00:18):
Asteriskmedia dot com to Here are other limited run podcasts,
Who is rich Blee After the Uprising with a Bold
new season in Saint Louis coming summer twenty twenty four
and Origins Birth of a Pandemic And subscribe to True
Stories New Weekly. Everybody Has a podcast with Ruth and Ray.
If you were feeling like you're on the bridge, please
(01:00:39):
call the AFSP's Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing nine
to eight eight into your phone, or contact the crisis
text line by texting seven four to one dash seven
four to one. Consider donating to our volunteering with AFSP
or your local Habitat for Humanity and make George Bailey Proud.
We're not affiliated with them though. Copyright twenty twenty three
(01:01:01):
double asterisk in ink mar Bye Bye
All that's left of this landmark downtown Seneca Falls business
is a skeleton of scorched wood.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Literally breaks my heart, and it does.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Amy Padulla Kelsey is brought to tears talking about the
fire at Ferrara lumber over the Fourth of July weekend.
She owns DA's Liquors down the street.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We came to the corner here, which was as far
as you could get, and just to see it still burning.
It's a huge hit for our whole community, it really is.
It's just it's a huge hit for Seneca Falls because
everybody ran to Ferraras for everything that your house was
built out of Ferraras, or your house was remodeled out
of Ferraras, or you ran there to get you know,
round up during the summer. We're all tied together and
(00:54):
my heart is broken for them, it really is.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
This is where the yard was. He'd pulled down in
and you'd be able to get your lumber in through here.
The fire actually started over there on the outside of
the building in a PVC rack and it just kind
of like a matched box, you know, went through.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Like she said, you briefly met Mike Ferrara in the
first episode Town supervisor of Seneca Falls in western New York.
These are Mike's cousins, Sarah and Stefania, third generation owners
of Ferrara Lumber. Not long ago, their original store location
going back seventy years, caught fire. Here they've returned to
(01:41):
tour the burnt remains.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Independent lumbers are kind of a unique thing, right because,
I mean, so many stores closed down. I mean, obviously
there's a lot of independent restaurants and places like that,
but it's like, you know, the big boxes have taken
over for most industries.
Speaker 7 (01:59):
We had people in the.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
Community that you know, we've been customers of ours come over.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
And for their excavators, their excavators digging through, trying to
help us locate some of the more personal items.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
You know, as we said, we're their generation. So my
father passed away in two thousand and eight here at
the store of a heart attack, and so we had
his you know, he was here with us at the
store and we were trying to locate that we.
Speaker 9 (02:30):
Didn't get that.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
Lucky we got some of the urn, so that was good.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
All the workers start showing up. Obviously, the whole.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Town was pretty much here, and it was just like
you know, for five minutes.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
It was like, oh my god, what are we even
going to do?
Speaker 8 (02:43):
And then after that it was just like, well, we
know what we're going to do.
Speaker 10 (02:46):
We're just going to go back.
Speaker 6 (02:48):
And do it over at the other place, like we're
going to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But we did have a lot of help. We had
a lot of help from all of our customers. The electricians,
they came in, they got us going. They got i mean,
the people from Generations Bank, all of our contractors. People
are building desks, people are building you know, shelving, bringing
in whatever they could to help us.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
Hundreds of people by July five.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
We didn't pay for food or too much.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
We gave our guys food lunch every day for at least.
Everybody just gave us so much.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
They were just like, so, what can we do? What
can we do?
Speaker 10 (03:28):
What can we do?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
M It reminds you why you live in a small
town that doesn't maybe offer you, you know, tons of
shopping or restaurants or this or the entertainment, But it
reminds you why you live here. You live here because
when the when the chips are down, they show up
for you and they make you keep going.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Seneca Falls is a place that I'll reveal to you
here occupies the same location on your Earth as Georgia's
town does on the earth of his universe. As such,
the histories of Bedford Falls and Seneca Falls were similar
up to a point and then began to diverge. For instance,
(04:14):
in your world it was the Ferrara family who came
over from Italy instead of the Martinis. But you still
find a lot of people and stories in Seneca Falls
that bear a striking similarity to those you know from
the movie Wonderful Life. I'm going to take you to
get to know some of them in this episode. I
(04:35):
think they'll give you a sense of what has gone
very differently in your universe, one where you'll recall like
in Pottersville, George Bailey was never born.
Speaker 11 (04:50):
Buffalo Gald can't come out night, can't come out night,
can't come out night, Buffalo Gald can't come out night man?
Speaker 12 (05:01):
Why Jo?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, if you make me Joe, George, do you remember
that night at Martiniz Bar when you told me you'd
read someplace about making plastics out of soybeans?
Speaker 13 (05:36):
Chili bean?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You remember chili out of soy bean?
Speaker 14 (05:42):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, soybean Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, listen, that snapped up the idea, and he's going
to build a factory outside of Rochester.
Speaker 13 (05:49):
How do you like that?
Speaker 14 (05:50):
Why Rochester?
Speaker 12 (05:51):
Well?
Speaker 14 (05:52):
Why not? Can you think of anything better? Well, I
don't know, just why not? Right here? You remember that, uh,
that old tool on machine. It works. You tell your
father you can get that for a song and all
the labor he wants too. Half the time was thrown
out of work when I closed down.
Speaker 15 (06:07):
So I'll come Hey, that sounds great. Maybe I know
you've come through.
Speaker 16 (06:12):
This was my biggest thought about the movie.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You know, you remember Wendell Jamison of the New York
Times from the previous episode, the one who helped popularize
the upside downing of Wonderful Life in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 16 (06:29):
Manufacturing upstate in two thousand and eight was not doing
too great. There was at that time, as there still is,
a great deal of debate about opening casinos. It just
seemed like George Bailey worked so hard to keep manufacturing going,
opening up the old glass works.
Speaker 17 (06:46):
You know, he meant well, but I think he was
taking the town in the wrong direction, because soon enough,
in the nineteen sixties, that was all going to start
to just go away, and the towns like Saratoga Springs
that banked on entertainment and being a.
Speaker 18 (06:59):
Resort, they did relatively well.
