Paul Dennis Sporer / Background /  A wide range of carefully selected biographical information, assembled from various authentic sources, for researchers and genealogists

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DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOS - PAGE 5

 

 

 

 

 

When I was a teenager, I visited a number of the resorts, including Bermuda and the Bahamas, This is a view of our hotel in the Virgin Islands. I did not like the these Islands all that much; I found them a little too constricted and culturally uninteresting. However, this view from the hotel was great, and I started to become more interested in taking landscape photographs at exotic locales such as this.

 

 

 

 

 

This photo is from the inside of my family home in Jackson Heights, showing the dining room, from the vantage point of the living room. The windows look onto the backyard. One can see the old piano that I spent many hours practicing on, to the left. It was a fine instrument, as long as it was professionally maintained. One can also see my cat on top of the dining room table. The paintings in the house my parents acquired from various sources, including some friends who were artists.

 

 

 

 

 

My family and I would also go to eastern Long Island for vacations. Here I am in front of Montauk lighthouse, which is the very tip of Long Island. This area is still unspoiled and relatively free from commercial development. We started going out here when I was a teenager, and although it was a long drive from our house (about 100 miles), it nonetheless provided a salutary and relaxing environment.

 

 

 

 

 

For our first trip around England, Cassandra and I made a 'grand tour', from London, to York, to Hadrian's Wall, and on to the Lake District. Here I am seen inside the ruins of a place called Rievaulx Abbey, which was supposedly founded in 1131. It is an intriguing place, enclosed by hills in a quiet glade, the ornately decorated columns standing as a symbol of the power and resoluteness of traditional Catholic faith.

 

 

 

 

 

On our second trip, we travelled through the southern part of England. Cassandra and I have never gone on any packaged holiday, as we prefer to make our own way, and explore places in our own way. So we hired a car, and went to places like Glastonbury, Salisbury, Cerne Abbas, Lacock Abbey, Longleat House, Avebury and Stonehenge. This is a picture taken of Cassandra and me outside of a church in the area of Glastonbury.

 

 

 

 

 

Growing up in New York City, I was adept in dealing with city life. I never had a great attraction for the hustle and bustle of life in the metropolis, but I used its facilities to my advantage. Cassandra came from a smaller city, but learned to adapt remarkably well to the demands of a large urban society. There are many good restaurants to choose from in New York City. Although I have a wide taste in food, I prefer that whatever I eat, it is elegantly and creatively prepared. One restaurant that I liked was the Four Seasons, and this photo was taken there, showing Cassandra and myself in the lobby.

 

 

 

 

 

The sophistication of prehistoric cultures in Europe is a phenomenon I have spent years exploring. Here I am examining an inscription I found at a place in Ireland called Loughcrew (Sliabh na Callighe or Hill of the Witch), in County Meath, about 40 miles inland. This stone is part of a complex of 30 structures known as passage graves and cairns, spread out over the three highest hills in the county. Some of these structures could more accurately be called temples, where rituals were performed involving the entire community. The inscriptions that I found here apparently belong to a later date, and could have been left by immigrants who originated in the Near East. These later peoples could very well have assumed that the structures were temples used by a previous cultural group, and they appropriated them, on an improvised basis, for their own religious purposes.

 

 

 

 

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