During the late 1940's and early 1950's, Zena Mill Pond was the singlemost popular spot in all of Woodstock. Hundreds gathered on weekends to swim and pose and paint and chainsmoke and eat and drink and talk -- mostly about the business of art, who was selling, who was buying, down in The City. Like "The War", which still refers to WWII after all these years, "The City" could only mean one thing if you were in the Catskill Mountains -- New York.

New York was where the sales were -- at the Fifth Avenue Gallery which peddled Woodstock Workshop art at a fraction of their value to be sold in department stores such as B. Altmans, Sachs Fifth Avenue and Macy's. Of course nobody signed their real names; many used their middle name or something altogether fictitious, for fear that they would destroy their serious art market while making bread & butter money so they could keep buying supplies and maybe food, too, if there was any money left over. Keep in mind that this is at the tail-end of the depression and WWII, so money is tight and jobs are scarce even down in The City.

The swimmers in this 1953 snapshot are E.J. Gold, Billy Beasley, Frances Halsband and Danny Rosen, all residents of Woodstock.