Speaker 16 (07:02):
The Mitchell Moss is a very well known urban policy
professor at New York University. He's the one who took
actually the gambling analogy. He mentioned that David Patterson, who
was the governor at the time, was under a lot
of pressure to allow gambling upstate because there's so many
economic problems if manufacturing had just gone away. Hey, Mitchell,
it's Wendell Jamison.
Speaker 19 (07:22):
How are you good, way, How are you good?
Speaker 18 (07:25):
Good? Good?
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Wendell is talking to Mitchell Moss, an urban policy professor
at New York University who has been described in the
press as a New York cologist.
Speaker 20 (07:36):
So, you know, I say you an email talking about
my idea for this story about how It's a Wonderful Life,
which so many people think of as a cheery holiday tail,
is actually a horror movie. Now, the funny flip side
of that is that the nightmare portion of the movie,
which which imagines Pottersville if George Bailey had never been born,
(07:58):
was actually occurred to be entertainment mecca even on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 18 (08:03):
If you remember, it's the streets.
Speaker 16 (08:05):
Are filled with revelers, the bars are packed, everyone's having
a grand time. What would you say about somebody banking
on entertainment as the future of bectorate both instead of manufacturing.
Speaker 21 (08:18):
I think the small towns have benefited from the rise
of recreation generally and entertainment as a draw that one
of the ironies is that people now have discovered the
small town as a place to escape to, a place
to kind of have close human contact and also to relax.
So in some cases that's gambling, because you know, gambling
(08:38):
has certainly thrived in outlying areas. But we also have seen,
you know, the rise of what kinds of outdoor sports.
You know, there's snow shoeing, not just skiing. And the
key part is that the small town economy is now
built really around visitors, not about manufacturing.
Speaker 16 (08:57):
That's the great final upside down thought economically. In the
long run, the people of Bedford Falls may have been
better off had George Bailey never been born, If mister
Potter had turned it into an entertainment mecca, Bedford Falls
would probably be thriving today. It would probably otherwise be
a dreary, dead faded industrial town.
Speaker 10 (09:18):
It's really fascinating, you know, to project a character like
George Bailey out over the rest of his life, or
if we do the math, he can live into the
nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties. You know, he very well
could pass away in Bill Clinton's United States, which is
kind of a fascinating kind of a concept.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Dean McKee got his PhD in American history at the
University of California in Berkeley before joining the Millers Center
in Virginia. He has plenty to say about wonderful life
and these small.
Speaker 10 (09:49):
Towns, and I think what we can say with certainty
is that he would have experienced a level of change
that would have been kind of aspiring to him if
he had not about that in nineteen forty five.
Speaker 18 (10:08):
But what was going to come?
Speaker 10 (10:10):
And again, I think that's really representative of that generation
that the world world of nineteen forty five was not
one that was stable. It was a moment in time
that was going to disappear. And we can boil that down,
I think at a couple of levels. I mean, I
guess generally for a place like Bedford Falls, you know,
(10:32):
which is essentially upstate New York, I guess if we
take the model of Seneca Falls and the Finger Lakes region,
that economy was going to in many places really go away,
and we think of that as a process that is
the nineteen seventies and eighties and nineties, but it really begins,
(10:52):
particularly in the industrial Northeast, not that long after World
War Two. There is you know, destabilizing that can change
coming for a community like Bedford Falls, and the range
of outcomes are pretty dramatic, depending on what else a
community has. And someone like Bailey is an interesting character
(11:13):
because it was people like Bailey who were going to
make decisions in terms of the direction of the community's
economy that would be really consequential. Are they able to
find means to transition to other sources of economic support
and viability. It's widely thought that Bedford Falls is based
(11:36):
on the town of Seneca Falls and of State New York,
and that's an interesting case to me because they seem
to have managed that transition relatively well compared to a
lot of places that completely lose everything, so that for
that specific community it hasn't been total. But it also
gets to the point that somebody along the way, George
(11:57):
Bailey made some decisions that were so somewhat foresighted and
taking advantage of whatever resources they had available to keep
that town's economic viability.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
At least two of Seneca Falls's most impactful town leaders
over the past twenty years are Mike Ferrara and Bruce Bonafiglia,
friends since high school like George Bailey and Sam Wainwright,
who also, like George and Sam, have a friendly rivalry
of sorts, especially when it comes to the direction of
(12:30):
their town. But when they graduated in nineteen seventy five,
the place was still booming. Here's Mike.
Speaker 15 (12:38):
When I was growing up, we had major industry here,
Grules pumps. We had the largest Savania plant where TVs
were made in Seneca Falls. We had a very very
industrial machine shopped and made precision tools. We had a
place called Guaranteed Parts, and my mother worked. If you
(13:00):
couldn't get a job in Seneca Follows, you were lazy.
Speaker 18 (13:03):
Now that's changed.
Speaker 22 (13:09):
It's not the fact that their predecessors invented the world's
first all iron pump in eighteen forty nine. What really
makes itt Goulds pumps different is when the chips are
down and that thing called a pump at the center
of your operation needs to be specked, upgraded, or just
kept running. These guys will move heaven and earth to
(13:31):
get it done. That's Goulds people, never arrogant, always innovative.
Itt gouls Pumps proof that being very good at something
doesn't mean you need to be anything but great to
work with.
Speaker 15 (13:52):
And Gooles Pumps is still the largest, well close to
the largest employer, but it's just a fraction of what
was at one time.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
Bloomberg News, April twenty second, nineteen ninety seven. Itt Industry
said yesterday that it had agreed to buy Gouled Pumps
Incorporated for eight hundred and fifteen million dollars in cash,
forming the largest maker of industrial pumps for chemicals, water,
and other fluids. Goules makes industrial pumps. Will Itt Industries,
which is based in White Plains, Connecticut, makes submersible pumps
(14:25):
for municipal water treatment. The combined companies would have about
fourteen percent of the fifteen billion dollar market for pumps,
valves and other flow control products. Set an analyst at
Lehman Brothers, you.
Speaker 15 (14:36):
Know, Goose Pumps employed over four thousand people at its height,
three shifts a day. I think they're about maybe maybe
eight hundred. Maybe that's you know, manufacturing done in a
less price in China, Mexico bottom line. So, like many
small communities in the United States, when the industry started
(15:01):
to dry up, uh, and our downtown started to be
negatively affected in the birth of malls and so forth.
