A Year, and a Lifetime

San Anselmo, March 31, 2004: A year ago, I began online publishing of the Adventures of Bloggard. Over 360 micro-stories have now been added to the bloggosphere, recounting people and places from my past, to create a sketchy autoblography.

Visitors here have found stories both happy and sad, serious and absurd, familiar and exotic. I use Marcel Proust's method. From the scent of a madeline cookie, he recalled a bygone Parisian age. I do the same, except that I wake up and smell the coffee, as I have been advised to do by so many well-meaning people, and the stories themselves range over a century up till today, from Texas to California and beyond, and yes, even to Paris.

However, given this meandering method, some folks might like things more orderly, and some folks might like things brief.

For these people, and for visitors who might enjoy a review, here is a photo album with snapshots of the last year, and of a lifetime. I'm told that there will be a test at the end.

Henrietta, Texas, 1922: Tutti-Fruity

Henrietta, Texas, 1949: The Gypsies by the Slough

Henrietta, Texas, 1951: Wizard in a Cave

Henrietta, Texas, 1952: The Canyon

Henrietta, Texas, 1954: Diplomacy

Henrietta, Texas, 1955: Derley Davis and the Dew Drop Inn

Henrietta, Texas, 1958: A White Sport Coat, and Rocket Fuel

Wichita Falls, Texas, 1963: The Skydivers

Shady Shores, Texas, 1964: Band of Thieves

Denton, Texas, 1964: A Photograph of the Future

Denton, Texas, 1965: The Corduroy Jacket

Dallas, 1966: The Abandoned Road

St. Louis, 1967: Carrie Street Station

Southern England, 1968: A Cottage in East Grinstead

Phnom Pen, 1969: Bravery

Hurnville, Texas, 1971: Young Fool

San Francisco, 1974: The Apartment From Hell

San Francisco, 1975: Phil Groves and Raskin-Flakker's Ice Cream Store

San Francisco, 1976: The Thumbtack Bugle

San Francisco, 1976: Network Answering Service

San Francisco, 1977: Mick Jagger's Secret

San Francisco, 1978: The Robe

San Francisco, 1979: The Musical Idiot

San Francisco, 1980: 3304 Geary Boulevard

Newport Beach, 1985: The Christmas Present

San Francisco, 1990: The Chapman Stick

San Rafael, 1996: The Wacko

Paris, 2001: Koko Taylor in Paris

Mount Shasta, 2003: Leaving

Mount Shasta, 2004: Tulip, Gone

In a week, I'll be 60. It makes one pause, or even stumble. One then asks, where does the time go? Perhaps these little stories hint at an answer. And thinking back on those times present and past, it makes one wonder ... what will happen next?

But perhaps time is twisted. Perhaps it's really running backwards, and we, trapped in that flowing stream, cannot see the true direction of things. Perhaps what is to come has in fact already happened.

Or, as a dear friend once said, perhaps not.

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
                                    -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Henrietta, Texas, Spring 1962: As seniors, when the fresh air of Spring energized our blood, our thoughts turned lightly to painting our name on the town's water tower, as is proper.

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