I'm afraid that the summer Olympics might be a disaster given the situation in Brazil... but I've had similar concerns with prior Olympics and the seem to find a way to pull it off.
I went to the men's downhill at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid (at Whiteface). The men's downhill is much better on television as in person you only see them wiz by the short portion of the course that you are on, but being there was cool.
I had tickets to the men's ski jumping but caught a bad cold at the men's downhill and ended up giving them to a friend. After the event these friends spent some time at the bars in town watching the US/Soviet hockey game that was just down the street at what is now the Herb Brooks Arena and Lake Placid was wild from what they told me.
A year earlier I had watched the US men's hockey team in an exhibition game at the arena and I have since attended the Div III NCAA Frozen Four there a few times. Even though it was long ago there is an interesting aura there. during one of those visits we did go over and toured the ski jump and bobsled facilities so at least I got to see what I missed.
There is now talk of Lake Placid being involved in a regional bid for a future Winter Olympic Games.... I'd love to see it happen.
Wow...
I was still working then. We lived in Saratoga Springs, and used to make weekly trips to the Adirondacks... One of my stores was in Saranac Lake, and I used to stay in Lake Placid a lot. For the year before the Olympics, I'd go to the Hockey rink to watch the Olympic team work out. The Bobsled run was also one of my regular stop offs, as was the Olympic Bar in Placid... which had as an awning over the door, the front end of a sled from the 1932 Olympics. I'd sit and tip a few with some of the old timers who had actually driven a sled in those Olympics. Great Stories.
I had to work, so missed the actual Olympics, but I used to bring three of my kids to Whiteface, to ski during the winters while we were in NY.
In 1982, DW and I were looking for a home in the Adirondaks and found a beautiful mountainside home about 5 miles from Placid, with a deck the had a clear view of the ski jump. Price was right... $33K but the single problem was ... no water. The next house on the mountainside, had drilled down 900 feet through solid rock, with no sign of water... Just as well.
Memories of this beautiful part of the country stay with me still. Had breakfast with Kate Smith in the Lake Placid Inn in 1975... She liked fried eggs with maple syrup. Y'all probably don't even know who Kate Smith was, or how much she influenced the outcome of WWII.
Doesn't take too much to trigger wordy memories.
