Historic Home
One June day some years ago I made a trip to Vermont to visit The Robert Frost House Museum. It’s just up the road from Shirley Jackson’s Hill House and isn’t haunted in the...
John P. O'Grady Blog
The Course of Empire
When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, I spent a lot of time dreaming of escape to the Land of Rip Van Winkle. I didn’t have a car or any easy...
Breathing and Listening
Monday, May 3rd, 1965. I’m seven years old, running home from school with my chums. I can’t see their faces anymore—they appear shrouded as if in mist—but I know they are there. We’re all...
A Nursery Tale
A sunny day in spring, the air redolent of fragrant promise. Blue sky overhead put me into the mood to buy a new lilac shrub for the yard, so I drove down the mountain...
Rustic Cabin
A long time ago I lived alone in a rustic cabin located well “off the grid” in in the faraway California woods. It was a sweet spot on the western slope of the Sierra...
A Dog Story
I wanted to try my hand at writing a dog story. First, I needed to get a dog. What kind of dog? A collie. But why stop there? I told my wife that we...
The Old Coot
They say a ghost haunts Mount Greylock. It’s the highest peak in Massachusetts and popular with hikers. When I heard about this singular phantom, I decided to investigate the matter for myself. No, I...
The Genius of Kaaterskill Falls
[The other day I was cleaning out some files and came across this ghost story that I heard when I was growing up. I wrote it down—to the best of my memory—twenty-five years ago....
Tweed Never Goes Out of Fashion
A fine Harris Tweed sports coat had been hanging in my closet for a long time. I bought it in the early nineties, back when I was living on the West Coast and my...
Sod of Destiny
A clear-eyed poet once observed: “Everyone has their Lenox story.” Here’s ours. A beautiful August afternoon, Sunday at Tanglewood. My wife and I have come to hear the Boston Symphony, who will be playing...