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Back to the Future: 1963

January 21, 2014

Liberty High School 50th Reunion: November 7-10, 2013

After I returned home from the LHS reunion, I made a video with some of the pictures that I took. I decided to use “Lord of the Rings” music for the sound track. I chose “Breaking of the Fellowship”, partly because it was about 11 minutes long, which I decided was about right for 74 pictures. Later, in an e-mail I said to one of my classmates that our gathering was more like “Remaking of the Fellowship”. Here’s the story behind the 74 pictures.

On November 7, my United flight touched down at the Houston International Airport (IAH), and I took the shuttle over to pick up my rental car (it was a midsize, so it wasn’t too heavy). It was still early in the evening, even earlier in Oregon where I had departed at noon, and I wanted to drive to Liberty and check in to my motel for the night. The “official” reunion activities didn’t start until the next day in the afternoon. I missed a turn and got temporarily lost on my way out of IAH (should have gotten the GPS), but finally made my way over to Highway 1960, got something to eat and headed on down the road toward Liberty – Canned Heat, On the Road Again, remember that one? It was so strange driving on roads that I hadn’t been on in years (you may hear me say that again) considering it had been literally decades.

I found the motel, checked in, and decided I wanted a beer. I found a convenience store nearby on Highway 90. Praise God, they had a halfway decent beer (even by Oregon standards) – I think it was a Shiner craft beer. So I bought a six-pack. Maybe later I’ll tell you my story about how I conned my old buddy Ed, who was hosting one of the get-togethers, into procuring a really good microbrew for the party. I watched a football game, my old alma mater, University of Houston, then rested my weary head on the pillow for the night and fell asleep.

That night I had a dream. I was sitting in the cockpit of a DeLorean, all silver and gleaming. Although I had not ever had the privilege of climbing inside such a classic machine, I knew it did not have standard equipment – in fact, quite the opposite. On the instrument panel, there were three sets of timing devices, all with a start and end time. I thought what the hell let’s have some fun with this. My start time was November 7, 2013, midnight, and my end time was November 7, 1959. I started the car (powered by Plutonium!), accelerated to 88 mph, and there was a big flash. When the smoke settled, I was sitting in front of my house on Woods Drive in Liberty, Texas wondering what just happened. Someone drove by in a ’57 Chevy Impala with their radio playing really loud, “I love you, girl, I love you Peggy Sue”.

OK, my apologies to my readers for putting in a shameless plug for my favorite movie, “Back to the Future”. It just seemed appropriate.

On my first morning in Liberty after many, many years, I tried finding a Mexican restaurant that my classmates had told me about, Casa di Bono, but got lost and ended up at a McDonald’s. After breakfast,
I drove downtown into the city center and located my friend and ex-classmate, Ed’s law office on Main Street near the Court House and town square. I found out that he was at home getting ready for the reunion that afternoon. While I was downtown, I snapped some pictures of the Liberty that seemed very much the same as half a century earlier – the buildings, the weekly newspaper (The Vindicator), and the Liberty County Court House complete with a prominent sign in red letters on a white background, “Weapons of Any Type Are Prohibited on Courthouse Square 1836”. Veeerrry interesting as Artie Johnson might say. Obviously Liberty is a very old city, and if I remember my history correctly (thanks to Wikipedia), the year 1756 sticks in my head. Originally it was a Spanish settlement, and I remember Liberty had a bicentennial celebration in 1956 while I was living there.

If first impressions are reliable, then my first impression of Liberty, Texas was very good – despite what I said earlier about Liberty having changed a lot, in some ways it hadn’t changed at all. But impressions of the people are more important than the place. I decided to go to Ed’s house early before reunion activities got started. Not sure what I expected after 50 years, but it was interesting how some people had changed a lot and some very little in 50 years. There was a buzz of activity as people prepared for the reunion. I was very impressed by the work that had been done in organizing and preparing for the event. Someone had put together a booklet with pictures and memorabilia about the LHS class of 1963. Everyone had a gift bag with different things, key rings, etc. for the classmates.

A bit later Ed and James started working on the chili for the buffet after the pep rally that afternoon. Doing the chili was a major deal in itself. Many pounds of meat, beans, and onions, which of course had to be chopped, all went into the two, big, gas-fired kettles that were at one end of the trailer in Ed’s carport. They worked for several hours prepping and cooking the chili, which turned out to be great!

50 years, Are You Kidding Me?

50 years, Are You Kidding Me?

It's a Historic Place, Our Hometown

It’s a Historic Place, Our Hometown

Posted in People and Places | 2 Comments »

Doing Nothing

October 8, 2013

It might save your life!

I was sitting in a chair in my back yard with my feet propped up on another chair. It was late in the day with the light failing, but the failing light was magnificent and refreshing. I had moved the chairs into the direct sunlight to enjoy it more. By the way, I live in the great Northwest – sometimes I call it the great “Northwet” – so the sunshine was a treat on this Fall day. The dog was walking around in the yard and would occasionally wander over to have his head scratched. It was a sublime, very relaxing moment.

But, you ask, how is it that someone who values doing nothing so highly is spending time at his keyboard creating this blog entry and on the very same evening that he was doing nothing in his backyard? To further stretch my credibility about this “nothing” concept, in all honesty I must confess to being a type A personality. I’m the person who can’t sit still for two hours to watch a movie, or the person who always has one more thing on his to-do list that absolutely cannot be put off until later. Members of my family and my friends will attest to my type A personality.