I mean when I was, when I was young, downtown
was very vibrant. You know, you hit three men's clothing
stores and three women's clothing stores, and three shoe stores.
Speaker 18 (15:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 15 (15:22):
Heavy storefront was full, all owned by private end you know,
citizens of Seneca Falls, lifetime residents of Seneca Falls. You know,
second generation businesses, third generation businesses.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
I little George, he's always making a speech.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We just stopped in town to take a look at
the new factory, and then we're going to drive on
down to Florida.
Speaker 23 (15:45):
Oh, why did you have your friends join us?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
We sure, Hey, why don't you kids drive down with us?
Speaker 24 (15:50):
Huh?
Speaker 14 (15:51):
Oh, I'm afraid it couldn't get away. So I still
got the those of the old grind still today. Jane.
Speaker 17 (15:57):
I offered to let Georgian on the ground floor and plastic,
and he turned me down.
Speaker 14 (16:01):
Cold, don't rub it in.
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Well, I guess we better run along.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Like Sam Wainwright. Mike's friend Bruce Bona Figlia eventually brought
his family business, Bona Dent Dental Labs, started by his
dad in nineteen fifty, back to Seneca Fall.
Speaker 19 (16:18):
See how.
Speaker 13 (16:20):
Yeah, I think Sam was a good guy. He was
helping out his buddy. That was kind of that that, right,
you know, he was there for his buddy. I mean,
he's he was a flashy guy. He was okay, I
mean you know that was Sam Peel. He had a
pretty white, cool clothes, nice car, you know, and didn't
forget his buddy.
Speaker 23 (16:39):
Right.
Speaker 19 (16:40):
You go to Miami, you go to Beverly Hills, you
fit right.
Speaker 13 (16:43):
In with flashy. So it's it's all perception. It's all
what you want to do. When I was in my forties,
it was about being in Chicago and being in New
York City and Miami where I just went shopping. You know,
I was in Miami for two days with my granddaughter
shopping for a senior prom dress. And you know, there's
so many great, cool hit things about my aria. I
(17:04):
can never live there again. I could never spend a
great deal of time there. But I don't think today
the same way I thought twenty years ago. I don't
think anyone does. I think that as everyone you know
goes through life, you know, you tend to change your
outlook on things that you were so certain of in
your twenties that in your forties and then your sixties
(17:27):
and so on. Each decade kind of brings a little
bit of wisdom. In my opinion, it's wisdom.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
After Bruce returned to town in the year two thousand,
he quickly embraced a vision for the place quite similar
to that voice by Ryan Pole in an earlier episode,
the disnification of the main Street, the effort to make
Seneca Falls look as much like Bedford Falls as possible
(17:54):
to attract people to town.
Speaker 13 (17:56):
When I came back to Seneca Falls, right when I
brought the business back to Center the Falls, we opened
up and we didn't have this at the time. We
opened up a high end Paane restaurant. We opened up
a local pharmacy, you know, that was a break downtown
called the Fall Street Pharmacy, and we opened up Zuzus Cafe.
(18:20):
We actually opened up Baileys out back as well, which
was an ice cream stand, ice cream kind of like
a shop along the canal.
Speaker 19 (18:29):
So we did all of those three things.
Speaker 13 (18:30):
We thought, okay, having like a coffee shop at a Starbucks,
if you will, But it was Zuzu's cafe.
Speaker 19 (18:36):
Casey ran it for a little bit.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
You heard Casey running a cinnamon roll eating contest at
Cafe nineteen in an earlier episode, and we'll get to
know her better in a future one.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
And these were all buildings that were literally falling down,
so I purchased a bunch of buildings. Supervisor Ferrara, actually
Mike Ferrara helped us with the restaurant renovation a great
deal on the inside of that, it's all of our
friends did. But we did all of that to help
the communities. So you know, my croup, Mike Ferrara, and
I and we were the first ones to decorate downtown
(19:10):
Center Falls with my money and.
Speaker 19 (19:13):
Their hard work. We were the first ones to decorate
the town.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
You remember from an earlier episode that frand Carcillo, while
Village Planner, had helped build the case for the Wonderful
Life connection to Seneca Falls over the late nineteen nineties.
It was only two years after Bruce Bonifiglia returned with
his company and his interest in seeing the town rebound.
That Wonderful Life Actress Carolyn Grimes was convinced to come
(19:40):
out there. Eventually, the Wonderful Life Museum was created, the
five K Race was started, and the Wonderful Life Festival
grew and grew, all of which fit nicely with Bruce's vision.
Speaker 13 (19:54):
The fact of the matter is is that there are
other people that are responsible for It's a Wonderful Life
w and what they've done with the museum is I
mean that that's coming along. I think they have some
great ideas and the board and stuff, and you know,
fond Event and the Bontificular Family Foundation. We just help
It's a Wonderful Life Festival. You know, one of our
one of our key managers is one of the founders
(20:16):
of It's you know the race, Tina Ruck who's a
key manager and leader in the bond of organizations. And
she's also a local local girl that played basketball with
my daughter and played basketball for coach Mike Ferraro and
Mike Ferraar coach. They made that race, which is certainly
the signature event. I think more of a signature event
(20:40):
even than Zuzu herself, you know, Carolyn, who's just sweetheart
of a person. They they made the event what it
is today. We get we get thousands of people into
the village, the town of center call because.
Speaker 19 (20:54):
Of the race.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Bruce's small town nostalgia strategy has been working for Seneca Falls,
he feels, so it frustrates him when his vision can
be undermined at times by competing decisions by other town leaders.
Speaker 13 (21:09):
So I wanted to create this center in downtown Seneca Falls,
and we formed a downtown Revitalization committee fallse Street Pharmacy
that again, you want to talk about it, It's just
an awful, awful, misguided leadership that wasn't even leadership at
the town government level that were So we ended up
(21:29):
with a Kinney Drugs on the outskirts of town that
could have been someplace else but for a lot of
different reasons and visions, different vision and you know, I
fought for one side and maybe didn't get it, but
you know, you move on and you continue on.
