I read Kihm Winship’s “Clean” in the Aug. 1 edition of the Skaneateles Press with much wonder. More than anything my mom wanted us playing – especially in the dirt.

I was the quintessential tomboy – with chronic scraped up knees, bug bites, snarled hair and sand everywhere.

My four brothers and I grew up between the railroad tracks and the Atlantic Ocean, where there was a wooden boardwalk. This meant splinters. Each night we would heat up a needle and start digging out our own splinters. Not one or two, these came in half a dozen and up. The work hurt, but it was also quite satisfying to retrieve the wood and measure with each other what you had borne.

And let’s not forget the other great thing about the beach: Outdoor showering...

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When Bruce Springstein sang about a love on the Jersey Shore people connected all over the country for their own reasons. That’s what a good songwriter hopes for:
“Love me tonight for I may never see you again. Hey, Sandy girl.”

When I hear this song, even though he is singing about Asbury Park where I spent many a childhood night at its amusement park, instead I think of Skaneateles’ Sandy.

It seems odd that there are people living in the Skaneateles Watershed who might not know about Sandy Beach.
You are the lucky ones.

It’s been at least 10 years since it disappeared as a public swimming hole. For many of the rest of us there is this void...

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The following are my observations from Congressman James Walsh’s town hall style meeting in Marcellus last Monday night Aug. 13. I am not a Republican, I am not a Democrat, I am registered in the Independence party by accident. I thought I was registering as an independent voter – free from any party affiliation.
I didn’t see an evasive politician. I didn’t see a man made of Teflon letting the jabs slide off of him. I didn’t see a man pretending to have a Q-and-A with his constituents.
Instead, I saw a Central New Yorker, an educated man well versed in the subjects he was asked to speak on. I saw a congressman who was trying to respond to the will of the voters in his district. I saw a man who grew up in Syracuse when it was a thriving city...

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In last week’s paper, I wrote about Charles L. Bailey’s book, “In the Shadow of the Cross.” It’s a personal account of his abuse conducted by a Catholic priest named Father Thomas Neary who visited Bailey’s home in the guise of training him for the priesthood. The book is also about the victim’s recovery process, which is ongoing. It’s a very powerful and disturbing book.
What I failed to mention in last week’s article is that Rev. Neary, who died in 2001, also served mass in Skaneateles.
Bailey’s book opens when he is a 10-year-old boy dealing with Rev. Neary who has come to the Bailey house on Onondaga Road in Camillus to begin preparation for Charles to enter the priesthood. Charles is the second son; his mother is thrilled the priest has looked on her son in this manner...

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