I’ve only met a few “living legends” during my life. William T. Fauntroy Jr., one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen and a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor recipient, is one of them. Consequently, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to hear him speak this past February at the Sandy Spring Slave Museum. William Fauntroy is...
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Each April I’m reminded of three events: Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and two family birthdays — my second grandson’s and my mother’s. Though I think of Walt Whitman’s “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed …” and the sorrow that poem conveys of Lincoln’s death, April is also a joyous time to remember my grandson’s...
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Until mid-November, I was afraid to see the film “Lincoln.” Even though I’d heard advance favorable reviews, I reserved judgment until I arrived at the annual Lincoln Forum symposium in Gettysburg, Pa. I’d missed the private viewing of the film by many Forum members the previous evening, but the glow was still with them...
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My best friend B. is 96 years old, very deaf and almost blind. She lives with her daughter in Germantown. Each Friday I visit her, taking winding, rural Brink Road from Laytonsville almost all the way to Germantown. B. and I have been friends since 1964 when we began library science classes at Catholic...
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There are actually some advantages of getting older. I can finally not lay a burden on myself about Christmas. I can do as much or as little now as I feel like doing. The most important thing to me is being with my family and a few close friends during the holidays. Some of...
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For many years I thought the only meaning of the word “epiphany” was the name for the Christian holiday observed on Jan. 6 each year, which celebrates the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. Later in my life I learned that epiphany has another meaning … the very word had been waiting...
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Who would imagine a sheep farm at the end of a neighborhood street in present-day Silver Spring, Md.? Yet Joan and Steve Hobbs have a flock of 35 Dorset sheep on 46 of the original 56 acres Joan’s father purchased in 1954. Joan’s family, the Anselmos, originally came from a town northwest of Genoa,...
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It was the summer of 1944. I had just graduated from high school and was registered for the autumn semester at Southwest Missouri State College (later Missouri State University) in Springfield, Mo. A detachment of Air Force cadets had been sent to my college to receive their pre-flight training before they were shipped to Texas...
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Eavesdropping can sometimes be productive. Not long ago I overheard a brief conversation between a staff member at my favorite bakery and a customer I’d never seen there before. It had to do with books. The two mentioned a writer, Sherman Alexie, whom I’d never heard of. “Excuse me,” I said afterwards to the...
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I learned some time ago that it’s unproductive to complain about what one can no longer do for a number of reasons — aging, infirmities, disabilities. I try to find a solution to the problem that satisfies me. It may not be the answer for someone else, but it accommodates my needs. For instance:...
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