Category: Real Personal History
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27 Years Ago Today
To recall something that happened over a quarter of a century ago, in detail…minute detail, is a remarkable gift. Sometimes, I can’t recall who won the World Series a month after the last pitch. Who ran for Vice-President two elections ago? How old am I? I have to stop and think about many of these…
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The Moonflower
The heavenly fragrance of moon flower permeates the air in the whole garden. –The Flower Expert website In the summer of 1965 I was busy preparing to leave my home, family and friends and go off to college. Actually, only part of what I just said is true. I was going away to college, that’s…
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Cause and Effect: My Front Porch Dilemma
Today, on my front porch, I was faced with a dilemma. I was a witness to an act of nature, an act that is repeated a billion times each minute here in the North Woods. If you factor in the endless variations on this particular situation that occur world-wide, then the number is incalculable. But…
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Reflections on Father’s Day [My Split Personality]
My wife showed me the mirror. “Shall I toss it?” I looked at the brass Art Nouveau frame, just enough Erte to grab my eye. “No way,” I said. I was standing on the deck and I held the object d’art up and found my reflection. The glass was broken in several places. My face…
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At The Hound Tor
This is the place of legends. Arthur Conan Doyle saw these rocks and promptly went home to write The Hound of the Baskervilles. Our walk was five miles, beginning in the car park on the north side of Hound Tor. We were to end our day climbing up and over and between the rock outcrops,…
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Passports 15: Good-bye England [I Want You]
We sat in an Irish Pub, O’Neills, in the west end of London. It is my last night in England. I can see Bushmills Irish Whiskey etched into the glass of the large window. The letters are backwards. Two singers–one on an acoustic and the other on an electric guitar. They are playing a Beatles tune…
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Passports 13: Getting a Leg Up–An Introduction to the Footpath Stiles of England
Footpaths are as common in England as salt grains on a Big Mac. (I’m not sure that metaphor works here, but I’ve been wanting to use it for decades.) Unlike the States, the lines between private property and the pubic right-of-way are a bit foggy, like the desolate and lonely landscapes of Dartmoor and the…
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Passports 12: The Legendary Hedges of Devonshire
Hedges. In most standard dictionaries, “hedge” will be defined as a row of shrubs to separate lawns, fields or pastures. In Devon, they can also separate your sense of self-confidence and driving skill from your very soul. If you drive seven miles along a “two-lane” road with these hedges, the fear you will feel is…
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Passports 11: Morris Dancing: Another Way for the English to be Silly or an Ancient Cultural Tradition?
I had my hand on the door handle of the Antiquarian Book Store in Moretonhampstead village. In a moment, I would be lost among my dear friends, the arcane tomes and dusty volumes of local history and regional literature. My thumb was on the latch. I pressed down. It gave way under my pressure. The…
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