• First Shift (7)

    The women on the lines were getting tired too. I could tell by the way they pulled the boxes off onto the slide. There was a jerky impatience in their motions that hadn’t been there a few hours before. Awareness of the fact that the sift was coming to an end had brought them out…

  • Dave (1)

    Dave It was Sunday nigh, late.t May, 1969, the final month of my college career at George Washington. I was standing in the empty living room of the fraternity house when Dennis came in. “Yo, Crabb,” I said. “What happened to you guys?” He and Dave Schlachter had been expected to join us – Dale,…

  • The guys on vertical and horizontal communities

    Saturday, March 16, 2024 9:10 a.m. I figure it’s time for a chat with the guys. Nice to have enough energy again. So, boys, what’s on your mind? Let’s briefly discuss Memory Lane, its uses and possibilities. Discuss away. Your poking into your past memories via journals and – especially – fictionalized recounting set into…

  • Dave (2)

    As soon as the elevator doors closed and I had had time to count to 30, I walked over to the nurses. “My name is Frank Schlachter, and this is my cousin Bill Toutant. My brother David is in 406. Our parents are flying in from Iowa and should have landed at National just about…

  • TGU on Why am I still here?

    Sunday, March 17, 2024 10:50 a.m. Hard to figure out how to begin. Wondering why I’m still here, how much longer, if there’s anything to accomplish, etc., nothing new there. Beyond that, no interest in doing anything, even leaving the house. Is this going anywhere? I am of course in mind of Rita asking herself…

  • Dave (3)

    We were tired before the waiting even began. We had gotten up at 7 a.m. Sunday, had driven five hours to arrive at 11 p.m.,  and hadn’t gotten out of the hospital till after 1 a.m. Monday. It was close to 2 a.m. before I escaped into sleep, and it was only a little after…

  • The guys, on living the present

    Monday, March 18, 2024 8 a.m. You boys seem to enjoy putting the cat among the pigeons, and every time you do, it seems some people profit by it. So, anything on your minds today? How about continuing from where we left off? Perhaps it is worth saying on your behalf that we do not…

  • Dave (4)

    I can furnish certain exact phrases, even sentences, from what Dr. Tenley said, because for weeks afterward, at times chose my no logic I could ever figure out, odd bits would play back. Finally I wrote down what I was hearing, and they ceased coming. “David is afflicted with a tumor about the size of…

  • The guys on reacting to the news

    [This stems from a comment made on the Voyagers Mailing List.] Tuesday, March 19, 2024 [First day of spring. Also the day Rita Warren died in 2008.] 9:25 a.m. Okay, guys, you said that reacting to life in any way but living in faith would be “the equivalent of pretending to affect world affairs by…

  • Dave (5)

    I saw Dr. Redding in his office. I said, very uncomfortable, “Dr. Redding, I sort of have to ask you for a favor.” I don’t know why I started out that way. I knew even as I said it that it would mislead. “Do you?” Very dry, very reserved. “It’s about a friend of mine,…