Cabin Living: July 2012

Borscht; an eastern European soup made with beets, cabbage, potatoes, or other vegetables and served hot or chilled, often with sour cream. Borscht Belt; the hotels of the predominantly Jewish resort area in the Catskill Mountains, many of them offering nightclub or cabaret entertainment, so called, facetiously, from the quantities of borscht consumed there. Dirty Dancing; a third rate film starring Patrick Swaze and Jennifer Gray inspired by events at Grossinger's Resort in Liberty, NY.

Every Jew from a certain generation prior to the opening of Disney World in 1971 and, according to many websites, the civil rights laws of the 1960's, has spent at least one weekend at a hotel in the Borscht Belt of the Catskill Mountains. A region in which I have purchased a retirement home and also have referred to as my ancestral New York Jewish Homeland. Well my cabin is actually in the northern Catskills and the Jewish resort area was predominantly in the southern Catskills around Monticello and Ellenville. It was accessed from New York City via Route 17 with a stop at the Red Apple Rest in Tuxedo, NY. Concord, Kutshers, The Nevele, and of course Grossinger's. There were actually hundreds of hotels but these were the biggies. In its hey day Grossingers went through 26,000 eggs a week! My parents took me and my sister and brother to a few of these resorts but not to Grossinger's and I will let my mother explain why:

As you can see, the indoor pool isn't what it used to be. Neither is the rest of the Borscht Belt......what it used to be. The entire industry and its associated infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decrepitude. No longer do parents want to have time away from their kids on vacations. No longer is sitting around playing cards amidst the mountains good enough. There must be actors dressed in mouse costumes, roller coasters, and a hundred restaurants to choose from, to keep everyone entertained.

I recently took my parents on a brief tour of the old hotels, or what is left of them, and since words can't do justice to what we found, I will let some pictures do the talking. My father, by the way, worked as a waiter at the Fur worker's resort in South Fallsburg after World War II. It is totally gone. Which is just as well because the leaders of the fur workers union were not only Jewish, but they were Communist sympathizers as well. According to Stanley, it was the only resort in the Borscht Belt that gave their workers off one day a week. And what did they do on their day off? I will let Stanley explain:

Here then, are some pictures of what we found: