After my father died nearly a year ago, my sister sent some of his memorabilia—thousands of slides (mostly) from the 1970s; journals from the same era (not yet read by me); and a handful of photos.
About six months passed before I opened the boxes containing the stuff. Nearly three weeks before dying, he gave away the family farm to strangers, which poisoned my interest in my father’s personal things. I am still quite unresolved about the situation.
Occasionally, I will share some of the photos from the stash sent by my sister. The Featured Image and companion are from a single portrait digitized today. Judging from the shortness of the beard, I would be about 16 years old. The thing later grew quite scraggily; I never trimmed it. Location: Aroostook County, Maine, “Somewhere Between Dickey and Rivière-Bleue“.
The first portrait is the original composition; my younger cousin stands to the left. In the second shot, he is removed—and visually quite convincingly, too. I used Samsung Gallery’s AI feature on Galaxy S25 Ultra to accomplish the feat.
Bowdoin College is located in Brunswick, Maine. I applied to attend but wasn’t accepted. Other well-regarded Pine Tree State schools Bates and Colby rejected me, too. My grades and SATs weren’t good enough, apparently. I spent high school learning—lots—rather than striving for straight As. I took extra classes (no study halls) and read voraciously. I was a walking encyclopedia, not to boast (much). The point: All I got from Bowdoin was the T-Shirt. Thank you for that.