In the mid 1980's Eric Schafer's legendary band Public Welfare performed a song U.S.A. around Endicott that succeeded in capturing a mood or undercurrent of American life. Presented here is a thoughtfully nuanced demo version of that song combined with photos taken in Endicott, New York in July 2009. Endicott is a proud and beautiful small town in Upstate New York that has been hit hard by globalization, the financial crisis, and most of all the abandonment of IBM and the contamination they left behind. Here, at ground zero of The Plume, on streets bearing the names of the country's greatest presidents, life goes on.
U.S.A. is used with kind permission by Eric Schafer.
This excellent report tells more about the aftermath of IBM in Endicott:
At The Confluence - Binghamton
1990 video postcard of Binghamton and the Triple Cities by Bob Huckabone of Contemporary Video Productions in Endicott, and Broome County Historian Gerry Smith.. This is an amazing look at the Greater Binghamton area from about a quarter-century ago.
Please check out their website and support this great work by purchasing a higher quality DVD version of this video time capsule.
Thank you Bob Huckabone for permission to share this video.