Category: non-fiction
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An Ice Queen and Prometheus on a New York City Night
A month ago I wouldn’t be able to stand where I’m standing tonight. Impossible. Unless I was willing to share the same physical space with seven other people. I’m looking down at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Four weeks ago, thousands of tourists and locals were cramped in and around the small park that…
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Park Avenue on a Rainy Day
I am standing in the rain at the intersection of the Mythical Avenue and Ordinary Life Street in New York City. If there’s a map at your side, look for where E. 92nd Street crosses Park Avenue. That’s where I am standing, safely protected from the speeding traffic, on the landscaped Mall that separates the…
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The Weekend I Took the Moon Rocks Home
Only on rare occasions (once or twice a month) do I check for the black SUV’s in my driveway or parked around the corner on the road where I now live. I hesitate to give the name of the road–I’m not sure it’s in the Big Computer now. We only moved here in December of…
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Let It Be
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea Sometimes I turn, theres someone there, other times its only me… –Bob Dylan “Every Grain of…
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A Watercolor Found
My father never said much about his life. He did have his favorite stories that he would tell us when his four boys were…little boys. Some of the tales were family jokes, like this one: “We were so poor, one Christmas we got a pair of roller skates. We had to wait until the next…
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Coal For Christmas
My father grew up poor. Not the kind of poor where he would walk through ten inches of snow barefoot or go from house to house asking for bread. Just the kind of poor that would keep his father one step ahead of the rent collector. His parents provided the best they could, but, by…
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How Three Moments From An Evening With Bob Dylan And His Band Will Stay With Me
It was December 1, 2014. The mild afternoon had turned into a chilly evening. A light rain was falling on the gritty sidewalks of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The marquee of the Beacon Theater on 75th Street told the story of the next few hours in my life: TONIGHT-AN EVENING WITH BOB DYLAN…
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Not Just Another Skyscraper
The Empire State Building has been linked to me, in one way or another, since before I was born. That may sound a bit confusing…but stay with me. I am an American male, raised to hide emotional reactions. But, I can say that the building has made me cry on more than one occasion. When…
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The Day I Saw My Heart
I am well aware that many people have watched their own brain surgery on a monitor. I know people have watched their own heart being operated on…but I am not one of those people. I understand the whole medical thing about blood vessels and nerve endings. I totally get the concept that there are certain…
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Where are the Corn Girls of Summer?
In northern New York State, in late summer, hot sunny days are not uncommon. It was the height of the corn season. I practically left skid marks on Rte. 37 when I saw the corn stand to my right. I had once been scolded by the robotic female voice on my GPS about making illegal…
patrickjegan 