John R Purcell

A seaplane circled for a landing near a small island off the southern tip of New Zealand. The island was the habitat of a colony of penguins which were being observed by a scientific expedition. One of the penguins in the colony watched the plane with envy as it landed and turned toward the beach. Penguins cannot fly and this one yearned to fly like that plane. When it stopped a short distance from the shore, the hatch opened and two men climbed down a ladder to the water and waded ashore. Seeing that the plane was unattended, the penguin made an impulsive decision.

One morning on the way to school, Wilma Wood, age six, was riding her bike down the road when she noticed a sprig of green protruding from the asphalt of the road. It appeared to be some kind of little plant growing out of a small hole in the middle of the pavement. Giving it no further thought, she rode on to school.

While on a morning walk I noticed a pair of doves perched high on a telephone cable. They were side by side but each facing in the opposite direction. Assuming that one was a girl bird and the other a boy bird, (try saying that three times fast) I wondered if they were mates, girl friend and boy friend, or just two strangers who happened to land at the same spot.

It was the Spring of 1942. I was in the Coast Guard and the country was at war with Germany and Japan. I was stationed at New Haven, Connecticut, only a few hundred miles from my home in Brooklyn, N.Y. but because of a minor sinus condition and the generosity of the station medic, I was on a short leave at home. My life was not very exciting at the time.

Since it was a nice warm day I decided to take a walk in the nearby Prospect Park, and that is where “IT” happened.

Elsewhere on this page, I have posted a story I told my children when they asked, "Daddy, how did you meet Mommy?" Apparently "Mommy" does not agree with my version of the historic event and has a completely different recollection of it. So being the evil person that I am, I have written a version of how I think she might have answered the question, "Mommy, how did you meet Daddy?" It probably went something like this:

"How I Met Your Father"

I think that most women are very particular about the appearance of their homes, especially the kitchens. It is their private domains and woe to anyone who dares to enter without using extreme care to not disrupt the order of things therein.