We are planning goulash tonight – we being Der Bingle, Cameron and I. They may be adding many, many spices so this could be an adventure for me. I remember once, a long time ago, Der Bingle sprinkled a pizza with really hot peppers and I spent most of the time at the table with my tongue in a glass of iced soda.

Other memories have been popping up of late. When I was young, something would trigger a thought in my father’s mind and he would cite a quote of piece of poetry. Once, in the summer, when I was in my late teen, we were in the warm weather eating area that looked to the east. He was still seated and I was getting up and I can still see him and hear him citing William Wordsworth:

THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
          The earth, and every common sight,
                    To me did seem
                  Apparelled in celestial light,
          The glory and the freshness of a dream.
          It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
                  Turn wheresoe'er I may,
                    By night or day,
          The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Perhaps it was me getting older but still not of an age to realize things would not always be the way they were; perhaps it was him remembering his years before the war; perhaps it was some of both.

I hear those words again now in my head . . . and I remember that evening . . . and I understand more.

I have to smile – I thought everyone had fathers who quoted poetry at the dinner table. I guess I was pretty lucky.

So what will distinguish this goulash meal for Cameron – perhaps the quote for the movie Housesitter with Goldy Hawn and Steve Martin.  (Der Bingle has been working to give him a foundation in cultural reference movies.)  Actually, it’s a quote I already used when the subject of goulash came up; you know, this one: “I punched a totally innocent Hungarian.”

Yes,  I know, it’s not Wordsworth.