Povey Prattle

Dr. Grace Jones is one of my best friends. She is also a wise mentor. Grace was my Junior Warden at St. Stephen’s Pittsfield. From Pittsfield she moved to work for SUNY in Oneonta, N.Y., then to be a Community College President in Utah; and finally to be the President at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT. She is a wise woman; and a great leader. But she has placed a hex on me (lmao). LET ME EXPLAIN.         A few years ago I stayed with Grace at her home in Norwich, CT.  Soon after going to bed, I got up in the darkness to change an air-con setting. I went back to bed.  But when I sat down -  whew – it was not on the bed.  Instead, it was on the floor.  In that process I hit my head on a bed-side table  ---and my head bled profusely. Last night (Feb 22 nd 2013) I had a long and good conversation with Grace. That being over I made some supper. In that process I opened a kitchen c...

When I retired in 2006 I pronounced “I don’t want to travel any more”. Then I thought about it, and wondered why I had made such a silly pronouncement, potentially limiting my choices. (Maybe it’s because I am wont to making pronouncements!) I have traveled .  In recent years I have been to Ecuador, to Australia and to Vietnam.   I am amongst the most fortunate people in the world to have the inclination, the freedom,  and the resources for such adventures. And I have fulfilled my dream of visiting the five major land continents: Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My visit to Vietnam was indeed a wonderful adventure.  I have memories stored up for years to come. I will remember: 1 . The grim air pollution in the cities; and trash everywhere in the small towns, villages and countryside. 2. The clear cutting of fo...

I could not be in Vietnam without think about the War as I was visiting places which had been in the headlines all those years ago: Hanoi, Saigon, Da Nang, the Mekong Delta. I saw a sign to Dien Bien Phu -  the place of the defeat of the French in 1954. All though I was only ten years old then I remember reading in the newspaper about that siege and battle. ( In 2011 I  read “Dien Bien Phu the epic battle America forgot” by Howard R Simpson). I thought of the Vietnam vets I have known, and remembered Francis Bond, a young man from Fitchburg who was killed in the early days.  I never met Francis, but I became very fond of his parents Bob and Bernice, and heard their grief. I have prayed at “The Wall” in Washington D.C. whilst looking at Francis’ name. Most of my Vietnamese contacts are very young. All they know about the war is from what they learned in school. The older folks are slipping away – retiring to their ancestral villages, and passing from this life...

I’ve been labeling some more pictures today, so here are two more from the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. Cao Dai religion:  the all-seeing (left) eye of God. Cao Dai religion: Three "saints"  the one in the middle  (believe it or not) is Victor Hugo. Odd slogan on a Cambodian tour bus. ======================================================================= On my last full day in Vietnam I was driven from Ho Chi Minh City down to the Mekong River. The Mekong rises in Tibet and wanders through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  It is 2700 miles long. In Vietnam it branches into a delta, with five main branches.  The land is very flat and fertile.  Thus, the Delta area is a “rice basket” of Vietnam (together with the flat plain in the north where the Red River meanders to the sea).  As well as rice, there are crops of coconuts and many fine vegetables and fruits. The traffic was unbelievab...

All Vietnam was getting ready for Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday.  That helped to explain the heavier than usual traffic, and the abundance of flowers, especially peach trees (being carried on the back of scooters etc!). A prized Tet gift for one’s folks is a 24 pack of “Coke”.  Coke is sold in red cans, and red is considered to be a “lucky colour”. There was a pre-Tet festival in the lovely park near my HCMC hotel. I wandered in (with the princely sum of $1 for admission) and admired the flowers, the bonsai and the crowds. A mid morning show had begun on a large stage. The smallish audience was most appreciative.  Of course I could not understand a word, but it seemed to be slapstick, with a lot of “bonking folks on the head” with empty plastic bottles -  a sort of human “Punch and Judy Show”. The morning of Feb 13th was not my best time.  We drove for 2 1/2 hours out into the countryside to view the Great Cao Dai Temple. My tour guide was a non-st...