IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY
Cohoes resident captures TroyCohoes history in new book
TROY, N.Y. >> Herb Hyde started out planning to write a trilogy of memoirs about growing up and reaching adulthood in Troy and Cohoes.
However, he recently published book number four, “Uncle John’s Diner,” and is already working on two more, including one detailing the past 50 years of RPI hockey highlights.
Hyde, who turns 75 on Jan. 29, discussed his newfound passion for writing during a signing event at Market Block Books, in downtown Troy on Saturday
“Troy was a bustling city in the early Sixties,” he said. “I always called it a miniature New York City. You had Monument Square, and Franklin Square up the street here. Troy Theater was one of the most beautiful theaters you could ever imagine, and there were whole rows of small businesses — restaurants, shoe shops, clothing stores.”
“You would stand here at Christmastime and there would be thousands of people walking around; music playing, policemen on the corner directing traffic. People felt safe,” he said.
But a decade that started with so much promise, including President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon, quickly spiraled downhill on Nov. 22, 1963, when he fell victim to an assassin’s bullet. Then came the antiwar movement, violent civil rights protests, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and Mar-
tin Luther King Jr.
Hyde grew up at the corner of “College and Eighth” streets in Troy, the title of his first book. Next, he wrote, “Herbie!!” about his experience at Troy High School, followed by “Hello Mudder,” reflections of a summer camp experience in the Catskills.
Everything in those books sets the stage for “Uncle John’s Diner,” the name of a popular neighborhood eatery in Cohoes, at the corner Remsen and Ontario streets. It’s near the former Troy District Shirt Company, where Hyde went to work right out of high school.
“This is a coming- of-age memoir that kind of details what I went through changing over from adolescence — a little wild, stupid and crazy at times — to finally becoming an adult,” he said.
Hyde wanted to go to college, but as the youngest son in a dirt-poor family of 10 kids, it wasn’t possible.
His father, Frank, who suffered from a serious circulatory ailment, lost his leg and left home before Hyde graduated from high school. His mother, Mabel, did the best she could to keep the family together while working as a waitress.
“She was a really great cook,” Hyde said. “She used to bake for all the neighbors. We struggled through the Forties and Fifties. That’s what I tried to express in my previous books because a lot of young people don’t know what it was like back then, especially for people with large families. They’d sometimes send children off to live with other people to help take care of them.”
“Uncle John’s Diner” is focused on 1962, when Hyde graduated from Troy High School until 1965 when he and his wife, Barbara, were married and began raising a family in Cohoes. They’ve been together 53 years and have daughters and four grandchildren.
“The three closest guys I hung around with are also still married,” he said. “It’s kind of unique in this day and age.”
Hyde’s personal life was greatly impacted by the decline of the Capital Region’s inner cities and industrial base during the Sixties.
“Cohoes was one of the preeminent textile cities in the country,” he said. “Troy District Shirt Company used [to] supply 1,500 JC Penney stores with all their men’s dress shirts. We used to see shirts coming in from Malaysia and South America and they were terrible. We made fun of them, but guess what? Unbeknownst to us, JC Penney and other companies were outsourcing jobs. That was the beginning of the end.”
When the factory closed, Hyde went to work at the former Ford Motor Company plant in Green Island. But eventually that closed, too, another major blow to the local economy.
During this time, he went back to school and earned a bachelor’s degree from Regents College, which sparked his interest in writing. After retiring from the state Tax Department, in 2006, he decided to put childhood, adolescent and young adult memories down on paper.
“History is important,” he said. “If we forget our past, we make the same mistakes in the future.”
Hyde laments the loss of significant downtown buildings during the Sixties, under the guise of urban development. However, he’s pleased with the rebirth Troy and Cohoes have witnessed in recent years.
“You’re seeing a renaissance here,” he said. “They’re trying to make downtowns come back to life again. You have to take what you have, this beautiful architecture and great educational facilities, and use that as the basis of moving forward.”