Reunited And It Feels So Good, Or Bad

Posted by

110

Many people like to connect with their past. Finding old friends via Facebook, attending high school and college reunions, perhaps even falling in love again with first loves. Or, on the non-nostalgic side, wanting to tell off old foes or feel satisfaction that you’re now doing better than them.

So it’s no surprise that fiction can be compelling when characters re-meet after many years.

Charlotte Bronte depicts such a scenario in Jane Eyre when Jane sees the aunt (Mrs. Reed) who treated her so badly years before. At the time of this visit, Jane is doing a lot better and can deal with her former nemesis almost dispassionately. Later in the novel, of course, there’s also that legendary reunion of Jane and Rochester.

In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the thwarted relationship between Anne Elliott and Frederick Wentworth has a chance to be rekindled seven years later, and it warms the heart.

Five decades after a youthful relationship, Florentino has an opportunity to reunite with Fermina after her husband dies in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.

The adult protagonist of William Goldman’s Magic meets the woman he had a crush on when he was a loner boy and she a popular girl in school. Now he’s sort of famous and she’s flailing in life, and they reconnect in a seemingly successful way. But what ensues doesn’t exactly warm the heart.

Childhood relationships resumed in adulthood permeate Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. As a boy, the protagonist Theo sees a girl (Pippa) in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art just before the museum is bombed, and eventually meets and re-meets her — all while maintaining an unrequited love. Also, the adult Theo ends up in a mismatched engagement with the younger sister (Kitsey) of his boyhood friend Andy. And the adult Theo reconnects with an even closer boyhood friend — the brilliant/volatile Boris.

People in the military can develop such strong bonds during the trauma of war that they still have deep ties when seeing each other again. That’s illustrated in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night when Lord Peter Wimsey meets Padgett, the head porter at a women’s college who had served under Wimsey during World War I. Immediately, the two are talking as if just two minutes rather than two decades had passed.

The Count of Monte Cristo villains who framed the innocent Edmond Dantes into a long prison term don’t want to meet him many years later. But the avenging Dantes — aka The Count in Alexandre Dumas’ novel — is quite eager to “renew acquaintances.”

Also not happy is the reunion of the adult Bela with the mother (Gauri) who abandoned her as a girl years earlier in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland. Forgiveness is not always forthcoming, or possible.

Sometimes, it takes more than one book to effect a reunion — as is the case when the time-traveling Sam Fowler is separated from the 19th-century woman he loves (Cait) when he involuntarily returns to the 20th-century in Darryl Brock’s If I Never Get Back. The sequel Two in the Field focuses on Sam’s efforts to return to the past to find Cait.

But Dana Franklin, the African-American protagonist of Octavia Butler’s Kindred, does not enjoy being yanked back in time to keep reuniting with her white, racist, slave-holding ancestor Rufus.

Another sci-fi-ish novel, Andy Weir’s The Martian, focuses on Mark Watney’s efforts to return to his crew after he’s stranded alone on Mars. It’s an emotionally powerful plot driver, as many want-to-reunite scenarios are.

Of course, there are potential meet-agains that don’t necessarily come off. In Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, for instance, the circumstances seem ripe for the reunion of two characters who had once seemed to love each other. Widowhood has happened and they’re both in Paris, but…

Reunions don’t just apply to people. I defy anyone not to shed some tears when the cat and two dogs reunite with their humans after the animals’ lengthy/perilous wilderness trek homeward in Sheila Burnford’s The Incredible Journey. Or when dog and person meet again after years of war in L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside.

One final thought: A subtext of many fictional or real-life reunions is the poignant passage of time — something conveyed in this beautiful song.

What are some of your favorite literary works with reunion scenarios?

(The box for submitting comments is below already-posted comments, but your new comment will appear at the top of the comments area — unless you’re replying to someone else.)

