The Log Cabin

Q. What does Abraham Lincoln and I have in common.

A. We both grew up in a Log Cabin.

This is the Log Cabin on Lake Avenue, I grew up in Rochester N.Y. Built in 1922 by Fred Wells an eccentric sign painter.

Many nights of bathtub gin was served in the Log Cabin during the roaring twenties. The Logs are from Georgia Bay up in Canada. The cabin was built by an Indian Tribe from Canada.

The end cap for the logs were axe out by hand.

Drag racing Muscle cars was every day occurrence in the summer on my street

Lake Avenue had it's 15 minutes of fame when the rock band Foreigner sang about it in thier famous song .
Rev on the Red Light.

" Runnin' all night on Lake Avenue
It's a piece of cake
If you know what to do
You've got to lose a few
'Til the stakes get high
When the odds are right
You just blow by "

In 1981 I had a 70 Camaro with a big block 396, I should not be alive today in the way I raced it down Lake Avenue.

Now my father brought the house in 1964 my mother stills lives their.

The backyard is a 600 foot steep drop down to the Genesee  River. The Monroe County Zoo is across the river and the roar of the lions and seals could  be heard at all times during the day, and night.

Across the street in the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery. I must have saw over 2,000 funerals drive by house,  as a child.

My father pasted away in the Log Cabin home in 2006

My Dad took himself off of dialysis, he knew he had a week to live . He was a brave man, not to many people get to choose the way they die.

All his friends & family said their last goodbyes to  my father in the living room

During his last few days a few comments will always stick in my mind he said

 “ I never know dying was going to so beautiful” .

Getting off of dialysis means the toxins build up and you fall asleep forever.
One night my father woke up and said

“What the hell I’m still here ‘.

He is buried across the street from the home he so loved.

A  tragic lost happen in 1995. Luke Warm, a  friend of mine in AA , who I  tried to help, died from an overdose.

He is buried a few hundred yards from the Log Cabin.

 It was very eerie looking from my old bedroom window and seeing his grave.

God gave me a gift. I spent the last full night with him before he died. I will always remember his last words to me. He said  ‘ Rick, 99% of the junkies do not make it. I’m going to be that 1% that does ”.

 In less than 48 hours he was dead.. The needle was still in his arm when his mother found him.

That morning when he died , before I knew he past. His poor mother had to listen to my message I  left on their answering machine. My message was; “ Hey Luke, this is Rick I’m going to pick you up for the AA dance at 7:30, be ready.

Now Luke is dancing with the angels. He has been gone for 16 years yet he will live in my heart forever.

On the right side of the house was Saint Bernard's Seminary

Click For Picture

The Log Cabin house  is haunted by a the spirit of Father Zemoa who was a  controversial Catholic priest, and assorted ghosts that passed by through out the years.

Doors open, foot steps could be heard and the all knowing feeling in which you knew you will not alone in the room.

I almost had two out of the body experience at the Log Cabin House when I was teen. I fought it off,  fearing something was trying to get in , if I left. I could not move nor scream for help. It was terrifying.

The down side was Kodax Park was in my backyard to.

All the chemicals that they dumped into the river and into the air , I attribute to one of the factors of having cancer and my current heath problems.

Lot’s of memories are at the Log Cabin. Good ones & bad but I will never trade them in for anything..