Places I remember…
A region, a world of adventures
By Ed Lange
In my last column, I wrote about editing and converting old video tapes and photos to DVD. Having done this myself, the task took me on a journey through places and memories ranging from joyful to tragic to hilarious. Places I’d recommend to others and those from which you should “Run Away!” Here then, in absolutely meaningless order are places in the Capital Region and the world that made my list—for good or ill.
Labor Room/Delivery Room
When my wife Linda gave birth to our daughter Kate, I shared every minute of both places. The delivery room proved to be the most wonderful, life-changing place of my life. The labor room on the other hand—yikes!—not so much.
Germany
Unforgettable beer, delicious bread and wursts, beautiful scenery, extremely attractive young people, centuries of history (both very bad and very good), lively cities, hiking trails everywhere and even seaside beaches….I can’t understand why it isn’t a more popular tourist destination (except for the dollar versus the Euro, egad!)
My grandfather’s apothecary shop
Though gone now, it used to be at the corner of Dove and Lancaster Streets in Albany from about 1900. A magically scientific place where Granddad compounded prescriptions with a mortar and pestle, actually invented curatives and knew customers by name.
The Haunted House on Myrtle
All right, it probably wasn’t really haunted but it sure looked like it, besides, every kid should grow up near a place that he thinks of as haunted.
Stonehenge
The place in southern England that probably really is haunted. But whether it is or not, one cannot stand in that field in the presence of those stones and not experience astonishment and wonder.
Petra in Jordan
The “rose red city” literally carved out of enormous cliffs of stone. So mind-boggling that it even appears in an Indiana Jones movie. You gaze in awe that somehow ancient people carved these soaring buildings in the desert – with hand tools!
Any Flat, Wide Open Space
Working diligently and precisely with X-acto knives, my brothers and I built large balsa model airplanes and mounted miniature gas engines on them. With a couple of wires connected to the planes’ control surfaces, we flew them in circles with loops, climbs, dives, wingovers… and heartbreaking, balsa-breaking crashes.
The Meadowlands
This year, Linda and I went to our first NFL game to watch the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers decimate the lowly NY Jets. Except the doggone Steelers lost.
My High School Wrestling Mat
On the varsity team as a sophomore, I faced the Section II champion in my weight class. He pinned me in 34 humiliating seconds using something called a “Figure Four Grapevine”, a hold I had never seen. While my girlfriend watched!
The Atlantic Ocean at Midnight
During one 200-mile, non-stop sailboat race around Long Island we were struck by a ferocious thunderstorm. The winds and seas both howled with a vengeance, but the lightning cracking apart the black night had us thinking of our mast as an overly attractive lightning rod.
The NYS Thruway in Winter
Returning from a late night date with a couple of girls in NYC, my buddy’s Opel broke down in the bitter cold, stranding us with nothing to sustain us but Clorets and little Tiparillo cigars. This pre–dated cell phones, of course.
P.S. #4
Sadly, it fell down and has been replaced by a playground at the corner of Madison and Ontario Streets in Albany. But it was a great elementary school – except for the time my mother thought it would be good to dress me as a girl for Halloween.
Dudley Observatory
Another classic landmark erased from Albany. Once located where the CDPC now stands, this brick building covered in ivy was a real honest-to-gosh observatory with a dome telescope to look through. It was also home to the best sledding hill in town.
Thacher Park/Indian Ladder Trail
If you’ve never been, go. The best “scenic overlook” in the Capital Region, and where my family would bundle into our Nash Rambler and meet aunts, uncles and cousins for great picnics. And where we still go, decades later.
Penn State
While grad students more than 30 years ago, Linda and I attended every home football game of the Nittany Lions coached by the legendary educator Joe Paterno – who is still the head coach at age 81!
Onesquethaw Creek
A Helderberg heaven-on-earth for kids growing to adulthood. Waterfalls, a fabulous steep-walled gorge, cliffs to climb, secret rocky lairs and hidden paths, wildflowers, trout, and swimming holes to rival Huck Finn.
A Friend’s Farm: Pitching Hay/Riding heifers
Many farmers today use machines that wrap hay in plastic, which supplants the opportunity to muscle hay bales onto a wagon in the hot sun and get completely covered with dirt, sweat and little sticky bits of hay. As for riding heifers – I recommend horses instead.
NYC by Sailboat
It’s time-travelingly bizarre to voyage down the East River and through New York Harbor on a sailboat while cars and trucks zip by at 60 mph alongside you, and skyscrapers tower above your boat’s mast – little-changed from the days of Odysseus.
Sweden
A lovely, friendly country where I had the privilege of directing the play, Born Yesterday with NYSTI. An endearing place where some treated us like visiting royalty and our colleagues treated us like family. Stockholm may be one of the world’s most enchanting cities, and if the dollar improves against the krona, try to go there.
Lake Champlain by Canoe
Not recommended. Four teenage buddies and I set forth to canoe from Plattsburgh to Albany. After wet clothes and sleeping bags, noodles with strawberry jam, blistering sunburn, and internecine disagreements, we pulled out at Ticonderoga.
Winter Campout
Not recommended. Our Boy Scout troop pitched our canvas tents in the snow; our Scoutmaster taught us to use pine boughs under our sleeping bags for insulation.
And we shivered for two nights straight.
Climbing a Mountain in Winter
Which reminds me of the time a slew of us climbed the Adirondack’s Giant Mountain in the dead of winter. The climb began idyllically: clear, blue sky, moderate temperature, and enthusiastic spirits. By the time we reached the top, we were assaulted by a full blizzard complete with fierce, frigid winds and needle-sharp snow. Not recommended.
Petit Byahaut
At the opposite end of the climatological spectrum is one I should keep secret, but… In the southern Caribbean on the island of St. Vincent is a tiny bay. We sailed our chartered boat into that bay and discovered some of the most wonderful snorkeling ever. “Like snorkeling in an aquarium,” cried Linda. And on the shore of that bay is a very tiny resort of “luxury tents” and a tiny restaurant that prepares and delectably serves whatever fish they catch that day. Highly recommended, but accessible only by boat. If I ever forget this fantastic place, shoot me.
Vietnam
There are dozens of places of indelible memories, but the one that is etched most clearly is lying under my bunk in an evac hospital with a bullet wound while the hospital undergoes a vicious rocket and mortar attack during the Tet Offensive. The extraordinary courage of the nurses shines most unforgettably. With utter disregard for their own safety, those young women, most only in their early 20s, struggled to help us grunts get under our beds for protection. While deadly rockets and mortars exploded all around them, they lifted heavy GIs to relative safety beside sandbags. I will never ever forget their bravery.
Ed Lange is a bi-monthly contributor to CRL Magazine.