Fathers Day

city…under construction

Originally uploaded by jayfherron

Unusual for me.
I never write in the evening…my time of day is the wee hours before dawn-the pure part of the day,and the most quiet. Unusual for me. I usually write when it is quiet…but traveling back in time tonight-listening to the familiar sounds of a time long gone…Surrealistic Pillow will do-and is playing as I think back on this day 40 years ago-sitting perhaps on a tombstone in the Jewish Cemetery in Gainesville Florida. Perhaps? I know I was at the cemetery…it was an unusual day,surreal.

If it were 40 years ago I would be telling you about yesterday and last night…last night-I was in the suburbs of Washington DC,today I am sitting in a cemetery-and have no clue where I am.

If it were 40 years ago-I would tell you that we got caught…well,I got caught. Yea-caught in a crime,but just as much a victim-someone else was forcing me to steal. That person sensed something about me…my weakness. He used that to force me in doing his will. Just like in barracks D-and from where he must have sensed the broken part of me.

I had been interviewed by the police-the day before…40 years ago. I was given until the next day to tell it all-and turn in the other man. I knew I was going to go to jail-and I knew what life would be like.

40 years ago last night I was with a friend-we went to a going away party for a fellow…I could only tell you about his Ford station wagon,and some of the drive-the old way-down U.S.17 all the way to South Carolina at what is known as South of the Border. There was hardly an Interstate 95. There was hardly a South of the Border-a ferris wheel and motel next to a coffee shop. I can tell you that because angels saw fit for me to ride away with this fellow.

We drove to Florida-straight through.

In Jacksonville we met my drivers cousins-they all loaded surf boards in the wagon and looked at me as if to say “well?”….I was’nt invited to the beach-as much as I was only a hitch-hiker.

So-my ride was extended to Gainesville. I knew of Gainesville because of the university ( I believe I heard about it in the Navy) but am not sure how I knew it was there?? My driver and his cousins offered to drop me there-the highway heads east to Crescent Beach from there.

There I was-the sole living resident of a Jewish cemetery!

I think it was all appropriate! The graveyard seemingly  a Spiritual message-yet to be understood. Understanding would come years later-at least,clearer thinking.

I go by that graveyard all the time. I try to visit there every year on this date…fathers day-today being my 40th year. Today is no different.