Category: Memories
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To Elias on His 10th Birthday
May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung And may you stay Forever Young ~~Bob Dylan Forever Young Dear Elias, You have been the very best grandson anyone could ask for. I remember when your mother called me with the news that she was expecting a child. It seems like…
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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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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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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…
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Dorset of My Dreams
“Oh, to be in England…” –Robert Browning It all started on a late winter morning of 1984. I was walking to my office at King & Low-Heywood Thomas School (KLHT) in Stamford, Connecticut. Walking with me was a teacher/administrator. She was going through her teacher-mail regarding microscope sales and Petri dish discounts. She held on…
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A Young Man’s Backpack
“To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.” –Tenzing Norgay Stuff has to go. Lots of stuff has to go. When you relocate from a 3-bedroom lakeside house to a 1-bedroom apartment on Riverside Drive in New York, you soon realize how easy it was to gather stuff. And now, much of the…
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Dan & Daughter At Rest
My father is hidden behind everything I am. –Adrienne Egan “Danny Boy” (From a high school essay) I have long dreaded what was about to take place. As I approached the shore of Long Pond, the memories began to weigh heavy on my heart. How often had I stood in the sand since the early…
