By Ted Waddell
HURLEYVILLE — December 10, 2002 – On Sunday, the talk of the town was Christmas trees as the Sullivan County Historical Society presented their 16th annual Holiday Theme Tree Exhibit.
In addition to more than 20 decorated holiday trees, visitors were treated to a visit by Santa Claus, excerpts from “The Nutcracker” by students of the Joan Pletter School of Ballet and music by Donna Denman and members of the Mountain Tones Community Band.
Following the program, Hurleyville First led folks in singing Christmas carols outside the museum.
Refreshments were provided by members of the Sullivan County Historical Society and Catskill Art Society.
The 2002 Theme Trees’ rundown: Catskill Mt. Business & Professional Women “Women Mean Business”; Catskill Art Society “The Joy of Painting”; St. John’s Sunday School “Heaven and Earth”; Bee Schoch “Snow Flakes & Lace”; Sullivan County Bee Keepers “To Bee Or Not To Bee”; Literacy Volunteers “Literacy is the Key”; Frederick A. Cook Society “Cold at the Pole”; Leni Binder “Buttons & Bows,” “Jingle Bells” and “Forever U.S.A.”; John and Bernice Masten “Early America”; Louann Rexford “Lena’s Tree”; SCHS Archives “Warning: Genealogy is Addictive”; Rita Goetz and Rachel Keebler “Naturally Christmas”; Rose Valley Senior Citizens “Happy Holidays”; Helen Roth and Elaine Bawn “Snow Mountain.”
Continuing: Bethel First “Winter Garden”; Hurleyville First “The Stars of Hurleyville”; 4-H “Member’s Tree”; Hurleyville Post Office “We Deliver For You”; Hurleyville Firemen, Ladies Auxiliary & EMS “Firematic”; Carol Smythe, Town of Neversink Historian “Yesterday’s Kitchen”; Rita Sheehan and Linda Kalinowski “Wedding Tree”; Ellen Neuman “Dillon Family Tree”; Dorothy Muthig “The Peaceable Kingdom (For the Holidays, at Least)”; the Burns Family “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown”; the Forever Kids “Lolly-Pop Tree”; and C & R Daycare “Angels”.
LaVerne Black, a photographer from Hasbrouck, and her husband John brought their 22-month-old granddaughter Brianna Goetschius of Liberty out to see all the Christmas trees.
“The theme trees were as beautiful as they always are, if not more so,” said Black. “There were so many little touches of people’s lives . . . a lot of personality.”
Brianna’s reaction to all the lights and glitter?
“She was very excited and was able to identify a lot of the decorations,” said her proud grandmother. “She kept wanting to go back to the trees.”