Uncle Bill Installment #18
Remember that last installment where I said this story was reminiscent of South Pacific The Musical? South Pacific actually had a message. One that had nothing to do with hair shampoo or cross dressing stage shows. South Pacific was about acceptance. It came about that Kendrea, Denise’s daughter, contacted her aunt, Denise’s sister. A sister […]
Uncle Bill Installment #17
Uncle Bill embraced technology. Photography was one of his passions. When I look at my uncle’s pictures of his time on the Eastern Range, even though some are black and white, in my mind they explode with color. They may have faded or deteriorated in other ways – perhaps screwed up in the first place? […]
Uncle Bill Installment #16
I don’t know what my uncle’s relationship was with black coral – or if he even had one. I don’t know much about my uncle’s relationships with other-than-sea-creatures either. I can only speculate. Corals are composed of polyps, each having a ring of tractable tentacles surrounding a mouth. Similar to trees, coral form growth […]
Uncle Bill Installment #15
NOTES FROM A ROAD TRIP. When you live about as far west as you can get in the lower 48, any eastbound road trip consists of days and days of craggy buttes and plains. I used to get antsy going over what seemed like the same landscape every day. Anymore? I see the […]
Uncle Bill Installment #14
So, Mr. X called me. I hate calling him “Mr. X”. It sounds X Files or worse, porno. At 88 years old he sounds very sharp and robust. He didn’t know Uncle Bill well at all. He was Uncle Bill’s roommate at the time of his disappearance. He was on San Salvador Island for a […]
Uncle Bill Installment #13
A small thing happened while I was on San Salvador Island [it was a big thing]. “Marie” posted a comment to one of my blog installments. “My mother talks about this incident at the base. She was a young girl and worked in the mess hall, she remembers Bill very well, she can tell you […]
Uncle Bill Installment #12
From Nassau, I phoned Bob and we exchanged our usual topics of conversation … the daily junk that old married folk talk about when they’re apart: His golf score. The latest neighborhood news. The size, color, regularity and consistency of our dog’s poop. The mail – there’s a small package from my cousin, Kate. Years […]
Uncle Bill Installment #10
Photo by Bill Scales. The following day broke with absolute brilliance over San Salvador Island. We got up early and headed toward the north end of the island for a hike along the coral cliff. During the hike, I shot photos using my uncle’s cameras, etc. while my mind picked over events of the […]
Uncle Bill Installment #7
Taking Uncle Bill’s cameras to the place he was last known to have been (San Salvador Island in the Bahamas) was, at first, just a little spark of an idea. Learning more about my Uncle Bill over the past few months brought a significant shift in my thoughts, moving this photo project from the recesses […]
Uncle Bill Installment #6
To celebrate Thanksgiving 2022, my cousin John and his wife Gabe, who reside in southern California, rented an Airbnb in Tacoma, just south of Seattle. Bob & I and our dog Luna had been invited to join in the holiday dinner along with our good friend, Cindy. John has spent years cataloging his mother’s effects […]
Uncle Bill Installment #5
Coming out of the Covid time, I began to delve deeper into the contents of the Ancestry folder that cousin Kate had sent: Most items were dated June, 30 1958 and on into July and August of the same year. Between the time of the investigation and the presenting of the actual investigator’s […]
Uncle Bill: Installment #4
November, 2019. Southeast Michigan. With leftover crusty snow on the ground, some sun and outside temperatures in the 20’s – 30’s, the scene inside the house appeared more like a natural disaster than a home for sale. There had been a bungled estate sale and, in the intervening months, the home my parents’ raised us […]
Uncle Bill : Installment #2
My parents lived in the same house in southeast Michigan for almost 60 years. It was the house I grew up in. Over the course of the final 10 years they lived there, my visits increased as their needs increased. I live in western Washington. My sister was always there for them, but I’d […]