The teacher has a pet.

His name is Frank Burnett.

He can play basketball

because you see, he is so tall.

He likes to dance with Miss Volker alone

when he gets ahead of Harold Stone.

He likes to dodge away from girls

because they have such pretty curls.

                                            Robert Rowe & John Sullivan Jr., 1927

                                          Students at Long Lake Central School

Time sailed on as the snow drifted in and cold winters prevailed. Balsam boughs hung low and autumn leaves floated like confetti to the blackened earth. The men were home, safe, secure in their little hamlet. They now could focus on the structure of the town.

Long Lake had entered the roaring ’20s and the baseball era. The purchase of land for an athletic and recreational field was approved by the townspeople on October 1, 1921. The location was along the highway leading from the village across the lake and at the corner of a plot of ground owned and occupied by Charles F Jones and Sophia Rowe who owned the restaurant on the same lane. Later, the ballpark was transferred for one dollar to the school district.

Daylight savings time was adapted as of May 28, 1921. The Jazz age zoomed in with the town granting Bart Kelly a license for a dance hall at the Lakeside Lodge and a public dock was installed near Laheys’ Store. In 1920 the townspeople approved the loan of $55,000 to reconstruct the highway from the end of the iron bridge across Long Lake, running north and west along the road to Long Lake West to connect with the “the present McAdam Road to Tupper Lake.” (Aber, 1965) 

Laheys’ Store circa 1915 in Long Lake. Photos provided by Gail Huntley