A River (Always) Runs Through It (Mountain Views‪)‬

OLEAN--Rivers have always been an important presence in my life. I seem drawn to them. They silently influence our lives. I grew up about 200 yards from the rushing Black River in the North Country of this state--one narrow street and a small woods away from that torrent's deep, dangerous and unfenced gorge that my older brothers and I were forbidden to visit in early childhood. Of course, my boyhood friends and I would creep up to the lip and stare at the chasm anyway--wondering aloud if anyone had ever fallen there, or if we could throw a baseball, or even a rock across to the southern side. We tried and failed plenty of times. My brothers, later in adulthood, both told me they did the same thing.