Elliott Brack

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I went to Elliot Brack's funeral yesterday. He was a friend. And he was quite a character. He was one of the first people I met outside of work when I moved to Georgia. He was sort of a variation of the main character of Tom Wolfe's "A Man In Full". I used to say that Elliott and I had a 50-50 relationship. He told me what to do and I did it. His 50% was telling me. My 50% was doing it. He was a fixture at my church and involved me in all sorts of things. Including organization of our "Civic Breakfast" where we invited leaders from the community for information and opinions of the community. It goes on and on. There were 260 people attending his funeral. He will be missed. https://www.crowellbrothers.com/obituaries/Elliott-Earl-Brack?obId=48440319

Last week I had a special treat. I had dinner out at the Speedville General Store. They make subs and pizza and have a very large selection of smokless tobacco and lotto. They sell gas, beer and video rentals. I am not sure exactly why I feel it is such a treat, but the isolation of the place makes me feel secure. It is a place that is basically unknown and I feel as though I could hide there and no one could find me. It is especially true in the middle of a long January freeze like now. Everyone is locked down for weeks with the cold, ice and inhospitableness. It is remarkablly close to my house and Ithaca as well as being off the beaten path. You might as well be in northern Quebec or an island somewhere. I ordered a tuna sub and the shopkeeper came by me sitting at the formica booth seating, grabed some tuna cans off the grocery shelf and got me dinner.

The big reason Speedville is so secluded is that there are no state routes involved. That and it is not on the way to anywhere unless you know about the backroads in south-central NY state. It does amaze me that we have such out of the way places in NY state only 4 hours away from NYC. It also amazes me that you can find exotic places close to wherever you are.

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