Our team of cracked reporters has gone to the far corner of our block to solve the riddle posed seven days ago, with photos and discussion, in the post “my hydrant obsession” (Aug. 22, 2008): Has this fire hydrant outside Arthur’s Market always been smack in the middle of the sidewalk at this busy corner in the Schenectady Stockade?
The surprising answer (according to the people who should know) is: YES, INDEED, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN RIGHT THERE.
Although “always been at that spot” was one of the options we posited last week, we were definitely leaning toward the alternative scenario — that the hydrant had to be moved away from the curb in order to install that cut-in ramp. It seemed nearly impossible, having walked by often for two decades, that the hydrant could suddenly seem so out of place if it had not been moved. Because it looked misplaced and in the way in a Very Schenectady sort of way, we believed it had in fact been moved. We thought so, even though Artur and Joyce Wachala, who own the adjacent Arthur’s Public Market (at the SW corner of N. Ferry St. and Front St.) both told me it had always been there.
Here is the evidence that brought me to the Always-Been-Right-There conclusion:
This photo taken in 1962, which I found on Monday at the Schenectady County Historical Society’s Library, seemed to suggest that the hydrant had never been particularly close to either the curb or the telephone pole.- Deputy Chief Kurt Gerfin of the Schenectady Fire Department left me a phone message on Tuesday, responding to my call, saying he doubted it had been moved, because Schenectady hydrants are always placed directly over the water main and it is unlikely the main was moved when the sidewalk and curb were replaced.
- Fire Captain Vincent Krawiecki echoed Chief Gerfin’s statement the next day, when we chatted about the hydrant’s location, and then referred me to the City of Schenectady’s Water Department, saying they would know if it had been moved.
- Although the last week in August is prime vacation time
for public servants, I was lucky enough to find Steven Caruso of the Water Department’s engineering unit in and amiable yesterday (Aug. 28). Mr. Caruso informed me that he had been on site when the sidewalk was poured and the hydrant was not moved during that project — in other words, it is in the same spot where it’s always been. Steven was even nice enough to agree with me that the hydrant’s location is unusually far from the curb and in the way of foot traffic. He/we could not, however, explain my — or my neighbors’ — failure to notice the odd location before the new sidewalk was installed.
As amazing as it may seem, I’ve been walking past that fireplug for twenty years without either stumbling over it or commenting on its unorthodox location. It took the installation of a new sidewalk, and removal of the mailbox that had been nearby it and that telephone pole, to make that red hydrant stick out like a red herring and catch our attention. Just a tiny change in context or perspective can make a big difference in perception. A lesson to keep in mind as my aging memory bank continues to deteriorate. Another lesson (to which Arthur surely agrees): Joyce Wachala is always right. For now, I’m trading in my reporter’s pad for a padded futon.
p.s. For the Still Incredulous: There is one more stone to turn over to get to the bottom of the hydrant moving issue. A&K Slip Forming, Inc., of Cobleskill, NY, did the actual sidewalk and curb installation. If that hydrant was in fact moved into the middle of the sidewalk — inadvertantly or intentionally — they know for sure. If you get an answer from the folks at A&K, please let us know.
All this talk of hydrants, poor vision and bumping into things, sent me to the magic search box at David Lanoue’s The Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website (where you will find 9000 poems written by the Japanese haiku master and translated by Prof. Lanoue). Here are a few of the many gems I found:
standing dead center
in the downpour…
a blind man
tripping over the dog
again…
night of winter rain
the cats are courting
bumping
heads
crossing a bridge
behind a blind man…
frog
blindly following
the setting sun…
a frog
smack in the middle
of the Old Quarter…
fireflies
barley husking–
in the middle of a highway
a tea kettle
watered by
the village dog…
chrysanthemum
………… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue
afterwords (Sept. 1, 2008, Labor Day): If only Lawrence the Indian wasn’t so taciturn, he could sure help clear up our Hydrant Mystery. I discovered today that even Wall-e has been having hydrant troubles:
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