2005年NPR美国国家公共电台八月-Attention Must Be Paid

When I travel I often read obituaries 1, many can and should make you sad, the 26-year-old mother of 2 who dies in a fire, the 16-year-old student who goes out with friends and gets killed in a car crash. But many others, especially during weeks like these actually reassure 2 you, remarkable 3 people are always around.

Peter F of Anchorage died a few weeks ago at the age of 93. He came to Alaska from Ohio as a young man and grew up with the state; he was a fisherman, a miner, a lumberjack and a longshoreman before finally going to work in the Alaska railroad. Mr. F played the mandolin. He could do 100 pushups into his 70's. He taught swimming to youngsters. How many railroad workers play the mandolin? Probably more than many of us ever thought. He and his wife Gladys once took an 80-day cruise around the world on the Queen Mary, stopping on all 7 continents. Peter F sounds like he was an interesting man to spend 80 days or 80 years with.

G H died at the age of 90 in London. He was a young Royal Air Force pilot in September of 1940 when he saw a German bomber 4 duck toward Buckingham Palace. G H had already run out of ammunition 5, but not ingenuity 6 or daring, he rammed 7 his airplane into the bomber and sliced off its tail, the German bomber crashed behind Victoria Station without bombing a thing. G H parachuted safely not far away. 'There was no time to weigh up the situation,' he said years later, 'I just went ahead and hoped for the best.' In a time when Londoners once again need great, G H may remind them, there is already a lot in the city's bloodstream.

Finally there is a sign on the door of the Village Tab in Chicago's Roscoe Village for the man who was a bartender there, “A Watkins,” it says, “working man, loving friend, kind heart.” Mr. Watkins was 34 when he died last month of lung cancer. Roscoe Village is a popular neighborhood for singles and new arrivals, people come from all over from Indiana to India, they come to the Village Tab after working in downtown skyscrapers 8 to talk and laugh before going home to studio or apartments. In a neighborhood of singles and strangers, A Watkins was one of the most familiar smiles. 'He made friends and talked to everyone,' A D told the Chicago Sun Times, 'when a boy broke my heart or when I had to put my kitty down, he was always there. One night a couple of years ago, Karen Watkins walked into the Village Tap and found A Watkins, they got married just as he was diagnosed with cancer, but she still counts herself as blessed, 'I lucked out,' she says, 'I walked in the right bar at the right time and met just the right guy.'

Music: It's a quarter to 3, there is no one in the place except you and me, so set them up, Joe, I've got a little story you ought to know, we're drinking my friend, to the end of a brief episode, make it one for my baby and one more for the road...