Category: Memories
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To Let: Site # 143/ A Farewell To The Sunshine State
[As I write this post, Site #143 is occupied] On December 30, 2015, around noon, the radio in our red Ford Escape will begin to emit static. It will crackle and hiss as my favorite country music station fades in strength. Fort Myers will be receding, falling away into the south…into the muggy soupy haze.…
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Coal For Christmas
I am a grandfather now, feeling every ache and sadness of my sixty-eighth year. The stories that my father told me about his father have taken on new meanings. I’m the old one now. I am the carrier of the family history. When a recollection of a family event comes to mind, be it a…
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The Scent Of Christmas Caught Me By Surprise
There is a chain of markets in Florida called Publix. It’s employee-owned and from what I read in the local paper, Wal-Mart hates them. But that’s another story. I was browsing the aisles in my local Publix for some fruit to put in my cereal. I found blueberries but they’re from Peru. Don’t they grow…
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After Dinner/Up In The Sky
When we were kids we called them vaportrails. Now, I call them contrails. Those streaks across the sky made from the jet engines of jet planes. Either term is okay. It’s simply the condensation of the water from the exhaust of the plane, turning into visible water vapor. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say…
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A Stroll On Estero: Encountering Sand Sculptures One Grain At A Time
We decided that we would give Sanibel Island a rest for a day. Besides, we’d save $6.00 for not taking the Causeway Bridge. No, it was time we crossed another bridge (free) from Fort Myers to Fort Myers Beach. When we did, we found ourselves in another world. This wasn’t Wal-Mart country. This was the…
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The Albatross And The Vulture
What’s it like to float upon misty air? Way up there upon winds of turbulence, where your wings tame them, as a cowboy does the wild Stallion. –Dara Reidyr from “On Flying“ Four hours ago, I was finishing my iced coffee at the Java Cafe in the Outlet Mall. Even with the AC, the plastic…
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Holiday Time In Fort Myers/Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?*
“I don’t know Doc, I just seem a little disoriented lately. Maybe it’s the time of year? Maybe I should stay away from the egg nog…” –Notation in the files of Dr. Hugh Roebottom, Psychiatrist, on the recent session with Patrick Egan. It’s a pretty Christmas wreath. I’m looking a one of the prettiest plastic…
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My Grave Nightmare: A Halloween Story
Was it a day in full blinding sun or a night in deep gloomy shadows? Was I asleep? Awake? I don’t remember. No, it was both. I wandered about in my dream with my eyes open, my dream that quickly became a nightmare. What I looked upon were reflections of my darkest thoughts and fears.…
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Forever I’ve Dreamt Of Sailing Away
One day, several decades ago, I sat down with a book by Captain Joshua Slocum. It was titled “Sailing Alone Around the World”. Capt. Slocum published the book in 1900–it was a bestseller–and it made him a Superstar of the Seas. His boat was named Spray. Nearly ten years later, Slocum disappeared aboard the Spray.…
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Elegy From The North Country
The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. -Thomas Gray Well, if you’re…
patrickjegan 