One day, a student; the next, a graduate.

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 30, 2023

I recently attended a graduation ceremony. It was a joyous occasion, despite some rough patches.

There was a family argument the night before the event. That resulted in no long-lasting effects, but two family members came down with stomach bugs — one case was mild, the other serious — on the day of the commencement. It was touch and go as to whether our Happy Graduate was actually going to attend the ceremony. The matter remained in doubt even after H.G. arrived at the venue.

I attended with an older family member, my Esteemed Parent (formerly known in these posts as my Parental Unit), whose mobility is limited. E.P. and I left for the venue 90 minutes before the start of the ceremony, about when the graduate arrived.

Memorial Day musings

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 29, 2023

As I write this, it is the afternoon of Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 2023.

This is a day of rest and recreation. For many Americans, this weekend represents the unofficial start of summer — a time dedicated to relaxation and enjoyment. However, I hope that at some point during this day, each person takes a few moments to reflect on the sacrifices that enabled us to appreciate this prosperous, largely peaceful nation.

The road worrier vs. the cash-addled clerk

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 28, 2023

Late one night during a recent trip, while driving back to my hotel, I was hungry and realized that I didn’t have much in the way of snacks stashed in my room. After parking at the hotel, I dropped my bag in the room and then went down to the first-floor corridor that linked the lobby to the guest rooms. There, I entered a small gift shop and selected three items.

The shop was really just a small room with a very small selection of gifts, toiletries and snacks. There was a register, but no one was minding it. After a moment, a young clerk whom I’d seen at the front desk earlier in the evening stepped through the opening in the wall that separated the gift shop from the front desk.

She scanned my items. The price came to $11.88 — reasonable enough. I dug for change, but I didn’t have nearly enough to cover 88 cents. When I asked the clerk if she minded breaking a $50 bill, she said she was willing to do so. However, she didn’t have coins, so she asked if I minded not getting exact change. I said it was fine, not concerned over 12 cents.

Vignette: The distraught pedestrian

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 27, 2023

Author’s note: On May 28, a day after publication, I changed the first word of the title of this post from Anecdote to Vignette to fit better with my previously established Vignette series. If, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, then this episode means that… Well, I shall leave readers to form their own conclusions. MEM

Shortly after noon on Saturday, I hit the southernmost point of my daily walk and began the return trip of what turned out to be a 10.1-mile trek.

I’d traveled around a half-mile north on a street I’d never walked before today, and had only driven on a scant handful of times, when I noticed a woman moving in my direction. She seemed to be talking to herself.

As we approached one another, I noticed that she was roughly 30 years old and was carrying a number of flags — appropriate decorations for Memorial Day, or so I thought. She was wearing a New York Police Department jacket that seemed both too large for her and too heavy for a warm late-spring day.

We walked past each other without incident… or so I thought. I’d passed her by a step or two when she said “Excuse me” and asked me if I knew where to find the nearest bus stop.

Walking the Long Path in Palisades Interstate Park

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
May 14, 2023

Recently, I picked up my travels on the Long Path for the first time in more than a year.

I started by driving to a small parking lot alongside Route 9W in Northern New Jersey. After reading the can of insect repellent I’d brought with me, I discovered that it was meant to be sprayed on outdoor areas, not on skin or clothing. I returned it to my car and examined a nearby map posted by the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey.

The Palisades Interstate Commission was formed by New York and New Jersey in 1900 to prevent the cliffs that line the western bank of the Hudson opposite Northern Manhattan Island from being destroyed by stone quarries. The park opened in 1909. In the 1940s, construction began on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, which originates at the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge. The road snakes north along the highlands overlooking the river until near the New York border, whereupon the route cuts northwest through Rockland County before reaching its northern terminus at a traffic circle near Fort Montgomery in Orange County. Several parts of the Long Path in Palisades Interstate Park run alongside or near the parkway.

The parking area was linked to the main park by a paved walkway laid out beneath a pair of underpasses. I walked beneath the southbound and then the northbound lanes of the highway and discovered that this spot was very close to the last segment of the Long Path that I’d walked back in early 2022. I turned to the right and began walking south.