Santa sits with sunglasses on as children get their picture taken on his lap for free. Wood burns in a fire pit a few feet away. Later, there will be a tree lighting ceremony and Christmas carols will be sung by a local singer/songwriter. Parents and children gather with hot […]
Month: February 2009
By Melissa Esposito Byron “Barney” Calame, a passionate journalist for over 40 years, had a simple, specific reason for entering the field of journalism: “I wanted to catch the bad guys.” There was a joyous mood in the SUNY New Paltz Honors Center as various speakers said warm words for […]
By Hope Still The call of duty leaves many couples grasping to maintain the livelihood of their relationship over hundreds, many times, thousands of miles. Be it due to deployment, training in a far off base, or simply, orders to be stationed across the country or even the world, the […]
By Will Kamerman Doug Nash reclines on a giant couch, lumberjack style – bearded and with beer in hand – enjoying some long awaited time off from work. He works as a cameraman for Cablevision in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., as well as behind the counter at Convenient Deli in New […]
By Pierce Lydon It’s the summer. You’re 19 years old and you’re at a youth conference in Indiana with your brother. They are having an open mic night and you think this would be a great time to show a few kids some of the stuff the two of you […]
Can treating a sinus infection land you in jail? If an obscure law enacted as part of the USA PATRIOT ACT were strictly enforced, the answer would be “yes.” In March of 2006 the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 was incorporated into the PATRIOT Act. The act banned over-the-counter […]
By Jillian Egan Alice O’Connell, 82, feels lucky.A secure job and her choice not to have children allowed her to save nearly three-quarters of every paycheck she ever made in her 49 years as a bank teller in Ridgewood, N.J.After receiving a modest inheritance, she put a 30 percent down […]
By Kim Plummer Margaret Human, 66, moved to New Paltz after she retired. She wanted to be closer to her grandchildren. She chose New Paltz because she could be a pedestrian here. “It’s hard for people to stop driving,” Human said. “If you haven’t set your life up consciously to […]
By Nicole Papantoniou He promised her they would go to her prom because they blew off his.He wasn’t interested, but she really wanted to go. “I guess it’s no big deal,” she told him.“We’ll always have next year.”They had been a couple for two-and-a-half years by that point. She […]
By Katrina Kieltyka When Kate, a women’s studies professor at SUNY New Paltz, was a senior in high school she became pregnant. For Kate [not her real name] the choice was clear: she needed to get an abortion. “There was no decision to be made,” she said. “I had plans […]
By Gina Marinelli Three-year-old Chris cries into the grey sleeve of his mother’s sweatshirt. Sheila comforts her son, the younger of her two children, before he jumps off her lap to play with some building blocks. Dressed in a colorful blouse and slacks, Schara Williams sits on the couch across […]
By Catherine Ratto What’s worse than failing a college course? How about not even getting a chance to study for the class because you can’t afford the textbooks? A sophomore majoring in history shares in the problem of not being able to afford textbooks. Amy Nagy has been searching for […]
By Mitchell Epstein The water glistened in the sun as I entered the pool area at 11 a.m. on an almost unbearably hot summer day. “Hey, what’s up,” I said to Kirill, the 22-year-old manager of the private pool. “Hey, Mitch, could you dump some chlorine in the deep end?” […]
By Kristen Henry I pulled my neon blue Sunfire into the same spot in the Target parking lot I always did. It was 7:55 a.m. – I still had five minutes to run into the store before I’d be late. The drive there had been a blur. After four years […]
By Nicole Papantoniou “Babe, I know we haven’t spoken about this in a while but…” What could he be talking about? I thought to myself. I know I picked a fight recently about possibly breaking up, but I didn’t really mean it. I was just confused. Why does he have […]
