HAPPY DAYS TO ALL

This has always been my favorite photo of my mom, taken in the 1920s before I knew her (I came along in 1942, the last of a brood that began n 1926 the year after she and my father married), but the same eyes I still see in my mind when I think of her, and she passed in 1966, on Mother's Day (or the night before) the way I remember it.  I had been away in the military for the previous four years so never really got to talk to her as an adult, the way I later wished I had. So many questions left unanswered and things left unsaid. But from my side, I still talk to her in my head.

ALMOST SEVENTY YEARS AGO

my three oldest brothers and me c.1950 when I was 8

the friar (the oldest of my siblings, Tommy, soon to be Father Campion)

and the next oldest Jimmy (who we called Buddy) in the white shirt

had both been in the military at the end of "the war" (WWII)

and both had attended college on the G.I. Bill

and both were hip musicians ("reed men") and I adored them,

the third, for some reason known by his middle name Robert,

would soon enter the army, and then become a teamster and later a cop,

he was my tough guy hero as a boy,

all three long gone now,

(between them were two sisters, Joan, also gone, and Irene, still with us

and a brother, John, who died as an infant)

and then me looking angry, probably because

I wasn't looking as sharp as them, forced to wear the pants our grandmother

(who lived with us)

made for me,

and she probably made the shirt as well,

which I could not complain about without hurting her and I would never do that  

SADLY TRUE

A FAVORITE OLD QUOTE

"If you don't say what you want, what's the sense of writing?"  —Jack Kerouac (from Vanity Of Dulouz)

KENT STATE AND JACKSON STATE MASSACRES

Today is the anniversary of the killing of college students at Kent State in Ohio in 1970. Eleven days later on May 15th 1970, there was another massacre at Jackson State in Mississippi. These two events were turning points in the anti-Vietnam War and Civil Rights movements, emblematic of the disproportionate force the authorities were willing to use to stop young people from organizing against an unjust war and racism. I have a poster we made from these two photos somewhere in my archives that hung on the walls of my homes for many years with the message: NEVER FORGET! I haven't. [And yes, those are police bullet holes in the Jackson State photo.]

MY BOYHOOD WORLD INCLUDED THIS

TWO MEMES FOR BELATED MAY DAY GREETINGS