July 23,2026- “Oma!” Hana was worried about her mother, when I mentioned that her parents were on their way home. Both her Mom and Dad got home safely. So, the little girl’s worries were for naught. Still, I can only imagine what goes through a child’s mind.

Aram was with us for part of the day, as he had a medical appointment in late morning. So, the three of us walked together, on our usual route through the park. A neighbour engaged us in conversation, for about twenty minutes, during which Hana slept soundly.

The rest of the day went smoothly. We played a lot, with Hana crawling all over her grandfather, my putting rings on a cone and her alternately tipping the cone over or taking one ring off the cone at a time. The neighbour mentioned above said that, sooner or later, I would treasure my alone time. Right now, I’d say that is off the mark.

HANA’S NOTE- I saw Mommy driving while she was tired, so I called out to her, in Korean. Nothing bad happened to her.

YEAR IN REMEMBRANCE-1975 This was an interesting year. I lived in two different places- a rooming house in Northampton and a shared apartment, in South Deerfield. I completed my baccalaureate, and had a mediocre stint as Teaching Intern. I was determined to up my game, when the actual jobs came about. I worked in the spring as a short-order cook in a country cafe (I was terrible at this one), in the summer as a custodian at Northampton Public Schools and in the fall as a stocker in a package store (alcoholic beverages). I had the unique experience of being fired at the latter, on my 25th birthday. It turned out that the assistant manager’s son needed a job, and the A.M. felt I was doing work that he considered his turf.

The rooming house found me with four housemates-two rather testy older men, a woman who was also at UMass and an 87-year-old widow, who was the nicest of the four. When things got too heated between me and one of the older men, I left and found the apartment. I first shared the place with three stoners, and did painting and small repairs on the place, when they left. A nice couple with a little girl came in after them. We got along well, and I left the place to them, when I graduated.

I spent about a week, between the summer and fall jobs, hiking the Presidential Range in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. I met quite an eclectic bunch at the various Appalachian Mountain Club huts and actually hauled two bags of trash from the hut on Mount Jefferson to the base of Mount Adams.

1975 was definitely an interesting year.