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life sketches

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Life Sketches: Nurse Winkie: an Age-old Story of Perseverence, Determination

Max didn’t see her again until his Easter break from school. The child had come, but its father had not shown up. One night they went for a drive while Winkie’s sister watched the baby. It was unusually warm for that time of year. Max turned off the blacktop and followed a stone road down to the lake. He shut the engine and they just sat there, not talking.…
November 20, 2025
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Life Sketches: Green Eggs and Hmmm…

For several weeks I was gathering as many as 10 or 12 brown eggs a day until one late morning three of the eggs I collected turned out to be green. I thought maybe it was because of all the dandelion leaves the chickens were eating when I’d let them out to free range, but neighbors assured me that eating weeds wouldn’t do that.…
August 7, 2025
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Life Sketches: A Sky View of Dad

“Now, don’t ya be touching that crank,” my father warned. “Last time it rained I had a flood.” He was referring to the handle that operated the Sky View window in the roof. It was somebody in Detroit’s brainstorm—people riding in the city cab would be able to see the tops of skyscrapers. Dad viewed the innovation as a leaky nuisance, a target for pigeons.…
July 10, 2025
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Life Sketches: Five Easy Pieces and a Spinet

Awhile back my good friend and chicken guru, Jim McNulty, called to tell me that he had found the piano of his dreams: “a Winter spinet for free!” It was down in Middlefield and he wanted to know if he could have the use of my truck to bring it home. I told him about a terrible time two friends and I had had getting an old piano out of a basement because it was so heavy and the stairs…
May 29, 2025
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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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