Empty Nest Syndrome

for Webmasters

 

Finishing a favorite project is something like having your child leave home to go off on his or her own. The empty nest syndrome, it’s called. It brings on feelings of grief and loneliness that can only be relieved when new activities and responsibilities are found.

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This week, I closed my website, Remembering Jack Lord. I created it over quite a few years, beginning 16 years ago. It was a wonderful experience. I made friends, many of whom contributed to the site. I learned about things I’d never known about before.

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The Merchant Marine is one example. I’d heard the name, but I didn’t know anything about it. They are civilian seamen, who compose the crew of freighters and tankers at sea. Jack was a merchant mariner in his younger years, during World War II, in fact. Then-President Franklin Roosevelt drafted those merchant mariners into service along with the military. The main problem was that those ships weren’t armed. As you can imagine, the Germans and Japanese couldn’t wait to torpedo them. President Ronald Reagan declared the Merchant Marine veterans from World War II to share equal benefits with military veterans – but it was too little too late, for many already had passed away. I met a lady who leads an organization for merchant mariners who served in that war. Her dad served in it, as a matter of fact. She is a very special lady.

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I learned about New York, from the city and up the Hudson River Valley. Jack was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens, both boroughs of New York City, and had family in the valley. I’ve never been beyond Penn Station and the Empire State Building, but I can follow several neighborhoods on Google Maps and answer questions about them that I never thought I could. I can pinpoint where the house was where he grew up and the park where he no doubt played; it’s only a half-block from the house. I can pinpoint where he went to school and to church and where he probably looked over the fence to watch the Long Island Railroad trains go past.

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The list goes on. Still, you can see that Jack gave more to me than I gave to him with that website. Yes, my website has gone on to that great Internet Archive in the sky.

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So, what am I going to do now? Well, I have several books that I need to finish and publish. One is turning Remembering Jack Lord into a book for publication. Goodness knows, I have the material. I only need to edit it so that it reads like a book. There’s one big advantage to books over websites: there’s more room to include things. It isn’t easy to post long lists, tables, and charts on a website, but it’s easily done in a book. What will I call it? Why, Remembering Jack Lord, of course!

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Ooh rah! I’m on the road again!

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Photo Credit:  The picture of Jack Lord was taken by and is used with permission from Dave Watson. Many thanks, Dave!

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