Christmas Eve in our house wasn’t complicated, but it was a sacred family tradition. My brother and I were altar boys, and this was the main event of church services for the year. For my brother and me, Dec. 24 meant putting on freshly laundered red cassocks and starched and ironed ...
Back when shopping was an event, my old mentor John Gunter ran the legendary Penn Traffic Department Store in Johnstown. John’s motto was simple: Go big or go home. And when it came to Christmas, he went mega-big. That store was a winter wonderland with wreaths the size of a 1968 Chrysler ...
In the late 1990s, I somehow found myself on a plane bound for Bosnia, proof that Congressman John Murtha and Don Zucco, then the mayor of Johnstown, could talk me into anything. Our Johnstown delegation, led by Zucco, was headed to BrÄŤko, a city still reeling from the war. As we descended ...
Air traffic controllers have been having a rough time, and that doesn’t exactly make any of us feel calmer about flying. So, I thought I’d revisit a few of the memorable flight experiences we have survived over the past. Once, on a commuter plane from Philadelphia to Providence, R.I., I ...
Recently, the Somerset Chamber of Commerce recognized a friend of mine. For more than 50 years, G. Henry Cook, retired chair of Somerset Trust Company, has quietly shaped the soul of Somerset County. He’s done it not with ego, but through integrity, humility, and a committed belief that ...
Primarily because I loved my work, my retirement plan involved a black zip-up bag. In other words, I never wanted to retire. I just wanted to clock out one last time and have someone else do all the paperwork. Unfortunately, my main client recently DOGE’d me, which takes us back to a much ...
