tetsujin nijûhachi-go

This is a different sort of day, isn’t it. Yes it was Friday afternoon in Dallas, but in Yokohama it was Saturday morning. I am drinking coffee, phone rings, Linda goes to answer it, Malinda and Jody are watching Japanese cartoon hero Tetsujin on the b&w television. 



Linda picks up the phone, it’s Bev Hatchett across the cul-de-sac. Linda says to me, “Kennedy’s been shot.” I jump up and head for the radio to turn it on, stop mid-way and head back to turn off the TV, back to turn on AFR&TS radio. Dead, President Kennedy is dead, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president by a Texas judge and friend whom he summoned to AirForceOne before taking off to return to WashDC. LBJ will win a term of his own only to be driven from office by mob power: "Hey, hey, LBJ, ... ."American history changes in an instant. What comes to mind that morning? My feelings April 1945, news coming over the radio that FDR, president since 1932 and now in his fourth term, is dead of cerebral hemorrhage at his vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia; Harry Truman is president, Who? Derided as a failed haberdasher, HST exonerates himself with two fireballs that end WWII. 

History unfolds as we watch or as we sleep. Advent is coming up: Mark 13:37, “… what I say to you I say to all: keep awake.

Thanksgiving tomorrow. Belovedy coming, several. My dish that because no one else will touch it is mine alone, I’m about to go to the kitchen and mix. It’ll be different this year. Instead of oyster dressing, Linda came across a package of frozen bay scallops in the freezer. And a package of frozen oysters. And I bought two pints of oysters at Buddy Gandy’s (some for yesterday and this morning’s breakfast of oysters broiled on ww toast) my turkey dressing will be traditional stuffing mix, oysters, stuffing mix, scallops, stuffing mix, oysters, stuffing mix, oysters. The scallops I panseared earlier this morning, the oysters are laid on raw to cook and bless my specialty with oyster liquor. Instead of a casserole dish, this year I’m cooking it in a loaf pan.

Cover with turkey gravy. Serves one, several times.

What might I say about life? I could say it’s all good, but we each of us have other memories too.

DThos+