The Lace-Curtain Ladies

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to . I’m standing in the access road behind my house, three shovels in tow, surrounded by a knee-high sea of snow. My rapt “audience” — the Lace-Curtain Ladies — is peeking at me from behind draped windows. They are eagerly waiting to watch what this season has become the weekly back-breaking feat of a 93-pound weakling — me — who shovels an astounding 1,200 square feet of snow in one go. I’ve done this act every winter…

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The Canines’ Constant Companion

“Hey, Dog Walker!” The shout-out bounds across the street like a puppy fetching a stick. Erin O’Meara, leash and iPod in hand, waves. This happens to her all the time. Since she started this job four years ago, she and the dogs on her leashes have walked just about every square and non-square block of Astoria. “Everyone knows who I am, but nobody knows my name, so they just call me the Dog Walker,” she says. “This is not a career for someone who’s anti-social.…

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The Jailhouse Thespian

“Do you like cats?” That’s Lauren Shpall’s greeting when she opens the front door, one ebony and one ivory feline at her feet who are pushing their noses against the navy blue plush of her fluffy Chicago Bears house slippers. She steps into the living room, where the sun streams in through the cranberry curtain, the one the cats like to play hide-and-seek in. The room gets its rosy glow not so much from the hue as from Lauren’s bubbly theatrical personality. Lauren perches…

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The History Buff

Alfred C. Ronzoni Jr. arrives at the Greater Astoria Historical Society right on the dot. He puts his black backpack on the floor and places his paper cup of Lipton tea on the Formica folding table. Everyone is in jeans and sweats. The 45-year-old Al, a barrel-chested bull who looks as though he pumps iron every spare second, is wearing a dress shirt and tie. Al — “I’ve always gone by Al” — is the society’s treasurer, and he’s come to the office to work…

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The Sunshine Goddess

Life doesn’t always take a straight and narrow path; it often chooses a circular route, so let’s start in the middle of the story and see where we end up. Anne-Margaret Redding, cup of herbal tea in hand, curls up on the sofa. So intense is her smile that no sunglasses can block its warm, welcoming rays. She’s talking about intuition, that in-the-gut feeling that has been her guiding light. Passionate and persistent, Anne-Margaret, owner of The Giving Tree Yoga Studio, is life’s…

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