Oz Legacies

A New Year and a new column, and so it goes. This new column, "Memoirs of a Small Town Mayor", will be an opportunity for me to share excerpts from my upcoming autobiography, "What Color Is Your Table?", along with musings and anecdotes from times current and past. I will endeavor to tell stories, past and present, and give my perspective on happenings and events. This column will appear twice monthly on iHeartOswego.com.

One of the greatest things about Lake Ontario is that not all of its beaches are sandy. Many are made up of small water eroded beach rocks.

In a recent speech in Buffalo, Governor Andrew Cuomo, in advancing his "Fairness agenda", spoke in glowing terms about making it a national agenda. “We want to get this done in New York for New York, but then we are going to take this justice agenda, this fairness agenda, and we are going to say to this nation, ‘We did it in New York. You can do it anywhere in this country,’ ’’ Cuomo said.

After Rad Converse "didn't say no” to the $50,000 Grucci Fireworks display proposal, we got to work in earnest and started to plan and craft the event. He was recently quoted in the Syracuse PS as saying " I believe in enthusiastic people, and with Charlotte’s enthusiasm, how could she fail?” His confidence in her, as it turned out, was well placed.

This will be the last of the Harborfest related columns, at least until Harborfest. I've been regaling the readers with stories about how it all began, and there are some pretty funny/interesting little known anecdotes about what happened in those first few years.

     Raymond W. Powers was born on Thanksgiving morning, November 26, 1931 at his parent's home in Scriba. He was not a college graduate – he was a simple, honest, loyal family loving man who valued his family and the acquired friendships of those he admired and appreciated. Those who knew Ray respected his no-nonsense purposeful ideals, his practical down-to-earth methods of dealing with everyday life.

     I am always glad to hear from readers of this column with suggestions as to who I should write about next. I particularly appreciate the feedback of people like Marg Falise, who wrote me to say that , "other than the obits, it's great to look forward to such uplifting and nostalgic columns." I also heard from J. B. Kelly Jr., who suggested , among others, that I write about my late wife, Charlotte.

     If any one individual could be said to define, by his very persona, the concept of community service, that one person would be Dr. Willard C. Shum.

Every year at this time, many of us engage in a search for the true meaning of the holidays . That true spirit is often elusive to find, but if any one ever found it and expressed it, time and again, especially at Christmas time, that person was Bob McManus, the best Santa Claus Oswego ever had.