Document Archive

Dr. James Landreth

Personal Archive · Est. 1960

Document Archive

A curated collection of travel journals, family newsletters, essays, and life adventures — carefully preserved to share with family, friends, and fellow travelers.

30
Documents
4
Locations
8
Years of Stories
7
Categories
All Documents
Essay HTML

Valborg

Valborg INTRO Valborgsmässoafton, most often called Valborg from the shortened form of the longer word, is known in English as Walpurgis Night, and is an important Swedish tradition marking the beginning of spring. Valborg is celebrated on the 30th of April...

4 pages
Sweden traditions
Essay HTML

In the Shop

From a recent post on the BBC: Right: A factory worker is taught how to handle a horizontal drilling machine in order to produce breech block components, 1943. From the Imperial War Museum archive.

2 pages
memoir work
Essay HTML

It Was Thursday

Thursday, January 15th. 1977. It was a cold night and this was a big city hospital on the city’s north side. (No, St. Louis, not you). I was working the night shift from 6 p.m. to the next morning. I was an intern. I carried a stethoscope. In those days we...

2 pages
nonfiction
Essay HTML

Life Is Not a Problem to Be Solved but a Mystery to Be Lived

Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Follow the path that is no path, follow your bliss. - Joseph Campbell

1 page
reflection
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Lunch at Marshall Field's

A long time ago, before Macy’s took over the world, we would go to Chicago around the first week in December. One of the traditions which we continued over the years was that we would go to Marshall Field’s department store in downtown Chicago, on State Str...

1 page
memoir Chicago
Essay HTML

My Writing Class

The world is full of writing classes. There are writing classes at the senior center, writing classes at the university extension, writing classes at the community college. There are writing classes through Oasis or through the senior center or at the “Y”....

2 pages
writing memoir
Essay HTML

Physics Is Important: Quantum Mechanics and Reality

From: aeon.com https://aeon.co/essays/shut-up-and-calculate-does-a-disservice-to-quantum-mechanics?utm_source=pocket-newtab is an award-winning British popular science writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Quantum Reality: The Quest f...

8 pages
science books
Essay HTML

Ringling Bros. Circus Closing After 146 Years

My grandparents went to the circus, my parents took me and I took my children to the circus. My grandson is only a year old, but I won’t take him. The Big Top is no more. One of my favorite memories as a child was reading the Little Golden Book, Circus Time...

3 pages
circus reflection
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Scotland the Brave

If you were contemplating a trip to Scotland then I suggest you go in August. The weather is most salubrious at that time of year though there is always the chance of showers. But the sun, never far behind the clouds, soon brings welcome warmth to the walker.

1 page
travel Scotland
Essay HTML

Some Thoughts on Ireland

Preface: Ireland is a relatively small country and the distance between those places you might like to visit is not great, so you potentially could visit one place in the morning and one place in the afternoon. There are several ways one could visit Ireland...

5 pages
travel Ireland
Essay HTML

Songs in My Life

Songs in my life: Listed below are some of the songs (or music) that I have found most entertaining and meaningful in my years. However, associated with each song is a person who had some connection to the song. For example, they introduced me to the song o...

17 pages
music memoir
Essay HTML

The French Lesson

The overnight flight from Chicago to Paris arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport around eight in the morning. The wife and I were on our way to the south of France, to the Dordogne, to see some of the remnants of the Hundred Years War and some very, very old...

2 pages
language memoir
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The Old Switcheroo

If you’re old enough, think back to September 1967. And if you were in Sweden in that year, think back to early September, specifically Saturday and Sunday September 2nd and 3rd. On the former day you were driving on the left side of the road and on the lat...

2 pages
Sweden history
Essay HTML

Thinking God Knows What: James Joyce and Trieste

Thinking God Knows What: James Joyce and Trieste By Luciano Mangiafico (January 1, 2013) 28 Comments January 15, 1941 dawned as a bleak, cold, snow day in Zurich, Switzerland. A scantily attended funeral procession made its way from the Fluntern Cemetery ch...

