Raccoon editor poses with snow globe at home during WW II, a toy given to make him smile for the photographer in his studio.
He never expected to reach his approaching age of 76, so reminiscent of a number of trombones. Many people, dear friends and relatives all, have come and gone in his lengthening lifetime. That's why today's WRITERS ALMANAC poem rang so true today:
My Dead Friends
I have begun,
when I'm weary and can't decide an answer to a bewildering question
to ask my dead friends for their opinion
and the answer is often immediate and clear.
Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to conceive a child
in my middle age?
They stand in unison shaking their heads and smiling—whatever leads
to joy, they always answer,
to more life and less worry. I look into the vase where Billy's ashes were —
it's green in there, a green vase,
and I ask Billy if I should return the difficult phone call, and he says, yes.
Billy's already gone through the frightening door,
whatever he says I'll do.
when I'm weary and can't decide an answer to a bewildering question
to ask my dead friends for their opinion
and the answer is often immediate and clear.
Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to conceive a child
in my middle age?
They stand in unison shaking their heads and smiling—whatever leads
to joy, they always answer,
to more life and less worry. I look into the vase where Billy's ashes were —
it's green in there, a green vase,
and I ask Billy if I should return the difficult phone call, and he says, yes.
Billy's already gone through the frightening door,
whatever he says I'll do.
They also serve who wait at home..........
Thanks for your service, Nelder.
...................
Soldier/Dad, later Consumer Affairs (Truth in Lending, etc.) aide to President Johnson
under Esther Peterson, Betty Furness
shakes LBJ's hand in a ceremony in the White House
where Dad worked.
This was long after his little boy smiled with the snow globe
for a photographer
but it is all of one piece.
RIP
Arlington National Cemetery
Wash. D.C.
Thanks for your service, Nelder.
...................
Soldier/Dad, later Consumer Affairs (Truth in Lending, etc.) aide to President Johnson
under Esther Peterson, Betty Furness
shakes LBJ's hand in a ceremony in the White House
where Dad worked.
This was long after his little boy smiled with the snow globe
for a photographer
but it is all of one piece.
Arlington National Cemetery
Wash. D.C.
