Greg Dorchak – Brother, Artist, Actor, Screenwriter, Producer, Author, and Comedian…

Of Pigs and Meteorites (© 2024, Greg Dorchak. Used with Permission.)

My brother, Greg, has done a lot of things in his life, and this certainly is one of them. He’s written a new book, a memoir at his young-ass age (he’s younger than me, goldangit, and I haven’t even written mine…). It’s called Of Pigs and Meteorites. Guess which of those nouns he is.

Anywaaay, our family moved to upstate New York in 1966 when he was two and I was five (so called). Our other two siblings were three and four. As Greg says, “For the next 12 years his playground was the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Park, 6 million acres of lakes, trees, mountains and colorful people.”

He’s right, there.

He continues: “Though he has been gone for over 40 years, the Adirondacks still occupy a big part of his memory and personality. In OF PIGS AND METEORITES, Dorchak recounts some of the stories that made up his formative years, with humor, introspection, a lot of snark and a little bit of humanity.”

He’s right, there, too, he certainly beat me to a family memoir—I mean he certainly wrote his life of pigs and space rocks. And other stuff.

Reading this collections of remembrances from his point of view (POV) is fascinating and enlightening. When you grow up you don’t usually get to see your formative years from your siblings POV…let alone care. As a kid it’s all about you. That’s usually just the way it is. So, to see Greg write up events in his life as he saw them was such an eye opener! He has a stupidly incredible memory. It’s not always right, but it’s pretty stinkin’ close (damn him).

Me?

I’m not known for my memory.*

Greg talks about his “memory, trivia, and smarts.” Sometimes he denigrates himself needlessly. The little shit is smarter than he gives himself credit for, and that’s endearing. It shows he’d not arrogant. Has a good attitude about himself. There’s always someone smarter than us, but the point is, he is smarter than others (Greg: don’t tell me I’ve never given you a compliment–and in public!), and he doesn’t let it got to his head. By the way, nothing is off limits to his humor, as he takes jabs at himself…don’t worry, he ain’t no wall flower, and will haymaker you like lightning, complete with thunderclap, when you least expect it. Classic Greg. You go into the ring with him, you better be prepared, and have bandaids at the ready, cause you’re gonna need em. I have a quick wit and he gives me a run for my money.

We grew up in a hamlet, as he describes, in the heart of the Adirondacks, and we lived on a small farm. We had pigs, chickens, turkeys, multiple dogs (no, we didn’t eat them), a horse, and flying squirrels. Three garden patches. We lived across from a lake I won’t name, because he masked the actual name of our homestead, to preserve embarrassment and whatnot being visited upon those who may still reside there. But it was a lake. With a name–a real one–to it. But, hey, let’s just call it “Lake Mohawk.” At Lake Mohawk, we lived in an 1880s house, complete with tons of 1800’s equipment. And a barn. It was an incredible life. A lot of it was mainly stacking and restacking wood. Everywhere. Because our dad was an ex-Navy Forest Ranger and thought it built character and kept us busy. But in between cutting and stacking wood (I loved chopping wood with an ax–that’ll be in my version of my memoir), we slopped hogs, chickens, and turkeys. The horse came much later, but, yeah, also slopped that. Oh, and a bunny rabbit we had caged up. There were many fun vignettes from our lives I’d love to talk about, but I’ll let Greg do that. After all he wrote a book about it and wants money for it. Who am I to quibble?

But I will mention to you about two of his stories. One was about the “Silver Man.” I wrote about this in my other blog, Reality Check. I was never quite sure he wasn’t yanking my chain, cause, you know, that’s what he does to people sometimes, but now I know for a fact that he’s saying it all really happened, because he put it in his book. But wow. In short: as us three brothers slept in the same room, one night at weirdness hours, he’d awoken and saw a silver being sitting at the foot of my bed! He goes on to talk about it and it still blows me away to this day.

The other was when I was almost kidnapped as I walked across the road after swimming in Lake Mohawk (so called). I never knew that he’d been just over on the other side of the Honeysuckle hedges ringing our rectangle front yard taking in all that went down (it’s really cool that I found out about things I’d never have otherwise ever been able to know…). It was such a weird thing to happen, and truth be told, I don’t know if they were really looking to kidnap me or were just a bunch of “yoots” joyriding a stolen van they later ditched, but either way, I didn’t get a “good feel” from them as it occurred. Now, when our dad, a muscular Forest Ranger came STRIDING down our gravel driveway with a maddox IN ONE HAND, that I felt really good about.

I love that Greg wrote this! It’s so cool to have a written legacy of a part of our lives! I love that Greg opened up and shared what helped form him into who he is. We’ve all had some hard knocks in our lives, well, most of us, and “hard knocks” is a matter of degree, but you can’t really compare issues between people. It’s like comparing pain between too people. It’s just wrong. Everyone has their trigger point, pain tolerances, and pain management, and we all deal with shit like that differently. Greg was letting us in on a little of his. I respect that. Greg’s a good man, a smart man, and a fricking hard worker. I’m proud to call him my brother. Proud that he’s come as far as he has, and all of the accomplishments he’s accomplished. It’s amazing to see how your siblings grow through their lives…especially so for me, since I’m his big brother. I’m the oldest of four, and I’m proud of all my siblings.

I know I haven’t said much about his book, but that’s purposely–I want you to BUY his book and GIVE HIM MONEY.

Would you do that?

You’ll be amused by his engaging manner and openness. He has some cool stuff in there. Oh, and BTW, check out his film credits!

*What am I known for, you ask? My charm.

Other Books by Greg (Buy These Too!):

• Where Monsters Go When You Grow Up
• Who Took My Crayons?!
• How To Pull A Movie Out Of Your Ass
• Good Shit To Know About Being A Film Actor