I loved it when the Marvelous Midge Maisel shouted, “We’re Going to the Catskills!”

The Catskills!

As Abe Weissman tried to figure out how he was going to squeeze the family’s luggage in a towed trailer, wife Rose and daughter Midge said you just can’t have too many outfits when you’re spending your summer at Steiner Mountain Resort.

The family settles in for the usual Catskills routine: eat, dance, eat, play games, eat and listen to jokes from the hotel tummler, as Midge sneaks away to perform at the Concord.

Some 30 years earlier, I watched Dr. Houseman, daughter Baby and the family drive up to the mountains for a summer vacation at Kellerman’s.

The family settles in for the usual Catskills routine: eat, dance, eat, play games, eat and listen to jokes from the hotel tummler, as Baby sneaks away to perform at the Sheldrake.

What about Marty and Pearl Kantrowitz who spent the Summer of ‘69 at Dr. Fogler’s Bungalows colony in the Catskills where they could eat, dance, eat, play games, eat and hop over to hotels. But while Marty was making the weekday commute back to Brooklyn, seeing how fast he could get to the Red Apple Rest, Pearl sneaks away to Woodstock with the Blouse Man.

Are you noticing a trend?

Seems that every generation is reminded about just how special it was to summer in the Catskills.

Steiner’s and Kellerman’s could have been Grossinger’s, Kutsher’s or any of the hundreds of hotels. Fogler’s might be among thousands of bungalow colonies. The Sheldrake in “Dirty Dancing” seemed real to me. I worked at the Shady Nook in Loch Sheldrake, far removed from the glitz of Grossinger’s but still very much part of the fabric that made up the Borscht Belt.

I’ll admit I’ve got a bias and a real soft spot for the place where I spent my summers growing up, helped chronicle its history and where Bonnie and I raised our family. A place we affectionately still call home.

The truth is there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million people who over the last century have been touched by the Catskills, their favorite vacation destination. Where we learned how to swim, earned money for college or, if lucky like yours truly, met our lifetime partner.

Everyone has a memory of those Borscht Belt days that they want to recall. A story to share. A way to remember its impact and pay tribute to this truly historic place. Fortunately several people are doing more than just talking about the Catskills.

Plans for The Catskills Borscht Belt Museum, for years a wishful idea is finally about to be unveiled, with an upcoming announcement that it will be housed in Ellenville. Turning that dream into reality is a core group of dedicated volunteers. Robin Kauffman, who worked at the Homowack, met her husband at a Concord singles weekend and has spearheaded the museum’s progress, said the time is right to collect, preserve and help interpret this period and honor its contribution, not just to Jewish culture but to American society.

Marisa Scheinfeld, a photojournalist raised in the Catskills whose book The Borscht Belt documented the remains of the resorts, is working with Sullivan County Historian John Conway on the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project to designate places of importance and impact on the legacy of the Catskills. The first of several marker dedications is tentatively set for the end of May, with more details soon to come.

Instead of Hollywood telling us how to remember what the Catskills were supposed to be, we’ll soon be able to revisit and pay tribute to what the heyday of the Borscht Belt was really all about.

Barry Lewis is a longtime journalist and author who lives with his wife Bonnie in the Town of Neversink. He can be reached at      barrylewisscdemocrat@gmail.com.