Tag: family
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Thanksgiving Thoughts on a cloudy afternoon
[If you know me, you know this house. 420 Front St. Owego, NY. Photo is mine.] I can see a better time when all our dreams come true. ~~Fairytale of New York. Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our…
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the woman who birthed me
[My mother, Mary Hotchko Egan. She is striking a very ’50s pose in our backyard in Owego, NY. Photo is mine.] “Don’t toss that saucer in the air. You’ll drop it.” ~~My mother to me, sometime in the late ’60s. Of course I wouldn’t listen. I tossed it up and caught it, until I missed.…
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To keep you from being homesick
[The found photograph. By unknown photographer, probably my father.] The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect in some material object (in the sensation which that material object will give us) which we do not suspect, and as for that object, it depends upon chance whether we come upon it…
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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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Anemonia Keeps Me Awake
Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. ~~Richter [The Berlew Family Reunion. Orange, PA. September 6, 1926. Photo: Egan Family Archives.] I don’t think it rained that day. There are no clouds in the sky. I should know. I’ve crawled inside this photo more than once over the years. One…
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I Knew Her When
I knew Mariam when she turned fifty. She wasn’t extremely happy about that “milestone” to say the least. When President Bill Clinton turned fifty (he celebrated up here in Lake Placid), he was asked how it felt. His reply: “It’s kind of sad knowing that more of your life is behind you and not in…
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Unexpected Memories
Seventeen years ago today, my older brother Denny, passed away. It was not a sudden unexpected death but a slow decline with cancer. His family misses him terribly. My brother, Dan and I miss him. I think about him a great deal. We were a family of four boys. Denny was the second oldest, born…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve IV: “Do Ghosts Dream in Black and White?”
I broke away from the other kayakers. They were intent on finding a trail that was obscured and hidden in a small cove. It was supposed to begin on a tiny stretch of sand and among the blueberry bushes. It led to a small body of water called Loon Pond (some called it Lost Pond).…
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Pacific Northwest Interlude: A Song. A Journey. A Metaphore and a Memory
Sitting at the kitchen table, I can see my daughter, Erin and her husband watching a mute TV while a song is playing on an iTunes mix. Bob is a musician. He plays the drums and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of most kinds of music I could ever run across in my lifetime. I…
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This Is Not A Blog
Let me say this right from the get go: This bit I’m writing right now is NOT A BLOG! Tonight we had a dinner party to say good-bye to summer. Now, up here in Northern New York State, saying farewell to August and the warm (read buggy and sweaty) days is to say hello to…
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