Mighty Friday in Glens Falls

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

I’ve long argued that Glens Falls is “the busiest little city in America.” Last Friday made my case yet again.

Within about a mile of each other, at least four diverse events drew crowds.

• The Adirondack Stampede Rodeo at the Cool Insuring Arena attracted 3,700 fans Friday — and sold out Saturday with 4,700, arena executive director Jeff Mead told The Chronicle.

• At Glens Falls High School it was Friday Night Lights, Section II, Class B football semi-finals. The home-standing Black Bears beat Schalmont 20-0. “Largest crowd since our Black Bears Block Party/home opener.

• “More than 375” music lovers packed First Presbyterian Church for an organ concert by Johan Vexo, choir organist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

• Downtown, it was Million Dollar Quartet, the musical about the legendary Sun Records recording session that brought together for the one and only time Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash in rock and roll’s infancy. Directed by Mickey Luce in the Great Hall of St. Mary’s-St. Alphonsus Catholic School, it was the first production ever of The Arts Academy at St. Mary’s — yet another local grass roots performance initiative. I went Saturday night. The mood was ebullient, the room was jammed. I was told the crowd was good Friday too.

This city of 14,000 consistently overachieves both its population number and its demographics because so many people make things happen — and people turn out in curiosity, enthusiasm & support.

(It’s a big part of why The Chronicle newspaper still trucks along 43 years after we started it.)

Of course, it’s not just Glens Falls residents who drive Glens Falls’s successes. South Glens Falls, Queensbury, Hudson Falls, Fort Edward, Lake George — the entire region makes Glens Falls their hub. Beyond the local orbit, we’re a place people gravitate to and want to be.

The busy-ness of Glens Falls is something to be proud of and build on.

I tell visitors the secret recipe to this community’s success is its tradition of two things — enterprise and civic commitment.

We have people who do things, and people who give back. Think Henry Crandall, who gave us the library and the parks. Think Finch, Pruyn, and its original papermaking family, who came to my mind again during the organ concert at First Presybterian. The extended Pruyn family is why there is that church and why it has those two world-class organs.

Some people underestimate this place, these people, this winning formula. As a native son it galls me. Glens Falls works and it’s worked going back centuries. We don’t need saving, we don’t need enlightening. we don’t need transformation. We need to keep building with the formula we already have.

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