Hello,

 

While researching the Concord Resort Hotel (Sullivan County, NY), I found your website.  Do you purposely travel to find abandoned  places?  Why?  Does that excite you?  If you have NEVER been to any place before it was abandoned, how could it NOT be forgotten to you? 

 

Do you mean for your website to be a tribute to those places?  I don't think so.  I was very taken aback by your website.  At first I thought it was only for The Concord Hotel because I had searched by that subject, but  then I realized it wasn't.  I hardly think abandoned shopping centers would be of interest to anyone.

 

 ...except for maybe.......myself.

 

Your site has pictures of the Caldor shopping center in Middletown, NY.  If you recall, Middletown is not too far from where the Concord is located.  My grandparents lived in Middletown before they passed away and I remember Caldors. I was also a guest at the Concord  for the first 22 years of my life, 1975-1997.  I have beautiful memories of those places and seeing the photos on your website struck an emotional chord in my heart.  I find it hard to understand the meaning of your website.

 

I think you should know what the Concord Hotel looked like in its prime years.  I have attached pictures.  

 

Did you know that I visited the Concord every summer and winter break from school?  It was my second home and I grew up there.  I remember Morris Katz, the artist who could paint a pic in minutes, do you?  His paintings were actually good and then there was the quiet Asian guy who did self-portraits of the guests.  I always wondered how they could sit still for so long, but it was well worth it. That artist was gifted.

 

Winter break brought skiing, toboganning, indoor and outdoor ice-skating, hot chocolate at the Ski Chalet, and Magic Shows every New Year's Eve with the day camp.

 

I remember the "Congress" housing unit for the busboys and camp counselors, etc. working on their summer breaks.... hayrides with the day camp, miniature golf, the old playground and the big tree that I used to play under (then the new playground was built), the berry bush nearby, the small kiddie pool, I remember the paddle ball courts where my dad and brothers played everyday in the summer, having fried chicken and watermelon with the day camp (out by the courts/pool), I remember the sports guy "Joey," volleyball, shuffleboard...

 

... the beautiful flower garden by the partking lot, the manicured lawns and golf courses, the lake, row boats, paddleboats, free cold water from the "water coolers" at the tennis courts, the "Night Owl Lounge", its bar,  the band that played every night downstairs at 9:15 in the Promenade Lobby, their song "The Best of Times are Now," the "Bathing Beauty Contest" out by the pool hosted by the same band who also played at the gazebo.  They played everywhere, the lead singer would always tell jokes in between songs, I passed by them so many times in the lobby, and heard them from the gazebo even when I was at the other side of the pool, that pool was huge.

 

I remember the great shows every weekend in the Imperial room, seeing Andrew Dice Clay, Ray Romano, Suzanne Somers, Dirty Dancing, Miami Sound Machine, Smokey Robinson,  and many other great acts, the indoor pool, steam room and suana, massages, the card room and "Canasta," the coffee shop with the best ice-cream, sundry shop, gift shop, nail salon.  I had my first manicure there, my first kiss by the lake. The video arcade with Super Mario Brothers, Pac-Man, Circus Charlie, Centipede, Paperboy, The Guantlet....... all the friends I made in camp, one with whom I still keep in touch with today.