D Day: June 6, 1944
In Dover, on their way to Normandie.
Penn Station
Waiting in the overheated monstrosity that is New York Pennsylvania Station for my train back to Boston yesterday, I was remembering the beautiful station that used to exist in this space, before it was torn down in the early 1960s in the name of "progress".
And then I realized that I could be standing in the same space as my mother and father stood, sharing a kiss before he went away to war. And never came back. My mother and his parents were there the day his body came back. To Penn Station.
Hires To You!
I can remember a time when people made Hires Root Beer at home. Hires is still a Philadelphia tradition that goes very nicely with a cheesesteak.
Atari "Space Invaders" Championship Tournament
Everything old is new again. Likely there are dads here of new generations of gamers.
Atari’s National Space Invaders Championship in 1980
Back Bay Boston Before The Pru
Back before there was a Prudential Center on Boylston Street in Back Bay Boston (and the Massachusetts Turnpike running underneath it), there were rail yards. Lots and lots of rail yards.
Knowing When
After the Primary debates ceased to be fun anymore and I suspended my political campaign, I've been getting more and more excited about the upcoming NFL season.
Outside of rooting for my fellow Penn State alum Christian Hackenberg to get drafted by a decent team tonight, I care as much about the NFL Draft as I do about fantasy football. Which is zero.
With the almost-certainty of Jimmy Garoppolo playing quarterback for the New England Patriots while Tom Brady serves his four game regular season suspension, I can't wait for the new season to start.
NFL training camps will open in about ninety days, just after the Republican convention in Cleveland. TB12 will only have played his first couple of regular season games and we will have a good idea of whether or not this will be the "Fuck You" season that Patriots fans had hoped for last year, one that ends with another Super Bowl victory.
And not long after Brady returns from his suspension, we will finally know whether the next President of the United States will be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
As it was for me during the late 1960s, I am once again blessed to live in interesting times.
King's Chapel Boston
Easter Sunday, from on high.
The Last Hurrah
Over drinks yesterday evening at The Last Hurrah, inside the Parker House hotel, watching the rush hour crowds disperse from downtown Boston at the corner of Beacon and School streets, we remarked on how slovenly and poorly dressed they all looked, compared to the crowds one would might have witnessed in years past.
People in general used to take more care with how they presented their public selves. Even on civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.