16 pages
literature James Joyce
Essay HTML

After the Fall, or Herpetology 101

“Honey, I asked her, Have you seen the snake?” Quickly awakened out of slumber’s rest she shrilly shrieked, then jumping out of bed anxiously replied, “I nearly died the last time when I awoke with that serpent upon my shoulder. I’d wish you were more feare...

1 page
poem family
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Banana Bread (Bananakaka)

This recipe came from my great-aunt, Ella Swanson Sundberg, who was married to my great-uncle Axel. Axel was the brother of my grandmother, Ida Amalia Sundberg. Ella and Axel lived in Omaha for a time and before that in Chicago. In 1933, Ella gave my mother...

1 page
family food Sweden
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Flying Down to Rio Without Fred or Ginger

Flying Down to Rio Without Fred or Ginger It’s a long way down to Rio. The wife and I headed south and we took off from Atlanta about 9 o’clock in the evening. As far as I could determine, neither Fred nor Ginger was aboard. However, 200 souls were heading...

2 pages
travel medicine
Essay Word

If Ties Could Talk

A thoughtful reflection on the stories behind a collection of neckties, each representing different chapters of life, career, and personal relationships.

March 2024 ·United States
3 pages
essay personal reflection
Family Newsletter PDF

all's quiet on the mid western front

all's quiet

March
Medical Word

Reflections on Medical Practice

Looking back on 40 years of medical practice, the evolution of healthcare, and lessons learned from patients.

June 2023 ·United States
8 pages
medical healthcare career
Essay HTML

Viking Rhine Getaway

I cannot comment on the part of your journey from Basel to the juncture of the Main River, with the exception of Strasbourg, France, which was part of our trip around France and not on our Rhine float-trip. It was near Frankfort where we left the Rhine to t...

June 7, 2023 ·Rhine River
7 pages
travel Europe
Photography PDF

Through the Lens: 2022

A collection of favorite photographs from 2022 with stories behind each image and technical notes for fellow photographers.

January 2023 ·Europe
16 pages
photography images technical
Travel PDF

Japan Adventures 2023

A comprehensive guide to our latest journey through Japan, including hidden gems, cultural experiences, and photography tips.

November 2023 ·Japan
12 pages
travel japan photography
Travel PDF

European Railway Journey

Six weeks traveling through Europe by train, discovering small towns, meeting locals, and documenting the changing landscape.

August 2022 ·Europe
18 pages
travel europe railway
Essay Word

The Art of Retirement

Navigating the transition from active medical practice to retirement, finding new purposes, and embracing life's next chapter.

May 2022 ·United States
5 pages
retirement transition purpose
Family Word

Family History Project

Tracing our family lineage through historical records, interviews, and discovered documents spanning three generations.

September 2022 ·United States
24 pages
family history genealogy
Travel Journal PDF

Our Journal of the Plague Year

With apologies to Daniel Defoe. The further adventures of Aleda, Jim, Mark and Leanne in 2020. A unique perspective on traveling during unprecedented times.

December 2020 ·United States
6 pages
travel journal 2020
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Edna Swanson and the Wig

Edna Swanson and the Wig The following story was related to me quite a few years ago by an elderly lady, a patient of mine. She would now be somewhere around 120 years old. The story is true. Sometime in the 1920s she was living in San Francisco and was a y...

February 4, 2020
2 pages
family memoir
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Ether

Ether Do you know the taste of ether? It is said there are five basic tastes of food: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Ether isn’t on that list. It has a taste of metal, like sucking on an aluminum popsicle although the encyclopedia says it has a hot,...

October 17, 2019
2 pages
medicine memoir
Family Newsletter PDF

Les Nouvelles de Famille 2017

Being a yearly news report of the adventures of Aleda, Jim, Mark and Leanne for 2017. Features family updates, travels, and memorable moments from the year.

December 2017 ·United States
4 pages
family newsletter 2017
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