Credit: Roger W. Snyder
Norman Osofsky was sound asleep. Earlier that evening during the summer of 1952, he set his alarm to rouse him at 5 o’clock, when he would begin his chores and the morning milking on the family dairy farm in Boston Corner, N.Y. Afterwards he would board the school bus for the ride to Roeliff Jansen Central School, where he was a sophomore.
Suddenly, at around 2 a.m., Norman was awakened by a loud, muffled roar. Jumping from his bed, he looked out the window, expecting to see some evidence of a major train derailment on New York Central’s nearby Harlem Division. But he saw nothing, and a silence fell, once again, over the sleepy farm community. Puzzled, he went back to bed, but tossed and turned, wondering about the sound that shook him from his sleep.
In the morning, the dawn’s early light and neighbors’ phone calls directed his gaze toward the west slope of the Taconic Mountain Range, above what is now Undermountain Road and behind the Shakshober Farm. There it was: a huge scar on the mountainside, carved by a gigantic boulder that had broken off a rock face. It rolled and slid down the side of the mountain, crushing trees and leaving a path of visible destruction.
After getting home from school, Norm hiked up to see the mute evidence of what had startled him out of a sound sleep. Rather than a rock slide, he described the event as a “boulder roll.” The scar on the Taconic Range was the talk of Millerton, Boston Corner, Copake and Copake Falls for many years thereafter.
Chronicles is the New Pine Plains Herald’s continuation of our My Pine Plains memoir series, chronicling life in and around Pine Plains, Ancram, Milan, Stanford and Gallatin. The Herald welcomes submissions from our readers that highlight memories and lived experiences from all people of all backgrounds.
Please send your submissions to editor@newpineplains.org