Author Archives: Gary Sanderson

A South Deerfield, Mass., native, Gary was the longtime sports editor at the Greenfield Recorder, a daily newspaper in Greenfield, Mass., where he retired in June 2018, having worked parts of five decades over 39 years. A senior-active, nearly 40-year member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America, his Thursday column "On The Trail" ran for nearly 40 years, ostensibly focusing on fish and wildlife, conservation and issues pertaining to them in the Connecticut Valley, where his roots reach deep into its oldest burial grounds. He and wife Joanne live in a historic Greenfield Meadows tavern today known as Old Tavern Farm, which has a rich history dating back to the mid-18th century. The home, which became a National-Register-of-Historic-Places building on his watch, served as a small, seasonal bed and breakfast from 1999-2015. Gary's other interests include history, anthropology, archaeology, literature, genealogy, Americana, country auctions, and early-American architecture and landscapes, as well as hunting, fishing and especially reading. His primary focus is the Pioneer Valley, its people, places and critters.
Apr
03
2013

Food For Thought

by Gary Sanderson

Kids and customers, a call from a friend and completion of an old novel about a familiar subject, plus matters related to all of the above — that’s what I’m thinking about as I sit here today; Worm Moon waning; brown, brittle leaves, feeble remnants of fall, tumbling, hopping and tumbling again in blustery winter […]

posted in Columns, Grandkids | No Comments

Mar
27
2013

Under The Lens

by Gary Sanderson

You built your tower strong and tall, can’t you see it’s got to fall someday? Townes Van Zandt “Tower Song”  Spring is the time of sprouts and seedlings, buds and leaves, floods and flowers, growth and nest-building — the soggy, saturated season that stirs thoughts I don’t other months entertain. Honestly, this tiptoe introspection only […]

posted in Columns | No Comments

Mar
20
2013

Cougar Classrooms

by Gary Sanderson

Hmmmm? Isn’t it interesting, maybe even humorous how topics with furry legs and big teeth linger? Yes, here I sit — still studying ritualistic landscapes and sacred burial grounds of our ancient indigenous tribes, with a current focus on sites called Wissatinnewag and Peskeomskut, where Northeastern Indians congregated in peace and harmony each spring to […]

posted in Columns, Cougars | No Comments

Mar
13
2013

Change Is Near

by Gary Sanderson

Two songs: one upbeat, joyous, the fiddle and mandolin giggling; the other foreboding, threatening, the tall stand-up base groaning in distress. I have hesitated for some time to jump into the gun-control fray, but will go there today; for what, I do not know. What do I have to gain? So, first, the happy tune […]

posted in Columns, The Dogs | No Comments

Mar
07
2013

Old Stompin’ Grounds

by Gary Sanderson

How difficult it is to describe what came over me right after hooking a hard right at the North Pleasant Street rotary onto Governors Drive, heading for Commonwealth Avenue, the UMass Parking Garage and an afternoon lecture at Bartlett 61. Yes, tough indeed to describe, uncomfortable, too. The place just isn’t for me. Never was […]

posted in Columns, Indians | No Comments

Feb
28
2013

Witch’s Brew

by Gary Sanderson

Gray and rainy, trees frosted with thin white shadows, backyard brook whispering a melting melody that soon will roar that spring’s here; and, oh yeah, one brilliant, lonely, lazy cardinal whistling a happy tune from his midriff perch in a tall streamside sugar maple. Me? Well, content, not melancholy by any stretch, welcoming spontaneous introspection, […]

posted in Columns | No Comments

Feb
21
2013

Cat Trackers

by Gary Sanderson

Cougars, the four-legged variety, are again on the front burner. … Well, sort of. Truth be told, I have for more than a month been going back and forth on the phone and by email with a man named Ray Weber, spokesman for “Cougars of the Valley,” a local group in dogged pursuit of conclusive […]

posted in Columns, Cougars, Indians | Comments (2)

Feb
14
2013

Bare Bones

by Gary Sanderson

It always starts in slow-motion, like someone squeezing lightly on an eyedropper full of sweet wildflower honey. Drip … drip … drip. Tediously slow. Like Chinese water torture. Then all hell breaks loose. I always know when it’s coming, the bright sun heating frigid air and warming the black Guilford slates under a deep roof […]

posted in Columns, Indians | No Comments

Feb
07
2013

All Riled Up

by Gary Sanderson

Whew! What a day, week, month, fresh new year. Freakin’ incredible! Information’s been flying at me like angry white-faced hornets, all of it interrelated, interesting, dynamic and highly contagious. I told my wife the other day that all the details bombarding me have created such a bizarre, glistening labyrinth that I fear I’m going to […]

posted in Columns, Indians | No Comments

Jan
31
2013

Radical Reversal

by Gary Sanderson

It’s truly difficult coming to grips with rare occasions when I wear conservative stripes in an argument. Yeah, I know. Fancy that! Me conservative? Well, in this case, yes. That’s right, the very same man who’s probed the principals of anarchy and individual sovereignty for 40 years, ever since those formative, seed-planting lectures by Robert […]

posted in Columns, Indians | No Comments

« Previous Posts
Newer posts »
Mad Meg theme designed by BrokenCrust for WordPress © | Top