Sunday, December 25, 2022
Sixty years back, when Dory and I were courting, we were both in the Army, she a Captain, and I, a Corporal. We were stationed at Ft. Jay, on Governor’s Island, New York.
You had to take a ferry to go from that island to downtown Manhattan, and together we did so, many times, mostly in the late evening. We would ferry over to the dark, empty streets, and just walk and talk, hand in hand.
It was because of those romantic evenings that the following poem became Dory’s favorite.
Recuerdo, by Edna St. Vincent Millay
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
