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Tag: Adirondacks

NORTH COUNTRY VIEWS

********** Snapshot Perspectives On Life, Offered Through The Lens Of My North Country Eyes Accidentally Insightful, Occasionally Humorous Frequently Neither Sometimes Both ********** Outlaw Author’s Note: I will continually update this post through time As new thoughts & views arise Whenever the mood strikes me To read updated entries...
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The Fisherman’s Guide To Happiness

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter One: Select Early Works Of RJ Monroe Chapter Two: Cape Cod Capers Chapter Three: Florida Fish Tales Chapter Four: Dominican Debacle Chapter Five: Buc – A- Roo RJ ********** CHAPTER ONE: Select Early Works Of RJ Monroe “Highly Sophisticated” ****** Two Happy Fishermen “RJ &...
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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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NOT QUITE BULLETPROOF

One Man’s Cancer Survival Story ********** To My Wife, Children, Family & Friends  Who’ve Lived & Fought Alongside Me  Every Day We’ve Been In ************ AUTHOR’S NOTE: “I’m Sorry- It’s Cancer.”      Those are words no one ever wants to hear.   I know.   I’ve heard them three...
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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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Damn The Torpedoes!

     Monroe Bull Rush Bay Camp Prep, 2019: I dragged Dad’s old 12 foot aluminum Grumman canoe from behind my shed, cleaned it up, replaced bow and stern lines, then spray painted it camouflage greens and browns over a base of flat black.     I cleaned and lubed the...
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