I’m writing a literature-related book, but still selling Comic (and Column) Confessional — my often-funny memoir that recalls 25 years of covering and meeting cartoonists such as Charles Schulz (“Peanuts”) and Bill Watterson (“Calvin and Hobbes”), columnists such as Ann Landers and “Dear Abby,” and other notables such as Hillary Clinton, Coretta Scott King, Walter Cronkite, and various authors. The book also talks about the malpractice death of my first daughter, my remarriage, and life in Montclair, N.J. — where I write the award-winning weekly “Montclairvoyant” humor column for The Montclair Times. You can email me at dastor@earthlink.net to buy a discounted, inscribed copy of the book, which contains a preface by “Hints” columnist Heloise and back-cover blurbs by people such as “The Far Side” cartoonist Gary Larson.

110 thoughts on “Reunited And It Feels So Good, Or Bad”

  1. Ah? Reunions .. ANother great subject for a post Dave. As you say they can take many forms. Written a few myself, I so enjoy them, especially when they are in the really uncomfortable, let me out of here, variety. But to mention some. Well Jane Eyre, which you cover. there’s Val Jean and Javert in Les Miserables where Val Jean does not take the revenge he could. Cathy and Heathcliff. To return to pin to See the Peepshow, there’s the reunion between Julia and the now little school boy grown up that you just know is not going to end well as she’s already married. There’s the Corelli one where the book nearly hit the wall/. I ‘d also include the reunion in Kate Furnivall’s The Survivors post war reunion between a married couple, now changed irrevocably by the experience of war and everything they have done to survive, who believed the other was dead and are now with other people.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thanks so much, Reba!

      Rereading the post just now, I think it was one of my favorites to write. Reunions are such a compelling topic, whether they’re our own or ones we read about in novels.

      Like

      Reply

  3. The novel “Bid Time Return” by Richard Matheson is about a reunion of sorts. The novel was made into a movie called “Somewhere in Time”. The book starts out with a beautiful old lady walking up to a young playwright after a production of his play and placing a pocket watch into his hand and saying “Come Back to Me”. A few years later, he takes a much needed break at a fine old hotel that has a theatre, and falls in love with the portrait of an actress who performed there YEARS before. He becomes obsessed, does some research and discovers that the actress is the old lady that he met a few years before. Thus begins his journey through time. He managed to go back in time to meet her, etc. etc. etc. It’s a mind-boggling story.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Would LOVE to read that novel, lulabelle. It has been on my list for a while, and I’ve greatly enjoyed several of Matheson’s other novels and stories. Terrific description by you of “Bid Time Return,” which sounds as intriguing as intriguing can be. I love even mediocre time-travel fiction, and this one seems a LOT better than mediocre. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  4. Howdy, Dave!

    — What are some of your favorite literary works with reunion scenarios? —

    There are plenty of reunions in Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” but I believe the most affecting may be the last one between protagonist Jean Valjean and antagonist Javert, whatever its outcome might mean about the human nature of justice and injustice in an largely inhuman multiverse.

    J.J. (Alias MugRuith1)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Editor’s Note: The concluding reference should be to “a” largely inhuman multiverse: This is the kind of thing that happens when a writer is in the throes of the first week of caffeine withdrawal!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Thanks, J.J., for your well-said thoughts relating to “Les Miserables”! (Much too long since I’ve read that novel.) Reunions of protagonists and antagonists can be VERY interesting.

        And good luck with the caffeine withdrawal!

        Like

        Reply

        • — Reunions of protagonists and antagonists can be VERY interesting. —

          And their final get-togethers are frequently very bad for the health of one or the other, as exemplified not only by Jean Valjean and Javert but also by Frodo Baggins and Gollum in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (“The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King”); Humbert Humbert and Clare Quilty in Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita”; Batman and the Joker in Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989).

          — good luck with the caffeine withdrawal! —

          Thanks! Unlike the only other occasion when I kicked, it has been comparatively painless this time around.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          • Very true, J.J. Health-wise, the Mount Doom-ed Gollum would certainly not be capable of repeating that reunion with Frodo. (As a Three Degrees-song-quoting Gollum might have asked: “When will I see you again?” Frodo’s answer: “Never.” Preciousssss moments…) But in the money-to-be-made Batman movie franchise, Batman and the Joker reunited after 1989.

            Glad the coffee withdrawal is mostly going well!

