Destiny: when I was in high school, I dreamed of becoming a hunting guide in Alaska, and now, at 75, I just took my first trip to our 49th state, after a career as a forestry professor. Did you also miss your life?
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My mother, Loretta Flick
Just read a column in the Wall Street Journal by a fellow who told of the first time he brought home a centerfold of a partially nude young woman. This happened in the early 1980s, when his hormones were in their teens. His mother was clever, he said, in that she asked him if it was right to steal. He replied, “No.” Continue reading
Old phone reminds me of the phone we had at the Ranger School in 1963, though ours had coin receptacles and a rotary dial.
Last winter, my younger brother, Bill, showed me a notebook I left at home over 50 years ago. It had two pages of expense entries from the summer of 1962, after graduating from high school, and from 1963, when I attended the New York State Ranger School, a forestry technician school in the western Adirondack Mountains of New York. Money spent: I wanted to see what the entries might tell. Continue reading
Wide open landscapes in the West
In 2003, a year after I retired but when my wife was still working, I took Anna, our dog, and headed west to see some of the country I’d visited in times past. Anna and I camped most of the time, and one particular night I remember finding a small Bureau of Land Management campground on Antelope Reservoir in eastern Oregon. We could see a long way across the reservoir and surrounding desert landscape. I remember preparing dinner while Anna, sitting at the edge of the campsite, watched the landscape for signs of life. Continue reading
“Warren, isn’t it? You’re Warren, right?” asked John.
“Yes, how are you doing, John.”
“Ahhh, today is a good day for me. My memory is mostly here,” he said as he continued to get dressed. John is in his early 60s. Continue reading
[A week or so ago I mistakenly published this post for a few minutes. Emails were sent out to subscribers, but the post was not available except in the email. It was supposed to be published October 2, as it now is. Sorry for the confusion.]
In later life it seems memories occupy our minds, crowding out missions, goals, and objectives. Recalling the past is a worthy enterprise especially if we bring to mind hopeful experiences or beautiful images.
Fall is here—temperatures are cooling—and winter is surely coming. Continue reading