Category: Memories
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Next Stop: Poughkeepsie
[Mariam awaits our train at Grand Central Station My weariness amazes. —Bob Dylan As Train #283 chugs northward, the Hudson River, on my left…its water the color of tan mud, is flowing south to enter New York harbor. It’s going home in a way. So are we. Almost one month ago we were aboard the…
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Of Time and Distance: A Departing
[Corfe Castle] Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I sat on unmowed grass leaning against a stone wall. I was on the grounds of Corfe Castle in south Dorset. The mason who built my backrest had fitted the stones into their places over 1,000 years ago. There was still a strong sun in the west and…
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Lancelot, The Spotless Starling And The Blogger
[Spotless Starling. Source: Google search.] I’m perched on a chimney near the Ashfield House B&B with my friend, Tristram. We’re Spotless Starlings. You can find us on page 303 of Collins Pocket Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe. You might not find us in Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of America, but we’re in…
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Yesterday Afternoon And An Afternoon Thirty-Three Years Ago
[The tomb of Joseph and Caroline Damer] Thirty-three years ago I parked a VW Polo in a small space a short distance from the village of Milton Abbas. I was an exchange teacher at a school in Dorset, England. A teacher friend told me that I must visit an Abbey near Milton Abbas. I was…
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If I Was A Good Dog And My Time Came To Die, I’d Go To My Reward, England
Some years ago, when I wore a young man’s clothes, someone told me that when dogs get old and die, they go to The Dog Star. Now, as a man with gray hair, I know the truth. When dogs pass on, they go to England. When I was a child I had a dog. His…
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An American In Brussels
Trust me. I can say a few words about how this grey-haired man is exhausted from what is only the early days of his European Tour. I was there, every minute…waiting for the train in Bruges and sitting in the hot humid air of Brussels Midi station wondering whether he should jump into a taxi…
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Bruges Makes Me Sad
[Mariam and her husband after dinner at the Market Square.] Occasionally, during your life you arrive at a destination that forces you to hold your breath, for too long, and then exhale with an audible gasp. Your heart can hold off on a beat and then give you an extra pump. And a part of…
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It’s A Girl!
There is this girl who my heart and she calls me Daddy. –Anon. [My Little Cowgirl] I got the call when I was assembling computer components at a bench in Building 18, IBM Endicott, NY. Actually, the manager took the call. He came over to my work place and said that there was a message…
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One Son
[Brian. April 24, 2018.] No, the title of this post is not something I stole from a menu from one of the many Korean eateries on W. 35th Street. And, if you look at the photo above…(I always use a lead-in graphic for my posts), I can tell you certain things: It’s a profile of…
