Oh, for the Good Old Days

A reader recently gave me her copy of Jewels of Moments: An Educator's Fifty-Year Recollection: 1950-2000. It was written by Alan W. Sugarman, who, after being discharged from the army after World War II, finishing college, and getting a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia, started his teaching career right here in Hudson. His interview with the superintendent of schools took place only weeks after state troopers had raided Hudson and shut down the brothels. 

Sugarman's memoir contains this reminiscence:

A few years after, having secured the position and having moved on to a principalship, I remember a meeting with parent representatives of the Hudson community, many of whom profited from the business with the "Houses." At one point in the discussion, reference was made to the raid and the wife of a grocery storeowner asked me what I thought about closing down those "houses of  ill repute." I responded that prostitution is illegal and that there was no other option, to which she responded--"yes, I know, Mr. Sugarman, but then you always knew where the children were!" I had no answer to that critical concern.

Copies of Jewels of Moments can be purchased at the Hudson Opera House.