What happens when a 82-year-old author returns to his childhood home after 61 years to solve two mysteries and write his own obituary?
David and
Lynette Alter of Longmont will travel back to David's childhood village along the Vermont, Massachusetts and New York lines for a book signing and folk reunion August 19IN East Nassau, N.Y., a 1700s Dutch-founded settlement. It all will take place during a county-wide fire department annual pig roast.
The book,
Intrepidations & Funny Business, is an autobiographical account of its co-author's life -- David, son of a European immigrant, who grew up in the settlement during the 1920s and '30s. A former newspaper crime reporter, David unravels two unsolved mysteries: What happened to his mentor, a country doctor who disappeared in 1937? What was the role of a pistol David saw his father bury in a bedroom wall of his falling-down home?
The book, which is making its debut in his early-life hamlet, was produced by Trafford Publishing.
It's life in mountainous raw country, with the
new old-time school house that replaced the one-room ; square dances for recreation and Jewish immigrants who tolerated Ku Klux Klan oppression.
David contrasts his old-time doctor,
Ol' Doc Taylor, with today's physicians, whom he charges with hypocrisy and the overwhelming desire to make a buck over treating a patient.
There's the Polish town drunk that digs wells, cleans outhouse pits and plays the fiddle; the synagogue of his bar mitzvah, now the home of an Irish lady; his papa sparring with a known Nazi of Stephentown, named for its founder,
Stephen van Rensselaer.
There's the day he streaked (flashed) naked through the village, on a dare, to the horror of New England's pollyannas.
In the historical account, David walks the path that horses and buggies once traveled. The doctors have long since moved to the high rent districts where the fees are higher; the country store and square-dance dance hall is now a post office, Richter's house and David's home are gruesome messes and Ol' Doc Taylor is dead, reads the book.
"The muscular are bedraggled, the dirt roads are now streets and a gallon of gas that once cost 10 cents is now $1.94.9," writes David.
"The swimming hole is plugged, the historic church bell doesn't ring and, along State Route 66 and Stephentown road, ghosts abound.
"I talk to them - especially the ones in the hill."
David and Lynette Alter live in Longmont. They are parents of a son, Paul, and a daughter, Deborah of Boulder. They will be posting another story from New England.