Category: Memories
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The Thing
A few months ago, I stopped at a small country deli for a turkey and swiss cheese sandwich. The store was in Keene Valley, New York. There are fine views of the High Peaks of the Adirondacks from the porch of the deli. I had some brown mustard and low-fat mayo on rye bread. The…
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Sunday Rock
It was raining as I drove along the western edge of the Adirondack Park recently. It was around the time when my thoughts turned to how much weight the Yankee pitcher, C. C. Sabathia, had lost during the off-season. Or, perhaps I was reflecting on Colbert replacing Letterman on the Late Show. More than likely, however,…
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The Rivers of my Life: Episode 1–The Charles
The river rolls on, like a sad lover’s song. But is it the beginning or the end? [Lyrics taken from an educational film I used to show my students when I taught Earth & Space Science in the 1970’s] Flowing water has always held a fascination with me. I grew up with the great Susquehanna…
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A Missing Image But Still A Memory
The photographic frame, measuring 3″x5″ sat on the flat surface of the headstone. It’s a small quiet Catholic cemetery on the edges of the village of Saranac Lake, New York. The winter snow was gone but no grass or Spring flowers had the courage, or time, to begin their life again. Cemeteries are full…
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A Brief History of Chains and Chainmaking
I am holding a very special letter in my hand right now. But, first… Whether we realize it or not, chains play a very important part in our lives. Indeed, chains have, throughout history, helped to hold the very fabric of our changing civilization together. For example, I was astounded to learn that the metal…
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Pushing Chalk: Recollections on a Classroom Life
Hey, teacher leave them kids alone. -Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall” 1979 “What is a rock?” I actually asked this question of my Earth & Space Science class of ninth graders. It was probably my third year of teaching. I was in a public school near Wilkes-Barre, PA. There were thirty kids in…
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This Old House
There is so much to be done when your last surviving parent dies. My father passed away nearly ten years to the day and I can remember so much of the aftermath that my brother, wife and I had to deal with. The lawyers, the probate, the will, endless medical records, phone calls, funeral arrangement…
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The Night They Pulled The Plug in Louisiana
It was a long time ago–perhaps the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. It was the wrong time, the wrong place and the wrong evening to be holding a pair of tickets to a Steppenwolf concert. I attended college in the deep south in the mid-1960’s. In itself, there’s nothing strange about that. The problem was…
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Dad
On this day, January 24, my father was born. I don’t know the day of the week or the time of day. All I know for sure is that it was 100 years ago. My guess is that it was a home birth. My grandfather, Michael, would likely have been pacing the floor of their…
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Losing King–Losing Thea
The email from my daughter, Erin, came on the evening of January 16. It’s title was short and full of foreboding: “Thea’s gone.” A few hours earlier she had written that she and her husband had taken Thea to the “doggie hospice”. Now this. She described how her big black lab mix, Thea, had to…
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