[Cave at “the Flume”]
This is NOT an introduction to a new, contiguous series; writing a series is typically built with an intended beginning and end, but that is not the plan for this topic. I already have enough on my plate with two newsletters and do not see any point in trying to manage a third, but in a completely unrelated exchange with a fellow Substacker whose handle is ” @COREYSWORDS “I was inspired to set aside a little corner of Hermit Chronicles reserved for stories readers might find interesting or worth a few minutes of your time to give a look.
I moved to the Granite State DURING the Blizzard of ’78, making it to my destination just ahead of Statewide road closures that would last upwards of 10 days or in more in certain places. It should be lost on absolutely no one that, at 20 (legal age in those days), being snowed-in at a frat house on campus with nothing open but the liquor store, EVERYTHING that you’re now-wandering imagination thinks might have happened, seriously really did.
I left the state for a decade chasing a seriously bad stupid idea that I had found my soulmate, I came back- single and empty-pocketed with my tail between my legs- and will never leave again. Living here for as long as I have, having visited almost every town across the entire state, I have seen and done things over the years that make me proud to call this place my home. Trying to channel my own inner naturalist and hoping to expand my writing arena into these areas, I hope you will follow along and engage in the ongoing conversation. Hell, maybe it will inspire you to set aside some time to look at the beauty all around you in the state where you live … and write about it in your own space… It’s out there; you just gotta go look for it 🙂
