What’ll I do? Guess I’ll travel some.
I’ve been to all the coasts, maybe I’ll go inland awhile. There’s a lot a places I haven’t seen and a lot a people I ain’t met yet.
SALT FROM THE SEA BY DJ DONOGHUE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131
“Every place I ever been had a Grand Hotel. Don’t care where ya are, or what the language is, just get in a cab and say ‘Grand Hotel’. Every place got one, usually clean, too.”
Vince was getting old. Seventy-three years old and he had sailed for fifty-six. He had joined the Merchant Marines before the convoys of World War Two.
“Don’t know that there’s a better life than this. Never had a wife, got no kids that I know of. There’s some people say I missed somethin’. Maybe I have, I dunno. You can only live your life your way, one way.
“But when I look at the sunsets out here, well, I’ve seen thousands of ’em and no two been alike.
“The nicest things I ever seen have been out to sea. Kinda makes a fella believe in God, feel close to him, instead of sittin’ in some fancy church and wonderin’. Yeah, He’s up there all right, up there with his paint brush and water colors. I musta seen him thousands of times. You think I missed somethin’?”