Road less traveled leads local author back home

John Tartaglia grew up exploring the woods of Port Chester and what is now Rye Brook. He said he used to catch lunker bass out of the town’s freshwater ponds, some of which have dried up in recent decades.

But more than 25 years ago, Tartaglia, 63, left town. He wanted to explore the United States beyond his Ridge Street backyard, and he ended up in places like Thompson Falls, Mont.; Key West. Fla.; and Joshua Tree National Park in California.

On Saturday, Tartaglia will be back in Port Chester. He is flying home to visit family and publicize a book he recently wrote and self-published.

The book is called Get Up and Get Out: The Geezer’s Guide to Living on the Road. It is an instructional book peppered with hard-earned lessons from Tartaglia’s extensive travels. He gives readers from the AARP demographic humorous how-to’s on everything from bear-proofing campsites to fixing flats.

An excerpt from Page 25: “If a guy with no neck and tattoos all over his face argues with you over possession of a campsite, let him have it. People have been shot over less.”

The book also contains Tartaglia’s original drawings.

Tartaglia will have a book signing on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at Rye Art Gallery and Framing at 1010 Boston Post Rd. in Rye. On Jan. 6, he will give a talk on self-publishing at the Port Chester Public Library. Later that month, he will embark on a book tour in the Southwest.

Tartaglia said he enjoyed his childhood in the area, and he regularly visits his hometown.

“Port Chester was a great place to grow up,” he said. “I’m very proud that I grew up there. It was a blue-collar town when I was a kid, with a lot of factories. My mom worked a stint at the Life Savers plant. We had a lot of fun growing up there.”

Tartaglia’s family also owned the old Vee Jays restaurant on South Ridge Street.

Now, Tartaglia lives in a camper set into the back of his red 1995 Ford Ranger pick-up truck, which has 130,000 miles on the odometer. Tartaglia calls his rolling home “The Little House on the Ranger.”

He spends a lot of time in the desert in the Southwestern United States.

“I love the desert,” Tartaglia said earlier this week from California. “It’s like being on the moon. It’s something different. I like the wildlife, reptiles, snakes, the colors in the morning and the evening. I paint, I do watercolors and pastels. In the night, if you get far enough from the city, you can see incredible stars.”

Since Tartaglia moved out West, he has held a variety of jobs. He has worked as a mural painter, photographer and ghost writer, to name a few of his myriad occupations. In Montana, he once worked for the U.S. Forest Service wrapping trees with plastic sleeves to protect them from munching deer.

During his stint in Montana, Tartaglia even ran into a woman he knew in Port Chester. He was at a rummage sale in Missoula when the two bumped into each other.

Despite his rambles, Tartaglia said he maintains close relationships with his family and friends he knew when he was a student in Port Chester’s public schools. (He graduated from Port Chester High School in 1962.)

In fact, it was Tartaglia’s sister-in-law who initially floated the idea that resulted in his new book.

Tartaglia also said he had coffee earlier this week with a dentist friend in California whom he has known since they both lived in Rye Town.

And when Tartaglia gets back East, he will meet up with some old buddies at Michael’s Pizza on Midland Avenue. He said the secretary of his high school class, Marsha Hyde-Hocter, does a good job keeping classmates connected.

The support Tartaglia receives for his alternative lifestyle from friends and family buoys his positive attitude.

“I’m not embarrassed about it at all,” the author said. “I’ve had one or two people put me down, but most people when I tell them I live out of my truck get real wistful. It’s a longing everyone seems to have to kick it all aside and go out there and hit the road.”