BRAINARD, N.Y. - The Tsatsawassa Fire Station in this remote New England hamlet was all fired up for the book signing and pig roast long before sunup. The pig was in the fiery poke and the firehouse meeting room awaited the line of book buyers who made it known that they wanted to see their old friend
David, a former reporter and now a co-author of a book that details a return visit to nearby East Nassau, his home in the 1920s and '30s.
The book,
Intrepidations & Funny Business, was fresh off the press. And so all day long they came, many with canes and on crutches, riding wheel chairs and leaning on walkers, hobbling or limping -- most bent with time. It was a homecoming for many who originally came from these nearby historic Dutch-founded town sites bearing strange names: Stephentown, Hoags Corners, Brainard, Lebanon, Chatham, Troy, Rensselaer, Albany and Tsasawassa (Tah Su Wah Suh) lake and Nassau to name a few.
There were World War II veterans with whom David had parted in the early '40s, with memories of others who never returned. David, himself a World War II Marine, was now back, having left East Nassau as a high school dropout. He returned 61 years later in 2001 to research and write his memoir. And here it was.
First to arrive was
Mayer Gabarsky, an early East Nassau local now retired and living in Pittsfield, Mass.
"Heard you were back," he said, leaning on a four-footed cane. Meyer was a prisoner in World Ward II. He was rescued while awaiting the ultimate fate of Jewish prisoners of war in Hitler's war.
Next to arrive was
Harry Richter and wife,
Isabell. A brilliant school mate, now living in Lexington, Mass., Harry went on to create secret hardware for the Air Force during that war. His brother,
David, who saved the author from freezing during a violent snowstorm in the mid-'30s, was killed in Burma. Harry, a math and science whiz, was also the hamlet's champion wrestler. There was much to talk about.
Out of Pittsfield came the author's sister,
Anne, and her husband,
Irving Goodman, an amputee on a motorized wheel chair, as well as a nephew, Mark Raciti, from Albany.
From Boulder came the authors' son,
Paul Alter, and his wife,
Deborah Bernardoni, as well as their daughter,
Deborah.
And from near Troy, N.Y., alert at 84, came
Harold (Harmonica) Williams, a born-again minister who in earlier days was David's associate in mischief. At a talent performance, Harold's harmonica accompanied David singing The Prisoner's Song." They didn't win.
High School classmate
Muriel and her husband,
Charlie, came down from Albany to talk over old times. Muriel's book learnin' got David through a "test" one difficult mornin' He peeked over her shoulder and they both got As. The teacher,
Mrs. Mann , 97, couldn't make the meeting. But in spirit, she was there.
A hillbilly named
Hiram, last name withheld by request, snuck in through the crowd and said he wanted a book: Got one, laid a fin on the table and walked off grinning. Mountain folk.
Joyce and
John Vanselow, came out of the hills above Johnsburg in New York's mountains with their mom and aunt. Joyce wanted to renew a long pen-pal relationship. A writer and aspiring doula (a naturalist midwife), Joyce wrote the introduction to
Intrepidations.
No return be complete without mention of
Jean Laier and
Bertha Laier Barth, who made it in time for the book signing and pig roast. You haven't lived until you've toured Jean and
Arthur Laier's garden in the mountains - Jean's hanging gardens of Tayer Road. Don't forget the
Rev. Hunsicker, a new minister who vows to fix the silenced bell in the belfry.
There were dozens more, too many to itemize in this column. Pray they will forgive a tired mind.
But no visit these New England roots would be complete without a trip up Garfield Road, toward Stephentown, to East Nassau's cemetery, established in 1847. Many people were buried here long before that recorded date, however -- a sort of boot hill of New England's patriots.
Here at the cemetery there were farewells to long-lost New Englanders, such as
Melvin Mellius,
Jennie Strait, Abijiah
Bush and her daughter named
Fannie, who married
Jared Root, East Nassau's first-known postmaster, date obscured. There was
David Brainard of 1743, for whom the hamlet Brainard is named; the
Straits,
Kittalls,
Tippets,
Hunts,
Martins and
Dusenburys. To name a few.
And to all, the authors bid farewell: Shalom and Good Bless.
For the details, read the book.
David Bear and Lynette Alter.