The story of Albert revealed itself during a mid-day stroll around Baltimore's inner harbor on a summer day. My full-time, non-musical employment kept me in the downtown Baltimore area for most of my working years. Whenever I could, I would spend my lunch hour either walking or otherwise occupying that time with other diversions within the inner harbor. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Baltimore was a lively, vital place with shops, restaurants, a science center, museums etc. One day while sitting and primarily people-watching, just to the right of the boat slips in this photo, an announcement blared over the PA system of the marina, apparently directed at one of the employees. Back then, the slips were configured differently with definite 'T'-shapes and running directly from the water's edge outward in smaller piers. The announcement was, "half of the T-head on E, Albert." I hadn't received a more obvious song title since "Art Edsel Diamond Beach Grand Pool Bar", but that's another story.
This boss's diatribe strikes a very familiar note with me as I'm sure with many present and ex-office workers. How these people reach their position god only knows. . . But that's ANOTHER song.
Frequently, the natural optimist in me surfaces when writing. Similarly to The Hours, Moment, posted here, is a treatise on living everyday like (yes, it can sound morbid) it's your last. Consequently, when opportunity arises, we must first, recognize it, and then take advantage of it.
". . . Historians long ago put aside the heroic story of the Alamo, which told of freedom-loving Americans fighting off a Mexican tyrant who was trying to crush a fledgling republic. In the past several decades, so many historians have rewritten this history that Brands noted the new retelling “sometimes appear[s] to be beating a horse that, if not dead, was put to pasture awhile back.” . . . Historians have explained how Mexican officials, eager to stabilize their northern borderlands after their own agreements with Apache tribes fell apart, permitted Americans to settle in what is now Texas. Americans moved to the area to grow cotton in the boom years of that era. When Mexico banned slavery in Texas in 1830, Americans rebelled. In October 1835, they joined with Mexican opponents of President Antonio López de Santa Anna’s government and went to war. . . Historians study how societies change. In order to do that, we examine sources created at the time – newspapers, teapots, speeches, tweets, photographs, landscapes, and so on – and judge what we think happened by comparing these primary sources to things other historians have said, on the basis of evidence they have found. We argue a lot. But if we cannot see an ever-widening story, we cannot give an accurate account of how societies change. . . An inaccurate picture of what creates change means that people cannot make good decisions about the future. They are at the mercy of those who are creating the stories. Knowledge is indeed power.". . . "