            Like

            Reply

      • It’s a mighty big place, that “largely inhuman multiverse:” I think I read somewhere on the nets this week an estimation of earth-like planets on which humanoids might exist– trillions! And that, if I remember right, was but for a mere universe– our own.

        As for justice, there’s that Richard Pryor remark about the halls of same. “You go down there looking for justice; that’s what you find: just us.”

        Good luck with your separation from coffee. I on the opposite shore will be.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        • Howdy, jhNY!

          — It’s a mighty big place, that “largely inhuman multiverse:” I think I read somewhere on the nets this week an estimation of earth-like planets on which humanoids might exist– trillions! And that, if I remember right, was but for a mere universe– our own. —

          “Trillions” appears to be a reasonable estimate in this context based on calculations made employing the Drake Equation (http://bit.ly/1s2rnvM), depending on one’s inputs. Of course, M-theory proponents might argue this loosey-goosey figure is but a fraction of the number in the multiverse.

          — As for justice, there’s that Richard Pryor remark about the halls of same. “You go down there looking for justice; that’s what you find: just us.” —

          Richard Pryor was a funny guy, possibly No. 1 on my own list of stand-up comics! But my favorite bit about Pryor was told not by him but by Budd Friedman at the L.A. Improv. Back in the days when streaking was a thing, a certain awesome, diminutive and funny singer was doing a musical number at the Improv when Pryor suddenly streaked in front of the stage wearing nothing but a pair of sneakers. Keds, I believe. Anyway, the singer looked down at Pryor and, without missing a beat, said, “Well, there goes another myth.”

          — Good luck with your separation from coffee. —

          Thanks!

          — I on the opposite shore will be. —

          I completely understand. It’s the breakfast of champions.

          J.J.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  5. Ahab and Moby.

    Discuss.

    BTW The Met bulletin just out concerns JMW Turner and his whaling pictures. There is some conjecture as to whether or not Melville saw them while in London, but it seems likely he read a review of them by John Ruskin, and from it, based his description of a painting Ishmael encounters in the inn before sailing!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Ooh…that’s another excellent “reunion,” jhNY! I guess, among the examples I gave in my column, the Ahab-Moby meet-again is in the revenge category of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” With the difference, of course, being that the wrongly imprisoned Edmond Dantes had every right to take revenge, while Moby-Dick bit off part of Captain Ahab’s leg basically out of self-defense and the obsessed/maniacal Ahab felt he had to get back at the dumb (but not so dumb) white whale. And, unlike Dantes going Jack Reacher on the men who framed him, Ahab did not win in the end.

      Of course, Ahab could have had a different reunion — with his wife — if he had agreed mid-voyage to give up the pursuit of the sea creature who inspired the nickname of Herman Melville musician descendant Moby…

      (Interesting info re Melville and JMW Turner’s art!)

      Like

      Reply

      • In the name of fact, i must amend: it seems the phrase of Ruskin’s (“masses of accumulated yeast”, which may have begot the phrase “nameless yeast” in Moby Dick) appears in his book Modern Painters, not in a review of Turner’s whale pictures. BUT many phrases out of a review of the paintings by Thackeray (the author of Vanity Fair, The Luck of Barry Lyndon) seem to have been reworked and employed in Melville’s description of the picture Ishmael describes at the inn. And there is also a remark, in Melville’s own hand in a book he purchased about whales which states (I paraphrase) that it was the book that inspired Turner’s whaling pictures, so he was at least aware of the Turner works, even if there is no real proof he ever saw them.

        I should have read the Met bulletin with more care and less speed..

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  6. Reunion in Stendahl’s The Charterhouse of Parma

    Gina loves her nephew Fabricio, is delighted by his company, and the feeling is mutual. Naturally, she would do what she can to make his career, and now that the age of Napoleon is past, the military route holds no charm, so, by wangling and wile, aided by Prince Mosca, her lover and ally, she sets him on the road to an ecclesiastical career. But he is a man, very young, and will have his fun, wooing an actress, which in turn awakes the murderous jealousy of a rival, who attempts to kill him, only to be killed. Her political enemies seize upon the incident to demand Fabricio be imprisoned for murder, which, being agreeable to the the petty despot ruling over all Parma, comes to pass.

