fbf
Well-known
Sad news indeed. My condolences to Al's family. We need Al here. I have learned so much from his posts and i love his stories...
sigh
sigh
In correspondence with him last December, I told him him that although I only knew him on the internet, I had greatly enjoyed posts here and on other forums. I think his reply goes to show how much sharing meant to him:
(heavily edited for space)
"She said that we should strive to be aunts and uncles to our friends' and neighbors' children, passing on our skills and knowledge to them. That's why I write so much on the forum." --- Al Kaplan
"Sometime about 1966 I attended a lecture by the cultural anthropologist Margaret Meade. She talked about changes in the American family. Smaller families with less kids from one generation to the next, people moving away from their families to faraway places, like my mom moving from Massachusettes to Florida. She talked about the fact that kids traditionally learn skills not just from their parents but also from aunts and uncles as well. Uncle Bob might be a skilled woodworker or Aunt Emma makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies, but that world was fast disapearing. She said that we should strive to be aunts and uncles to our friends' and neighbors' children, passing on our skills and knowledge to them. That's why I write so much on the forum." --- Al Kaplan