Category: Childhood
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To Chris: A Long Overdue Eulogy
[Taku Towers. Juneau Icefield, Alaska. Unknown Photographer.] My older brother, Chris, would make slight cuts in an apple from our backyard in Owego, NY. This would allow the apple to shatter into bits of apple-shrapnel. No Surface-to-Surface missile would hit with such velocity, because he would mount the apple on the sharpened end of a…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Farewell Marcel
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. –Marcel Proust As I strolled through the Parisian gardens of Luxembourg I paused and watched the people absorbing the sun’s warmth which was peeking, like a cat burglar, through the sweet gate in the sky…
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Out Of The Woods
Goodbye’s too good a word, babe So I’ll just say “Fare thee well” –Bob Dylan “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” Look close. It’s hard to see. If you’re reading this post on a laptop, you’re out of luck. On a mobile device you can use your fingers to enlarge the photo. See the sign…
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Paying It Forward: More Late Night Thoughts on Greg
“And when I come to the dim trail-end, I who have been Life’s rover, This is all I would ask, my friend, Over and over and over: // Stars that gleam on a moss-grey stone Graven by those who love me– There would I lie alone, alone, With a single pine above me; Pine that…
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A Spadeful of Earth
Grief is the price we pay for love. –Queen Elizabeth II In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent…
patrickjegan 