An Oddity...Or Four

There were a few...interesting...things that came up in my three-day time travel adventure.  I didn't post them as part of yesterday's blog because that was more about unearthing family history than wondering about these peculiar little bits...

1.  As a teenager I used to haunt Powell's, a bookstore in Portland, before they went mainstream, and in the heaps and piles and stacks of old books, I discovered a man who wrote perfect, succinct stories that always ended with an unexpected twist.  His name was O. Henry.  At some point in my twenties I began writing short stories and am still inspired by his style today.

One day I wrote a story about a man named Thomas Barrow.  He lived in the 1800s and was a caretaker at a cemetery.  He was in love with a ghost.  That's all I remember of the story and I'm not even sure I finished it; I haven't given it a single thought in years.  Until Thursday, when I discovered that my 6th great-grandfather lived in the 1800s.  His name was Thomas Barrow.

2.  A branch of my family came from Kent, a home county in England.  They lived in various villages from the mid-1500s into the late 1600s.  Time and the centuries roll by.  Their descendants--having landed in America and moved ever westward--set down their roots in a small community south of Seattle.  Called Kent.

3.  I share my birthday with four of my great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather.  I don't know if that's just a matter of the odds and numbers, but looking over the whole list of 148, there are no other shared dates.

4.  Rarely do I pay attention to my horoscope, but for some reason I read it this morning...

Your family life has taken priority over just about everything else for the past few days.  Try to find a little peace and quiet for yourself today.  Take the chance to relax and recharge your batteries a bit.

 

And on that note, I'm going to do just that...

 

Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone!