… the genius of the United States is … always most in the common people. Their manners speech dress friendships—the freshness and candor of their physiognomy—the picturesque looseness of their carriage . . . the fluency of their speech their delight in music, the sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul . . . their good temper and openhandedness
— Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass, first edition (1855)
EMILY: Good-by. Good-by, world. Good-by, my beautiful town … Mama and Papa. Good-by to … clocks ticking and … Mama’s sunflowers. And … food and … coffee. And … new-ironed dresses and … hot baths … and sleeping and waking. Oh, Earth! You’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
– Thornton Wilder, Our Town
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To note and wonder at each precise fact or thing about individual persons.
My parents, for instance:
baked apples
cinnamon toast
lobster
scalloped oysters
Christmas decorations and stockings
Christmas carols
trimming the tree
Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D
Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus
Beethoven’s piano sonata no. 27, opus 90
Jordan Marsh department store at Christmastime
Christmas candles
Thanksgiving
Easter eggs
snow shovels
snow tires and snow tire chains
Massachusetts beaches
Cape Cod
dogs
Tennyson
Hiawatha and Evangeline
George Gershwin
the Gospels
Protestant hymns
Frère Jacques
My Fair Lady, Carousel, Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon
asparagus
coffee ice cream (my mother)
ginger snaps
autumn leaves
pork strips (Chinese takeout food)
The Late Show
the funny pages (my father)
electric blankets
highballs, gin and tonics
chocolate pudding
Twenty Questions
pencils
dishwashers
clotheslines (my mother)
the four seasons
birthday parties and presents
gift giving
letters, cards, and thank you notes
reading
a summer cottage
conversation
Brueghel
coal bins
blueberry pancakes
French toast
radiators
steam irons, ironing boards
adages
fountain sodas; cherry or vanilla Cokes
frozen orange juice
fried and steamed clams
chowders
gum drops
hot chocolate
raisin bread
apple pie
corn bread
ZaRex
Jello
grape jelly
wax sealed jars
strawberry jam
pop up toasters
lawn mowing
trees (birch, beach)
flowers
people
These are some of the things that preserve the memory of my parents for me. Of others.
I regard it as not worthwhile to comb through the past looking for faults, which all of us have or had. The faults make us human, mean that we are so. Faults of our loved ones and ancestors. When they are or were alive, we have or had to deal with their faults. It is a somewhat different thing when we are talking about departed persons who were close to us.
— Roger W. Smith
June 2023