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1980

When Jeremy was 5 years old our family went to England for the year. Jeremy became very interested in knights. Piece by piece he persuaded his mother to purchase one of each kind of toy knight sold in the shops. The shields and breastplates of his knights were finely decorated with lions and with crosses. Their hands could hold battleaxes, maces, pikes and other ancient weapons. Some knights were on horses. He said the knights wearing black armor were the Turks and that they were the "bad guys". The toy knights had daily joustings on his bedroom floor. Not only did he play with them, but somehow by age 5 he managed to learn more of their lives and myths than I ever learned. One day while passing a village cemetery I called his attention to the fact that some of the stones were white and others were black. "Do you think the black ones are for the Turks?" I asked.
It was also the year that he learned to ride a bicycle. I was astonished at how strong a rider he soon became. One Sunday in late fall we began a bicycle ride more than three miles to the village of Maddingly. We took a lunch and planned to picnic near the American World War II Cemetery. It is on the side of a hill overlooking the flat fen land to the North. Cycling slowly up the hill we saw only farms and trees along the road. A short way back from the road beyond some woods was a long, high stone wall. We did not know that engraved on the other side were the names of many thousands of Americans, mostly bomber crews who never returned. We parked our bicycles in the woods. A few stairs led through a doorway. Suddenly we had a wide view to the horizon. Arranged concentrically from the hilltop were row upon row of gravestones. At first they appeared to be identical. Actually most were crosses though some were stars. All were white granite which glistened in the low November sunlight. Jeremy took in the sight and said, "Wow, the Turks sure did win this battle!"

1984

... Here is a story about Jeremy who is now 9 years old. At School, Jeremy had to write a story. He got very interested in this assignment, and did his best to write a James Bond type story. The bad people in the story were Russians. Diane was disgusted by all the cut-throat violence. She discouraged him and told his teacher she would be happy if he did too. The teacher said that the children had to read their stories aloud to the class. After Jeremy finished a little Russian boy took strong exception. He said, "You Americans sure have a lot of strange ideas about Russians!"

1988

...As usual, Jeremy watches a lot of television. According to him the latest witty remark is something like this, " Given a choice between Bush and Dukakis, I chose Gorbachev."

1989

... In Japan, Jeremy was very good about learning Japanese phrases from the guide book, and using them at every opportunity. He even tricked a few people into thinking he spoke Japanese, although his vocabulary could not have exceeded 25 words.

1991

... Six months ago Jeremy read Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and was deeply moved by it. He did not like the epilog, however, so he wrote a revised version.

1991

He took a drama class in High School where he enjoyed reading Franz Kafka. He memorized parts of a short story for oral delivery. Kafka's method of being spooky, we learned, was to populate his story with ordinary people and one extraordinary circumstance, such as his story with the title, "Report to the Academy on My Former Life as an Ape". Notice how everything is ordinary until the very last word. The story Jos chose to memorize is entitled "An Old Manuscript". A cobbler in a medieval town reports increasing numbers of ill-mannered northern soldiers are appearing, grabbing whatever they want. Officialdom and local guards have locked themselves in their castle.

Continued

to Memories of Jos

to The Life of Jos