Category: Essays & Stories

A Great Pre-Cooked First Night Camp Meal ********** *Author’s Note: As we all eagerly look forward to packing our gear and heading into camp, I thought I’d share a Monroe family “1st Night in Camp” meal tradition: “Hunter’s Stew”.      I first drafted this piece shortly after my “Cliff...

(All Loon Photography Courtesy of Peggy Ivimey) *An edited version of Serenade of the Loon appeared in the Adirondack Almanack’s April 12, 2021, on-line edition. *A Brief Author’s Note: I first drafted “Serenade of the Loon” several years back. I had plans to submit it to Adirondack Life magazine,...

Author’s Note: This story was published in The Adirondack Almanack’s December 3, 2021, online edition.      It was getting late. Time measured by the near empty whiskey bottle and battalion of “dead soldier” beer bottles standing in neatly rowed formation on the floor in one corner of the cabin....

********** This was actually the last in a series of stories I submitted to Adirondack Life Magazine. They declined it. Their staff’s advice to me at that point was, “Dick, you should take all your fun tales and stick them in an album to share with your grandkids.” I...

“Beware! He’s Watching.” **********      His ears suddenly perked up. He lifted his head, put his nose to the air. He could smell it almost as soon as he heard the boat’s engine cut off.      “Humans.” His keen nose soon confirmed it.  The mixed aroma of campfire smoke,...

“Don’t heed the voice and put shovel to earth, unless mentally prepared to uncover the truth.” ********** “African-Americans made up approximately twenty five percent of the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812. In July, 1813, Commodore Isaac Chauncey reported “nearly 50 blacks” on board his flagship, the General...

A Salute To My “Heart” I brought him home as a birthday gift to my wife. It was 2009. I was facing a wall. My family and I were preparing for a “Hail Mary” trip to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that I feared might be one way. I...

An Inauguration Day Countdown Retrospective In Haiku ********** Author’s Note It has been a gut wrenching time in American History. What happened on January 6th was a jarring real time illustration of all of the divisive chaos that hate, racism, and deceit engender. While all of America watched in...

Beware! He’s watching. Author’s Note: This story appeared in The Adirondack Almanack’s Sunday October 31, 2021 on-line Halloween edition, making it my 1st published fiction short story. ********** “What was that noise I just heard? Was that just a squirrel or a chipmunk? Or is somebody watching me? Are...

“A  Crossbow Hunter’s Tale”      I bought my crossbow six years ago, fall of 2014, when New York State first made them legal hunting implements. I had read about them in the Department of Environmental Conservation hunting regulations, they showed some modern day crossbow photos there. I was captivated...