Category: Real Personal History
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Ooh, Paddy: A Boy Sits In The Grass Near His Grandfather
[My grandfather, George Hotchko. Photo is from the early 1970’s. Credit: Daniel Egan.] Oh, I dunno, Paddy. Sometimes those stories keep me up at night. They make me uncomfortable. ~~Spoken to me by my grandfather, George Hotchko. When I was a little boy. 1950’s. Part 1-Meeting my grandfather… Yes, the title. Of course I’m the…
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A Dark And Sad Anniversary
[Steve’s grave. Monroe, Louisiana. Photo is mine.] The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. ~~ L. P. Hartley On Friday, November 22, I will step away from whatever social engagement I may be involved in…and I will look up to a cloud or maybe a single star. And I will remember.…
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The Journey’s End 3: Inside Wimborne Minster-The Man In The Wall & The Chained Library
[Wimborne Minster. The Church of St Cuthburga. Wimborne, Dorset. Photo is mine.] The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it. ~~Anon Where heaves the turf in many a mould’ring heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. ~~Thomas Gray Elegy…
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Aethelgifu, The Teenage Abbess: A Peak Inside The Walls Of The Shaftesbury Abbey
[Gold Hill, Shafesbury] Silence isn’t empty, it’s full of answers. It was a chilly day, this fourth day of October. Chilly and windy. Mariam and I had just had a very enjoyable lunch with a former student of mine, Sally, and her husband, Matthew. Sally was in my Geography class when I had the joy…
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The Terminus
[A card, purchased at a small souk in the Marrakech Market. It is my name, Patrick, written in Arabic by a calligrapher. The cost was about $4.00. A small amount for a priceless piece of art. Important to me. Photo is mine.] The end of journey is not a period, but a comma. ~~ Anon…
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A Tale of Very Old Water Tunnels, Dying Palms & A Police Citation
[One of the many towns we encountered on our way west…toward Marrakesh. Photo is mine.] Traveling-it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~~ Ibn Battuta The Great Dunes are behind us. My dream of riding into the largest desert in the world has been fulfilled. I have no regrets, except for the…
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At The Edge Of The Dunes: Changes Within And Without
[A moment of rest and a photo op on the way to the Sahara. The river Ziz. Photo is mine.] Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Don’t want to be a richer man… ~~ David Bowie Said our guide and driver, Kamal… We’re coming to a tunnel. When we come out on the other…
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Nothing Prepared Me For The Medina Of Fez
Leaving our hotel in Fez is an experience. We left our room and walked down a flight of stairs to a sitting room, a sofa with cushions. A baby grand piano is in the next room. Portraits of men in Fezs’ and women in veils. Soldiers with carbines and horses with elaborate saddles. In the…
patrickjegan 