Living life after an obituary stops you in your tracks
Lithuania basketball 101 and what Joe Girard's pro basketball life looks like
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"I get up every morning and read the obituary column. If my name's not there, I eat breakfast."
- George Burns, comedian who died at age 100.
The obituaries for newspaper readers like myself are a must stop before starting our day. It may be a way of reasoning with our mortality, of assuring ourselves we have so much more life to live, at least until we've had breakfast.
But of course at some point in your life, you find the ages of those being fondly remembered in the newspaper are also your age.
There were 11 printed obituaries in Thursday's newspaper. Six of the dearly departed were re-assuredly older than me, but five were younger, three much younger.
More often than not, I don't any of those who have passed, but that was not the case Thursday.
There was one name I recognized.
Austin Lane had died at the age of 36 from brain cancer. His obscenely young age, the wife and three babies he left behind probably got the attention of other readers with an obituary cut short by at least a couple of thirds.
Six years earlier I had written a column about Austin after his diagnosis.
I played basketball at the YMCA with him. He was a big man - 6-4, 250 pounds - with an even bigger personality who could run the floor and play with anyone out there. He could talk a pretty good game too.
That's part of noon ball too.
You can size up people pretty well at noon ball.
Their fire, their competitive spirit and their sense of fair play.
Austin checked all the boxes.
He was in his 20s when he played at the Y. He was a bartender working nights over at O'Toole's so it was perfect for his schedule.
I was in my 60s and still working at the newspaper and while Austin was much bigger than me, my big-man mentality often had be paired against Austin.
What I was appreciative of was that he mostly took it easy with me and took his game outside. He didn't let me win, but he took it easy.
When the noon-ball league over at the YMCA heard about Austin's bad break six years ago, a basketball tournament was quickly arranged by contractor Tommy Albrecht to help raise money for Austin and his family.
Austin was just 29 and had just had a baby.
That's when I wrote the column.
Unfortunately, the doctors only got 80 percent of the cancer in surgery.
Chemotherapy followed.
Over the years, Austin would show up once in awhile to play He looked almost as good as before. But the appearances were brief and I don't ever remember him playing regularly again. From time to time I wondered how Austin was doing.
The Thursday obituary filled in the biographical data. He graduated from Glens Falls in 2006 where he played football and baseball, got married in 2016 and was diagnosed with cancer in 2018.
The past six years he was no doubt defined by the disease he was fighting, but I doubt it detracted from the life he was just starting to live.
The obituaries remind us of the fragility of life and give us an appreciation of the lives we have already led. Looking back, I hadn't done much of anything when I was 36. I was just getting started. I thought about that a lot yesterday.
And how Austin had been cheated.
There is nothing I can say to make Austin's passing any more meaningful for his devastated family and friends. But it is a reminder for us still here about the randomness of life; a reminder that those of us celebrating our third act should make the most of that opportunity.
Later in Austin's obituary at the end of a sentence was buried the most important detail for a life lived well. It was the context I was looking for about how Austin had faced his illness these past six years when he disappeared from the basketball court.
"But his greatest joy in life," it read "was coaching his kids' sports teams."
I'll bet he was a good at that.
I'll bet he smiled and cheered and he probably let his kids win once in awhile.
That makes me smile.
Contributions can be made to Austin Lane's Children Fund at the Hudson River Credit Union at 62 Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Times endorsement
In 2022, the hedge fund Alden Capital announced that none of its newspapers - more than 200 of them - would make endorsements in any presidential race.
It was obviously a business decision to avoid losing money over controversial endorsements.
For years, The Post-Star editorial board made endorsements in small community races all the way up to president. We believed it was part of our duty to lead a discussion about the politics of the day.
The Post-Star has not endorsed any candidates at any level in recent years.
This week, the New York Times joined the growing list of newspapers abandoning political endorsements, saying it would not endorse in any New York races, although it still would make an endorsement in the presidential race.
It did not give a reason for this change in policy. The Times editorial board has endorsed a candidate for president every year since 1860.
Lithuania basketball
If you are curious about what Glens Falls native Joe Girard III will be facing next as he begins his professional basketball career in Europe, I did a little research.
Girard has signed to play for Kedainiai Nevezis of the Lithuania Basketball League. The league starts play in September and the playoffs end in June.
Nevezis had three Americans on its team last year when it finished ninth in Lithuania's top league with a 10-20 record.
Having grown up in Glens Falls and after four years in Syracuse, Girard may think he can handle winter, but Lithuania is an entirely different level of cold. The average temperature is about minus 20 celsius which is below zero fahrenheit.
If you haven't looked at your atlas lately, Lithuania is in northern Europe not far from the Baltic Sea. It is northeast of Poland, west of Belarus and not far from the Russian border. Moscow is just an 11-hour drive from Girard's home base in Kedainiai.
Substack community
Three and a half years ago I set up this Substack newsletter and it continues to grow. Will Doolittle joined me a couple years ago.
Most people are still unfamiliar with the network. Essentially, it allows independent writers to set up a platform to write and get paid for their work. It costs nothing to start a newsletter, but Substack will take a percentage of any revenue you make through subscriptions.
This past February, we at The Front Page began accepting paid subscriptions from anyone who wanted to support our work. But most of our readers still get it for free.
What I've noticed more and more when someone signs up for the newsletter is that they usually have two or three other Substack subscriptions. More and more people are finding the content they want on Substack.
Substack describes itself as "a subscription network for independent writers and creators. It's home to some of the world’s most beloved writers like Margaret Atwood, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Roxane Gay, Michael Moore, and Patti Smith. Launched in October 2017, there are now more than 17,000 writers earning money on the platform. With over 35M subscriptions, of which 2M are paid, the top 10 publishers collectively make over $25 million annually. The platform’s popularity has seen the company's valuation surpass $500M."
It’s a new media world out there and Substack is a big part of it.
Light Brigade tribute
The North Country Light Brigade will be offering up a more personal message Saturday night.
Queensbury councilman Harrison Freer, who passed away last week, was one of the original members of the Light Brigade. In his honor, members will gather on the bike path bridge over Quaker Road on Saturday at 7 p.m.with the message "Godspeed Harrison."
August already
It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through August. It seems like summer disappears faster every year, but this year more than any other year, I've had an eye on Christmas.
My project has been to make the Chapman Museum's DeLong House a destination with some eye-popping Christmas decorations inside and out. We did a dry run on the outdoor wreaths last month and I'm currently sorting through our collection of ornaments, lights, greenery and miscellaneous decorations.
If you have any decorations you would like to donate, contact me at tingleykenneth4@gmail.com and I'd be happy to pick them up.
We're also accepting monetary donations so we can buy the needed lights. You can donate by going to the Chapman Museum's donation page and stipulating it is for Christmas donations.
Finally, we are working with the Upstate Model Railroaders train club to put together a diorama of a 1900 era Glen Street in downtown Glens Falls, complete with working trolley line. We have about $500 of the $1450 we need, so if you would like to contribute to that effort, go to the Chapman donation page and note it is for the trolley project.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
My children have been friends with Austin, his sister Morgan and his wife Sam since they were in elementary school. They have played sports together and lived a wonderful childhood together. I asked recently how he was doing and my daughter had run into him and his beautiful children at the baseball field where the kids played. It broke my heart to find out he passed. Of course my mind went to his mom also who has to be absolutely devastated. Some things just don't make sense and this is one of them. The world lost a beautiful young man and heaven gained a lovely angel.
Very sad but beautifully said!