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2 days ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse
Occupied with the usual spring rush of getting tractors in shape as well as my mowing gigs, I’m going to have to go all NPR again and submit another “encore presentation.” Curing Carburetor Dope Slap appeared almost exactly a year ago in Vintage Truck Magazine. According to my cataloging system, the article hasn’t previously been used here. If I’m mistaken, I’ll submit to a public dope slap myself. I so do not want to become one of those geezers who keeps telling the same story.
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2 weeks ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
Late last December, The Old Hippie and I arranged to meet Antique Power photographer Ellie Kenney at the Slanesville store at 3 in the afternoon. A photo shoot for the current issue of the magazine had been set up at North River Mills. Being nestled between large mountains, sunset at North River Mills is around 1:30 that time of year. No problem, Ellie’s camera has flash.
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1 month ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
Like last week’s installment, First Middleburg 2014, I’m chronicling the year’s 1st day back at one of my more or less seasonal activities. I like to make them sound like Civil War battles because both locations are dripping with history of the period — you can almost step in it.
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1 month ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse
It was 1969 and I was listening to the news on my dad’s shop radio. I was working in the tool room; otherwise the radio couldn’t be heard over the sounds of production. This manufacturing business, near Somerville, N.J., was still small enough that the workers alternated between research and development and production, with a few part-timers arriving in the evening after their shifts at the nearby Ethicon and Johns Manville factories.
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1 month ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
In years past, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the property soon to become a resort north of Romney. (“Rainbow on the Horizon,” Feb. 12 Review.) With the acquisition of this property, the new owners also inherited a unique, top-secret military facility — from the Civil War — and with it an opportunity to rewrite history. The following story 1st appeared in the March/April 2010 issue of Antique Power Magazine. * * *Another mud season will soon be upon us.
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1 month ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
So much of our news has always been devoted to watching our world leaders trying to get it right. Many among us might hope that the current United States President will be the one to bring—as Tom T. Hall might put it—“that free Bubble-Up and rainbow stew.” But I don’t know. As a writer, politics simply isn’t my beat. I am woefully under-qualified to determine what our leaders should do to save the world. There is, however, no shortage of people with equal qualifications who are not so reserved.
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1 month ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
“West Virginia is the saddest state to live in,” so says one of those goofy surveys by people who don’t possess the resourcefulness to get out of Jersey. Let them think it — it’ll leave more of West Virginia for the rest of us because we know better. While I can’t speak for the southern coalfields, we know that our part of West Virginia is a place where someone even of modest means can, through hard work and imagination, create a private Xanadu of their very own.
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2 months ago | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
I spun the globe until the British Isles came into view. Dang! I had hoped to find Scotland to be east of the Greenwich Line, aka the International Date Line that divides Greenwich, (London) England, and one day from the next. So who gives a fat rat what day it is in Scotland? The Review editors have long managed to slyly taunt me by having my column fall on the eves of holidays that I don’t celebrate; Christmas, Halloween, etc.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
If the work is done and the day still young, a ride through the back roads in an antique truck is often in order. Since my work truck is only months short of being 50 years old, the antique factor is already built in. All that’s needed is some time, gasoline, curiosity and a camera. Though intended for relaxation, these jaunts have actually rewarded me in business as well.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis
Please bear with me. After thinking up a clever title for the March/April Tech Tips column in Antique Power, I’m all “titled out.” The above was one of the first to be rejected. The article is about using spent shotgun shells to plug off dirt sensitive lines and fittings while a tractor being repaired waits out the inevitable parts acquisition period. The title that I came up with is “Fired — But Still on the Job.” Pretty clever, eh? Well, maybe.
