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Jim Atwell

In Memoriam: Jim Atwell

Jim Atwell's walk through the world began on August 17, 1938, in Annapolis, MD, as the son of Catherine Geraci Atwell and Tilden O. Atwell and the younger brother of Tilden O. Atwell, Jr.  Jim was baptized at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Annapolis and received his early education at St. Mary's Elementary and High Schools, graduating in 1956.…
August 8, 2025
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ATWELL: Minnie Undrowned Again

LETTER from JIM ATWELL Minnie Undrowned Again Grandma hung up the telephone. “Mrs. Halpine from down the street. She’s forwarding a message from your Grandpa and Uncle Tom.” “They’re standing on the pier with boat hooks snagged in Minnie Frederick’s coat collar, holding her head above water. She’s screeching protests.” Grandma gave a snort. “I’d say, let her sink! Minnie puts on this show every November. Well, let’s see how she does without an audience!”…
March 25, 2021
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At Woodside Hall, Not One COVID Case In Year

At Woodside Hall, Not One COVID Case In Year The Rules Are Clear, Says Proprietor, But They Must Be Enforced Every Day By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ‘When I was a child, a classmate was one of the last Americans to have polio,” said Woodside Hall proprietor Stephen Cadwalader. “What if COVID-19 is like polio? That’s what went through my mind.” So here we are, a year since the coronavirus arrived – Governor Cuomo reported Tuesday was the…
March 4, 2021
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ATWELL: No Need For A Brick

LETTER from JIM ATWELL No Need For A Brick How’d it happen? Suddenly it’s 2020, I’m 82, twice a widower, living in a comfortable assisted living home. Well cared-for. But, essentially, alone. The pandemic has us 18 residents quarantined, even from one another. Lots of time alone in one’s room, even with meals brought to us on trays. Just now, however, despite prescribed aloneness, I have kept my room crowded with vividly remembered adults; ones who, because or in spite…
February 4, 2021
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Earhart Visited Here, Marker Says

HISTORICAL SOCIETY WINS RECOGNITION Earhart Visited Here, Marker Says By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com After losing his mother to appendicitis in the spring of 1921 at age 7, Arrie Hecox of Fly Creek found solace in Amelia Earhart three years later. Walking back and forth to school, Hecox spotted Earhart, then in her 20s, at the inn that neighbored his family’s farm on Route 28. “As you did in that time, they introduced themselves,” Arrie Hecox’s grandson, Michael…
January 14, 2021
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ATWELL: ‘Sometimes A Firm Rap…

LETTER from JIM ATWELL ‘Sometimes A Firm Rap… Remember me? For scores of years, I was a guy who visited with you through columns in local newspapers, most recently The Freeman’s Journal & Hometown Oneonta. I loved doing it – until last summer, when the sky fell on me. Or more precisely, until I fell off our back deck, down four steps, and onto an unforgiving asphalt drive. I was knocked senseless when my forehead hit the driveway. (Later, lots…
December 10, 2020
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ATWELL: Ailing, Married, But Separated By COVID

FROM WOODSIDE HALL Ailing, Married, But Separated By COVID By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com All right, friends, I’m back on the metaphorical horse, feet in the stirrups, reins in hand, hands on the saddle pommel. Which is to say, I ready to write to you again. And so, I’ll clop on. Ours has been an interrupted correspondence lately. I never finished recounting my adventure at 15, when I traveled in luxury by overnight steam packet from Baltimore, Md.,…
August 13, 2020
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ATWELL: All Ashore That’s Goin’ Ashore

Front Porch Perspective All Ashore That’s Goin’ Ashore Well, I’d circled the Baltimore inner harbor dockings and stood a bit, suitcase in hand, gazing up at an impressive three-domed building, each dome flying a huge pennant reading, “Old Bay Line.” And alongside the building a gangplank beckoned me. It climbed at a fairly steep angle to the main deck of the S.S. President Warfield. Suitcase clutched with left hand, I hauled myself up the gangway’s handrail to the deck. There…
June 3, 2020
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ATWELL: Off To Civitan Convention, Lad Sailed On Packet Line

FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE Off To Civitan Convention, Lad Sailed On Packet Line By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Fifteen years old. Never away from home overnight without my parents. And yet, wonderful! Sprung loose for two days on my own – with the night in between to be spent on a 250-mile trip on a steam packet, traveling down Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore, Md., to Norfolk, Va. I owe that dazzling adventure to the Annapolis Civitan Club, which had…
May 27, 2020
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ATWELL: No Need For A Brick

FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE No Need For A Brick Nope, I’m not addressing you from the front porch – it’s icy out there. Rather, I’m sitting just inside a front window, woolgathering. Though, in fact, it’s not wool-gathering that I’m doing, literal or figurative. Just now I’ve been spending our prescribed aloneness running through gratefully the crowd of adults who shaped my once young man’s values. And one of those was my Great-Aunt Mame. In fact, you’d hardly think she could…
April 30, 2020
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PUTTING THE COMMUNITY BACK INTO THE NEWSPAPER

For a limited time, new annual subscriptions to the hard copy of “The Freeman’s Journal” or “Hometown Oneonta” (which also includes unlimited access to AllOtsego.com), or digital-only access to AllOtsego.com, can also give back to one of their favorite Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice: Friends of the Feral-TNR, Super Heroes Humane Society, or Susquehanna Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

Visit our “subscribe” page and select your charity of choice at checkout

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