Copper
Education
“It’s your move Roy. The bet is two shillings and hurry up, it’s almost lunchtime,” said my English teacher. I dropped out of school when I was fifteen. Academia and...
Cairns
As a child growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, I was, from an early age, an avid reader. At one point (maybe I was 8 or 9 years old) I started...
Love Stories
Would you like to go somewhere beautiful?” I asked. “More beautiful than this?” She asked, incredulous. Raymond and Jennifer. Raymond was married to Sophia for 63 years. They were inseparable...
Sinai
The muezzin woke us up with the Adhan (The Muslim call to prayer). It was dawn in Jerusalem and we had spent the night in my favorite hotel, The American Colony...
Concerts
Unsurprisingly, music has played a central role in my life. Music can be emotional, erotic, transcendent, hypnotic and, in some cases, downright terrible. One. Many years ago while visiting Glasgow...
Hotel Tales
St James Club. I had come to LA on a sales trip. I was new to the business and still trundling door to door with my Revolver Turntable. Los Angeles...
Belmont Park
She was a head taller than everyone else, and moved like a real thoroughbred. If anyone truly belonged at Belmont, it was she. I once owned a racehorse. To be...
Escape
“Line up against that wall” said the Captain to my uncle Fred. “Platoon. Get ready, take aim…” Act One. On one of the numerous attempts to escape Germany in the...
Surprise
I had been friendly with Roslyn for quite a few years. She was a stunning brunette with large flashing eyes and a figure that only young women are blessed with....
The Engagement
“Goodbye” I said with a smile as I stepped over the two bodies twitching on the ground. Many years ago I almost married the absolutely wrong person. We had met...
Cancer
“What’s that black circle?” I asked the technician while looking at the ghostly images on the screen. The contrast between the ethereal wisps and the circle was striking. “I don’t...
Jerusalem
The pilgrim, after saying some prayers, prostrated himself on the Stone of Anointing, removed a small plastic bag from his coat, emptied its contents and rubbed them on the stone....
Mykonos
“Aren’t you Morag and Elspeth from Arbroath?” The flight to Greece was uneventful but cramped. In the early eighties my wife Rita and I had little money but we wanted...
Vikingbåde
“I wish this boat would stop rocking so much,” I groaned to myself as I opened my eyes and looked in the bathroom mirror. It was only then that I...
Macy’s
“What did you say to Mr. Segal?” My boss grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “Who’s Mr. Segal?” I asked. Through some fudging about my education on my resumé,...
Dickens
“You’re going to see that wee, fat conceited bastard?” said the owner. “Why?” On one of my many trips to London to visit a hi-fi show and some of my...
Fort Peck
“You won’t find a hotel room anywhere for the next 300 miles.” We had stopped in a town called Glasgow, Montana, to gas up. I hail from Glasgow, Scotland, and...
Rikers
“Roy, would you do me a favor? Can you visit Sammy in Rikers Island? He is stopping there for a few weeks on his way upstate to prison and he...
The Deal (or: How Adolf Hitler Bought Me a Jaguar)
Reading the deed in the Grundbuch (land registry) in East Berlin was chilling. It showed that my grandmother had purchased a property in Lichtenberg in 1932. In 1941 a swastika...
Eating
“If you touch me again,” I yelled, “I will kill you”— and I meant it. I travel quite a lot, and often the high point of the day is eating...
Jazz
“God bless you honey, God bless you”, said Alberta Hunter to my mother. Greenwich Village in the seventies was dirty and gritty. Crime was rampant and bodies floating in the Hudson...
Art 2
As he lay down in bed, my father noticed a window set high up on the wall. This was odd as the window to the outside was on the opposing...
Opportunities
“It was the Armani coat that sealed the deal,” said Mike Creek. “What Armani coat?” I asked. Act One. Music Hall, my company, had been in business for about two...
Gatecrashing
“Would you like to see the car?” Leland and I looked at each other in bewilderment. “Sure” we said. Parties at hi fi shows are fun. They are a way...
Summer Holiday
“We’ve come to report a car accident”said Ivor. The policeman became animated and said, “Vieni, vieni (come, come) theese-away.” He led us through some corridors and into a courtyard. He...
Wilmore!
“Where is Roy Hall? Roy Hall? Stand up.” My heart sank. A lifetime ago I worked for the now defunct department store called Abraham & Straus. As manager of the...
Cairo
“Is Israel a good country?” asked the captain. I was the sole passenger on a fifty-seat tourist boat sailing the river Nile some miles north of Cairo. In 1991, accompanied...
Justice
“I don’t know why I am telling you this. “ said the large woman who a short while ago had hurriedly sat down beside me and fastened her seatbelt. She...
Art
“Hello, this is Robert Rauschenberg’s personal secretary. Mr. Rauschenberg wants to know if you would like to swap art for a pair of speakers?” In 1981 I opened a factory...
Sadie
“Hello Sadie, when are you leaving?” said my father, the most mild mannered of men. Aunt Sadie had arrived at our doorstep on her annual visit. She was my mother’s...
Dog Day
“Give this to the taxi driver when you leave the hotel.” The note read, in Chinese and English: Dog Meat Street! A few years ago I visited China to attend...
A Factory Visit
The first two shots of slivovitz—plum brandy— went down easily, the third even easier, and the fourth and the fifth… It was 8.30 in the morning. This was my first...
The Wong Way
“Dear Roy, Thank you for email. Our guy would like meet you 30 minutes before boat time. The meeting place in selling tickets place in CHINA Ferry Terminal 2f. The...