I forgot this and God brought it to my attention just now -I don’t recall if I prayed to have it returned. Thank You God 🙏 After all, it does seem somewhat monotonous. Asking or forgetting -I’m not sure which. It’s tiresome the fact that God took a man with such a horrible memory to task as such. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway it’s calm right now I’m watching the movie the French connection for 1971 – In one particular scene I believe I see the world trade center is portrayed center in the process of being completed in the background. While up at the cabin at Russian-River one year* I remember flipping through some national geographics? Reader’s Digest? And in one of the pictures was the building of the world trade centers which I vaguely remember. I think I even recall the articles stating that they would be completed by 1973? This is such a very long time ago and it is such a hazy recollection. I do recall the picture of one or both of the towers have to 2/3 built at that time in the picture. Even that’s very hazy I could be completely wrong. I do know there was a picture of a partial completion on the page however. Those towers and this memory have always held great significance, and sentimentality/sentimentalism to me. 🤷‍♂️

*My grandparents owned a cab and up at Russian river between Guerneville and (Hope Mills?) the ocean -right on the river off of Moscow road. About 5 miles from where the river runs into the ocean. There’s a scene in the movie Forever Young starring Mel Gibson, towards the end which shows him flying over that very beach -Ana and I had visited it back in 2015. It was one of my lifelong dreams that at some time later in my life I would be able to follow that river to the sea. And it didn’t disappoint, it was one of the most beautiful, and rewarding experiences of my life -and to have Ana with me -the love of my life!

My fondest memories in my childhood were those of being with my grandparents up at the cabin. One year my mother even made it. I can picture her swimming in the water just off the dock -and quite vividly. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this area, it is like the Martha’s vineyard of the West Coast. It’s only a few miles from Napa Napa in the heart Sonoma County.

I didn’t know how lucky I was* to be able to have those experiences. But I know I didn’t want to leave. And it 💔 when I had gotten a call from grandma heard that they were selling the property. I would give anything to have that property today 😪

*By the time I was an adolescent, I had gained certain perspectives children have no business having, while lacking and others children of that age have no business without. I knew what it was to be a part of a functional life and I knew what it was to be a part of a dysfunctional life. And I knew very little about gratitude! I’m guessing my experiences with my father clouded my ability to recognize how fortunate I was to have been taken in by my grandmother and to grow up in the San Fernando Valley.* 🤷‍♂️😢

Two songs which often come to mind when I 🤔 of my visits to the cabin are (and mesh -as I love them very much, and all-the-more when thinking of them in some sort of collaboration with my time up there with two most sane people I have ever known):

•”The Air That I Breathe” (Albert Hammond – Whom I did not realize until many years later had written this song. I only known for the song “It never rains in California” -which in itself brings back memories of riding around in the car with my father and Patsy as a child in, of course… “Southern California”** 🤷‍♂️). Oh 🤔, and sung by The Hollies.

•”Photograph” (Ringo 🌟).

*When I reflect back, I’m very surprised prized and how normal some aspects of my life were -psychologically, emotionally speaking. Socially however…

**My grandmother was not one to take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities in the area we lived in. She was a simple woman with a high school education.. Never drove… I think we went to the beach once 😒 We could have been living in the Mojave desert…