Speaker 12 (21:48):
And Bruce was buying up property in Seneca Falls, and
that's why I got my building from him too.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Twila Keeler, the hairstylist, went to high school one town
over and knew Mike and Bruce, which ended up helping
her down the line when she wanted to open her
own business, a salon.
Speaker 12 (22:07):
I have a sister who was like five years older,
so I do her friend's here when they were going
out on a Friday night, and you know, I wanted
to give back, and I would do my mom's hair,
and I don't know if it came natural to me,
but I liked it, and I perfected it as much
as I could. And then I guess the aspiration of
(22:29):
opening a swan was seventeen years ago. Now, wow, that's crazy.
I doesn't even feel like that. And Bruce found a
figure used to own that building, and I talked him
down on his price because I knew eventually that be
a good spot in some cafell that location right off
(22:53):
the Wonderful Life Bridge.
Speaker 18 (22:55):
It's such great that comes out this time?
Speaker 13 (22:58):
Right?
Speaker 12 (22:59):
Pretty good yourself? I'm a fifty minutes, yeah, a little early,
that's good, I did.
Speaker 18 (23:04):
I'm always irly.
Speaker 12 (23:08):
You're only like two minutes late today, maybe a minute? Yea,
you were good? So how's that?
Speaker 19 (23:14):
Look?
Speaker 25 (23:14):
Is enough?
Speaker 18 (23:15):
Wonderful?
Speaker 12 (23:17):
Hello? This is this is Zuzu from the movie Why is.
Speaker 18 (23:23):
My my salon gal mind than anything.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
I think you.
Speaker 14 (23:30):
She's mine too.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
We're inside Hair Elegance between Locks, a squat one story
shop a block from the Trust Bridge. During good Years,
Twila has employed up to nine Towns people at one
time there, including her daughter Carolyn Grimes, who of course
played Zuzu. Bailey has become a regular.
Speaker 12 (23:51):
She just called me every year to come back, which
is great. She always brings me a personal She always
brings me a present, she calls me.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
She's seen me for so many years.
Speaker 12 (24:02):
It was blonde, been not so blonde, and now it's
all bright.
Speaker 19 (24:08):
And it's all natural.
Speaker 12 (24:09):
It's pretty though she's seen it transpire.
Speaker 24 (24:14):
To the old lady here.
Speaker 26 (24:18):
Not only here.
Speaker 19 (24:19):
Yeah, about.
Speaker 12 (24:23):
Them, I don't know, I really don't. I think she
needed your hair down, and maybe maybe the Ghoul sent
you over here the first time, Like if you're looking,
I don't remember either.
Speaker 18 (24:34):
I used to stay at the bed and Breakfast too.
Speaker 12 (24:36):
Oh wo's so, because you know the ghol wasn't open.
Oh yeah, that's right. So I don't know. How how
long has it been since I've been doing your hair?
Speaker 6 (24:46):
To know?
Speaker 16 (24:47):
Well, I've been coming twenty years.
Speaker 12 (24:48):
This is a twenty years, so I might guess maybe
twenty years.
Speaker 16 (24:53):
Okay, I'll go with that.
Speaker 12 (24:59):
She's has lots of energy, she's kind o brandy, and
she's a delightful friend. Well, thank you, that's sharp, Trey.
I stuck with, Oh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Her wood paneled walls are sparsely decorated except for a
big poster of Marilyn Monroe with a quote that reads,
in Hollywood, a girl's virtue is much less important than
her hairdoo. This time of year is Some people in
Seneca Falls like to compare Twila to another hairdresser, George
(25:37):
Bailey's friend, Violet Bic.
Speaker 12 (25:39):
I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
Comy said it to me.
Speaker 12 (25:42):
I can't remember who, but I tried to take a
pence but I looked at it, but I could see
that hold on them get more ice.
Speaker 23 (25:48):
Cool.
Speaker 12 (25:51):
You know, I don't know if I quite fitch that picture.
But you know, I'm out and about. I'm very private
at home. I have noticed you didn't see anybody hanging
out here. But publicly, I'm out about all the time,
and I always probably looked like a party girl and
I'm not. But even though I am, but I'm not
now it made me giggle, like, oh, you're the bad one,
(26:12):
bad girl, the wild one, which I'm not wild, free spirited, right,
So I didn't mind it because people talk all the time, Okay,
So I am Violet. I believe in this little tunnytown
if I was younger. When I was younger, probably more
than likely or around it at least.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
For a year or two.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
And I really didn't care what people thought.
Speaker 24 (26:37):
Where are you going?
Speaker 12 (26:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Only end up down with the library, Georgie.
Speaker 14 (26:42):
Don't you ever get tired of just reading about things?
Speaker 18 (26:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (26:48):
What are you doing tonight?
Speaker 12 (26:51):
He changed because he was under so much pressure. In fact,
it wasn't worth going through because he wasn't strong enough
to go through it because he was such a loser
and failure and whatever happened, and her too, and every
other person in that community in that movie, they're all
heroes because they all came together for each other. So
(27:15):
when everybody was giving them money at the end, it
wasn't just for them. It wasn't just for him to
survive and her to survive and be happy. It was
for all of them. And look how they laughed at
each other and hugged each other, and they were all
doing it together. They were all hugging each other at
the same moment.
Speaker 23 (27:37):
Huh.
Speaker 12 (27:37):
You know, I thought they looked happily. Ever after, I
didn't think much more after that. Actually, I just thought,
it's good. It's all good. The community came together and
everything was going to be good, and everybody can count
on everyone again once again. Everybody can count on each
other as a community. That's why I go to Dewey's
(28:00):
for that commodity, because if I want to drink, I
can drink at home. It's the commodity of the community.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
How do you like those words? Had get those out quick?
Speaker 12 (28:13):
Well before we had Westcott rule here in Savania, TV schools, pumps,
the guaranteed parts, all kinds of business here. Plus the
army depot was out there in ovid or Romulus, so
it's all military out there. And if you if you
(28:39):
didn't like what you were doing, you could quit and
you'd have another job in a couple of hours that
would pay more. I mean, it was so lucrative here.
