HOOLIGANUNKS PLACE

(Pause for a moment and listen to this sweet Irish music "The Fields of Athenry")

By a lonely prison wall I heard a  sweet voice calling  "Danny they have taken you away For you have stole Travelians corn So your babes might see the morn Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay  Fair lies the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the small freebirds fly  Our love grew with the spring We had dreams and songs to sing As we wandered through the fields of Athenry   By a lonely prison wall I heard a young man calling  "Nothing matters , Jenny , when your free  Against the famine and the crown I rebelled , they run me down Now you must raise our children without me  Fair lies the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the freebirds fly  Our love grew with the spring We had dreams and songs to sing As we wandered through the fields of Athenry  On the windswept harbor wall She watched the last star rising As the prison ship sailed out across the sky But she'll watch and hope and pray For her love in Botany Bay Whiilst she is lonely in the fields of Athenry  Whilst she is lonely in the fields of Athenry

      Dedicated to all the "RATS" who loved the Delaware River      

       and especially Rob Miller, who created the Irish Rat.

                        To laugh often and much                                                         

to win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children ,  

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,

to leave the world a bit better, 

whether by a healthy child, 

a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, 

to know that even one life has breathed easier 

because you have lived

This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This above all : to thine own self be true

and it must follow as the night the day

thou canst not be false to any man

Wm. Shakespeare    (Hamlet)

 
The scriptures should be read in the moment of one breath,

No-one has need to ponder over each word and phrase;

The Truth reveals itself in a natural way.

It is not necessary to consult the hermit on the hill

Anonymous 

     In three words I can sum up all that I know about life :

  It goes on

    Robert Frost

A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is 

better and greater than a "Yes" uttered to please, 

or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

Mahatma Ghandi



Dear Ancestor

Your tombstone stands among the rest, Neglected and alone.
 The name and date are chiseled out On polished marble stone.
 It reaches out to all who care, It is too late to mourn. 
You did not know that I exist, You died and I was born.
 Yet each of us are cells of you, In flesh and blood and bone.
 Our blood contracts and beats a pulse, Entirely not our own.
 Dear Ancestor ... the place you filled One hundred years ago, 
Spreads out among the ones you left, Who would have loved you so.
 I wonder how you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew, 
That someday I would find this spot And come to visit you.

Thanks to Joan Benner