Morrisville soccer ruled, and Papa Jobe was royalty

There was a time when soccer was king in Morrisville, N.Y. … A rush of emotions hit me last month when I saw the news that Peter McAvoy, the young man who was captain for the Herikimer County Community College soccer team in upstate New York, collapsed and died. So tragic, so sad, so heart-breaking…

At this huge nursery, it’s easy to welcome spring

Last Saturday my dear wife Karen and I walked the aisles of Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center in North Syracuse for more than an hour, and I was a lot closer to getting bushed than I was to getting bored. Every year we take the drive from our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood to North Syracuse…

Back when I was a cover boy

In my day, the SUNY Morrisville journalism classes were spread through many different campus buildings. Charlton Hall. The Library. Lab-Class. The Little Theatre in the Student Activity Center, even, with those fold-over mini-desks in the very spot where the Friars put on their most excellent drama productions. No wonder I still get hit with that…

Our porch Christmas spruce is in the ground

We knew when we purchased the potted blue spruce in December and proclaimed it our side porch Christmas tree that we wanted to put the baby in the ground after the ornaments were packed away and spring thaw arrived here in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Here’s the pre-Christmas post where I shared the…

Americana from Montreal sounds good on a Sunday night

Why would an alt-country band from Montreal be a favorite over the border, way down yonder in Syracuse, N.Y.? Further, why would this four-piece golden outfit love to play in Syracuse so much? Those questions were answered emphatically Sunday night in Shifty’s, the neighborhood bar that opens its corner stage to live music five nights…