My Dad would have been 96 today, in this the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I’ve been sorting. Sorting memories, sorting mementos, sorting pictures, sorting emotions and sorting plans for moving forward without him in my life.
My first clear memory of my dad would have been when we arrived in Okinawa. (My older sister asked me this question just after he died and we were planning the funeral — it was good to pause and think about this.)
The Army moved him around a lot, ya know. But I do have the photographs and 8mm home movies he made, and I do have loving relatives who have told me stories of those years before I was, say, 4 years old.
Aug. 11, 2020, was historic in that Joe Biden chose a VP nominee, Kamala Harris. My 30-year-old daughter spotted the news announcement before I did, told me, and I then passed on the word to my husband in person.
Esther Bloomgren of Slope and Bowman counties said, “Time marches on.” I heard her say it, and I talked to the people who knew her well. Indeed, it does. Time will tell what the rest of 2020 has in store.
One version of the backstory on Nanci’s songwriting prowess and inspiration is below. The liner notes on her album are a great source, too. This led me to my memories of The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tenn., which isn’t far from Vanderbilt University, and opened in 1982. (I’ve been there once, in the early 1980s, and later I took my husband there on one epic winter road trip.) Google “Bluebird Cafe” if you are curious. Meanwhile, enjoy Nanci’s song.
