Tag: memoir
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George And The Postman
Uncle George pulled his black Dodge sedan into the garage, just like he did every other night. He closed the garage door and unlocked the side door to the house. Beauty was waiting patiently for him to arrive home, in the kitchen, right where she belonged. He walked to the front door and she walked…
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Advice To My Teenage Self
“The only way to break a law of physics is with another law of physics.” – Ensign LaForge, Star Trek – Picard The conceit is that somehow you could apply the thousands and thousands of days of accumulated dents and dings; the accumulated triumph and trauma and be something different than what you were. But…
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Uncle George’s House
The grownups visited in the basement That basement that George was so proud of He paneled it in that 1960’s style Cheap, but effective, like a boys clubhouse – Leonia and George hosted parties and dinners down there She cooked and he tended behind the bar he built Gossip and politics; One cousin was lazy…
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Strange Changes
I just passed on an opportunity for a meeting with other professionals in my field. I know many of these people, we are like minded; we are friends. But I ain’t going. The flu is going around, there’s a new variant of Covid circulating and I have a ski vacation planned in 3 weeks. I…
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Island Memories
It was before most cars had air-conditioning; so even on the hottest days we drove with the windows rolled down. Always in that black ’63 Impala, or later on, the blue one. And finally the Nova. My grandparents were working class people with union jobs. They bought American. They bought Chevy. WMCA New York was…
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Yes, You Can Be Friends
Don’t Be A Soulless Weasel. Someone I follow on LinkedIn, a “career expert” with a lot of followers threw this out. I never found myself disagreeing with her before. But this time she lost me. She was adamant: “Managers cannot be friends with subordinates.” There are other prohibitions that so-called wise people like to throw…
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The Restaurant Around The Corner
The wind off the Danube was biting and ancient. It tore downriver, curled around the Parliament and whipped past portraits of battles and kings in Buda Castle before doing a crack the whip through the Chain Bridge. The same way it had for years and decades and centuries and millennia. At home, we’d all be…
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What You’re Missing
You know what you’re gaining. A little more time at home, time with your family or your dog or your lover. Precious things. But those are all inward facing, insular. You have more time to hang out with your friends, the ones you chose. The ones you’re comfortable with. But those are not the people…
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Disconnected
It hangs in my memory, isolated. I can’t reminisce because there is no one else that would remember it. It’s weird, such an impactful experience. I remember the hot sweaty dance club, our senses heightened by days off the grid. I remember the cold mountain air at night. I remember the night before we started…
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Against the Ropes
A pool of light ahead, spilling onto the road from a barn light or a closed gas station. The inside of the car is bright for an instant, then dark; except for the muted glow of the gauges. Your thoughts return. They are never good thoughts. Being alone with your thoughts is like being alone…