patrickjegan

Respect your ancestors, for you are the result of a thousand loves….

January 1, 2023

My 75th New Year

[Source: Google search] Some of you will be reading this post late on Sunday afternoon…after several Alka-Seltzer tablets. Some will be reading this tonight, before the Ball Drops in Times Square. Some of you will see who the blog is from and move on without a glance. “Oh, him again.” Some will see my name…
December 25, 2022

Coal For Christmas

[Another year. Another Christmas. I republish this every holiday season with a tweak here and there. This story is true and I am passing it down to new readers and my two children and my grandson. Every story from our own lives or the lives of those we once loved…every story is worth telling. There…
December 18, 2022

Friction Rubs Me The Wrong Way

fric-tion (frik’shen) n. 1.The rubbing of one surface or object against another. 2. Conflict, as between persons having dissimilar ideas or interests, clash. 3. Phys. A force that resists the relative motion or tendency to such motion of two bodies in contact. [Source: Google Search] Friction is really good for only one thing…okay, two…no three.…
December 1, 2022

A Brief History of Kimonos

To be fully alive is to have an aesthetic perception of life because a major part of the world’s goodness lies in its often unspeakable beauty. ~~Yukitaka Yamamoto [An old triptych of three women wearing kimonos. Source: Google Search.] Recently, my wife and I spent an afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). She…
November 19, 2022

Advertising Icon “Little Debbie” Held In Trafficking Charges

Have you tried cakes and pies…? ~~Little Debbie [Little Debbie’s Original Head Shot Found in an Attic in Tulsa. Source: Google Search. Image copyrighted by McKee Foods, Inc] I was sitting in the Operation Room Lounge of the Holiday Inn on Main Street when I first got the text message on my iPhone. It was…
November 15, 2022

A Song. An Image. A Tear

“Sometimes,” said Pooh, “the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” ~~ Winnie the Pooh I am a fan of talent shows. I don’t mean the kind we used to see on the Miss America Contest from Atlantic City. Bert Parks standing off to the side and singing “There She Is, Miss…
October 31, 2022

The Most Terrifying Ghost Blog Ever Written

“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” –Madeline L’Engle [Reading by the light of a single candle. Source: Google Search] For reasons unknown to me, I’ve always been attracted to things that are dark and gloomy. When the wind blows against the thin glass of my window and the…
October 24, 2022

Local Boy Does Good

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” –Anon. [Source: Pintrest] It was mid-October. The forecast called for clouds and drizzle. The chilly air and the leaves along the sidewalks brought back memories of Halloweens past. I never saw so many pumpkins. I usually had…
October 22, 2022

The Lost Mausoleum

“Reader beware as you pass by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so you will be. Therefore, prepare to follow me.” –Tombstone Inscription [Source: Pintrest] This is a true story. It does not involve ghosts but it has potential. It takes place in Owego, NY, my hometown. Yes, it…
October 12, 2022

Lost in a World of Cardboard

box noun A container. –American Heritage Dictionary Call it propriety. Call it embarrassment. Whatever you wish to call it, I’m not going to reveal, through iPhone photos the extent of the cardboard that has found a place in our apartment. We used Westside Movers (the very same company that moved us away from the City…