In his last years my father and his retired friends would play pinochle in his real estate office, a converted garage in a burb house in upstate New York.
A few hands into the game, and the real estate banter turned into stories about their failing health. I would be nearby writing his bills, embarrassed by this talk of what old Hamlet called “the natural gates and alleys of the body.”
One of his card buddies was a retired Army colonel named Dominick Vanzetti, a man as far from the famed anarchist as you can get.
Vanzetti had the right answer for everything. As a younger man he got into a fistfight at an officer's club. Vanzetti, having thrown the first punch, was charged with assault. Unwilling to pay a lawyer, he argued the case himself. Vanzetti was acquitted and praised by the judge for his presentation. My father loved this story of a man who won against the odds.
A number of you have already received correspondence regarding the current status of Friends of Fulflex Field because you generously donated to the project or made pledges to reach our goal. Our goal has been to conserve the land known as the Fulflex Field as an open green space...