Publisher's Synopsis
"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reservoir" is a combination love story and adventure with a little comedy sprinkled in. As a story of fiction based on non-fiction, it is the tale of a young man growing up along the Delaware and Mongaup River valleys in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York; his love for both his grandfather and the girl who everybody shunned and the disaster that occurred on the day when the dam for one of the three reservoirs built on the Mongaup River collapsed. Influenced by and amazed at the knowledge and talents that his grandfather possessed, Andy found it difficult to emulate him until he realized that nobody was capable of doing that either. His grandfather Herm was of a rare breed with the qualities of knowledge, experience and common sense. The town folk would rely on Herm and lean on him when something was needed to be decided, fixed, built, torn down, moved, brought back, bought, sold, etc., etc... He was the "E.F. Hutton" of his time; when he spoke, everybody listened. As Herm aged into his late 80s, less and less people sought his counsel, or listened to much of what he had to say; they knew more than a silly old man. That all changed when after repeated warnings from Herm of eminent danger, Rio Dam crumbled and burst, sending a wall of water hundreds of feet high, charging downstream. Unbeknownst to them, several miles below the dam break were a bus load of kindergarteners on their first day of school heading directly into the path of the killer wave, a dope smoking college professor out for a bike ride and a raft full of arrogant New York City Police officers enjoying the huge rapids in the Delaware River created by a hurricane that had just passed over the area. Distraught when his grandfather and grandmother both passed away and his grandparent's farm where he grew up was sold to the ridiculously stupid redneck across the road, Andy moved to Virginia. Thoughts of his beautiful prom date (whose family was so poor that they lived in a converted chicken coop) from high school grew stronger, triggering his return to New York where he found her still waiting for him and his boyhood home unrecognizable. Andy and his new bride quickly returned to Virginia after the wedding and soon were left with a miracle that made it possible for Andy to reclaim what his grandfather had always intended for him to have. The normal progression of town's people came and went; Rio Dam was never rebuilt, but the village of Mongaup was; Andy returned his grandfather's farm back to its original condition; He raised a family, passing all that he had learned from the man he loved so much to his children; continuing the circle of life.
