Life Sketches Whistling with my fingers, thinking of songs By TERRY BERKSON • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com These days, much more than ever, there seems to be music playing in the background of almost every dramatic television program. Years ago an experimental show called Cop Rock was aired for a while. It blended the drama with musical numbers. The songs were about what was happening in the story. I thought it was a great idea but at that time it didn’t…
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Life Sketches Raccoon in the hen house starts raucous battle The other day I finished weeding the garden and walked out to the chicken coop to water and feed my birds and collect their eggs. Disappointment hit me when I opened the door and found a dead chicken sprawled out on the floor with a leg half chewed off. I had left the chute leading to the yard open overnight as I had been doing for the last several days.…
Life Sketches Pen pal letters brought good news from France For several years my friend Charlie ran an international pen pal business that he had inherited from his father. When I expressed some interest in the many countries people were writing from Charlie asked if I’d like a free subscription for my daughter and I accepted. “You pick out the country and the pen pal,” Charlie said. I’ve always been a Francophile so I chose France and a girl named…
LIFE SKETCHES by TERRY BERKSON In search of pigeons just like Marlon Brando’s birds The other night I watched a rerun of “On the Waterfront,” starring Marlin Brando. I had forgotten that the character he played was named Terry, like me. When I was about 13 and saw the movie for the first time, I was so impressed with Brando that I had to own pigeons, like the character he played. His coop was on a flat roof. Mine had…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON Otsego Lawman, Cunningham, Served Otsego County With ‘Sleuth-Like’ Attention John L. Cunningham became a New York State Trooper in 1917. He was among the 232 selected men who made up the first wave of the newly formed organization that would serve to uphold the law in rural areas under the leadership of Major George Fletcher Chandler. Up until that time Cunningham, who was originally from Glens Falls, worked as a shirt cutter for 18 years. No…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON For Want Of A Rack… I had it all planned. We’d fly to Florida on a Saturday, settle into the motel and then head for the flea market where, if lucky, I’d find a used bike to ride for the rest of our vacation. “What are you going to do when it’s time to go home?” my wife, Alice, asked. “I don’t care,” I said, “as long as I have use of a bike while we’re…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON ‘It’s The Knuckle On Your Middle Finger That Does It’ About 15 years ago, after having read several of his books, I heard that Jim Harrison, the writer and poet, was giving a reading and a talk at Barnes & Noble on Union Square in Manhattan. Several months before at a barbeque on Canadarago Lake outside of Richfield Springs, I had talked at length about Harrison’s “Legends of the Fall,” and several of his other works,…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON Lady With Horse I heard about Lady Ostapeck about 20 years ago at my friend Buddy Crist’s house on Angel Hill outside of Schuyler Lake. There was a picture hanging on his living room wall. It was of a man dressed in a Tolstoy-like shirt standing in the doorway of a weathered cabin. When I took a closer look I realized it was Buddy, appearing very authentic in clothes I never saw him wear before. “Who…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON The Jumping Chicken Of Otsego County Got a call the other day from my friend Charlie in Brooklyn. He said that he was thinking of getting a couple of chickens to keep in his apartment so that he could get really fresh eggs. I got on my high horse and asked, “What do you know about raising chickens?” “I’m good with birds,” Charlie countered. “Remember how I taught my parrot to stand on his head for…
LETTER from TERRY BERKSON Wine Bottle Lowers The Wall Before the advent of COVID-19, to celebrate our 44th wedding anniversary, Alice and I drove down to Key West, and were lucky enough to get a room at The Grand Guest House in Old Town. It’s a great place if you like to share a breakfast table with fellow tourists. This time during our brief stay we met a couple from Brussels, three people from Germany and an ex prize fighter…