    Shut up in an impregnable prison tower under long sentence, where he is nearly stabbed to death on one occasion and poisoned on at least one other, Fabricio’s aunt cannot rest until she secures his freedom, though it means going against her lover and ally, her political enemies, the power of the state and the will of the petty despot. She arranges to have ropes smuggled into the prison, poisons the prison’s governor into a stupor, makes the guards drunk, arranges accomplices to assist his escape on the grounds below, pays a poet-patriot to kill the petty despot, and opens a reservoir to flood the capital to distract the authorities during the escape.

    After a few days away from his prison tower, Gina notices the restlessness and unhappiness of her freed nephew, whom she loves in secret in ways she (and he, feeling similarly) cannot and has not ever been able to act upon or even voice aloud. In his prison tower, Fabricio found he could look down upon the doings of Clelia, the daughter of the governor-general, as she went about the business of feeding her caged birds. He fell in love.

    Having risked all and won her prize, Gina’s prize is discontent, and cannot be happy. He misses his cell, and its lovely view. He cannot tear his thoughts or heart away from Clelia, even long enough to have pleasant conversation with his liberator. The reunion of aunt and nephew, secured at great price, pleases neither well.

    A friend of mine used to say ‘It’s hard to get what you want. it’s even harder to want it after you get it.” Here endeth the lesson.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • jhNY, what an exceptional example of a reunion — one that was not exactly ecstatic. I read “The Charterhouse of Parma” just a few months ago, and your summary of the doings of Gina, Fabricio, and Clelia could not have been better.

      Like

      Reply

  8. On to the topic.

    One of my favourite reunions is between Celie and her sister Nettie in “The Color Purple.” They had been separated from each other for almost 40 years. Celie reconnected not only with Nettie, but with her son, daughter, daughter-in-law, and brother-in-law who all came from Africa.

    The inhuman treatment that Celie and Nettie endured was beyond horrific. It was quite an emotional read when they finally saw each other again after all of those years.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  9. Thanks, Ana! Glad you liked the column — and the Clockwork Angels concerts of 2012 (and 2013?) must have been amazing to see live.

    Last but not least, thanks again for getting me (belatedly) interested in the ultra-talented Rush!

    Like

    Reply

    • Geddy, Alex, and Neil are experts in reinventing themselves. Their musical journey has ranged from synth pop to medieval Polish rock (think Henryk Sienkiewicz with a bass guitar) to orchestral scores.

      I consider Clockworks Angels to be one of their masterpieces. It’s nice to see you embracing their most recent music because most new Rush fans tend to stick with their earlier material. They won’t go beyond the Signals album.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Well, when you suggested I listen to “The Wreckers” a few weeks ago, I liked it so much that I had to also start listening to other songs on 2012’s “Clockworks Angels,” and “The Garden” was the next I tried. I still have to get to the other songs, but it seems like an absolutely amazing album for a band so far along in its career. “The Garden” and “The Wreckers” are as good as the songs during what many consider Rush’s prime: the early-’80s “The Spirit of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “Subdivisions”… And it IS impressive that the band keeps reinventing itself.

        Like

        Reply

  10. Hi Dave, I’m way behind in reading and responding to your column this week. So much going on in my life recently with the move and settlement. I’m not in too bad a shape with the main living space, but my basement is a disaster. I had a person here yesterday who told me my stairs are too narrow for a stairlift, which is very important to me with my disability. My sister gave me the name of a British company who says they can provide a lift because of all the British homes having narrow stairs, but I need to do some more searching to find a dealer in the US. The good news is that I just hired a landscaper to cut my grass every week.

    So enough about me. Of course you mentioned my favorite, “Persuasion” as an example, but I think most of Jane Austen’s books could be considered in the same vein. In “Mansfield Park” and “Emma,” both have their heroines finally find love and marriage with men they have considered as brothers most of their lives. After Catherine is exiled from “Northanger Abbey,” she is reunited with her love. That doesn’t even begin to mention “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense & Sensibility.”

