Birchez Associates LLC

When it comes to seeing wonderful places, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more knowledgeable in that department than Mary Jackson, a Manhattan-native who moved up to High Falls in the 1960s to work as an elementary school teacher.

“I really like travelling,” she gushes.  When pressed for where she’s been, she replies, “Oh, gosh!  I visited most states in the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska.  I’ve visited England, I’ve visited France, I’ve visited Greece, and Turkey, and Mexico, and Africa, and, of course, Canada.”

Then she remembers that there’s still a location she has on her list that has yet to be checked off:  “There’s only one place that I really hate that I didn’t get to see, and it was because the state department at that time said I shouldn’t go, because of the problems in Egypt — I wanted to go see the pyramids.  We were getting ready to go, and they said, because of the disturbances at that particular time that it wasn’t advisable, so we didn’t go.”

In fact, Mary’s travels have a bit of a reputation among her friends for the trouble she tends to find.

“M y friend used to joke with me, saying, ‘I don’t want to go anyplace that you’re going, because you have run into two or three revolutions.’  And he said, ‘they wait for you to come.’”

But she hasn’t given up hope: “I have a friend now who says, even though we have to limp, maybe we’ll go,” she says with a laugh.  “I would love to see the the pyramids.  I can’t imagine how people were able to build those things without the machinery of today.  Only back-power.  I would love to see it—I’m just unhappy that I won’t be able to climb them—just be able to see them.  Those in Mexico are not quite the same.  They’re great, but they’re not quite the same.”

Mary’s discriminating taste in construction is apparent; and as such, it’s especially telling when she discusses how she feels about The Birches at Esopus, her home for the last year.

“Really, I think that more people should take a look at this sort of place and see what’s being done for us,” she says of the building and the community.   “It really is a lovely place.”

It’s not difficult for Mary to enumerate the many reasons she’s a fan of her home.  Like when she lists the places she’s visited, the list of things she likes about The Birches at Esopus comes easy and without hesitation.

“The apartment is spacious; it’s easy to get to, because so many of the things we do, we do in Kingston.  It’s quiet, and they have done a marvelous job of doing the landscaping. And I don’t worry about maintenance — there are people here who work here that seem to come right away if something goes wrong, so I don’t have problems with upkeep.”

But that’s not all—the building’s fitness studio is one of Mary’s favorite features as well.

“I love the fitness studio.  Lately I’ve been going each day or so.  Mostly work on my own, but the trainer is a marvelous young lady —  I think she does very well with all of us.”

Mary also belongs to the community’s Residents’  Club, by whom she’s been asked to teach and lead crafts sessions.

“I love crafts,” she says.  “And I’ve been ask to teach them about making certain boxes, and origami, and things like that — I’ve done a lot of that.”

Brian Rubin for Birchez Associates, birchezassociates@gmail.com