On a walk-through North Tarrytown or as it was renamed Sleepy Hollow in 1996 by some brilliant marketer, after the story by Washington Irving, I came across a fellow sitting on a bench who seemed simultaneously very despondent, panicked and frustrated holding a pumpkin with a carved face in his hands. His garb was a few hundred years out of date, and he sat quietly lamenting the loss of his original head. As he could not speak, I handed him a pad of paper and a pen with which he struggled at first and then settled down to write out on paper, his predicament in 17th century English, which he spoke and wrote as a second language. Now it was my turn to struggle as I translated his inscription. He explained in his text that he had lost his head in the Battle of White Plains to a colonial cannonball and had been searching for it longingly ever since. He explained that he was a Hessian mercenary fighting with the British Empire to put down a revolt by the colonists. Everywhere he rode on his horse to ask if anyone had seen his head, people ran away from him in terror, without dispensing any relevant information as to its location.
His was an extreme case and impossible to help in any material way, but I did have, in my pocket, a copy of REWARDS AND FAERIES, published in 1910 featuring an inspirational poem entitled “IF” by Rudyard Kipling, written as if by a British colonial politician, and intended as fatherly advice for his son. This poem seemed to cheer him up especially the line about “keeping your head when all those about you are losing theirs”, which emboldened and encouraged him to continue his search, and we parted friends.
Jim – October 31st, 2026
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