Category: Family History
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On Writing and Storytelling, or: How I Spent My Friday Afternoon – Revising, Rewriting, and Re-Publishing ‘Reunion’
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ― Louis L’Amour Today I spent several hours revising – first on Word, then on Kindle Create – my short story Reunion, which I originally wrote in 1998 but waited 20 years till I could self-publish through Amazon’s CreateSpace…
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Tempus Fugit: Thinking About the Tyranny of Forced ‘Joint’ Birthday ‘Celebrations’
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s Tuesday, March 7, 2023 – two days after my 60th birthday and three days before my older half-sister Vicky’s 73rd. In the last decade of my mother’s life (2005-2015), this would have been the “compromise” date on which we’d celebrate both occasions. I say “compromise” because Vicky, for reasons that…
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Tempus Fugit: On the Occasion of My 60th Birthday
“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” ― Andy Rooney So, today I turn 60 years old. On the day I was born: “I’m not ready to let the youthful part of myself go yet. If maturity means becoming…
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Hazy, Fragmented Memories of Birthdays in Colombia
If you’re a regular visitor of this space, you know that both my older half-sister Vicky and I celebrate – or observe, or endure – our respective birthdays just five days apart in early March. Vicky was born on March 10, 1950, while I came along nearly 13 years after on March 5, 1963. I…
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Where Did the Time Go?
The Relentless Flight of Time Oh, my. Where did the time go? I swear. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were ushering in 2023, and…poof! Suddenly it’s February 28, the last day of the second month. And, on Sunday, March 5, I will go from being 59 years old to 60 years…
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Late Winter 1973 – Waiting, with Bated Breath, for the Big One-Oh
Things I Remember: February 1973 With just a bit over two weeks till my 60th birthday – date-wise it’s 15 days, but today is half-over – and with no clue as to what will happen on that day (I nixed a trip to a Disney park due to concerns about exposure to COVID-19), my thoughts…
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Songs, Schedules, & Off-Campus Lunches…My High School Experience in February 1983
“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed.” ― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems With less than 18 days before my 60th birthday – the first such recurrence of a “landmark” birthday since my mother’s death nearly eight years ago (and the ensuing physical as well as the emotional…
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Goin’ Home…from Winn Dixie – Winter 2013 (A Haiku)
Sunny, windy day Avenue teeming with traffic The cart’s wheels rattle.
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Then (1973) & Now (2023) Revisited
“We don’t really grow up. Our toys change with time.” ― Nitya Prakash In February of 1973 – around the same time that Sam Ervin, a Democratic Senator from South Carolina, was named Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark became the first Christian organization to officially accept gay marriage…
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Counting Down to the ‘Big Six-Oh’ (With Some Ambivalence), or, The Year of Many Anniversaries
Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock: Countdown to the Big Six-Oh (And Other Anniversary Dates) Well, it’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, which means I only have slightly less than 26 days until I say goodbye to my 50s and say hello to being 60 on March 5. As I’ve said in previous…
A Certain Point of View, Too 