I don’t know for sure, off the top of my head, how many cousins I have. More than 30. I’d have to go to the family tree chart and count. The photo here is from 2012, and it doesn’t come close to capturing everyone. And now two of them are gone. Tom only had five … read more All my cousins
Category: Inheritance
Ancestry and DNA, memory, blood ties, what we gain from the past and our parents. The nonfiction book 1919 looks at people and events of that year in their convergence, as harbingers and initiators of all that happened in the century.
A common enemy
Gen. Eisenhower really needed something for his men: 3 million bottles of Coca Cola. And bottling plants to refill them. Eisenhower’s requisition was sent to the Coca Cola company on June 29, 1943. Robert C. Woodruff complied. He set up dozens of bottling plants across Europe, and U.S. servicemen were able to buy Coke for a nickel, Coke’s history … read more A common enemy
Family dinner
Richard and Tom lingered long over breakfast in the hotel dining room, talking about politics – state by state. Sara and Jane showed up because they were out shopping for dinner. We stayed so long, just enjoying each other’s company, that the manager had to ask us to leave so that the staff could clean … read more Family dinner
A birthday like no other
It’s getting so late. They were driving from Dulles and they should have been here by 7 p.m. Tom and I hardly know what to do with ourselves while we wait. This meeting has been more than five months in the making: Tom’s biological father, Richard, and sister, Danielle. Richard’s cousin Susan in England, our initial … read more A birthday like no other
Big and beautiful
The land came to us in waves of mountains, crests of forests, embracing us as we moved across it. I drove and drove and drove. More than eight hours of driving, through North Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and finally Virginia, to the place where Tom’s birth parents met. Although we were on interstate freeways, the … read more Big and beautiful
Preparations
I’m getting ready for Tom’s birthday. There are so many errands – lots of food to buy, collect the latest firing from the kiln, get the car detailed and the oil changed. We are taking a special road trip for his birthday. One that we couldn’t have imagined a year ago. We’re going to meet … read more Preparations
I’ve just seen a face
Who’s that? Picasa knows – even after one glance. Facial recognition has been built into Google’s free photo editing software, Picasa, since 2009. It’s remarkably good. You type in a name on one picture of a person, and it instantly identifies and labels all your photos of that person. If Picasa isn’t certain who the person is in a particular photo, it … read more I’ve just seen a face
Cement truck
On our drive from the mountains to Atlanta, there’s a 10-mile road that has no opportunities for passing other cars. It’s too curvy, too many blind spots. It never fails: In a hurry to get to Atlanta, appointment that we’re trying to make on time – on this road, we will get stuck behind a … read more Cement truck
The woodworker
At the rental house, there are two garages, but one of them isn’t for cars. It’s a woodworking shop, and it belongs to Amanda. She let me see it. I got to ogle the band saw, the power saw, the shaping tools that I don’t know the names of but would like to. I got … read more The woodworker
The King
Around town, they called him King. He was the only son of Louis Tyler, owner of a popular downtown store who served as mayor and played a silver coronet. The King was handsome. He had an air of smug certainty that life would go his way. It’s a photo I’d never seen before, a young man … read more The King