October 29

October Scene on a Back Road with an Uncomfortable Name

On the East side of the Chenango Valley between Norwich and Sherburne is a little settlement in a draw that's now called "Pleasant Valley," a name imposed by the USGS on its maps in the early 1950's. This particular road to the place, though, held onto its much older name well into the 1960's, if not beyond: Nigger Hollow Road. I have no real knowledge of where the name came from in the mid-1800's, but guess that a free black family may have settled there then, and the place was named in a matter-of-fact way without any intended offense.

(The car whose hood appears in the picture was our 1964 turquoise and white Rambler Ambassador.)

Date: October, 1964
Location: Chenango County, New York
By: LH