Author Archives: jimholleran29

  Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is spinning among his parents’ friends in the living room of his commencement party, accepting hugs, congratulations and advice in the 1967 film The Graduate, when a party-goer grabs him by the arm and insists, “Plastics are the future.’’    “Plastics’’ became a popular one-liner of my youth, long after RhettContinue reading “Valedictorians look backward, then turn attention to future”

  When Rick Johnson delivers a presentation Thursday on St. Lawrence River ferries, he’ll reminisce about simpler times from the 1920s through the 1950s.    He’ll show sepia-tinted photos, cite the working families that manned the boats, detail how passengers boarded trains or buses to shop in Ogdensburg, and recall how his grandparents labored toContinue reading “Remembering the ferry boats linking Canada, U.S. shores”

    Imagine you’re a parent and your daughters, still in their late teens, announce they want to work on Great Lakes freighters.   The deckhands usually are exclusively male. Perhaps it’s a 70,000-ton coal carrier with grime everywhere. The middle of Ontario or Huron or Superior can seem like the ocean when wind-driven swells reachContinue reading “Sailing through life with the Ship to Shore Chef    “

     The trip to the optician’s showroom was certain to resuscitate the battle of the sexes. It was time to pick out new eyeglasses, so I invited my spouse, the arbiter of good taste and fashion in our household, to come along.    I knew this could be contentious. Usually, there’s a debate during householdContinue reading “Confessions of high school nerd when picking out eyeglasses”

     Starting the 60-mile journey from Morristown to Star Lake, I dwelled on the fragility of life.    I was headed to the backyard celebration of life for Scot Fraser, 74, my former neighbor and science teacher, at the invitation of his wife Mary. Scot was a non-smoker yet a victim of lung cancer lastContinue reading “Star Lake revives memories, reminds us how life is fragile”

   When Art Quackenbush crashed to the Canton gym floor last November, his family, a community and a team of medical wizards helped to pick him up. Within days, his wife Cindy discovered she needed a similar medical miracle. Hands reached out again.    Over the next seven months, Art and Cindy revisited lifelong lessonsContinue reading “Quackenbush family tested by vow — in sickness and in health”

   In a moment of satisfaction after my colleagues delivered our 941st free bed, I thought about my North Country roots. Imagine the good we could do for needy children if Sleep In Heavenly Peace had a working chapter in St. Lawrence County.    So I let my mind wander. I imagined a startup chapterContinue reading “North Country needs a chapter to build beds for needy children”

   You can take the boy out of the North Country, but you can’t take the North Country, Morristown and the St. Lawrence River out of the boy.     For many of us transplants, summer is not complete until we loll on a porch and watch the ship traffic, watch the loons bob among theContinue reading “Thomas Wolfe was wrong – you can home again and again”

By KATHY M. CONNORGuest columnist It’s the talk of the town – Tim Hortons has returned. Not the legendary hockey player, but the beloved coffee and donut stop in Morristown along the Massena-Ogdensburg-Watertown transportation corridor. In October 2021, the reliable Parkway Express convenience store on State Route 37 closed after a pick-up truck towing aContinue reading “Community regains ‘Timmies,’ a hub for donuts, conversation”

   When Chris Coffin began his research on stone houses in the Town of Morristown, the Gateway Museum board member didn’t have to look far for inspiration.    He examined the stone house on the Red Barn Preserve, on the road between village and Jacques Cartier State Park, that was bequeathed to the museum byContinue reading “Gateway Museum hosts talk on vintage stone houses”