Halloween, Cousin Style—Again!

Picture One: Rebecca Walker, age three, daughter of Justin, granddaughter of Cindy Hawkes Gabrys

Picture Two: Eowyn Colley, age three, daughter of Kristyne, granddaughter of Charlie Hawkes

Picture Three: Morgan Towlson, age three and a half, daughter of Heather, granddaughter of Cindy Hawkes Gabrys

Picture Four: Patrick (age five) and Joe ( age 3) Kinsella, sons of Chris

Halloween--Cousin Style--Again!

Picture One: Cameron Towlson, age six, son of Heather, grandson of Cindy Hawkes Gabrys

Picture Two: Kelly (age four and a half) and Maddy (age eight—almost) Kinsella, daughters of Jim

Picture Three: Bridget (age eight—far left of the picture) and Maggie (age ten and a half—far right, witch in green face paint) Kinsella, daughters of Chris

Barbara Buck Taylor--Nov. 5, 1929, By Aunt CB

Well over twenty-five years ago,maybe even thirty-five, Harold and Barbara, Jack and I made a trip to Puerto Rico together. We intended to visit Bob Van Kirk, a high school classmate of Harold’s and long time friend of Jack. We wanted to meet his new wife, Maggie, and see the island. We did both, in grand style! We’d traveled together before but this was our first trip out of the U.S.A. and we accomplished it.

Some of the highlights (or lowlights):

One: The hotel we stayed in had an elevator built for the truly aged. It was SO SLOW. The fellows would get on and Barb and I would race up the nearby stairway, plop ourselves on the floor near the elevator doors, and pretend to be deep in sleep as they opened!

Two: Then there was the purchase of the fresh pineapple. It seems Harold and Jack were on the beach and their eyes were caught by a woman selling pineapples. They were fascinated by the size of both the fruit for sale and her personal equipage, seeing little difference in size between the two. Having bought one, in order to get close enough to ascertain whether reality was possible (I guess it was), they then had to find a knife to cut it open. The kitchen finally allowed them to ‘borrow’ one, and they sliced it open to discover that a pineapple freshly picked at its peak is much more delicious than ones we can buy in the store.

Three: Moseying around the downtown area, Harold found a large ceiling fan, exactly what he’d been looking for to place in his newly purchased cottage. None were available in our home area. He finally decided that he could transport the fan and motor home on his lap in the plane and was happy as a kid. Barbara declared that if the plane sank, she’d have to save herself as he’d never drop the fan!

Yes, good times we had and through the years plenty of laughs. I can’t help but think she is with us now, still sharing a giggle.

Happy 79th birthday, Barb!

Picture One: Barb March 4, 1994

Picture Two: Barb and Harold, 1972
PictureThree: Barb and Harold Summer of 1948

Breaking News--Dan Maffei Wins!

As of 10:46PM with 80% of the vote counted, major media outlets have called our cousin's race as a win for Dan Maffei.

With 80% of the vote, Maffei is ahead of Sweetland, 53% to 43%.

Congratulations, Dan!!!

Lily (Lillian) Rosena Baker Howland—Nov. 4, 1892, By Aunt CB

(---Early, I know, but check the November Birthday List as of Tonight. We've got another birthday girl to write about on the 5th!--

--Also, Look for Charlie Hawkes Picture CD to Music of the Taylor Reunion after the November 5th Aunt Barb story---)

Gladys called her “Lily pickle!” We just called her Aunt Lil and loved her dearly! She was named Lily but always went by Lillian.

When I remember growing up in the 1930's my memories of her center mostly on the store, not the house. That’s where she gave us the most wonderful breakfasts; bacon, fried eggs, cold potatoes warmed up with plenty of onions cooked with bacon grease and coffee, liberally laced with evaporated milk. They sure beat cornflakes or rice krispies! That’s where she made her pickles too, and the aroma, when she heated them to can, after they had “soaked” a few days, was actually nose twitching.

She was very liberal with her bounty, allowing us, pop, creamsicles, penny candy—and once she even outfitted Gladys and me with boy’s overalls and Tee shirts so that we could go picking blackberries for jam. (Grandma Baker was scandalized at this outfit, but allowed as how our intentions were good, and provided us with long cotton stockings--with feet cut out to protect our arms).

