Well, here we are, Dear Reader, on Sunday, May 14, 2023, aka Mother’s Day 2023. It’s almost 9 AM in the Tampa Bay area, the sun is out, and – for the moment, anyway, it’s cool outside; the temperature is 71°F/22°C. Overall, it’s the kind of day that, in my previous neighborhood in South Florida,Continue reading “Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, May 14, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the Second”
Category Archives: Coral Park Elementary School
Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973
Well, Dear Reader, with less than 17 days until my 60th birthday, it’s time for (yet) another Tempus Fugit piece related to this landmark birthday. On this day in 1973, which fell on a Friday, I was at Tropical Elementary – more likely than not – in Mrs. Chambers’ Special Education class in Room 29.Continue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973”
Tempus Fugit: Life As I Knew It in January of ’73
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. – Anthony G. Oettinger On January 20, 1973, I was nine going on 10 and lived in a modest but comfortable house, along with my widowed mother and my older half-sister, in Westchester, a suburb of Miami, Florida. 50 years ago, January 20 fell onContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: Life As I Knew It in January of ’73”
Tempus Fugit: Remembering Cheryl T: Music from the Original Blog Soundtrack
Last week, as many of you know, I wrote a series of posts in the “memoir” category I call Tempus Fugit (Time Flies) about a boy, a girl, and their painfully brief schoolyard romance at Coral Park in November of 1972. I called it Tempus Fugit: Remembering Cheryl T – 50 Years Later, and evenContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: Remembering Cheryl T: Music from the Original Blog Soundtrack”
Tempus Fugit: Remembering Cheryl T- 50 Years Later (Epilogue)
I never even talked about Cheryl much with “the girl who came after,” and – I don’t know why the fuck I did this – what little I did say was not true. I don’t remember what cockamamie story I told K the few times that she asked about the girl I had left behind, but I can tell you that I did not tell her about the pink sweater, or that I had cried myself to sleep three nights in a row before starting school at Tropical Elementary on Monday, November 13, 1972.
School, 1972 (Heartsong): Haiku # 10
Afternoon’s cold light Songs played in melancholic keys Remind me of you
School, 1972 (Heartsong): Haiku #9
Auburn hair, loose, brushed Past fair shoulders gently spills Catches morning’s light
School, 1972 Revisited (50 Years Later): Haiku #8
Winter’s coming nears Northern winds bring sad gray skies Tears fall like snowflakes
School, 1972 Revisited (50 Years After): Haiku # 7
Old childhood picture Yellowed, dogeared, still treasured Past heartaches return
School, 1972 Revisited -(June 1983): Haiku #6
Springtime’s warm embrace Clasps the haunted wide schoolground First love’s promise smashed.
A Certain Point of View, Too 