Life in Cayuga

 I know I claim Cayuga as my home, but according to the U.S. Postal Service, I live in Utica, so Utica is my official hometown.  Utica used to be a thriving little town with a high school, a bustling business district, a bank, several grocery stores, 2 clothing stores, a hardware store, 2 car dealers, 2 doctors, a dentist, and 2 drugstores.  Over the last 30 years or so, it has become like many little towns, declining rapidly.  Stores and businesses have closed. The high school merged with the bigger school in the county seat. The bank left. We don’t even have a grocery store. There is a medical clinic, but no drugstore. We do, of course, have a Dollar General, like everywhere else.  Someone said that with all the empty and collapsing buildings on Main Street, that Utica looked like it had been bombed.  But there is hope. A group has formed to try to revitalize the town.  It’s a diverse group with black and white members of all age groups. They have pl...

  Uncle Don at the Tuesday lunch on his 90th birthday Back in April, I wrote about the Tuesday lunches and how my Uncle Don loved going with me.  I’m sorry to say, we lost Uncle Don early last Sunday morning. His daughter Clair called me one morning and asked if I could come down, that she thought he’d had a stroke. She called the ambulance and got him to the hospital.  He had definitely had a mild stroke.  They kept him in the hospital and while there he had three more strokes. Last Saturday they sent him home with hospice as they had done all they could do for him. He died that night.  My sister and I tried to help Clair with the funeral arrangements and all the hundreds of little things involved with planning a funeral. In the middle of the plans, she said she wasn’t sure who to ask to give a eulogy.  She looked at me and said, “You gave your Dad’s eulogy and it was really good.  Would you mind doing one for my dad?”  What could I say? I don’t ...

 I’ve been accused of not liking dogs.  And there’s some truth there.  I don’t dislike all dogs, but I have a fear of large aggressive dogs.  I’ll tell you why in a bit. We always had dogs when I was growing up.  Mama had a picture of me at about 4 or 5 with “Sparky”, our little mixed breed pup.  Soon after that, an older couple who lived down the road moved away to be closer to their children.  They had a full blood male collie who looked just like Lassie on tv and they couldn’t take him with them. They thought it would be a good dog for our family because it was so good with children, so they gave us “King”. He was the best dog.  He watched out for me and my sister like a hawk.  If we started for the road, he’d nudge us back into the yard.  He’d bark if strangers came up.  He was just a good dog.  After that we always had collies.  We bred them with another family and had a continuous bloodline going.  Later on, aft...