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Checking in, with Mom
It’s not every day you find a dead body. But when you run a small motel, with people from all walks of life coming and going like...
Patrick Ashley
May 106 min read


That Time the Elephant Walked Down the OFA Hall
Clark (name changed to protect the guilty) and I would roam the halls of OFA on our free periods like rats in a maze. We’d dodge teachers...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 24 min read


Fast Times at Ogdensburg Bowl
Being only about a block away from our house on Hamilton Street, it was less of a destination and more of an extension of my living room....
Patrick Ashley
Feb 194 min read


Schwinn for the Win!
Bike riding today—at least in my worldview—seems to be more for middle-aged folks trying to burn off last night’s lasagna than an actual...
Patrick Ashley
Feb 94 min read


WSLB Static: Tales of Trouble and Memories
If there was ever an icon of Ogdensburg, other than the Golden Dome, it was WSLB radio, perched right there on the AM side at 1400. It...
Patrick Ashley
Feb 14 min read


Jesus and Turpentine: Tales from a Cathedral Painter
𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙚: 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙖 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 It was 1980. I was 17 years old, and...
Patrick Ashley
Jan 254 min read


𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙪𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙉𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙉𝙚𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚
Sometimes, I would get close, too close , to her, and my heart would pound at the danger of the moment; one false move and… No, I’m not...
Patrick Ashley
Dec 29, 20246 min read


Chills, Sled and Spills
. In the winters of the ‘70s in Ogdensburg, kids didn’t just tolerate the snow and cold—we thrived in it. While adults grumbled about...
Patrick Ashley
Dec 22, 20244 min read


An Ogdensburg Christmas Morning
It’s Christmas morning in Ogdensburg, 1973; it’s still the very early morning hours. The city streets are mostly empty, save for the...
Patrick Ashley
Dec 15, 202410 min read


The Difference Being
I was a dirty young boy. No, I wasn’t peeping into women’s windows as they changed; I was a rural kid (damn it) living on the outskirts...
Patrick Ashley
Aug 10, 20246 min read


A Taste of Ogdensburg
I’m sitting alone at a booth at Phillips Diner . I’m right by the front window. This vantage point lets me see everything - people coming...
Patrick Ashley
Aug 4, 20244 min read


CB Nights
I’m seventeen in 1980; it’s too late at night for me to be up - it’s a school night - and my grades would suggest more sleep would help....
Patrick Ashley
Jul 6, 20245 min read


The $29.95 Life Lesson
Every child must learn certain things in this world if they are to navigate it and not risk their lives - don’t touch hot stoves, look...
Patrick Ashley
Jun 23, 20244 min read


Deadly Antics of a '70s Teen Boy
By rights, I should be dead; dead, or at least severely injured. Why? Because I was a teen boy growing up in the 1970s in a little town...
Patrick Ashley
Apr 14, 20246 min read


In Praise of Pizza Hut
Well, my recent column on 𝘋𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯 in the ‘burg seemed to bring back a lot of good memories for people, so let’s try it this...
Patrick Ashley
Apr 6, 20244 min read


Love and Roller Skates: Tales of Finding Teen Love
It’s summertime in the ‘burg, circa 1975; the air is fresh and warm; ships and small craft are traversing the mighty St. Lawerence behind...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 19, 20244 min read


What Uncle Chick Said
You never know when nuggets of gold are going to fall into your lap. No, not real gold, that never happens (unless you slap some guy so...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 19, 20244 min read


Final Reflections: My Last Day in High School
I think all of us, while in grade or high school, just want to get the heck out of there. How great were the summers and school breaks?...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 18, 20241 min read


Teenage Boating Antics on the St. Lawrence
If you live in the ‘burg, you’re tied to the water in some fashion. When I was living there, up until the mid-1980s, Shad flies were a...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 18, 20244 min read


Ogdensburg After Hours: The Night Life of a 1970s Small Town
It’s three o’clock in the morning, and it’s colder than a penguin’s picnic outside. While most sane people in Ogdensburg are in bed,...
Patrick Ashley
Mar 18, 20243 min read
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