The End of an Age

Dear Friends: – in less than one week I will be emi­grat­ing from the Lands of my Fathers, midst the antique hills and green woods of the Allegheny; to the spir­ited, wind­ing rivers and streams bounded by the great weather-​worn moun­tains of the Lehigh valley.

Mov­ing within closer prox­im­ity to the metrop­o­lis of Philadel­phia, I have spent a week and a day pack­ag­ing up all of my belong­ings that I might enjoy the com­pany of my beloved Jen­nifer – who is presently liv­ing on the bor­der of Hell and Par­adise in Collingswood, New Jersey.

Theresa Miller – Jennifer’s mother – has offered me both occu­pa­tion and res­i­dence at their con­tem­po­rary town­house in White­hall, Penn­syl­va­nia just out­side of Allen­town and Bethlehem.

My resume will have yet another addi­tion to its eclec­tic list­ings, from web designer and eBay con­sul­tant for an antique mer­can­tile, to press oper­a­tor for an almost two cen­tury old news­pa­per, to a cer­ti­fied health­care worker at a nurs­ing home, I will be mov­ing into my posi­tion as busi­ness man­ager for James Willard – a clas­si­cal gui­tarist with tal­ent and potential.

I will be respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als, dis­tri­b­u­tion of said mate­ri­als, coor­di­na­tion and book­ing of per­for­mances, online mar­ket­ing, &c. I have the skill set – in part – for the demands of the job, let’s hope that I am able to exe­cute my duties with competence.

Brad­ford, Penn­syl­va­nia has been good to me, granted it has given me very lit­tle but the solace and secu­rity of its tow­er­ing peaks, a hun­dred friendly faces, and a muse on many occa­sions for good or ill. It was here that I was born and after eigh­teen years liv­ing else­where it was to here that I returned, know­ing that within this nearly unin­hab­it­able val­ley were peo­ple on whom I could depend for com­pan­ion­ship and support.

Friends, fam­ily, col­leagues, I have had the good for­tune to develop strong rela­tion­ships with many excel­lent peo­ple: Mr Jef­frey Weiss, Mr and Mrs Michael Hooten, Rev. Leon Can­field, Frs Leo Gal­lina and Samuel Slocum, Mr Jason Wood, Mrs Tina Flow­ers and Mr Mike Flow­ers, Mr Robert Fer­gu­son Jr., Miss Melissa Harp and Stacey Smith, Mrs Annette Hen­der­son, Mr Bernard White, Miss Angela Pis­catello, Mr. Austin Reams, Mr Asa Cau­vel, Mr Sam Sylvester, Ms Ros­alie Salerno, Mrs Judy John­son and the John­son sister’s: Wendy, Holly, and Cin­tra, my com­pany of fel­lows at the Brad­ford His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, et al.

Such an impos­ing host of peo­ple with whom I had the bless­ing to speak, drink, eat, cavort, work, col­lab­o­rate, and any num­ber of appro­pri­ate adjec­tives will nei­ther be eas­ily missed nor will­ingly sep­a­rated from my life.

How­ever, stronger bonds have been forged and more endur­ing vows have been uttered. My oblig­a­tions and pri­or­i­ties have been reori­ented toward a dif­fer­ent light and should I aban­don that flame my life would be forfeit.

There­fore, I go to it – drawn like a moth – and I know that should my wings be singed and should my life rise out of the earth con­sumed in flame, then all of those with whom I have shared sol­i­dar­ity and with whom I have drained the inex­haustible cup will stand behind me and bear up my life­less form. I trust in the good­ness, the nobil­ity of these peo­ple and I pros­trate myself before their com­pas­sion and strength of character.

I beg God’s bless­ing on my new endeavor and that those with whom I have shared the inti­macy of friend­ship might under­stand that I do not aban­don them and that I will return to them as time and cir­cum­stance allow.

Affec­tion­ately,
Yr Most Hum­ble & Obt. Svt.,

Adam Mitchell Bernard Bond