Don’t Just Read. Re-Read.
Saturday, March 6, 2021
I started with Chapter Eight right away. The only missing slide was the first image of the chapter. Luckily, Jan had not written a caption behind it so I felt okay providing an alternate image that fit the chapter’s focus. Chapter Nine was somewhat disheartening, as I had expected. The one image that Lenny had printed out, I could not find. There were three similar shots but the light was not hitting the water in the majestic way captured by the print in the binder. I did find a few lovely silhouettes of tugs on the water. Part of me can’t help but wonder if Lenny had not intended the last Chapter to only have that one image. I wish he had kept a journal, as I so often did in my younger years for projects and major events in my life. I kept one as a girl (clearly, that was a major event). I kept one as I was writing my dissertation, when I participated in a study abroad program (where I conducted a little genealogical research on my paternal grandfather), when I was pregnant, a new mom…and now, this blog is my first digital journal of sorts.
I am left filling in the blanks. It creates and both alleviates a certain amount of stress. Ah the paradoxes of life.
Ok, so I am going to leave the chapter file folders of digitized slides alone for now. I worry about how they will look “blown up”, whether they can be “cleaned up” in order to “show well.” Time will tell. If I am unable to get them into good shape, I will go ahead with self-publishing.
As I started to feel the weight of anxiety regarding the extent to which I can bring this project to a decent completion, I decided to just follow through with what I had stated I would do this day: reread Jan Stacy’s writing - all chapters. Knowing I would not be able to do this uninterrupted, I just accepted the fact that I would need to take breaks. And I decided that that was okay. Easy, Ena. Steady as she goes…
And I got it done. Here are some notes I jotted down, based on what I read:
Was it Captain Albert Ellis or Captain Stanley (last name not mentioned) of the Michael Turecamo, or were there two captains?! Was there a typo somewhere? This is why I need to make contact with people who have access to info from the 80’s
Arrangements had been made (or at least agreed to) with Cunard to photograph and write about the Queen Elizabeth II. Shots of the interior and interviews…this was to be added to Chapter Seven.
Glad to have read in the notes for Chapter Eight that the intention was to include shots that were not solely of the tugs, as I included a few such shots of landscapes and such.
They really had hoped to add stories about particular tugs and their crewman, as told by some of the men themselves. They did not get around to those additions but there are a few stories, some quoted narratives of interest, that reveal how intense (and dangerous) the work on tugs was.
Believe it or not, after I accomplished the reading (with only two main interruptions: my whining, ravenous puppy dog & the preparation of dinner for the kids), I still had some reserves left in the tank to turn to my camera case. I opened it up and interacted for a short while with my camera, beginning the slow processes of refamiliarization and self-education. All to the sounds of bebop.
