Here’s a video of the Christmas decorations around the house.
Perhaps you’ve head some of the backstory of the making of the motion picture Rocky, written and starring Sylvester Stallone. I had heard whiffs of this but I stumbled on a series of videos that interviewed Stallone and when I dug down a little more, found an incredible story of perseverance and determination. The videos are assembled at the bottom of this post if you’re interested in hearing it right from the horse’s mouth. In the early...
This is a series of videos that Kathleen, her Mother, Maryellen McEwen, brother Warren, and I made to homes that the McEwen’s lived in during the 1960′s. They first lived on 73 Atkinson Street in Dover and then moved to Rye New Hampshire where they lived in three homes on Robbin Road. Also included is a visit to Wallis Sands Beach, where they used to hang out and a impromptu visit to the USS Albacore in Portsmouth, NH. The McEwen Home...
It has been nearly 30 consecutive years, on this weekend that I have played, coached and organized volleyball at the Bay State Games (Massachusetts State Olympics). This is the first year in its history that I have not participated and I do miss seeing some of the friends that I’ve made over the years, but it was kind of nice not be be in a gym on a beautiful summer day. I have quite a few stories from this tournament as a player and a coach, but my...
Yesterday, I took a trip out to Mount Holyoke with college friend, Charlie Whitcomb. No, not the college, but the nearly 1000 foot hillside that the college is named after! Mount Holyoke is the western-most peak of the Mount Holyoke Range located in the Connecticut River Valley out in western Massachusetts. At the top are the remnants of an old hotel first opened in 1800’s. Unfortunately, the hotel structure is need of repairs and you can’t access...
Perhaps you’ve heard the tale: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4th. It was also on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1826. But did you know that James Monroe also died on July 4th and Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4th? The Adams and Jefferson story is really quite a tale. They were collaborators on writing a great majority of the Declaration, with Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson...
It’s possible that you have only bits and pieces of the theme song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This song was also use on Michael J. Fox’s movie: The Secret of My Success. Here’s the entire song: Oh Yeah! This month, 25 years ago, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released. There was some wonderful and prophetic casting (Charlie Sheen as a druggie, Ben Stein as the economics teacher) and some of great and memorable...
Sometimes in sports (and life) everything can hinge on just one moment. For the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals it was the late hit on Nathan Horton in game three that knocked him out of the series and propelled the Bruins to win 4 out of the next five games as they rallied to win. It was truly amazing because the team had lost two gut wrenching games to start the series and were able to come back and pretty much crush the Canucks. It all hinged on...
Perhaps it’s true that you never truly understand your father until you become a parent yourself. Perhaps. My relationship with my own, was a little complicated. My first memory of my Dad was: “Just who does this guy think he is?” You see in the early days, my father was out to sea quite a bit and as the oldest of six, I was pretty much the man of the house. I remember really not liking this guy telling me what to do — whoever he...
My nephew, William, and I went down to the Maryland Eastern Shore to visit my friends Dick and Joan Morgan. We’ve stayed in touch these past 40-ish years from the time that we were neighbors on the Cheltenham Naval Station. Here’s a video of Joan showing off some of her favorites quilts that she’s made. And here’s Dick and Joan as they say...
When you walk around Arlington Cemetery you can’t help but be stuck by the sheer number of gravesites and each one a story of heroism and sacrifice. Purple hearts, bronze starts, silver stars and on. A couple of weeks ago I caught a story of a local veteran, Ed Krysa, who had a ceremony at Arlington. As a footnote in the article was this sentence: “They also paid their respects to U.S. Marine Capt. Seth R. Michaud whose burial site is only a...
Aunt Grace tells the story of how she met her husband, Leo who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The home page for Al Morel of Hudson, Mass.
Web services purveyor, retired volleyball coach, amateur musician, and so on...The Odyssey of a Navy Family: Our family trip around the world in only four years: across the U.S., life in Japan and the Philippines and tour through Europe. As told by my father for the Navy’s All Hands Magazine.
Learn MoreThere are several videos accessible right from this page. In addition there are several videos that have their own pages and can be viewed from the dropdown menu above.
Learn MoreIMO Dale McGee 1955 – 2006: Here’s a small homage to Dale, who was my high school sweetie.
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