Outdoors reporter Deirdre Fleming, center front, age 2, with her brothers and grandfather, James Boyle, at a park in the Bronx, New York, in 1971. Photo courtesy of Deirdre Fleming
The avid Maine outdoors people featured in this year’s outdoor gift guide were so filled with gratitude for their favorite outdoor gifts, they inspired me to share mine. I was a 6-year-old growing up a half hour outside New York City when the two Irish immigrants who became my first nature guides took me walking along the path that flanks the Bronx River.
Before my grandparents came to live two miles from my home in Bronxville, New York, they lived in the Bronx, where they took me to the wooded city parks there. But when their building burned down, they moved closer to my family, a harrowing experience for them, but in the end, an unbelievable blessing for me.
Mary and James Boyle – who were Irish hill walkers from way back – took me often to the path along the Bronx River, which is flanked also by the parkway of the same name But what they pointed out to me wasn’t the heavy traffic there, but the massive oaks, rich birdlife, and waterfowl in this thin enclave of nature buried in a larger urban area.
Strangely, it wasn’t until almost 50 years later, on a walk there during my last visit with my dad before he passed on that I finally noticed the traffic that is a constant hum and visible presence. The only humming I remember on those walks with my grandparents, was Pop’s Irish song as he encouraged me to hop on river stones and talk to ducks.
Their gift was an enduring lesson: Never underestimate the power in a little patch of green.
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