Memories of life in a small American town in Central New York capture, with love and humor, the wonderful human beings who peopled its green valley and sheltering hills.

The New Pucker Street is a companion book to Pucker Street, the First 100 Years, and continues to document the civic activity of the community of Marcellus from 1953 to the present. On the cover is The Steadman House, recently dedicated as the home of the Marcellus Historical Society. Located in the heart of the Village, it not only provides a link to a precious past, but is a 19th century landmark that projects the community's commitment to civic improvement. It is an enduring symbol of the community's history, its strength and majesty, but also proclaims its presence in the 21st century. Its steps and pillars are inviting and announce to the world that Marcellus, while retaining its authenticity, is ever adapting to change, responsible change that is reflected in the lives and accomplishments of its citizens, young and senior.
The New Pucker Street documents many of the changes that have taken place in Marcellus since the celebration of the Village Centennial in 1953. In the last fifty years, the traditional picture of Marcellus as an agricultural and milling community changed. Many old homes and buildings in the Village have fallen to the wrecker's ball, while other landmarks have been remodeled to a former glory. As more families moved to the suburbs after the war, there would be an increase in the population, dramatically changing the make-up of the native people - and reflected particularly in the school population. In the next fifty years, the role of government would change, as more services would be provided, and an aging infrastructure required continuous consideration by elected representatives.
The next fifty years would see the emergence of the "greatestgeneration." When the young men returned to Marcellus after the war, they were joined by equally involved women of that generation, and in the words of former President George H. W. Bush, "did the work of democracy day by day, every day in their hometown," helping to build bridges to the 21st century - ones that their own children, grandchildren and great grandchildren would follow.
The New Pucker Street also details some of the issues facing an American village in modern times, and it also contains an epilogue, highlighting some lessons that might be learned from the past - ones that might serve as guidelines for what lies ahead.
The New Pucker Street portrays Marcellus like many small towns across America - as home - a place where many people have settled, and to which many people return. They return because it is home, and they always feel welcome.

Originally, The Town He Loved So Well was conceived as a work intended only for the author's children so that they might come to know the upstate village of another era during the fifteen-year period from their Papa's first memories of existence until he left for college. Like most children, his little girl and boy asked him - especially at bedtime - to tell them a story from the olden days, and he gladlly comlied, much as his father had done before him. Like most fathers, he wished to convey to his offspring his own roots as he emphasized the best aspects of family heritage and rural life in what their grandmother called God's Country. Especially, he wanted to preserve for his children the memory of their grandmother, who seemed to have found her paradise in this particular spot of earth carved by the great glacier as it moved south with its artistic hand millenniums before.
Somewhere during the three-year period of compiling stories from his youth, the purpose became more universally driven by the striking dedication in an earlier history of the town by his former elementary school principal: To all those who have ever called Marcellus Home. The third-person narrative intends to convey a less personal memoir so that other Marcellians might be encouraged to write of the times and, most of all, the individuals whom they have known in this special place.

Marcellus, like most communities, developed at at the crossroads of two major transportation routes in Central New York State - Nine Mile Creek and Seneca Turnpike.
While abundant water and good soil in the area were significant attractions for settlers in the late 1790s, the water power provided by Nine Mile Creek, an outlet of Otisco Lake, was equally important, attracting a variety of individuals who build a diversity of mills (grist, saw, barley and woolen) on its banks.The products of these mills attracted even more individuals to the valley to work in the mills themselves, as well as providing other services for neighboring farmers.
Following an old Indian trail, a primitive road had been opened across Onondaga County in the early 1790s and the first settlers came to Marcellus either on foot or horseback, following that old trail. Seneca Turnpike was an outgrowth of what came to be known as the Great Indian Trail, that stretched across the state and became a major highway for people moving from New England and the settled east to what was then the western frontier. The settlement that came to be the Village of Marcellus was located where this highway of east-west travel intersected Nine Mile Creek.
During the first fifty years of its existence, the community continued to attract people and industries at a steady pace. As these numbers increased, more people tended to concentrate in the valley that would become the Village, living closer and closer together, in contrast to their rural neighbors. The inhabitants soon began to realize the need for some sort of organization and it was out of this urgency that the Village was incorporated in 1853.
During theyears up to 1953, the Village of Marcellus changed and yet, it remained the same. In 1853, nestled at the bottom of a valley and surrounded by limestone hills, the sleepy hamlet was a trading center for local farmers and a crossroads for itinerant travelers on their way west. By 1953, it was still a center of the local farm trade, but also a home for hundreds who worked in the manufacturing of agriculture-related products. Its economy had changed, but not dramatically.
What had once been a small homogeneous village of about 350 people, similar to each other in background and customs, had become a diverse community of almost 1,400 residents from many different lifestyles. The community was much larger, but the people were still one, now out of many.
When it became a Village in 1853, a major concern for the elected Trustees was the animals that roamed the dirt streets that often turned to mud. By 1953, their main concern was the automobiles that clogged the macadamized streets that needed constant repair. Village government had become more complex, yet the problems remained quite similar in nature.
In the years that followed incorporation, the residents found it necessary to adapt to many changes in the Village. Many times this took the form of a reworking, a revision, or a modification - usually an improvement on what had been.