Everybody was having fun, everybody was making good money. All
the businesses downtown were thriving. And that slowly started going
(29:02):
away because I don't know why we can't advertise it
hown better, but Bruce was trying to bring that back.
I'm sure. So now it's like, I don't know, it's quieter,
there's not as much opportunity, and people are struggling. A
lot of people are struggling because companies went out, you know,
(29:26):
they moved, and they're not sure if they're going to
have a job tomorrow. And a lot of people here
for some reason. There's some jobs opening, but nobody, nobody
can find helpers, nobody can find workers, nobody can find employees.
So I don't know, it's just it's a weird time
of it's a weird time of life. I don't know
(29:46):
if it's like that everywhere, but I think it is
kind of.
Speaker 18 (29:51):
Nighttime.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
The moon hangs brightly above the Trust Bridge, reflecting in
the river below it. Twila locks up her salon and
walks the block to her regular bar, Dewey's, a place
that with a quick glance you might easily mistake for
Martinis bar in Bedford Falls.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I was yes thinking of a flaming rum punch.
Speaker 14 (30:17):
No, it's not cold, nothing of that.
Speaker 27 (30:18):
Not nearly cool.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
This guy I got it.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Marld Whine heavy on the cinnamon and light on the
clothes off with Jimmy light and be lively.
Speaker 17 (30:28):
Hey, look, mister, we save hard drinks in here for
men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't
need any characters around it.
Speaker 14 (30:35):
Give the joint atmosphere. Is that clear and you'll have
to slap your my lift for a convincer.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
It's here at Dewey's that the town's working people gather.
The bartender is Jan Meckley. She has a quality like Nick,
the hard to read bartender in George Bailey's hangout. When
a new customer asks Jen if he can have a
flaming rum punch, she tells.
Speaker 16 (30:59):
Him no, I want to come back here and make
it yourself.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Jan was a school psychologist in the area for many
years until she walked away to become a bartender, and
she gets a very upclose experience of the people of
Sendica Falls and their problems.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
First off, I've been bartending since i was twenty one
and I'm forty seven. I bar attended going through college
and grad school, and I did it on the side
when I was a school psychologist. It's going on a
ten years. Senett Dewey specifically and left my other jobs.
I have a few customers that I know of that
work for Walmart. There's a lot of customers that I've
(31:40):
known for years and I don't know where they were.
There's some that were in fire and auto, ones that
work for Bonadens for Gouls which is now like itt,
some that work for the local bank. I mean, there's
all kinds of a couple of women that come to
mind that work as verses as ones of traveling nurse.
(32:02):
He works all the way in Ithaca right now. Definitely
have our share of prison guards and various other people
that work there in different capacities. There's couples, there's groups
of friends. Occasionally my mom and dad come down because
I work there, and there's people that come out with
their kids or something to have a bite to eat. Yeah,
(32:24):
there's working class. My half times favorite is like the
good old Boys Crew. And I'm saying that with sarcasms,
you know, the white male privilege. I've got a little
extra money than the rest of these people, and so
I think the world owes me something, including you, and
I think I should get better service, and I think
(32:44):
I spend this much money here, so you should cater
to me. And they act like their name is on
the door, not my bosses. Sometimes when people come out
to drink, they're coming out to get away from their problems,
to distract themselves from those things. They're not coming out
out to have meaningful conversations about them. People don't talk
about that stuff, particularly men. In our culture. Men are
(33:08):
taught to pull their big boy panties up and rub
some dirt in it, and you don't talk about it
because if you do europussy. Granted, sometimes that happens accidentally. Literally,
was just having this conversation with a guy last night
who has suffered from depression and he didn't get help
and it ruined his marriage. Now he's getting help and
(33:28):
he's getting therapy and he's seeing things, but at the
time he didn't see it. He made an analogy where
he put his hand right up in front of his face,
almost touching his nose, and he said, this is where
I was, and I didn't see all the things in
the periphery. I didn't see it until I got some
help and I stood back and I looked at it
from a different perspective, without all of the desperation and
(33:51):
the depression. But that's a rare conversation on a quiet
night when nobody is listening and it's dead because post holiday,
and it's just the two of us in there. And
he even made the comments because it's not a normal
conversation that you would have with a bartender. He's like,
you're kind of different. It's that's why I like coming
here when you're here. But for the most part, Dewey's
(34:13):
is usually busy and there's not time for that stuff.
So I don't know what's going on in people's lives.
And honestly, sometimes because of the way that people act
when they drink, the ones that are probably most likely
to be having the problems because they're such backfles, I
avoid them like the plague and just wait on them
(34:34):
and go about my business. So I don't see that
a lot, but I see it in life. I see
it in people.
Speaker 23 (34:41):
I know.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
I have a friend right now who is going through
a lot of shit with being unemployed and you know,
an abusive alcoholic acts and his sixteen year old is
suck in that situation, and he's getting just trying to
get himself back on his seat from dealing with a
depression and a work injury and being on disability and
(35:04):
getting a job and packing up and moving across the
country for what he thought was his dream job, only
to get there for a week and a half and
be sent home because they changed their mind and decided
to fill it with somebody from inside the company. And
then he comes back and he's homeless. He's gonna live
out of his car. My daughter is an old soul.
(35:27):
She takes on all the social injustices in the world
and tries to be a voice for people who are
too ashamed or too scared, or too poor or too
oppressed to speak for themselves.
Speaker 23 (35:44):
She's an amazing human being.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
I've learned a lot from her. I'm a much less
ignorant person than I used to be just because she's
my daughter. Damn, I wouldn't be the person I am
today without my daughter. If it wasn't for her, I
don't think I would have had the courage to leave
my career for a job. She is the only person
that wholeheartedly peer leaded and said fuck yeah, like I
(36:08):
see what this is doing to you. She was the
only person that didn't say, are you crazy? What about
you know this is a state job? What about your retirement?
What about blah blah blah. What about all the time
you spent in college. You're just gonna throw that away?
She said, yes, she believed that it was the choice
I should make more than I did.
Speaker 12 (36:37):
George. You know my kid brother, George.
Speaker 24 (36:39):
I'm gonna put them through college.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Yeh, you want to get here all this afternoon.
Speaker 26 (36:47):
I thought I'd give the.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
Kids a treat.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
College graduate, yo, Joe, collegeway and ride a coffee.