One year, when my father was away deer hunting she arrived at our house in Geneva, having driven there alone (along with Fort Knox, her ever present over-sized purse) to stay a few days. She drove like the proverbial bat out of “you know” but not many women did then, so we were no judge and glad to see her.

That was the visit she taught us how to play “spoons.” Teaching a bunch of kids who’d never played card games must have been a challenge but she was rewarded when she heard, and laughed herself silly at our glee, when we could yell “Jackass” as one of us grabbed the last spoon!

And then there was the year we came to her house for Easter. I was young and couldn’t remember much past Uncle Elmer slicing ham at the dining room table and it slipped and scooted across the room. Didn’t bother Lil a whit! She reached down, picked it up and placed it back on the platter and he continued to slice!

And yes, that was the year she’d hard boiled 3 dozen eggs and hidden them around the front yard. We had great fun, looking for them after dinner but the real plus was the next summer when Gladys and I found 2, still hidden, and very odiferous! (So were we after we cracked them!)

Years later, grown now, I took her to visit my good friend, Cliff, at his Antique shop in Canada. She nearly had a stroke at the prices—“$30 for a peepot! Why I paid 10 cents for one just like it at an auction!” (Never mind that 50 years had passed since that auction!)
No, there was only one Lily pickle — and I wish her a happy 116th birthday!

Picture One: Howland-Taylor Cousins

Back, Sylva, Ruth Maney, Leona, Esther, Arnon

Front, CB, Doris, Gladys Wood, Phyllis Mudge, Harold

Howland yard, Center Lisle, 1931 or 32

Picture Two: Leona H. Maffei, Sylva H. Emhof, Lillian Howland 1921
Picture Three: Aunt Lil, Ethel Baker Taylor 1969

A Castle Of Our Own! By Sue Kinsella

Did you know that the Baker family has ties to a mighty castle in Scotland? If you thread back through the family – the parents of Nancy Ethel Baker Taylor and Lillian Baker Howland were Kate and Byron Baker, and Byron’s parents were Leonard Timothy Baker and Nancy Cornelia Borthwick – you can follow the family back to Borthwick Castle, near the borderlands between Scotland and England.

Today the castle has been beautifully renovated into a hotel for weddings, events, and individual visits. But over the past seven centuries it has played some surprisingly prominent roles in Scottish history.

Built in 1430 by the first Lord Borthwick, the castle is not a romantic Disney Sleeping Beauty-type castle. Instead, after Lord Borthwick helped free King James I from eighteen years’ imprisonment in England and bring him back to Scotland, the grateful king granted him a charter to build a stronghold fortress castle in the countryside outside Edinburgh.

Two 100 ft. high towers rise up out of pastoral, gently rolling farmland (maybe a little bit like Center Lisle?). Originally surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge and a grated portcullis gate, the towers were built of high quality stone blocks, with walls twenty feet thick at the base. The castle had a dungeon and some say that prisoners were sometimes given the option of trying to jump the distance between the tops of the two towers for their freedom – or suffer the consequences one way or the other.

Mary Queen of Scots honeymooned at Borthwick Castle and was a frequent visitor. She hid there in 1567 with her husband, the Earl of Bothwell, when they were being hunted by Scottish nobles intent on capturing him. The Earl got away but left his wife, the Queen, behind at Borthwick Castle. Not one to be intimidated by a siege of 1,000 soldiers, Mary disguised herself as a pageboy and escaped out the window of the Great Hall, riding through the enemy lines at night to join her husband.

In 1650, Oliver Cromwell attacked the castle, and one of the high towers still shows gaping scars where his cannon bombardments ripped out large chunks of the stone wall. Eventually, the Lord Borthwick of that time negotiated a deal allowing him to flee with his wife, child and all their movable furniture while Cromwell’s forces occupied the castle.

During World War II, treasures from Scottish museums and critical public records were moved to Borthwick Castle for safekeeping in case Edinburgh was bombed.

