The Suscon Screamer (Unedited Version)
I can't help but feel that after suffering horrible fates, some restless spirits wish to make their presence known on Earth or make their way someplace else. Me? I never wanted to get in between those spirits and any of their wishes. Around these parts, nothing exciting happened in the late 1970s during my early teenage years. There was the occasional keg party in some place where you’d hoped the cops would never find you. Something else might find you there. And when all was
In the Court of the Cork Lane King
My grandma Molly “Cookie” Keating would cross the Pittston Bypass and walk down William Street from Cork Lane to meet me after I suffered a rough day in fourth grade at St. John the Evangelist Grade School. She had silvery white hair mostly worn in a pristine bun. She wore bright floral dresses and ornate hats like an Irish Carmen Miranda. She led me downtown to a retail boutique— the ABC Shoppe on Main Street. Its tall, wide storefront windows trapped omnipresent vapor trail
In Loyalty to Their Kind
Until my oldest brother Mike moved out of our half of a double-block home, we had three bedrooms for four kids. Briefly, I squeezed in a...
The Way of the Righteous
On the walk down the hill he could hear the bell in the not-so-distant spire. The peal of it sounded in groups of three. That’s how many...
Ray DelPriore
I couldn't let my friend Ray go without writing down a few things. I'm glad I got to tell him how I felt when we got together. I remember...
Frank Lawler
There was a bunk behind Greg Lynch’s house. It sat about a third of the way up from the ground in a giant maple, like the mythical...
An Unedited Friendship
I’d never have written a word if it wasn’t for Terry Shaw. Oh, I’d send emails. I’d text. But that would have been the sum of it. Now...
Jane Greer
How do you thank someone who’s helped make your lifelong dream come true? How do you approach it when you’ve never met them? What do you...
My Godson Max
My brother, Mike, and his wife, Lorraine Button Tracy, got the hell out of Dodge in 1978 after Lorraine found a note on her desk that...
More Winged Things in Heaven and Earth
I live down by the Susquehanna River. On the good side of the water. But that poses some problems. I can’t sit on my porch these summer...
