Potpourri

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Here are some random things that I scanned last week:

The Green Thumb is a comb bound booklet from 1956. It is some gardening notes from Doc and Katy Abraham. They had a popular radio show that originated on WHAM from 1952 to 2002. They first started a newspaper column on gardening in 1947 and at one time it was in over 130 newspaper around the US. Both were educated at Cornell University but were simple in their style so they appealed to many people

Program for a joint dinner in 1915 by the Numismatic Assoc. and Philatelic Assoc. of Rochester. Fancy food and also some cigarettes were on the menu.

Cine-Kodak K-100 Cameras, is from 1957. It is an extended instruction manual for Kodak K-100 movie cameras. These models were kind of expensive because they had multiple lens attached.

Program for Radio Concerts by the Rochester Civic Orchestra. These were weekly concerts of classical music given at various local High Schools.

Then there are two programs for boxing matches put on by Aquinas Institute of Rochester; Annual Mission Bouts, 1956 and Annual Mission Bouts, 1958. Boxing was popular at this time. In fact, there were boxing matches on NBC TV Friday nights from 1949 to 1962. Rochester’s own boxer, Carmen Basilio, is featured in the 1956 program. These original programs are really musty smelling but no smell to the digitized versions. Never keep paper memorabilia in your basement.

Hit Songs of 1976 – #2

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Diana Ross has had a great career in music. First with The Supremes and after she left that group in 1970 on her own. Just a couple of weeks ago she was on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, and sang a collection of her greatest hits.

In 1976 she had a hit with “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To).” It was on the top of the Cash Box chart for the week of Jan. 4 – 10. It was at #1 on the Billboard chart for the week of Jan. 18 – 24. The song was written by by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin and produced by Masser. The song was nominated for a Academy Award for Best Song. Ross performed the song live at the Academy Awards ceremony via satellite from Amsterdam.

In the film, Mahogany, Diana is a struggling fashion design student who rises to become a popular fashion designer in Rome. This was a dramatic film and Diana only sang the theme. The film also starred Billy Dee Williams.

Merry Christmas

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Today is Eastern Orthodox Christmas. The picture is of a Russian Christmas but some Greek Orthodox Churches also celebrate Christmas today.

There were some Ukrainians in my High School and on Jan. 7th they would be absent to celebrate the holiday.

MCC 1970 Yearbook

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I got to scan another yearbook for Monroe Community College. This one is Recall 1970 that was lent to me by Pat M.

There are about 340 pictures of senior students. I noticed that in the rear of the yearbook there is a list of all the graduates and some are indicated as completing their requirements in August 1969 and January 1970. It appears that none of those have a photo in the yearbook.

There are more pages of Faculty and staff than pages of students.

The picture brings back memories to me and other genealogists. It is one of those old microfilm viewers that were used to view census microfilm and newspapers on microfilm. Many of those didn’t have a zoom and you ended up sticking your head inside to get a better view off of the film.

I have a mystery about MCC yearbooks. On the Yearbook Page I have links to digitized MCC yearbooks from SUNY. Those go up to 1971. The reference on the Rochester Public Library notes that the newest one they have is also for 1971. I even checked on eBay to see if there are any yearbooks newer than 1971. No, again. So it appears that MCC did not publish yearbooks after 1971. I did a AI query and it says that in 2025 MCC had over 2,000 students graduate. That is way too large number of students to publish a complete yearbook but why did they stop in after 1971?