Here Back East

Since early 2020, Lenny Ackerman has been a columnist for The Mountain Messenger — the oldest, continually published weekly newspaper in California, established in 1853 in the small Gold Rush town of Downieville. When the newspaper was recently sold, a congratulatory letter from Lenny to the newspaper's new owner led to an unexpected cross-country connection and the advent of a new regular column entitled Here Back East; each piece reading something like a letter from a friend who lives across the country. With its compelling, wide-ranging subject matter and the author's witty, inimitable style, the column has been warmly received by The Messenger readership, which has since grown far beyond the state line. Topics are drawn from the author's own life and span decades—from fishing in Maine to Presidential politics, quail hunting in Florida, Rochester in the 1940s, Rutgers College in the late 1950s, and the insidious impact of Covid on lives everywhere.