When I was young West Nyack was full of characters. They were so common place I never realized how unique and special that time and they were.
One of the first that come to mind is not even human. Ranger the horse, who lived at the corner of West Nyack Road and West Street. From my earliest memories until he was gone sometime in the 70's Ranger was part of West Nyack. The house he lived at might have been part of the farm owned by Emil Klein. Emil Klein sold his property, apple orchards and swamp land to a developer in the late fifties, early sixties and the development was born. Adele, Hunter Place, Louise Drive all were part of his property. My earliest memory of the property is in the spring when we went down to the Hackensack River to go fishing and we walked through all the turned up mud. The land had been totally stripped bare of any living plant.
Ranger was one of the constants in my life, I never thought about him not being there until one day he wasn't. I don't know how long he was gone. I didn't like to walk home from school that way. It was the long way and even though you got to pet Ranger it was not something I did often. It was more likely I'd pass Ranger when I was walking home from Sunday School and I didn't do that often.
Ranger was a very mellow horse. If he was out you could go right up to him and pet him on the nose. Sometimes you could pick up some hay that was scattered around and he'd eat it. He was a good old horse and one of the characters of West Nyack.
The next character of West Nyack is Louie. I don't know much about him. I don't remember his last name or when he left town. The only memory I have of him is his high pitched voice and the fact he rode a bicycle.
During the summer, kids being kid, when they saw him riding his bike they would yell out to him in a high pitched voice, "Hey Louie" and Louie being Louie would yell back in his high pitched voice, "yeah, fuck you." Like Ranger, when Louie left town no one noticed.
Alex Faulk Loss
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