Completely in the Dark

It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside.

Can’t leave my time with the Family Project at the Casco Point house without lingering on one fleeting moment—being up on the roof.

When that exactly happened I can only guess, but it was certainly before high school in 1975, and during a summer after we’d moved to Minnesota in ’71. Dad was probably cleaning the gutters and had a ladder up. It was a pleasant summer day, much as it is as I’m writing now.

Our yard was surrounded by cottonwoods, maybe a pine tree, oaks and elms, all mottling the rooftop with shade and sunlight. It made for an astonishing view of the lake. And while I was up there, I recall patches of moss.

Which, of course, I kicked off.

No song on the radio quite affected me like Elton John’s “Your Song.” As I’ve said before, I…