Introduction

I'm probably one of the few Americans who has lived in the same place for my entire life, which is now over 72 years. While it's true that I don't live in the same house where I was conceived and occupied for the first three years of my life, I live in the third house I've ever lived in, but all three houses were on the same dirt road in the town of Nassau in upstate New York, and all three within two or three miles of each other. The first two houses have been torn down years ago. My present home was built 43 years ago, and I moved in the day it was ready for occupancy.

Now you may assume I'm very provincial, in the negative sense of the word, because I'm unlike most Americans and even others from highly developed countries, who are well traveled in comparison. But that doesn't give me an inferiority complex. Just the opposite, in fact, because I believe that people who travel and /or move frequently, never develop their personalities as fully as the old salty characters like me, who have spent an entire lifetime in one small rural town, interacting with the same people until they die or move away, sharing a collective history with all the other "natives" like me... even though there are very few of us left in my age category... and developing a strong personal identity, much of which derives from the lay of the land, the climate, the ecology, and the geographical and demographic uniqueness of my home town.

Because I have developed such a strong, individual personality, I tend to be long-winded, talking about or writing about my anecdotal life experiences, my stubborn opinions and deep-seated convictions about life, in general, and my own life in particular. So I'm going to cut this introduction short, and proceed with the anecdotal tales, though individually unique, that make up the sum total of a quiet, but thoughtful and compassionate lifestyle, heavy on stories of stray dogs, pet dogs, animal stories, small town gossip, humor, some untoward events of interest, health and nutritional advice, poetry, art, literature, current events, crime and criminals, the stock market....for starters...an entire slumgullion, so to speak. If you care to take the journey with me, read on!! You won't be bored.