My Lifelong Childhood

"...NESTLED IN THE TALL GREEN SHADOWS, OF THE ADIRONDACK HILLS..." There was no doubt about it!  The winters in Canton were brutal.  One cold day (-40 degrees F), I was trudging through the snow to class and saw a friend going in the opposite direction.  I said "Hi!" and smiled, finding it very difficult to unfreeze the smile on my face.  And so, the splendid Autumn with its reds, golds, and yellows and the resurgent Spring with the smell of grass and the first daffodils were always a welcome time for the students.  We made the best of winters we could with parties, dates, ice hockey games, and the trickle of entertainers that would brave the elements of the North Country. "Where were you when..." That Fall of sophomore year was particularly memorable, as though it was yesterday.  It was a Friday afternoon on a beautiful November day and I was in Hepburn Hall finishing up my organic chemistry lab experiment and being one of the last to leave the la...

"WHEN I WAS 17, IT WAS THE AUTUMN OF MY LIFE..." College Days Back in the 1960's, we would pick a few colleges, apply, and, if accepted, select one and go.  It wasn't the big business it is today.  I went off to my college without ever having seen it, no interviews or overnights.  It was exactly 338 miles between Mt. Vernon and Canton, NY, home of St. Lawrence University.  I knew of two students there from my high school who were already attending including Larry Rauch who went on to play baseball for the California Angels organization, but there was just one other of my Davis classmates, Bruce Kashdan, who would be matriculating that year as well as myself.    It only made sense to go together.  My parents agreed to drive the long trip which took us through, first the Catskill Mountains and then, the Adirondacks.  I don't think I had ever been further north than Bear Mountain, along the Hudson River.  Bruce and I were stuffed into ...

"HI HO, HI HO, IT'S OFF TO WORK WE GO..." While not a Protestant, the Protestant work ethic was impressed on me from a young age by my parents.   I have always had some kind of job since age 12 when I reached the time I was able to have my own newspaper route.  It was almost a rite of passage.  It was quite a responsibility for me to assure that the residents of the adjoining neighborhood were able to read the news every evening, by delivering their newspapers whether it was in the stifling heat of summer or on the icy, snow-covered streets of winter. THE DAILY ARGUS No longer in existence now for some years, the Argus was the way people got to know what was going on in our community.  Founded in 1892, it ceased publication in 1994 after its purchase by Gannett, a glorious run for a local newspaper.  Obviously, there was no internet and there were only three television channels, all based in New York City, reporting on the goings-on in Gotham as well as n...