EAST MONTPELIER – For millions of Americans these days, the mantra du jour is, and has been for a while, “MAGA, Make America Great Again.” Putting aside for at least the moment many of the problems of the “good old days” that this slogan refers to, like racial segregation, disempowerment[Read More…]
A Yankee Notebook
The weak link was the ferry across the lake
EAST MONTPELIER – Labor Day weekend was scheduled to be a high-mileage event. Rather than my usual three hour-plus run from mid-Vermont to my friend Bea’s place on the ocean Friday afternoon, and then back on Monday noonish before my evening deadline, I committed to a high school class reunion[Read More…]
Ah, yes, the job
EAST MONTPELIER – In early June of 1962, after nine chaotic, fraught, and highly educational years in Ohio in pursuit of an undergraduate degree, I finally got one. I had the degree, a great part-time job (which I had to give up), no debts, no money, a one-year old VW[Read More…]
Re-enacting the first lap of the Gran Prix
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s hard for me to believe that I ever drove the width of New York State in vehicles of obviously uncertain (but certainly brief) futures without thinking twice about it. Thanksgiving holiday? No problem, even on an ancient Indian motorcycle with no windshield. Date in Buffalo? Here[Read More…]
Today, No One Remembers
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s often difficult, given the evidence all around us, not to be pessimistic about the future of the human race. We seem to progress at a rate significantly slower than we regress or remain fixed in place, which is pretty much the same thing. The prime example,[Read More…]
She Lived Through the Chaos
EAST MONTPELIER – In August of 1945, my family was living in a modest bungalow near the southwestern outskirts of Syracuse, N.Y. I was ten. My father was a missionary priest and traveled most of New York State north of Oneonta and Corning to visit his scattered parishes. With the[Read More…]
Universal Explosion of Growing Green
EAST MONTPELIER – The roof ridge of my house runs almost exactly east and west. I canted it about three degrees off, to 267 degrees west, so as to orient long face of the house due south with a slight nod to the morning sun for earlier solar heat, and[Read More…]
This One Hasn’t Been Scripted
EAST MONTPELIER − It’s been 92 years since the radio show, “Ma Perkins,” first aired in the United States. There probably aren’t many of us who remember it, which may be a blessing. Its modest daily domestic drama was sponsored by Procter & Gamble’s Oxydol laundry detergent, inspiring the term,[Read More…]
An Interview Sticks With Me
EAST MONTPELIER – There are several good features of my current racket of working with a television program rooted in the outdoors. I get to visit places I’d never have been able to get to myself, or, in some cases, even heard of. I get to meet and interview some[Read More…]
A Perfect Way to Celebrate our Birthday
EAST MONTPELIER – Years ago, the national anti-tobacco campaign slowly and with little apparent effect chipped away at Americans’ deadly addiction. That battle is far from over, but the results have been significant. Now in recent years, we’ve been getting warnings from dermatologists and cancer specialists about exposure to the[Read More…]
What if an Alien Species . . .
EAST MONTPELIER – In midsummer, the sun works its way around to the back of the house and a little before sunset floods the back porch with light and heat. This evening is no exception. Hot as it is, though, I know I’ll miss it when in a few weeks[Read More…]
Still, We Persist
EAST MONTPELIER – Donald Trump is a tough target for journalists and commentators to hit. Like a high-flying bomber that spews metallic chaff out its back end to confuse the radar of missiles, he so consistently floods the news cycles with outrages that by the time anyone has the chance[Read More…]
