In the 1970's and 80's two things happened that helped start Tivoli back on the road to recovery. One was the purchase of Callendar House, an old Livingston Estate in Tivoli, by Count Jean de Castella. He started a horse breeding farm and bought several of the Tivoli homes for rentals which he offered to his employees. He employed several of the Villagers to work on his farm, including my daughter Laura who "sat up" at night with the pregnant mares when it was near their time to deliver and my son Paul, who cleaned the stalls and checked the fields for animal holes. The horses, especially the unborn horses, would be worth a fortune so they didn't want any broken legs from the woodchuck holes. He hired an Irishman, John Quaid, who had worked on a horse farm in Ireland to oversee the place and soon horse trailers were coming to Tivoli for the services of Count Castella's famous stud horse on a regular basis. The other occurence was the opening of a Mexican restaurant. David Weiss, a former Bard Student, opened the Santa Fe in half of Dino's old store on Broadway. It was tiny, just eight small tables, but right away became a favorite spot. Within a few years, David bought the building and enlarged the restaurant. Like the Count, David also began to purchase property in Tivoli, including the Laundromat, located across the street from the Santa Fe. Previously, just called Tivoli Corner Laundromat, it was a hangout for the local kids, some who would pay an adventurous person a quarter to get into a dryer and go around a few times. The building was given a coat of paint and renamed "the Lost Sock Lauderette". Santa Fe Restaurant is still going strong these days, popular as ever. The horse farm, however, is gone, replaced by Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, a facility used for students in the summer. Some of our guests at the Bird's Nest have been here to see their children dance. This year Griffin Dunne of the New York Times called Tivoli, "Brooklyn on the Hudson" and wrote "the local crowd has an effortlessly hip and creative edge about it, as if it fled Brooklyn before the rest of us ruined it...the women all look like Dylans' girlfriends from his early album covers.." I guess he didn't see me, gray haired, wearing sweat pants and sneakers, going in to the Post Office to buy stamps.