Christmas 1974: The Webster’s Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus gift from father to daughter riffed on a scene from The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) when John Boy receives writing tablets from his own father honoring his wish to become a writer.
Gifted and unwrapped in the maternal snow-country homestead, our father went to a lot of effort keeping us connected with his in-laws, which in the long view may have set him apart. Later-in-life local cousins/best friends to-the-end were of the same maternal Finnish-immigrant gene-pool plus solid Nebraskan (Navy) Germanic stock.
A book comes to mind—one found at the final family home in the Blue Ridge: Jim Webb’s Born Fighting (2004). It’s the one he wanted his eldest son to read for their misunderstandings of one another: the son with an inner Finn against a father of boastful Ulster.
Sunday, June 11, 2023, CDT:
Pluto Rx returns to Capricorn (for remainder of 2023) 4:47
Mercury ingress Gemini 5:27
Image above: New (six-weeks) transplant of eastern hayscented fern purchased from local nursery. Images below: New (six weeks) forest pansy redbud transplant along with others. Abnormally dry conditions.