Honeoye Falls

Not many people know this, but People magazine was first published in 1890. Their inaugural issue featured, as it does every November, the sexiest man alive. Not surprisingly, they chose a resident of Honeoye Falls.... Oddly, aside from a propensity to cause Victorian women to swoon, to this day nothing is known of this mystery man.

This is not a picture of Zebulon Norton. When he was alive there was no Facebook, Instagram, or Tik-Tok, so we have no photographic evidence of his humble brags or when he was tagged in his friend’s post while they were eating brunch. We don’t have any videos of him attempting the WAP dance.... But we do have a picture that John Quincy Adams posted on his Instagram on election day, February 9, 1825. He’d probably have the same message, today. (We may never know how JQA managed to use the Helvetica font, which wasn’t developed until 1957)

The year was 1911. Floyd was a down-on-his-luck cobbler’s apprentice, from the wrong side of the tracks, with an affinity for boxing. Diane was a Honeoye Falls debutante, and the valedictorian of her class. From the first time he laid eyes on her, Floyd was enamored. Diane was intrigued.... Her father, James Court, was the proprietor of the Village Home for the Aging. He forbade his daughter from associating with the likes of Floyd, despite Floyd’s aspiration to, one day, open his own shoe repair shop. Needless to say, there was drama. There always has been, around these parts. In hopes of finding a more suitable suitor, Mr. Court decided to send Diane off to school. The farther away, the better, as far as he was concerned. When Floyd heard the news, he was devastated. Despondent, Floyd drove to Diane’s house, grabbed his gramophone from the back seat and hoisted it over his head. It just so happened that Diane was standing at the upstairs parlor window at the time. Floyd won Diane’s heart, that day. It’s rumored that, as they drove away, the sweet sounds of their favorite song, Shaky Eyes, could still be heard trailing off into the distance. It’s also rumored that their story, and that iconic moment, was the inspiration for the movie, Say Anything. (It’s not known how Floyd, the cobbler, could afford a Model T, or why he carried his gramophone in the back seat of his car.) See more

Moon over Village Hall.