PERHAPS YOU GOT OFF LIGHTLY

Yeah, we were going to sing  together when you were in first grade. My uncle Jobie, who retired as a navy captain and commanded a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II, named his house in Norfolk, Honah Lee. He had a sign out front. He also, cheerfully, drove an 'unsafe at any speed' convertible because he liked it and screw that Ralph Nader loser.

He was a  cousin, so unlike all those aunts that show up at inconvenient times, he never did. He wore a beret which was unusual and he wore his command pin on it. He wintered over five or six times in our Polar base. You know how it works. He wanted the certificates on the wall, but the mistress runs the house so he kept the certificates where they belonged, in the downstairs bathroom. He had two boys, Marko and Tim. They were minor gods to us and we didn't know that they didn't live on a little lake until they put the outboard motor on the rowboat we used to paddle around their pond and motored 10 miles up to Norfolk Navy Base. I have no doubt that you would have liked Uncle Jobie and you'll like Tim. He used to be our Ambassador at someplace. Nowadays he raises grapes and race horses in the Shenandoah Valley.