It seemed blasphemous to be sitting on the beach today, especially since the beautiful weather was a carbon copy of the conditions in New York on 9/11/01. This was the first time I was not sharing the anniversary with the students in my classes. Even if 9/11 fell on a weekend, we’d pause the curriculum… Continue reading 9/11
Author: Ernie Quatrani
I taught in the Upper Perkiomen School District for thirty-nine years, where I was also heavily involved in co-curricular activities, including the school newspaper, TV studio, and baseball. After retirement I published a fictional novel about a school shooting in progress--Internal Lockdown.
My work has been published or is forthcoming in The Main Line Times, The News of Delaware County, The Catholic Standard and Times, North Dakota Quarterly, r.kv.r.y., Apalachee Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, and The Town and Country. I was married for 40 years and had three kids. My wife and oldest son died six months apart. I am now remarried to another widow.
White-Knuckle Viewing
The Eagles kicked off the season in Washington today. The first Sunday of white-knuckle viewing, analogous to having your eyelids taped open while taking a 16-year-old driver on his first trip on the Schuylkill Expressway: a steady diet of “what did you do that fors?” and “oh my Gods” and “watch outs” and “I’m gonna… Continue reading White-Knuckle Viewing
Lost Pennies
About 100 people showed up for the Memorial to Overdose Victims on Friday night. While it was heartbreaking to see loved ones in mourning, it was inspiring to hear words of hope especially from those who had experienced loss firsthand. One of our sharers was a young lady who lost both parents within a few… Continue reading Lost Pennies
Views of Overdose Deaths
My local drug task force–Project Live–is sponsoring a memorial to overdose victims tonight. This is part of an article I wrote for the local paper about grieving family members and friends. Stereotyping addiction serves no purpose except to make it easier to ignore. Bob and Winnie Houk’s son, Joseph, fatally overdosed less than a… Continue reading Views of Overdose Deaths
The Surreal View
We started our trek to Baltimore on Saturday at around 2 o’clock, a journey seven years in the making and seemingly destined to fall short of expectations. Seven of us were going to see Tim Mayza, a 2010 graduate of the high school, pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays in a major league baseball game. Tim… Continue reading The Surreal View
Catching Up
One of the first things I did during the summer was clean up the book case. I discovered about 25 books just sitting there that I had not read. Some of them were leftovers from my QPB book club days when I had been too lazy to return the DO NOT SEND card and lazier… Continue reading Catching Up
A Trail of Symbols
WWJS I researched the symbolism of the objects I noted on my Jungian ride yesterday. The empty parking lot and empty trail were perfect symbols for the uncharted territory of retirement. The good symbolic news was that as I journeyed, I started to see people along the path. I have found generally in riding and… Continue reading A Trail of Symbols
One Road Did Not Diverge in Green Woods
At 7:40 this morning, I began a bike ride on the Perkiomen Trail. Today was the first day of school and 7:40 is when Mod 1 begins. I thought I would make the day symbolic since this is the first opening day I will not be present for in the last 100 years. Or so. I… Continue reading One Road Did Not Diverge in Green Woods
Meatballs
Yesterday, my mother took a nap. I took it as a compliment. She is 90-years-old and seven years post-stroke but living “independently”, if you disregard the routine tasks her children do for her: spot cleaning, laundry, landscaping, prescription filling, chauffeuring, bed changing, shopping, remote finding, etc. And that now includes some of the labor-intensive cooking,… Continue reading Meatballs
A Nose with a View
The most spectacular view in the Nine-O-Nine was from the nose of the plane. The position is in front of the cockpit. This is where the bombardier and the navigator sat, in an extremely vulnerable plexiglass bubble. German fighter tactics focused on attacking the plane head-on to kill the cockpit crew. On this August day, I… Continue reading A Nose with a View
The Q-View 