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SAUCERED AND BLOWED
In previous essays, I have noted the fact that my ancestors were rural folks who carried their country customs to the big city of St. Louis. They were farmers in Pope County, Illinois and had one peculiar custom that I have not seen for many years. Basically, the custom was that, when served a cup…
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“…THE LAST OF LIFE FOR WHICH THE FIRST WAS MADE”
-ROBERT BROWNING (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) Those of you who have had the misfortune to hear me address several retirement banquets will know that the title of this essay is a lift from a poem by the English poet, Robert Browning. The first line is “Come grow old along with me /…
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QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
To this old Missouri essayist, it is a cardinal sin to grow older but no wiser. At this moment, there are four or five questions unanswered that are floating through the vacant space in my head. The first question has to do with wine. In the early 1980s, a lovely saleslady at Svensk Glas sold…
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MOUTHFULS OF NOSTALGIA
On many occasions, I am unable to recall what I had for dinner yesterday. I mark this short-term memory loss off to advancing age and interest in other topics of the day. While I am unable at times to recall yesterday’s dinner, I am often able to recall events and situations that took place more…
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FLIVVER
Henry Ford, the auto magnate, was also a peace activist. Prior to the hostilities that marked the First World War, Mr. Ford chartered a ship on which he loaded several important American personages to go to the capitals of Europe to ask them to avoid the coming war. To the American press, this was known…
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IN DEFENSE OF BUTTONS
It is possible but unlikely that there are men and women around the world whose memory is so long that they can remember a time when the existence of zippers was completely unknown. Zippers today appear in a multiplicity of places. They are on our clothes as well as on some of our plastic bags…
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SOME CATS PURR; THIS KATZ COLLECTS LOVERS
This may come as a shock to many of my readers, but in this essay, I will be dealing with a subject that I know a little bit about. From 1946 through the summer of 1951, I was an official of the Communications Workers of America. Then in 1951 the management of AT&T offered me…
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COMPLETELY RANDOM THOUGHTS
Those of you who have long memories may recall that there were a series of essays three or four years ago that were entitled “Random Thoughts While Shaving.” Now similar random thoughts continue to occupy my alleged mind. I had hoped that they would be transient in nature, but unless I record them, they will…