    I usually peruse my bookshelves when responding to your columns, but most of my books are down in the basement right now, other than my children’s, tween, and some non-fiction books, as well as some classics I haven’t read yet or have forgotten.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Glad you’re settling in, Kat Lib, though the chaos and things to do in the weeks after moving into a place can be incredibly daunting. Sorry about the narrow basement stairs, but I hope you beat the odds and find a stairlift that fits.

      Yes, so much of what Jane Austen wrote can fit this reunion topic. I guess I tend to mention “Persuasion” because it’s my favorite of her great novels. 🙂 But I appreciate you mentioning her other ones!

      Continued good luck with unpacking and more!

      Like

      Reply

    • Hi Kat Lib so sorry to hear that moving is not easy at all and to face so much difficulties is not pleasant at all. Hope all works out for you eventually.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Hi bebe, I just sent you a lengthy reply and hit the wrong key to wipe it out. Suffice it to say that I was trying to walk across the lawn, and “I fell and couldn’t get up”! I now live across from a family who have two EMTS and two firemen, but of course none were around when I fell. But none of this has dampened my enthusiasm for my new home. I love it; Jessie is coming around. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

        • Oh no Kat Lib…are you okay now ? Falling is no fun people gets hurt and sometimes with broken joints. Family across sounds great, hope you bond with them easily. Good you love your home with Jessie and soon things will fall in place. Try not to go to the basement until something gets worked out.
          Please do keep us posted .

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  12. Here’s what is probably the most beloved of poems to emerge out of Russia during the Second World War. It’s not about reuniting, quite. It’s about what to do till then ….

    to Valentina Serova

    Wait For Me

    Wait for me, and I’ll come back!
    Wait with all you’ve got!
    Wait, when dreary yellow rains
    Tell you, you should not.
    Wait when snow is falling fast,
    Wait when summer’s hot,
    Wait when yesterdays are past,
    Others are forgot.
    Wait, when from that far-off place,
    Letters don’t arrive.
    Wait, when those with whom you wait
    Doubt if I’m alive.

    Wait for me, and I’ll come back!
    Wait in patience yet
    When they tell you off by heart
    That you should forget.
    Even when my dearest ones
    Say that I am lost,
    Even when my friends give up,
    Sit and count the cost,
    Drink a glass of bitter wine
    To the fallen friend –
    Wait! And do not drink with them!
    Wait until the end!

    Wait for me and I’ll come back,
    Dodging every fate!
    “What a bit of luck!” they’ll say,
    Those that would not wait.
    They will never understand
    How amidst the strife,
    By your waiting for me, dear,
    You had saved my life.
    Only you and I will know
    How you got me through.
    Simply – you knew how to wait –
    No one else but you.

    —Konstantin Simonov, 1941

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thanks for posting that poem, jhNY. Sort of simple, yet emotionally powerful. Russia certainly went through the wringer in WWII, probably more than any other Allied country.

      Like

      Reply

          • And after I wrote that, I thought: China? Maybe more people died there between the invasion of Manchuria and the war’s end.

            Among the Western powers though, the USSR is where nearly all the big battles that decided the war were fought, and where the most people, soldiers and civilians, died.

            I also think the poem above resonated with the families of those condemned to the gulags during Stalin’s purges pre-war. Of course, they would have been reckless to say so…

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

            • Yes, Stalingrad — among other places — had terrible carnage. And an excellent point about Stalin’s vicious purges. I read a biography of him several years ago, and the specifics of his genocidal cruelty were beyond belief.

              Like

              Reply

      • Happy to provide it to you! It’s been a favorite of mine for years– I think I first heard it recited (possibly by Olivier[!])on World At War, a teevee series about WWII, in its segment about the war in the East.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

          • Hi to bebe, jhNY and Dave, and all. I did hurt my foot rather badly and walking is difficult. I am more happy that I made this move than before because of my sister being so close by. We were supposed to go out to buy curtains and have lunch, but instead she went and picked up lunch and a few groceries for me. I know that all sister relationships are not good (just think Elizabeth Bennet and Lydia, for example). I am so fortunate to have one so close in every single way.

            jhNY, that was a lovely poem, and it reminded me of a song by Bruce Springsteen, “If I Should Fall Behind,” (will you wait for me?). He recorded it on his “Lucky Town” album years ago, but I know he and his wife Patti, performed it for a Stand Up For Heroes event in 2013. I am hopeless when it comes to inserting links in these comments, especially since I don’t have Internet access right now (thank you very much Verizon!).

