The Altona Blues
“My Adirondack Baseball Journey” There Once Was a Time Where Every Town Had a Team Every Team Had a Star Every Boy Had a Dream ********** I grew up in the 1960’s and ’70’s. An era when baseball was still our nation’s true pastime. When every stick was...
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My Rifle For A Rose
1-22 INF/1st BDE/10th MTN DIV (LI), Ft Drum, N.Y. 1988: Fort Drum was still under construction. The 10th Mountain Division(LI) remained a long way from full strength. My unit, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, was billeted in old wooden WWII barracks on what would become “Old Post.” Â Â Â Â Â We were...
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My Elegant Friend
*This story appeared as “An ‘Adirondack Outlaw’ at Cornell in the Adirondack Almanack’s April 18, 2021 on-line edition. ********** My Elegant Friend I wrote the poem “Sweet Adrienne” sometime in early 1982, during the spring semester of my freshman year at Cornell. Just before getting called into the...
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Ghost Lake Rising
I first drafted the poem “Ghost Lake” while working out of Lake Colden’s Interior Headquarters cabin as a DEC trail hand in the summer of ’83, haunted by memories from earlier trips into Colden with my dad. On those shared journeys, in the late ’70’s, Dad still had...
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We’re All Heroes Now
    The event that I’m about to describe has haunted a dark corner of my mind since the night it occurred. Some may find it disturbing. I still do. **********  It was a Saturday evening in 1986. I was a young lieutenant recently assigned to the 10th Mountain...
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ROCK & FIRE
    Comic book war heroes. As kids, growing up in the ’70’s, my brother Ray & I loved ’em. The Haunted Tank, Unknown Soldier, Weird War Tales- & my personal favorite -SGT ROCK.    “ROCK” was “Easy Company” Platoon Sergeant, “Top Kick” in a long series of WWII comic...
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Enterprising Lads
Author’s Note: This story was published in The Adirondack Almanack’s December 21, 2021 online edition. ********** We moved to Saranac Lake from Lake Placid in the summer of ’73. I had just finished 4th grade. My brother Ray (“Raymond” then) & I explored the river, rode bikes,...
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Blown Up & Stuffed
Author’s Note: A little over a year after debuting as my blog’s all time most viewed post, this story was published in The Adirondack Almanack’s November 26, 2021 online edition. ********** “Saranac Lake Redskins” “This Here Is Monk” Saranac Lake High School. Varsity practice field – July, 1978: ...
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Dead Eye Dick
Author’s Note: This story appeared in the September 25, 2021 online edition of the Adirondack Almanack in a slightly modified version under the title “Outlaw Duck Hunters”. “Regular Ducks” ********** My first brush with the law came in ’74. I was 10. Fresh out of 5th Grade, I still...
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The Bear Dance
A Brief Outlaw Note: Ahead of this story, as a map check, I wish to share a few thoughts. My goal for this blogging adventure remains simple: Share Some Day’s I’ve been In. Within these posts my readers will find rugged Adirondack hikes, canoe trips, hunting...
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