Category: Essays & Stories

Life Lessons in Football, Mathematics and Cheerleaders      It was fall 1980. I know this because it was also the fall of my senior year at Saranac Lake High School.      Life as a high school senior for me was firing on all cylinders. I had a part-time job...

When Life Is Defined By Its Final Few Seconds      To the casual observer, the grey-haired old man didn’t look like much.  Much of what a life and death battle with cancer had left unclaimed, father time had not.  Yet quietly hidden beneath life’s well weathered façade there remained...

My Journey Back Through Time to The Enterprise One of the most out of this world moments that ever occurred in my Adirondack Outlaw writer’s career universe: April 26th, 2023 The day I had a face-to-face interview with a reporter from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Following my efforts at...

My Survivor’s Mission: Giving Hope Voice      Long I’ve been waiting for some signal or sign.  Finally, God has revealed my purpose. This is my mission. I’ve received my orders.      I’ve now endured fifteen long years, battling my way through seemingly insurmountable life and death odds, fighting my...

I May Have Been a Pep Rally Cheerleading Phenom, But My True High School Major Was Lunch Hour.      I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but I absolutely loved high school.  Many cherished memories of life were crammed into those four short years, including some of my...

Leadership isn’t always defined by the score. **********      It’s a play most Saranac Lake football folks besides me likely don’t even remember. It’s not glorified in yearbook photos. It never made any record book. It is, however, the one play from my high school football career that has...

2023 Winter Carnival Musings Moments & Memories My Heart of the Adirondacks Hometown Carnival Montage FEATURING: Saranac Lake’s Illustrious Lawn Chair Ladies ********** What a perfect 2023 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Parade Saturday! Bright and sunny, not windy or snowing, the thermometer reading an Adirondack balmy mid-twenties. My wife...

Take Care What You Seek! It Just Might Find You!      In order to protect the innocent (and not so innocent) in this story, I’ll stick with our SLHS crew’s nicknames:  Monk, Blind, Chet, Juan, Jordan, Feinie, Dupe, Missy, Krissy, Maryanne, Shelly & Leslie. Well, okay, mostly nicknames, anyways....

     Most folks who think they know me really only know part of me. Most folks who think they know me only know the part I let them see. The part that goes huntin’, fishin’, campin’ out and explorin’. The part that digs 15 ponds by hand. The part...

There Once Was A Time When Every Town Had A Team Every Team Had A Star Every Boy Had A Dream      This is the fifth in my series of baseball card themed stories.  As a boy growing up in Saranac Lake, despite the long, cold winters and short...