Duane McDonald:  

Life Obviously, the rumors of my death were greatly exagerrated and somewhat premature! Although there was that one incident,but I was only gone for a few moments before they brought me back. What really happened was in the Summer of 1981, I'd decided I'd had enough of the suburban bliss of Long Island,packed my belongings, and headed north. The only other place that I was intimately familiar with was the Catskill Mts.and the Hudson Valley,where I had spent several summers. I had a friend there who helped me get started and before I knew it,I was a permenent resident. I travelled back to Long Island on weekends for the next 14 yrs. to visit my son from my 1st marriage and a few friends who still resided there. My first few years in the Hudson Valley, I moved from place to place and job to job until I got hired at the company that I had planned on working for from the start.In 1984, my future wife and I bought a turn-of-the-century Victorian home in Kingston NY,where we'd both been transferred to work. I spent the next 6 yrs.restoring that house to its original stature and elegance.In 1989 my wife and I were married and our first son was born in 1991. Realizing that the City of Kingston school district was no place to educate our children,we sold the house and bought a 1920's Bungalow-style Cape in New Paltz,NY, which I've been restoring for the past 16 yrs,kind of a "work in progress" :). Our 2nd son was born in 1994. By this time we had already survived the 1992 massive workforce reduction in IBM and had both been transferred to the IBM Poughkeepsie site,which was a very easy commute for us. After the layoffs,I decided to expand my horizons a little and give myself a bit of an edge in case one of the many layoffs to follow finally found its way to me. So I took one of my favorite hobbies (restoring antiques) and turned it into a small enterprise. I rented a room in an antique center where I sold the antiques that I had restored. Before long,the shop owner was asking me to do work for her as did the other dealers in the shop. Within a few years,I had a pretty good number of steady customers and expanded my business through advertising. Eventually I needed to expand my little workshop and started looking for more space. I saw an ad in the paper from a guy who wanted someone to run his refinishing business while he and his wife were in California for a year. When I went for the interview, he and I hit it off well but both thought we knew each other. Turns out we had met when I was about 15. His name was Alvin Chiappolini and he was from Huntington, a "Class of 72" Walt Whitman High grad.. He never did go to California, but I ended up working with him for about 2 years. The things that he taught me helped me a great deal in my restoration business which I never did expand much more. However, I am considered one of the top restorers in the entire Hudson Valley. I guess the real measure of success is that I constantly have work and I turn down or at least put off customers at will. Alvin and I are still friends and he stops by to see me every so often.Of course all this work keeps me way too busy. My sons are Cullen 13,Connor 16, and Justin 28. The younger boys live with us and are typical teenagers,sports,Xbox, and MySpace seem to be all that they're interested in. My wife,Beth started working from home once the boys hit school age,so she's their primary caregiver (Thank Heavens!). My adult son Justin lives in East Northport,he works in maintenance at a private school in Dix Hills,is a Radio DJ at one of the colleges, and is currently in the studio recording his first musical CD.My 16 yr. old is looking forward to applying for his drivers permit(every parents nightmare!)and I'm looking forward to those gigatic insurance premiums!We have 6 more years until retirement,once my younger son leaves for college we're going to sell the house and leave for places south! As Jerry Garcia said: "What a long strange trip its been!" College I didn't have the traditional experience of going off to college after high school. I already had a full-time,good paying,union job when I was a senior in high school. And since I really had no sense of what I was going to do with my life,I decided to forego higher education and take the path of least resistence. Big mistake! I ended up marrying too young, to the wrong person,having a child,compounding the problem,losing my cushy job,and eventually getting divorced. Sounds tragically sad I know, but those were some of the best years of my life. I look back on them fondly because they forced me to grow up and start making decisions. I also forged the greatest friendships of my life during that period. Eventually, I realized what I'd known since I was a teenager,that I needed to move on and away from the life I was leading.So I took a second job driving a taxi for a year(thanks Robert DeNiro!),saved up some cash and left the comfort and confines of Long Island forever. I started over in the Hudson Valley the same way I'd left the island, bouncing around between jobs.But I did have a plan and eventually started taking college courses at Dutchess Community College. That ended when I finally got hired by the company I planned to work for when I moved here. I spent the next few years establishing myself as a reliable and loyal (yeah,right!)employee so that I could take advantage of my company's college tuition plan. I ended up attending Ulster County Community College taking courses at night and working by day. After a few part-time semesters,my manager at work suggested that I apply for an apprenticeship program to become a Tool and Modelmaker at another site. I did and was accepted into a 3 and 1/2 year program. While I was doing that training,I continued to attend college at night.In 1994 I was awarded my Associates in Arts and Science. I graduated in the to...Expand for more