Speaker 17 (36:52):
Well, freshman, looks like you're gonna make it after all that.
Speaker 24 (36:54):
Yet, Cootfalls and the basic idea of it's a wonderful
life was real, and in some places it still is real,
and there's a very powerful American nostalgia for that.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Before leaving for the city to become an investigative journalist,
Brian Alexander grew up in a small town in Ohio.
Whenever he would watch Wonderful Life as a youth with
his parents, Bedford Falls struck him as eerily familiar.
Speaker 24 (37:28):
Now, we have to say that this is a kind
of a white nostalgia that this existed for white people.
It wasn't a great time to be black in this country.
So that is a shadow that hangs over all this discussion.
But white people, white working class people have lost a
(37:51):
lot of what they had during that period, not completely.
And again there's still some great small comms and George
Bailey still exists, but a lot of that has been lost.
And the power of that nostalgia and that emotion is
something I need. I think that all of America needs
(38:11):
to reckon with. My mother invented to visit her old
town and we were there about fifteen minutes and she
began to cry because the town really had fallen on
hard times.
Speaker 19 (38:26):
She didn't even get out of the car.
Speaker 24 (38:28):
I said, what do you want to go here?
Speaker 18 (38:29):
You want to go there?
Speaker 24 (38:30):
No, let's just go But Main Street used to be
packed with stores, but now there was a big hole well,
an old building collapsed in on itself. There used to
be merchants in those buildings. So I began to wonder
what was really happening in this town. And I realized,
even though I've been a reporter and a journalist for
a long time I've written other books, that I had
(38:52):
missed a really important story. We haven't figured out yet
how to replace the old manufactur sharing base in a
lot of these towns. And until that happens, and it
may all the cool micro breweries and coffee houses aren't
really going to turn your economy around because people are
(39:13):
just going to sell coffee to each other. I mean,
what is coffee houses are great, and they're actually really helpful,
but what does somebody who works in a coffee house make?
You need some really good, well paying jobs. Do you
really want to have an artisanal scone based economy.
Speaker 22 (39:32):
Let's start with ABC's Tom Yamas, who has been with
Trump's campaign.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Since day one. Good morning, Tom, Robin, good morning to you.
Speaker 10 (39:40):
Donald Trump called this he predicted an election night shocker,
and he was one hundred percent right, despite nearly all
national polls showing him behind before the voting started. Donald
Trump is now President elect Trump.
Speaker 24 (39:53):
Very early in the morning, California time, I got a
call from Ohio from a woman who's fun is one
of the main characters in the book.
Speaker 19 (40:04):
And she woke me up with the call. I picked
up and I said, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 18 (40:08):
What's going on?
Speaker 24 (40:09):
This happened to be election day of twenty sixteen. She said,
I just voted, And I said, oh great, who'd you
vote for? And she said Trump baby and started laughing.
And I said, Melinda why why Trump? And she got
(40:33):
really quiet and then she began to cry and choked
out the words I just wanted to be like it was.
I think that many people in this country who live
in cities and have jobs like I do, and you know,
(40:55):
work at universities or law firms or hedge funds or
where they were, really don't have any idea the depth
of emotion that people in these towns feel about their places.
Speaker 19 (41:11):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 18 (41:13):
I just they have a love of place and.
Speaker 19 (41:18):
They miss it.
Speaker 22 (41:19):
Okay, all, Josia.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
In an earlier episode, I mentioned Carolyn Grimes being escorted
to the five K Race by the town's former police chief.
That's Fred Capos, who annually volunteers to drive one of
Seneca Fall's to vip vans to shuttle Carolyn and others
to and from various events. When Fred started with the
(41:45):
police force here, he still walked the streets like George
Bailey's friend Bert the Cop. By the time he retired,
Fred the Cop has seen a lot of change.
Speaker 14 (41:56):
Hey, George, George, you all right? Hey, what's the matter?
Speaker 12 (42:03):
I got out of here?
Speaker 14 (42:04):
Bird? I hit you again?
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Get out of here?
Speaker 14 (42:06):
What the sam hell you yelling?
Speaker 19 (42:07):
For George.
Speaker 14 (42:10):
George Beck, you know me, know you you kidding. I've
been looking all over town trying to find you.
Speaker 17 (42:18):
I saw your car plot into that tree down there,
and I thought, maybe, hey, your mouse pleading?
Speaker 19 (42:22):
Are you sure you are right?
Speaker 27 (42:23):
When they're on the bridge and bird is telling George,
you know who I am? You know think and there's
this connection. I think that was profound. My dad was
a seabe during World War Two, so we got a
GI loan, bought a home. We weren't wealthy, but we
never knew that we weren't wealthy. There were five of us.
We had one bathroom, you know, three bedrooms. There was
a very loving and warmhome. We had everything we ever needed.
(42:46):
My dad worked two jobs. My mom stayed at home
for a while until we got school age, and then
she went to work. When I was like in seventh grade,
I knew I wanted to become a police officer, and
I was very lucky when I was twenty years old
to get a job while I was in college with
our local Sheriff's department and worked very hard to be
able to come up through the ranks here in Seneca
(43:08):
Falls and then be able to be the chief of police,
the chief of police that was here before me. He
had been chief for a little over twenty five years,
and berta Coffee. He's the depiction of what a small
town police officer was. He would walk down the street
and be able to talk to people, know people. He
knew who George Bailey was, he knew who Potter was,
he knew all these people. And that's a small town
(43:29):
police officer. And that's what a lot of Seneca Falls
is all about. There's not very many people that are
in the community that I don't know. So I've been
all over the United States, and I have to honestly
tell you that there's no place that I've been to
that I can compare what my life would be, you know,
outside of Seneca Falls. I was offered a job in California,
thing in southern California back in ninety six, you know,
(43:55):
interviewed for it, did very well, was one of the
top two candidates. Came home, talked to my wife. Our
two sons were in school at the time, and and
we waited out and I decided, you know, this is
where I want to be, you know. So to answer
that question, I can't think of anyplace else in Seneca
Falls that I would want to live. The downtown business
(44:17):
district is not like what it was back in the forties, fifties, sixties,
and early seventies. There aren't as many stores downtown. They
really aren't.