At least two ghosts are thought to haunt the castle. One is a young servant girl who was quickly dispatched by sword with her baby when she bore an unintended Borthwick son. The other is a chancellor who was caught embezzling money from the family and summarily “fired” by being burned to death.

Just down an impossibly pretty lane from the castle is the Borthwick Parish Church, with family and local graves surrounding it and, inside, the burial sepulchers of the first Lord and Lady Borthwick, with their likenesses gracing the raised stone tombs.

In 1973, my parents went to Scotland and visited Borthwick Castle. They were met with a sign outside its walls that said “No Visitors Allowed” but did that stop them? Of course not. A local woman encouraged them to try to see it anyway and they were rewarded by meeting the man who was reconstructing the castle into a destination and events hotel, after many decades of its being left derelict. They spent several hours with him as he showed them all through the castle, from the dungeons in the cellars to the soldiers’ garrison at the top, through all the bedrooms and the Great Hall, up and down the spiral staircases, and even out to the woods and stream behind the castle where Cromwell’s soldiers encamped with their cannons.

In December 2002, just before Alex turned double digits, I was hired by an international organization to attend a meeting in Scotland. Of course I took Alex with me so we could vacation afterwards. The rooms at Borthwick Castle were not available then so we stayed at a different castle not far away. But on Alex’s 10th birthday, we celebrated with a fabulous Christmas dinner in Borthwick Castle’s Great Hall with a dozen or so couples from the surrounding farms that supplied the castle with lamb, beef, and much of its food throughout the year.

After the dinner, we were getting ready to leave but the woman managing the dinner kept ignoring my request for a bill. As we sat resting by the enormous medieval fireplace, several musicians sauntered in and soon began playing lively sets of Scottish jigs and reels. The farm couples all got up, pushed the furniture to the sides of the room and started dancing – and then grabbed Alex and me, shoving us back and forth between them to stumble through the steps of the traditional dances as well!

What an incredibly unforgettable birthday celebration in our family castle!

See http://www.borthwickcastle.com/ for some terrific pictures and more information.

Picture One: Aunt CB in front of Borthwick Castle, July 1973
Picture Two: Damage from Oliver Cromwell’s cannons
Picture Three: Lord Borthwick Sepulcher, July 1973
Picture Four: My son, Alex, on a spiral staircase to the bedrooms
Picture Five: Great Hall

Dan Maffei, TaylorBaker Cousin for U.S. Congress!

Daniel Benjamin Maffei, son of Neil Maffei, Jr., grandson of Leona Howland Maffei, great grandson of Lillian Baker Howland, is running as the Democratic candidate for Congress from the 25th U.S. Congressional District of New York. This district stretches from Syracuse to the northeastern suburbs of Rochester, stomping grounds for many TaylorBaker Cousins both now and in the past.

This is Dan’s second run for the seat. In his first campaign for public office two years ago, he came within 3,400 votes of unseating Jim Walsh, the Republican representative who had held the seat for 9 terms. Challenged a second time, Walsh is instead retiring and Dan has a clear shot at winning, despite having two opponents in the current race.

While he had to build name recognition on his first campaign, Dan is no newcomer to central New York nor to politics. Dan was born and grew up in Syracuse, where his grandfather, Neil, owned a metal-plating plant. (Jack Kinsella briefly worked there, as well). Dan’s dad, Neil, Jr., and his stepmom live in Syracuse, and his mother, Louise, lives in DeWitt, where Dan lives, too. He has three younger siblings – twin brother Andrew and sister Sara, and Max.

Dan earned a Bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University and Master’s degrees from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has worked as a reporter and producer for Syracuse Channel 9 News, as well as for NJ Senator (and former New York Knicks star) Bill Bradley, the legendary NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Congressman Charles Rangel, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, and Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll.

In July, Dan married his sweetheart, Abby Davidson. A Huge Congratulations!

Check out Dan’s campaign website, maffeiforcongress.com. Good luck on November 4th!

Picture One: Sara, Dan, Neil Senior and Andrew
Picture Two: Sara and Dan
Picture Three: Dan with Max, 1989
Picture Four: Dan and Abby Davidson-Maffei