I Knew

Morris Sokoloff always made sure to carry small pieces of paper in his pocket. Part of his role, in this new country of America, was to help maintain the links with the old. And in the 1930s, there were still many other Jews in his East Baltimore neighborhood who had also come from Trochenbrod, a shtetl, or village, with dirt roads and deep traditions located in a countryside in what was sometimes Russia and sometimes Poland. Sokoloff would often take his youngest child Rae when he visited fellow Trochenbroders, catching up and taking notes on what they wanted him to tell their relatives back home.

ORIOLES MANAGER Sam Perlozzo says he still expects - and welcomes - Rafael Palmeiro's return before the end of the season, though I can't understand why it is in anyone's best interests. "I don't think it's a real detriment," Perlozzo said. "Raffy in the dugout is great. He roots for his teammates. He knows that he's not going to be out there every day." Personally, I thought Raffy looked even better in that luxury box at The Ballpark in Arlington, where - if he still considered himself an Oriole - he could have suited up with his teammates instead of acting like a fan of the opposing team.

COLLEGE PARK - The heroes were many for the Maryland Terrapins last night, from John Gilchrist, whose two free throws with 6.6 seconds left accounted for the winning points over Florida State, to sophomore Mike Jones, who sat for nearly 25 minutes before making a three-pointer to give Maryland a late lead. There was sophomore guard D.J. Strawberry, whose five straight points enabled the Terps to dig themselves out of an early overtime deficit, and sophomore center Will Bowers, who played the finest game of his Maryland career at a time when the Terps badly needed it. But only when Seminoles guard Von Wafer's last-second three-point shot rimmed out with Bowers grabbing his career-high fifth rebound, could the 23rd-ranked Terps exhale, celebrating a 90-88, overtime victory before 17,950 at Comcast Center in the team's Atlantic Coast Conference opener.

WEST POINT, N.Y. - A middle-aged man approached Bobby Ross after a recent practice, asking the first-year Army coach to sign his football and offering words of thanks for giving him and others some hope for the future. "It's been an enjoyable season," the man told Ross. "I don't know how much fun 2-8 can be," Ross answered with a smile. It could well be 2-9 after tomorrow's game against 8-2 Navy at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, but many of the goals Ross set when he came out of retirement last December have been met by the Black Knights this season.

HER PARENTS woke up yesterday, one year to the day that Diane Geppi-Aikens finally flew away with the angels, and they laughed more than they cried. John and Katherine Geppi knew it was a day to play some of their daughter's favorite music, but wasn't it just like Diane to make them shake their heads in joy and laughter, thinking back to how Diane wanted "I Shot the Sheriff" and "I Will Survive" played at her funeral? "Diane loved her music. She loved to dance. She left us a list of songs, but I thought it might be a little sacrilegious," Katherine Geppi said, thinking back on a year that sometimes felt like a day and other times felt like 100 years.

SEEING BILL CLINTON in the spotlight again is like - forgive the analogy - seeing an old lover after not enough time has passed. It triggers in me the still-fresh memory of pain and loss and resurrects those worn-out regrets: What happened? How did things go so terribly wrong? How did this brilliant, attractive, tireless and empathetic president descend into a base sexual scandal that stripped away the G-rated innocence of an entire nation? How could the first president of my generation betray us all by living down to our reputation as a spoiled, self-indulgent, undisciplined spike in the population?

A former Randallstown High School student who had been jailed since shortly after last month's shooting at the Baltimore County school was freed yesterday after prosecutors dropped attempted-murder charges against him. In announcing that charges had been dropped against 20-year-old Ronald Patrick Johnson Jr. of Owings Mills, Baltimore County Deputy State's Attorney Stephen Bailey said there wasn't evidence linking him to the shooting. "There is no evidence that he brought a gun to this altercation, no evidence that he ever handled the gun, fired it or discarded it after the shooting," Bailey said.

THE UNTHINKABLE: My youngest son, my friend, my fishing partner, the little boy I had patted to sleep, was at war. The traditional father-son roles were reversed. My child risked his life to protect me. And I was powerless to help him. I had unwittingly joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of family members for whom sick dread has been a way of life since we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. From March through December 2003, my son John, a corporal in the Marines, was facing roadside bombs and random bullets in Afghanistan.

The harrowing escape to freedom and subsequent odyssey of William and Ellen Craft, two Georgia slaves, was brought to my attention recently by Doris E. Carberry, a retired Sun librarian, and Jeanene V. Ferguson, a California marketing and financial expert, who are cousins and descendants of the Crafts. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, which eloquently chronicles the couple's lives as slaves and their subsequent escape, was written by William Craft. It was first published in England in 1860 by William Tweedie, who also printed an abolitionist newspaper.

DEAR PHYLLIS, I knew you'd understand. So when the last goodbye was definitely gone and that overwhelming what-do-I-do-now feeling swept through me like fever, I turned to you. Pieces of my heart lay all over the place. But before I could muster the energy to gather them, I did what I usually do in times of distress, in hours of bewilderment: I clicked the stereo on and scanned the shelf. Since a romance had just died, I reached for one of your albums. There in the darkness, alone and confused, I let you weep for me. I was too stunned, too angry to cry myself.