Conversations With Older Guys Schodack NY

I have been in a nostalgic mood as of late , such is often the study of history and archaelogy. There are 2 men I would like to credit with being of a fatherly help in my youth. Henry Peters and Ted Kunicki both having lived in the Town of Schodack. Henry Peters my uncle , Ted Kunicki a father of a good long friend. Both men took the time to give me a piece of their mind at a crucial time in a then young life. I am going back 40 plus yrs ago. Peters , on a row boat on Lake Pocatapauge in East Hampton CT. We had a morning of fishing......we had time for a good long discussion. Everything from girls to college....war and peace. Where my life might go from my 16 yrs of life at that point to that eventual adulthood I heard so much about. I admit I kind of poured my heart out about my anxieties and preoccupations. He listened as Ted did....from a life interrupted by war and their own stresses of life. From a life lived . I recieved his perspective in his best man to man way as we used to call it. A few yrs later Ted Kunicki who I occasionally worked for in his home building company were traveling down Rt 9 in Schodack NY. I was driving him back from a house he was building. It was in the early evening. We stopped at a local bar , one of the Kunicki's mottos was "all beer is good , some beer is better than others but generally speaking beer is good. Mr. Kunicki came from Poland and been in the bld trades for many yrs. Like my uncle a veteran of WWII. My uncle Navy Air Corp , Ted Army in an intelligence unit. He could speak multiple languages. After beer #1 he decided to give me a talk. Once again a talk about life and my future in it. My father had been dead about a year. I think he decided I needed some fatherly advice. I had already finished my 1st year of college and I was on summer vacation and not all that self assured. He talked to me in his grumbing manner which was much kinder than it sounded. He told me about someday finding a good woman , settingly down , becoming a home owner. All that adult stuff I was not really wanting to pay much attention to. The kind of good woman I was looking for at that moment was not what he had in mind or for that matter my uncle's mind. Get yourself a good solid wife , one built for the long haul of life. On beer 3 , he admitted being an adult could be a pain in the ass. On beer 4 he told me he was glad I was his son's friend and he actually thought I had the stuff to make it....even though he would yell at me every 10 minutes on the job. It felt good , my Uncle and Ted a few yrs apart gave me a piece of themselves. Also , in a way gave me some confidence. Both men did not waste time and would not waste time if they thought it would fall on deaf ears. It did not , I own a home , have been married for 29 yrs , vote and do all those adult things. I admit that there are moments when I am sick of adulthood....but who doesn't. Ted Kunicki would die a couple of yrs later and I attended his wake. Mrs Kunicki still a resident of Schodack NY spends time between her sons and grandchildren in Atlanta and Brooklyn. My Uncle still living in Berlin , Ct with his wonderful wife my Aunt Marion. Thank you to both , perhaps I need to find someone who is willing to listen and have a conversation. Carry on a tradition.