Love in Lake Placid

Now it can be told:  it is part of my life story.  And a long, long time ago... It was a great vacation, and I was personally saluted from the hockey rink by the entire Ottawa Police Hockey Team.  I am trying to clean out all the stuff from my house, and found this among a stack of love letters, if that's what they're called. And after the game, we went out dancing and whatever.

The Family United Untied

   I assume this is a Madigan reunion. There were 5 Madigan brothers + Kate and Lizzie. I see Charles in the back row, 5th person from the right. Joe may be on the far left, or maybe the right, unless that's Walter or Edmund, or someone else. Frank, the youngest and tallest, may be that guy. Everyone else is lost to me, though we probably never saw many of them.  I suspect these people pictured will remain unidentified from now '

til eternity.  (I think the girl standing in the front wearing the floral dress looks something like young pictures of me. Not the legs though.

Flowers in June

Sort of like a memory garden: (1)Purple Butterwort (?) from Rosemary's front yard with yellow lillies, maybe from the VFL annual sale, (2) Honeysuckle bush that Dorothy gave me when she was re-doing her flower garden, (3) White Peony from Dorothy, (4) Pink Peonies from Matt's flower garden that Dave dug up before the house was sold. I think he might have brought them from "over home" via 10th Street. On the right end are peonies Ma gave us when we moved to this house.

Past Milestones

Just Biding Its Time

Collateral Snake Damage

   Hey, snake. I'm sorry if you ate the Borax and sugar mixture, but I have to go on the defensive  against the invasion of ants. Raid spray and Raid Max Ant Baits have not deterred them, nor evidently you either. So, as you can see, I've tried the time-tested blend of sugar and poison. You don't have to eat it, but since you persist in hanging out on my front step, the die is cast.

High School Sad Irony

   As a high school student, I had little hope that I could go to college, though I desperately wanted to. My father was retired by then. We had no money, and, as far as we knew anyway, student loans were well in the future. There were very few scholarships, except maybe for super star sports. So things looked bleak. As it turned out, Dorothy and I were saved by winning the New York State Regents Scholarships. It was a piddling amount even in those days, but the State College then had no tuition, so the awards covered most of the registration fees and cost of books. Of course we had to commute, a nightmare lasting 4 long years. But I digress from my point.
   That being, when I was a senior, only one teacher, Mr. A., stepped forward to try to figure out a way for  me to go to college. He said he thought I belonged there. He said he himself had attended night school, at Siena College, and thought it might be an option for me. (Though all I could think of was how the heck could I ever get there.)  He offered to look into it for me, and even met with me after school to discuss the possibilities. His fiancee, a fellow teacher,  waited in the car; nothing untoward was going on.
   Those two teachers married and moved to New York City. They had one son. The couple attended our 20th Class Reunion. Mr. A. said he no longer taught English but was a guidance counselor in a Long Island school. His son, then about 14, attended private school.He seemed proud of him.
   The son is now imprisoned, having been found guilty as a serial killer, and  is serving a 61-year to life sentence. He is identified on Murderpedia as The Angel of Death.
    Mr. A. has died, but his wife survives, and remains  a close friend to a member of my graduation class.