            Liked by 2 people

            Reply

            • Very sorry about your foot, Kat Lib. What crummy luck. 😦 Glad the sister you’re so close to lives nearby, at least. So nice when a real-life sibling relationship is much better than some fictional ones.

              And I hope you get Internet access soon! Almost always a hassle getting that right after a move.

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

            • I hope it is getting better and good thing is Kat Lib no broken joints. Wonderful you sister is close by plus the neighbors across. So you seem to be in good company. I don`t have sisters but cousins are like sister / brother and some are old enough to be my parents..but no one is close, then there is the phone and FB to connect 😀
              Here is the lovely song..

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

              • Thanks, bebe, for supplying a link to this song. I love this version, although I prefer the one Bruce and Patti did, probably because as much as I love Bruce, I think I love Patti more. She is now working on her 4th album, and I can’t wait to hear it!

                Liked by 2 people

                Reply

  13. Funny, though a bit ironic I find, your use of the Peaches and Herb hit title in for this week’s essay.

    .from wikipedia:

    “Peaches & Herb are an American vocalist duo, once comprising Herb Fame (born October 1, 1942) and Francine “Peaches” Hurd Barker (April 28, 1947 – August 13, 2005). Herb has remained a constant in “Peaches & Herb” since its creation in 1966, while seven different women have filled the role of “Peaches”.”

    The ‘Peaches’ who sang their first group of singles was a different ‘Peaches’ than the one with whom Fame sang he was reunited– then there were more. Sorta like the old saw about being married for thirty years– just not to the same woman.

    Herb quit the biz, at one point, to become a police officer, making him the second police officer I can think of who had a hit– the other being Eddie Money. On the other hand, there are The Prisonaires…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thanks, jhNY! It IS ironic that “Reunited” was sung by a duo with a number of “Peaches” over the years. Your information was news to me; all I knew about Peaches & Herb was that one song.

      In terms of singers in law enforcement, there was also that famous scenario of Elvis being “deputized” when he visited President Nixon in the White House in 1970. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Yes Dave…a great reminder of Peaches & Herb and the beautiful music. There is always some songs goes through my head and it makes be hum those tunes all day . There is another very different more of a world music I have heard recently sorry I can not offer the words but such a catchy tune that I am listening to it over and over again.
        Anything to escape from the current political situation.

        Here it is…music and lyrics by Rabindranath Tagore..the pictures actually a good description of the words .

        ” my boat is floating away in wind and I am not coming back , not coming back to the shore …. ”

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        • Yes, so catchy and beautiful, bebe! Thanks for posting it! Some songs do indeed stay in one’s head. I wonder if Rabindranath Tagore’s words at least partly metaphorically mean taking on new challenges and progressing in life rather than sort of standing still in life?

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

        • “” my boat is floating away in wind and I am not coming back , not coming back to the shore …. ”

          And on that theme:

          Charles Brown Driftin’ Blues (1945)

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

            • Charles Brown’s song and singing style were very influential– not the least of those affected being Ray Charles. In fact when you listen to his earliest recordings, made in the Pacific Northwest, you can hear him imitating Brown for one song, Nat King Cole for the next. Very soon, however, he began to sound like: Ray Charles.

              Strangely, the guitar player on Drifting Blues is Johnny Moore, brother of Oscar Moore— who played guitar in the Nat King Cole Trio. Small world, etc.

              Liked by 2 people

              Reply

              • So interesting, jhNY!

                I guess many famous fledgling singers/musicians/bands imitated others before finding their own voice. Heck, Rush (the group whose song I linked to in my column) often sounded quite a bit like Led Zeppelin during its (Rush’s) early days in the 1970s.

