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X. A Few Tributes (intro.)
Introduction: It would be a better world in which final farewells could be bitter-sweetly ceremonial as in the Scots-Irish ballad, ‘The Parting Glass’: But since it fell into my lotThat I should rise and you should notI’ll gently rise and softly callGood night and joy be to you all But they very seldom are. As one…
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U. A Few Close Calls (con’d)
She introduced herself as Betty, a nurse, back on vacation from Hamburg where she lived with her German boyfriend. From the barstool beside over the following hour, Betty spoke of growing up in the tightknit ‘coloured’ neighbourhood of Arcadia, in then Salisbury, Rhodesia. She said she had hardly recognized her home in returning for her…
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U. A Few Close Calls (intro.)
Introduction: No one makes it to old age without having close-calls. In the scale of night-terrors, mine do not match those of some of my old friends. I have not passed out drunk at the wheel nor have I woken up startled after months in a coma… As with most males, many of my most-hair-raising…
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O. A Few Collages (con’d)
In September 1985, when my wife brought our infant daughter home from the hospital in Harare, I held her for a long time on my lap, gazing into her dark brown eyes. ‘Who will she look like, grown up?’ I wondered. ‘What will her personality be like?’ What will her voice sound like?’ In pangs…
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O. A Few Collages (intro.)
Introduction: A couple of years ago, I posted ‘A few Snapshots’. They were a selection of family vignettes hoped to be of interest to anonymous readers. Their primary intended audience, though, was my grown children. As I stated in the introduction to that posting: ‘Although historical accuracy is always aimed for–– I apologize for any perceived mismatches…
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T. An Old Soldier’s Warp and Weft
Introduction: Norman McLean, author of the novella ‘A River Runs Through It‘ (better known for the celebrated 1992 film version), did not publish that memoir-based work until he was in his seventies. Presumably, it took the wisdom of that age for him to strike the right tone in writing about difficult memories. I was in…
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