Speaker 23 (44:24):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:25):
It's the I think all small communities found out when
you know, big chain businesses come in on the outskirts.
Everybody can go to one stop shopping.
Speaker 23 (44:34):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:34):
The it's a blessing. And also the detriment is Walmart.
You know, Walmart comes in. You know, the saying is
if Walmart doesn't have it, we don't need it. You know,
think you don't need to have a shoe store anymore.
You don't need to have a men's clothing store, women's
clothing store. Everything is at that store. The thing it
goes to the corporate office.
Speaker 13 (44:55):
You know.
Speaker 27 (44:56):
Yeah, definitely definitely leaves your town. You know, we used
to have a downtown business Association that used to meet
every Thursday, no Wednesday morning at seven o'clock. And I
used to go to the meetings when I became chief
and when they talked about when Walmart was coming in,
how it was going to change the face of nowtown.
And I was a little bit skeptical when they were
(45:17):
talking about it, But I've seen that.
Speaker 26 (45:19):
Meet the walt Inns. From the outside, they look like
your average family, but they're actually the richest clan in America.
They're collectively worth about one hundred and sixty billion dollars.
That's because they founded the world's largest company by revenue.
You may have heard of it, Walmart. In less than
sixty years, the company has grown from one store well
over eleven thousand locations. Brothers Sam and Bud Walton started
(45:43):
the empire after serving in World War Two. Sam and
Bud both began franchising Ben Franklin variety stores in Missouri
and Arkansas. The five and dime stores were so successful
that Sam decided to.
Speaker 7 (45:54):
Start his own chain.
Speaker 26 (45:55):
In twenty eighteen, Walmart generated more than five hundred billion
dollars in due and with the company also continuing to
invest in the future with initiatives like blockchain powered delivery
truck fleets, in store, drone assistance, and wearable tracking devices
for employees. The retail chain isn't going anywhere.
Speaker 25 (46:13):
You know, there's like a million George Bailey moments in there.
That town's history where the whole well I'll give I'll
give a check to your you know, baseball teams with
names John's General Store, right like those, the whole community
coming together to do it with stuff.
Speaker 14 (46:29):
Yeah, fuck that.
Speaker 25 (46:30):
I want to buy a Jim Carrey movie free pack
for seven dollars. So fucked the old movie theater with
the Worlitzer, Oregon.
Speaker 5 (46:37):
This is Louis c. K the comedian, talking about the
very thing we're exploring here to Opie and Andy the
radio DJs.
Speaker 19 (46:46):
But it's not Walmart's fault.
Speaker 25 (46:48):
It's the fault of the fucking people. I used to
have a house upstate, in upstate New York, and I
and there was there was a town that held these
beautiful old diners in general stores, and they all close
one by one because of Walmart. But it wasn't fucking
Walmart's fault. It was the people who lived in that town. Yeah,
but don't give a shit about their neighbors. But is
it if the American basic consumer who's like, well, okay,
(47:11):
I could spend I could spend thirteen cents less on
a mop, so fuck my fucking neighbor.
Speaker 5 (47:22):
Walmart first arrived in the Seneca Falls area in the
nineteen nineties, as it has in so many American towns.
When their new store opened in two thousand and nine,
it was hoped that taxes the store would pay might
provide some amount of solution for the missing money to
fund the area's continually needed infrastructure update essential if you
(47:46):
want residents and visitors to feel like they're in a
thriving Bedford Falls. Here's Mike again.
Speaker 15 (47:53):
So one of our major employers in the community is Walmart.
Having a Walmart in your community, they're you know, it's
a great company, it's a great store, but certainly took
business away from the heart of downtown.
Speaker 5 (48:06):
And Mike isn't entirely clear on where the money goes
that's spent at that Walmart.
Speaker 18 (48:11):
Doesn't go to Seneca Falls and hold that.
Speaker 15 (48:14):
Obviously, it's a major corporation and has stackholders and so forth, So.
Speaker 18 (48:19):
Obviously it's corporate America.
Speaker 15 (48:21):
Obviously, money spent in local businesses gets reinvested in the community.
Money spent at Walmart, it's not getting reinvested in the community.
It's getting invested in stackholders type of thing.
Speaker 23 (48:33):
Finger Lakes Times, November twenty sixth, twenty nineteen. After ten
years of trying to get its Seneca Falls store assessment reduced.
Corporate giant Walmart has got a judge to agree, reducing
the Town of Seneca Falls assessment and its retail store
from nine point five million to eight point seven five
(48:55):
million for twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen and eight zero
point two five million for twenty nineteen. The reduction means
Seneca County, the Town of Seneca Falls in the Waterloo
School District, must refund taxes to Walmart for twenty seventeen,
eighteen and nineteen taxes paid.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
Of course, the most ironic corporate taxpayer to come to
town arrived six years ago. In an earlier episode, I
brought you to the Wonderful Life Festival as an annual
capra dinner for local donors. I didn't tell you where
it was taking place. It was the ballroom of their
new casino. Yes, that icon of Pottersville.
Speaker 28 (49:40):
The De Logo Resort in casino was officially opened in
Seneca County in the town of Tire. You know, the
state awarded the owner's a casino license more than two
years ago, and now they've built this four hundred and
forty million dollar project. It includes an entertainment venue, restaurants, shops,
and hotel. Plus there's going to be lots of gambling.
Jennifer Luki was there for the riven cutting this mor
and she's joining us now with a special look.
Speaker 7 (50:03):
The doors here at De Lago actually just opened a
little more than an hour ago, and you can see
it is already packed with people. There are two thousand
slot machines, seventy seven table games, and fifteen poker tables.
Speaker 14 (50:16):
Here are.
Speaker 15 (50:26):
Final the money you spent in the casino. It's a
corporation is now owned by Churchill.
Speaker 5 (50:33):
Downs, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, where they started with the
horse track known for the Kentucky Derby. Churtill Downs Incorporated
has become a publicly traded company with the annual revenue
of over one billion dollars. Their De Lago Casino employs
twelve hundred people in Seneca County, and some who once
(50:57):
would have built things in factories now deal cards. You
remember how you fell to each year watching Wonderful Life
During the part where Clarence tells George that he'd never
been born and George runs through Pottersville is town now
dominated by Henry Potter, and you see all those casinos.