                Like

                Reply

              • My goodness you are so very knowledgeable thanks for all those information. Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra there never will be another one like them. In the end with all the scandals, movies and different things Sinatra was known for his music will be known for decades to come.

                Liked by 1 person

                Reply

                • So great was Mr. Cole’s singing prowess and easy way with a song, that many today do not realize how remarkable he was as a jazz pianist– first-rate! Check out the Lester Young Buddy Rich Trio sometime– Cole is the third man on the date.

                  Sinatra music used to occupy several hours of an NYC Saturday night– more than once, getting ready to go out to the clubs, I’d find myself, one sock on and one off, enraptured by the radio, hours after I had planned to depart. He was and is and will be that good.

                  Liked by 2 people

                  Reply

                  • Sounds great jhNY…do you have the link to the trio ?
                    Sinatra sang with such an ease and always pitch perfect as I`ve read he never really had any formal training.

                    Liked by 1 person

                    Reply

                    • Yep, I do:

                      Nat and Buddy are on every track, the first 10 with Lester(but no bass–Nat plays it with his left hand), then no Lester, but a very young Dexter Gordon and Harry Edison(trmpt) and a bass.

                      The old joke among players (and engineers too) about Sinatra’s most hated two words in a session: take 2. Here’s one of my favorites from his lp Francis Albert Sinatra Sings Antonio Carlos Jobim, and if I remember right, the liner notes make mention of the great tension in the room when 50+ hired players wait for the approval of one: Mr. Sinatra– the lp was recorded ‘live’.

                      I Concentrate On You

                      Liked by 1 person

              • I am writing here…the first one is something to listen at night is it trumpet or sax..my most favorite instrument I can`t get enough of it.
                Frank Sinatra I have never heard before. Thank you so much for sharing.

                @ Dave..your blog is so rich in texture with all the talented folks you bring and attract , amazing,

                Liked by 1 person

                Reply

  14. Well, I suppose I have developed a fascination for going far out with my literature musings, so why stop?

    My wife has this, I think all the romantics must have it tattooed somewhere on their bodies—On Nicholas Sparks’ ~The Notebook I think, that every moment Noah and Allie had together was a reunion.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Enjoyed your comment very much, Jack! Thanks!

      Nicholas Sparks’ novels have been called corny, sappy, etc., but they certainly can also be romantic — with reunions and more. The two Sparks books I’ve read — “A Walk to Remember” and “Message in a Bottle” — tugged mightily at the heartstrings.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        • Thank you, Jean! As part of a literary mix, novels of the kind Nicholas Sparks writes can be nice to read once in a while. (Once in a GREAT while. 🙂 )

          And glad you like “The Garden”! Probably the most beautiful song Rush ever wrote, and the band has been around for more than 40 years. The lyrics are by their drummer, Neil Peart, who has written several books. More intellectual and introspective than the average rock drummer.

          By the way, I’m getting close to finishing “Dubliners.” I’m finding the stories fascinating. Few of them have much of a plot — more slice of life — but they’re psychologically very deep. And one gets such an intimate feel for the Dublin of a 100-plus years ago.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  15. Very nice I`ll post later Dave..a little while ago in the grocery store met a friendly gentleman who was going to celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary. The man could not stop taking about his wife and how she put up with him all these years. Next year on their 70th planning to go to Cologne, Germany his original home and loves Angela Merkel, called her a feisty lady.
    Then he asked if he could buy two slices of layered pastry for me, I say oh why ?
    Walter said call it a serendipity chance meeting so I remember him. One positive and happy man looked very good at 87 with clear skin.

    One note does not mind Trump ..oh my…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. I’m thinking of books with young people and their pets like “Lassie Come Home” and “Benji.” Also “War Horse.” I’d seen the film and Lincoln Centre had a critically praised stage version with unique puppeteers bringing the horse to life. Perhaps”Old Yeller” and “Sounder” have reunion components as well?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Yes, Michele! Some memorable reunions in that genre of fiction! I haven’t read “Sounder” but saw the movie, and it had a great dog/family getting-back-together scene at the end. There’s also a very nice reunion of collie and man near the conclusion of Albert Payson Terhune’s touching novel “His Dog.”

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment