Six Months From Today...

Six months from today will mark the 50th anniversary of a little snowstorm that dropped in on Central New York. Well, maybe it was more than a little storm: it packed enough punch to shut down our neck of the woods for a week or more. Over the last year and a half, I’ve been talking with people who remember the storm and, oh, the stories they told me!

In just under three months I’ll be releasing the book, along with its companion volume, a biography I’ve written about one of the most memorable voices heard during that storm. He was a SUNY Oswego meteorologist who had a daily weather broadcast on WSGO radio, and during the four and a half days of the blizzard, he observed it almost around the clock, giving his loyal listeners over 100 reports. His name was Bob Sykes.

Join me for the launch of both books on Thursday, October 15th at 7 p.m. at the river’s end bookstore in Oswego. Let’s just hope we don’t get a lake-effect snowstorm that day!

Telling Stories at the Oswego County Fair

One of the stories I'll be telling is about John and Anna Fiumara. John was born in Italy and when he was 16, while serving his country as a Merchant Marine, he "jumped ship" in Baltimore, Maryland. From there, John traveled north to Fulton, New York, where he met Anna and established a muck farm in the Scriba area. John's story is an example of the lengths people went to establish a good life in the United States and that led to the success of muck farms.

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