(51:20):
If your gut made you feel this was wrong somehow, Well,
times change, I guess.
Speaker 15 (51:27):
I think George would advocate for a casino in the sequel,
maybe the third sequel, but I think he would have
advocated for businesses to come into the community and to
enhance the life of its citizens.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
But the most shocking change to the town I haven't
gotten to yet. There had been a small landfill outside
of Seneca Falls since the nineteen fifties, trying to raise
missing tax dollars. In the nineteen eighties, town leaders accepted
a deal with a Canadian corporation so that as the
landfill grew, so too with the money paid to Seneca
(52:03):
Falls in to the tune of four and a half
percent of their gross revenues, and grow it did. Today,
it's the largest dump in New York State. That's a
lot of tax dollars, and on summer days, when the
winds blow in a certain direction, the town's people can
(52:28):
smell it.
Speaker 18 (52:29):
New York, every small town had their own dump, and
those dumps became taxic waste sites because.
Speaker 15 (52:34):
People dumped everything and anything. About thirty years ago, this
dump was privately owned. It was on the outskirts of
our town, and then it was bought by a private
individual from Rochester, and then it was by Corporate America
Waste Management and has grown to become the largest landfill
in New York State.
Speaker 18 (52:54):
The landfill is the tap controversial issue.
Speaker 15 (53:00):
In our community. There are people who want it closed.
The landfill is looking to for an expansion. They would
like to use that space for another fifteen years of
taking in garbage. They are a major contributor to the
town of Seneca Falls accountanmy. We have a hoaxed agreement
with them where they contribute a percentage of their revenue.
Speaker 18 (53:21):
So over the last six seven years.
Speaker 15 (53:24):
It's been between three and three point four million dollars
per year. Seneca Follows, like every other old community, has
infrastructure that needs to be taken care of. You've got
one hundred year old pipes in the ground, sewer lines
that are compromised, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, updates need
to be made to water treatment plant, update needs to
be made to waste treatment plants.
Speaker 18 (53:45):
For that all to happen, it would be a very
high tax rate in Seneca Fallows. We're able to keep tax.
Speaker 15 (53:51):
Rate at a very reasonable number in the ten dollars
per thousand range. So we're trying to make Seneca Falls
a affordable place. Nobody wants the landfill, but it's here
and it's an essential business. We all generate garbage and
it's got to go someplace. I'm in favor of keeping
the landfill open. I'm in favor of negotiating new host
(54:13):
agreement with them and to better enhance even more for
Seneca Falls.
Speaker 5 (54:17):
Here's Bruce bona Figlia again.
Speaker 19 (54:20):
What in what industry is left in Seneca Falls? There?
Speaker 13 (54:24):
When you so when you look at Seneca, Paul, what
industry has left you have? You have goals pumps. They're
a major employer, but they are they are shrinking, right,
They're their employment numbers are shrinking. You know, one of
the largest employers in Seneca Seneca County is the county government. Yeah,
so that's that's a whole other that's a whole other interview,
(54:45):
right when you talk about county government bureaucracies and so on. Right,
because if their county government is one of the major employers,
and and it is in many small communities like ours,
that can kind of be an issue when you don't
have industry and again we only we only employ about
(55:07):
two hundred people here in Seneca Falls, so we're not
we're not employing a thousand people. But if you don't
have industry coming into a community, and we don't, we
don't have industry coming in in this community. We have
a casino that's out by the true way, right, it's
not really in Seneca Falls. In the town of we
have the casino. They employ people, they do, they employ
(55:30):
They employ a lot of people, the casino and hotel.
But if you don't have industry, I think you don't
get middle you don't get middle class to move in.
Now you have another you know, one of the other
employers in Center County is the is the landfill. Right,
so if you have a landfill that's really close to
(55:52):
the community, it's one of the key words on Zillo landfill.
You know. That's so we've got all these different challenges.
But there are some people that think we can't live
without this landfill. Uh and and I think it's a
huge detriment. Would you tell the count of Skinny Atlas that,
(56:15):
would you tell the town of Aurora that what you
really need to floorish? Would you tell Isaka that what
you really need to flourish is a landfill you need.
What you really need to flourish is the landfill tax revenue.
That's what you really need to flourish. And and look
how our community is flourishing. That was a bit of
(56:36):
sarcasm by Sam Right.
Speaker 9 (56:45):
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Albums and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever
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(58:20):
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(58:40):
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Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
episode featured, in chronological orders, Sarah Ferrara, Stefania Ferrara, Wendell Jamison,
(59:04):
Mitchell Moss, Gan McKee, Mike Ferrara, Bruce Bonifiglia, Twila Keeler,
Carolyn Grimes, Jen Meckley, Brian Alexander, and Fred Capose, with
appearances by the casts of Wonderful Life and the brief
voices of Louis c. K Opi and Andy an unknown,
Itt promo video narrator and TV news media professionals, and
(59:25):
some of the brief music and artistry of others via
clips used under the still existing legal doctrine of fair use.
The Potters are working on that one, though some original
reporting by Wendell Jamison.
Speaker 18 (59:36):
For this episode, the voice of.
Speaker 9 (59:38):
A news article about the Itt Gould Pump's merger was
played by Keith Murray, voicing portions of an original article
written uncredited for Bloomberg News. The voice of a news
article about the Walmart tax assessment was David l. Shaw
voicing portions of his article for The Finger Lakes Times.
Seneca Fall's lodging for Crew provided by Twila Keeler. If
(59:58):
you're in Seneca Falls, visit the Wonderful Life Museum, Ferrara Lumber,
Hair Elegance Between Locks, Woman Made Products, Dewey's Third Ward
Tavern Cafe nineteen and I Guess If you want the Casino,
the Walmart, the Kinney Drugs and the trash Dump. Oh
and check out Vonadet Labs online.
Speaker 18 (01:00:17):
Go to Double.
Speaker 9 (01:00:18):
Asteriskmedia dot com to Here are other limited run podcasts,
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(01:01:01):
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