Category: Memories
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The worm in my cellar
[Source: Google search.] Check the worm. ~~My father commenting to my older brother, Chris on any given winter evening in the 1950s and 70s. For many years I lived with a worm in the cellar of my family home. But I feel confident that it’s not the kind of worm that you are imagining, my…
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Freezing the moment
[Niagara Falls during a rare winter when it froze. This is probably 1907 or so. Photo: Google search.] The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one’s grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible. ~~E. A. Bucchianeri But meanwhile, time flies; it flies never to…
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Budapest to amsterdam VI: Nuremberg: why do people continue to deny the truth
[Graffiti on the door of a closed shop. Likely in Nuremberg. Photo is mine.] The Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, in open court before an international tribunal, had a profound long-term effect in bringing Germans back to democracy and humanity. ~~Anthony Lewis {Author’s note: If you know me and have read some or all of…
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Budapest to amsterdam V: Passau: 3 rivers, Biblical Floods, High Baroque & 2 personal guides
[The confluence of three rivers. The very light olive color water near the top of the photo is the INN river, clay sediment imparts the color. The closer river is the DANUBE, a brown/grey depending on the rainfall and amount of organic material. A third and much smaller river is the ILZ, which is nearly…
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nightcrawlers & blue lights at river’s edge
Outbreaks of unvarnished truths in the backyard of our true self can be very precious and inspiring, even though we might inconsistently be tempted to give in to the exhilarating perfume of fables and fair tales or to flattering praise and fiction. ~~Erik Pevernagie I’m in a cemetery standing under a silver maple tree. It’s…
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An echo of my young self?
[A ‘new’ vintage postcard of our apartment building. Out apartment is shown by the black arrow. Source: Public Domain.] Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you. ~~F. Scott Fitzgerald I slid out of our four-poster and onto the creaky wooden floor. It’s the…
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The incident in the Bog
[The green fields of Ireland. Photo is mine.] With a bog, and its buried contents, the past is no longer behind you, but palpably beneath your feet. A secret history is stacked just a few feet below the modern world in which you’re standing. ~~Terry Eagleton It’s closing in on St. Patrick’s Day and since…
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Thanksgiving Thoughts on a cloudy afternoon
[If you know me, you know this house. 420 Front St. Owego, NY. Photo is mine.] I can see a better time when all our dreams come true. ~~Fairytale of New York. Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our…
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Kicking Leaves in Owego: my imaginarium
[On the left, in the distance, just beyond the white house, just hidden in the morning fog, is the riverbank where I played away my childhood. Photo is mine.] Great Grandpa, what’s an Imaginarium? Oh, Great Grandson, it’s like a rambling and cluttered room, an old room, a very big room. There are lots of…
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the four green fields blog14: the goddesses of the moon
[Unenhanced photo of the moon. Sailing west, looking south. The North Atlantic Ocean. Photo is mine.] Whenever people look at clouds they do not see their real shape, which is no shape at all, or every shape, because they are constantly changing. They see whatever it is that their heart yearns for. ~~Eduardo Agualusa, A…
