Ken:

Regarding the man in need of legal help I knew one of the members of the family a little because one of their boys was in my Boy Scout troop and my folks thought very highly of them.  There was the one son about your age (graduated high school in 70 or 71), a daughter that was my in my high school class (72), another son (who like most of my friends from the Scout troop were high school class of 74), and I think one other younger son maybe two or more years younger.  

The mom worked at the library and the father was a postman for a while.  By all appearances a working class family making a very modest go of it (they lived on North Geneva Street just north of Court Street).  My family said of the dad that he had strong opinions and didn't back down when it might've been prudent to do so.  I was told he worked for the railroad as a "gandy dancer" (trackworker) and, in spite of the fact that he wasn't a big man, would get into scraps over his opinions. 

The incident you mention involving the Nixon threat letter never quite made sense to me.  I  seem to recall the dad was upset with the reliability of the M-16 rifle that was being used in Viet Nam (I think it jammed frequenty, making the GI defenseless).  The word "inhumanity" applied to the gun sticks in my mind for some reason and that doesn't jive with issue being the reliability of the gun so maybe the issue was the types of rounds being used (hollow points or some such thing).  I think reference was made in the note to 'knowing a group of marksmen' and not knowing 'how the president would be safe' if the problem with the gun wasn't fixed.  It might've been a case of a former GI trying to correct a situation that he felt strongly about and using the wrong language to push the idea forward.

At any rate the dad had a small collection of hunting guns as I recall and he either surrendered them to the police (perhaps when he was arrested), gave them up, or sold them.  This upset the son that I knew as he was hoping to get to use them for hunting when he got old enough (I think he was about 14 at the time).

I would consult my historical resource on all things Ithacan but they've run off to the Big Apple for the weekend.  Maybe ctb knows some more details?

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: This isn`t an orifice, it`s help with fluorescent lighting.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Gabriel
Orgrease
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 6:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] Received from another high-functioning schizophrenic I
know, and


>
>
>     *It's not the same devil-may-care group running things...*
>
For a while in my post-HS youth I worked with my stepfather, the
electrician, who was working for a lawyer on conversion of a barn into
apartments.
The job was not so much a working experience as I spent more time
listening to stories than anything else.
You see... my grandfather worked for my father also and he was ALWAYS
ready to stop and tell a story.
But we had this other fellow working with us who worked directly for the
lawyer. He had a son my age that I had gone to school with.
The reason the fellow worked for the lawyer was that the guy needed
representation but had no money.
He did not say a whole lot and he spent a great deal of time sweeping.
But when he did talk I listened.
He had been a postal carrier until one day he got pissed at the junk
mail and threw it all away instead of delivering it.
But that was not why he needed the lawyer. The reason he needed the
lawyer... and this was during the Nixon presidency, was that he had
written in a letter to a friend of his that if the president did not get
his act together that someone might shoot him. This was not looked on
favorably by the Feds.
I do not remember the man's name. But I do remember that he encouraged
me that the ONLY book to read is Tolstoy's /War and Peace/.
He did end up spending a few years in Danbury Fed for his words.
I never have read /War and Peace/, being contrary, and figuring the
effect of Tolstoy can lead to extreme consequences, I read /Anna Karenina/.
My not reading /War and Peace/ is a hold out... I'm not ready for what
it may bring to my life.
Bad enough I read /Crime & Punishment/ while in jail. There is
schizophrenia in my family. Got to watch that stuff.

][<en

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