A Veritable Mish-Mash of Random Things, P5

Yet Still Even More, a Little Bit About Everything

Once again, the first Tuesday of the month is our Random Things column; a short and sweet look at a whole bunch of random things. This month - into the Azure, banned book week and music for connection.

The Empire State of Fire Towers

Sometime around 5pm on Tuesday, July 13, 1915, Azure Mountain fire observer Fred Smith knew, in a split second, that he was in trouble. He had come down off his summit perch to escape a coming lightning storm and had taken shelter in the observer’s cabin, along with his son who was on the bed, when lightning found them.

A strike at a nearby telephone line came into the cabin, zipped through the springs of his son’s mattress and hit Smith from the left hip down to his knee. The lightning cut a whole in his wallet and fused the coins in his pocket, not to mention setting the bed on fire.

Miraculously, his son was uninjured. Their phone was destroyed. A shocked but still conscious Smith, with his leg severely burned, managed to put out the fires inside the cabin and get his son into a pack basket where they escaped the cabin and he hiked a quarter mile to get to a local guest house called the Blue Mountain House.

Luckily for both of them, a guest at the house was a doctor. Fred was treated and sent home to observe another day.

Field guides are, alas, only as good as the stories that come down off the mountains over the years and I’m thrilled that the first of 40 chapters to my new guide has been sent off to my editor. Writing a new Falcon Guide book, “Hiking Lookouts, New York: A Guide to the State’s Best Lookout Tower Hikes” has been a logistical challenge for me, but it feels good to finally see progress being made.

Publication date, I hope, is fall 2024. Stay tuned!

Azure Mountain fire observers cabin, circa 1920. Whether this is the original cabin Fred Smith found himself in is unclear.

Becoming an Open Book

My parents never policed my reading habits. I can’t recall a single moment when my mom or dad questioned what I was reading. At any age.

They just came from a blue collar belief system where reading was good. If your kid is reading, that’s good. Reading always helps. I read. ALOT. So they just didn’t get in the way.

In retrospect, I most likely could have used some context. Reading Eric Lustbader’s Ninja books or “Run Silent, Run Deep” when I was in fourth or fifth grade may possibly have been a bit too ahead of the curve. Reading Jim Morrison’s biography or “Catcher in the Rye” without some manner of adult contextualization left me with more questions than answers.

And who knows, maybe if they DIDN’T let me read so much I could have grown up to be a rocket scientist, or a doctor, instead of, well, whatever this is.

I mention all this, of course, because this is National Book Ban Week, a time when libraries and readers around the country - including my library in Auburn - try to turn a spotlight on the many, many books over the years (including “Catcher in the Rye” and Eric Lustbader books) have been banned. (Challenged. Removed. Replaced. Disputed, etc.)

(An aside: Don’t come at me with But books aren’t banned as long as you can buy them on Amazon!! Don’t hide behind syntax or be disingenuous. You know exactly what I mean.)

Besides, my point in mentioning my own experiences is that I think, maybe, I could have actually used some adult guidance when it came to my reading habits as a kid. Not somebody to decide what was good or bad for me, but more engaged parents who could have read WITH me. (This isn’t criticism, mind you, I’d rather my parents just let me read whatever I wanted than didn’t let me read at all.)

And it feels like that’s where we are right now. Are we protecting the children or simply not doing the work as parents and guardians? My daughter has a standing order - if somebody, anybody, tells you that you can’t read a book, the first thing to do is go and read that book. But it doesn’t end there, there’s a part two. I’ll want to read the book with her, figure it out together, talk about it.

And just as nothing is ever black and white, our library this week is also trying to contextualize book banning. (If that’s even possible.) By which I mean our staff, led by our children’s librarian, has created an exhibit that looks at the laws and policies, state by state, behind all the most recent challenges. One question we’re always asked at the library when it comes to book challenges is why? Why are books like Harry Potter or “Where the Wild Things Are” even challenged to begin with? The reasons are universally idiotic, but we want to answer the question.

And then we want you to check out the book and read it.

Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t.

For Those About to Rock…

The other day, my daughter’s friend, who is nine, was wearing a AC/DC jersey of the band’s 1981/82 “For Those About To Rock” tour. The jersey was a repo of course, but still...

“Hey,” I said to the two of them. “That shirt you’re wearing. I went to see them during that tour.”

There was a long pause as they did the age calculations in their heads to determine how ancient I was, and then my daughter surprised me.

“When can WE go see them,” she asked. Her friend nodded in approval.

My daughter of course, thanks to me (some may say, regrettably), is a hard rock/metal head. To this day she believes her favorite AC/DC song, “Whole Lotta Rosie” is about flowers. Boy, is she in for a surprise some day!

Anyway, whether it’s her favorite girl band, The Warning, or Metallica, or now a burgeoning interest in Baby Metal, the concept of listening to this music, loudly, has become a bonding experience for us. You see, her mom can’t stand the stuff so we listen to it, loudly, when we have the house to ourselves and when we are able to engage in what my daughter calls “crazy dance parties.” If you’ve ever seen a eight-year-old dance to AC/DC, you know what I mean.

Her friend has two teen age sisters and a father whom I know to me a classic rock guy. So it all checks out.

But seeing them live? Visions of giant uncomfortable stadium shows with two pre-teens in tow… oh boy.

“You want to see them live?”

“Daddy,” my daughter says, all eight going on eighteen, “AC/DC is THE band.”

That’s indisputable logic right there.

So we’re going to do it. Kind of.

In a couple months, one of the biggest AC/DC cover bands, Thunderstruck, is coming to town, and I’m bringing the girls. I even spoke to the band and we’ll do a meet and greet. I presented the girls with their tickets a few days ago, and they acted like it was the second coming.

“This is going to be loud,” my daughter’s friend said.

“It’s ok,” my daughter told her, “I have ear plugs.”

And a new generation of rockers is born.

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Housekeeping: Hey all, as always, thanks for coming along on this ride! Our subscription referral contest continues and if you’d like a chance to win some fun gifts, click here to check it out: Refer your friends and win!

Meanwhile, let us know what you think: Have you hiked to any fire towers? Read any banned books? Listen to metal? We love to hear from you.

Fall is upon us and we carry on as always. Stay kind! On we go!