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From the editor - Barry Lewis

“My family used to go there.”

“I worked up there.”

“We spent every summer there.”

I hear that all the time. Right after I tell someone I live in Sullivan County. It doesn’t matter - big-time politicians, hot-shot developers or the person I just happened to bump into while touring another state.

They all wear the memory like a badge of honor. Yeah, they’ve been to the Catskills. Then they smile. And you can practically see the projector rolling in their minds, flashing home movies of those summer trips when they left Jersey and the City and took the Quickway up to the Mountains, stopping for a midway bathroom break at the always-open Red Apple Rest.

It might have been a one-time weekend getaway. The same few days at the end of July. A whole summer at the bungalow colony. Doesn’t matter. They were here. And they can’t wait to tell me about their time spent in what was affectionately known as the Borscht Belt. To share a moment that is as much a part of their life as the day they got married or the birth of their child. And they wonder.

Whatever happened to those waiters and busboys? To the kid they bunked with for two straight summers? To the girl they played spin-the-bottle with behind the casino? To the family who was in the next bungalow year after year?

It was their life, and it’s forever part of their history. It’s what makes this place so special. It connects with generations who saw the Catskills as their only affordable escape from the sweltering summer sun that would lay claim to tar beach. A place where you could feel a cool breeze in August, which, for apartment dwellers, was like finding a pool in the desert.

You couldn’t drive a quarter of a mile without coming across another hotel. Another bungalow colony. Another sleep-away camp.

Enjoy these Classic Catskill memories. And when your done, take a moment to share your pictures, mementos and stories, still as fresh as the flowers that lined walkways of these once-upon-a-time grand resorts. Or as fresh as the fish that came out of the dining room kitchens. It’s your memory.

And its’s our history. Our special time Let’s not forget it.