OK, so play along with me on this for a while, just relax, and think about it – doesn’t it make sense that doing nothing could very easily reduce your stress level. Sure, there are tons of self-help books out there to support this idea, but my recommendation is that you just give doing nothing a try – no cell phone, no MP3 player, no TV, no book. Get comfortable and just sit. After you have stopped doing nothing, you can send a comment about this blog post, no obligation of course, but I’d like to get your feedback.

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13 Lucky Truths

September 17, 2013

What do I know with absolute certainty?

This modest blurb was actually an exercise suggested by a relative. She suggested the exercise in her book, Let Go of the Rope, that I was reading, in the Appendix in a section titled “13 Lucky Truths”. Before you start, find a place where it’s quiet, where you can relax and meditate and focus on your breath if you choose. Once that’s done, don’t delay, just start answering the question. It should only take 5-10 minutes at the most. Here are my “truths” – I only did 10 – write down as many as you want, just don’t take all day, it should be spontaneous.

1.   It is OK not to love God, but it’s better if you do love God.
2.   Life is too short to waste on unfulfilling pursuits.
3.   Smiling is more fun than frowning, and it takes less energy.
4.   Be up front in all your relationships.
5.   It is OK to get mad occasionally; just don’t stay mad.
6.   If you help someone, someone will help you.
7.   It is OK to be happily married.
8.   Never stop saying I love you to your loved ones.
9.   Learn to like yourself and be happy with your lot in life.
10. Winning is great, but it is OK to lose.

By the way, you can order the book on Amazon.

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America – I Like the Old America, What about You?

July 29, 2013

I was working on my thoughts for this post Sunday night (7/28/13), and I realized I needed to sleep so I could get up and go to work tomorrow . . . but stay tuned for the rest of the story in a day or so. It will be worth the wait, trust me!

America, Part 2: August 1, 2013

Something on Facebook, a post from an old acquaintance from my high school days, literally old (about my age), inspired me to write this blog post. I forget exactly what his post said, you know how we blitz through things on our computers – actually, I was on my Kindle. Anyway, I had this strong desire to post a blog about America.

Do you remember the movie “Network” with Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway (released in 1976)? Here’s the tweet-length synopsis:

“A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor’s ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.”

The scene that sticks in my mind and the reason why I’m even mentioning it is the scene where Howard Beale (Peter Finch) opens a window in his office building and says “I’m madder than hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Are you madder than hell and not willing to take it anymore?

Stay tuned for the next installment!

America, Part 3: August 3, 2013

I have to pause to answer a question posed by a friend – think of this as an interactive blog. The question is: so what part(s) of Old America do you like better than now?

The short answer is that I like the traditional values and sense of community that I experienced when I was growing up. A neighbor was someone you talked to often and invited over to your house or someone you helped when they needed a hand.

I’m thinking about this a lot. I haven’t written us (America) off and there are many examples of caring communities who demonstrate these values, who volunteer themselves to help when help is needed. I just read an article in the August 2013 Reader’s Digest by Phillip Caputo titled “What Unites These States?” He and his wife traveled across country to find out the answer to that question. You’ll have to read it to find out the answer, but I was encouraged by the article.

Maybe the government, the media, the doomsayers, and the conspiracy theorists have colored my perception of the current state of good ole USA. And maybe we’re not so bad off in terms of our grass roots values as a people, but I’m thinking that our values need to be looked at, thought about, and evaluated. What is truly important to us and where are we going as a nation, as Americans?

More to come.

America, Part 4, For the Record: August 12, 2013

Whew! What a summer, actually, what a year! You ever have one of those periods in your life when it seems like it’s all happening at once without a break? No matter, here’s my entry for today.

In our current political climate, there are many forms of dissent and some very prolific dissent – left, right, peaceful, and radical. Just surf the Web or turn on your TV. I’m not advocating dissent, at least not in an extreme form. What I am suggesting is that people speak their minds about what America means to them. Jeffersonian democracy or Hamiltonian democracy, what is your preference (please excuse the rhetorical question)? Remember, Thomas Jefferson’s belief that the government that governs best governs least and Hamilton’s belief in centralized power. Too much of one leads to anarchy and too much of the other leads to tyranny. Oops, I’m politicizing and I told I myself wouldn’t do that, so I need to get back on track now. For the record, I’m not advocating liberalism, conservatism, or any other “ism”. I’m just trying to take America’s pulse on how its people feel about grass roots values and our future.

Next: A Journalistic Approach

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Random Reflection: July 2, 2013

July 16, 2013

I am relaxing after a demanding, but in most ways relaxing day. Never mind a lot of detail – suffice it to say that I went to work, ran a few miles with friends, had pizza and beer afterwards, and I am now at home. I did a few things – hung up my wet running clothes to dry, petted the dog, got the coffee ready for tomorrow morning, and realized it was getting dark, actually that wonderful twilight time of evening that we have in the Northwest this time of year. I wanted to sit in my backyard, relax, reflect, and write something. I grabbed a beer, appropriately a Twilight Summer Ale, brewed in the Northwest of course.

It was just barely light enough to write, after 9:30 p.m., but a slight breeze was blowing, no rain, and it was starting to cool down (it was in the high 80’s today), a perfect evening. I grew up in Houston where it doesn’t cool down much at night in the summer. I’m tired, but this is a nice finish to my day. It’s only July 2, but people have already started with the fireworks – my dog hates fireworks. It’s too dark to write now. If the mood strikes you, please send me your “random reflection” about your day, I’d like to read it. Take care.

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Travels with Bernie

April 5, 2013

Krazy Cross: Rest Stop Songs, Part 2

Recapping briefly from a previous post about him, I met Art, sometimes called Krazy Cross, at the I-5 rest stop north of Wilsonville. He was singing with his guitar case open for donations. I found him to be very interesting and drove to Salem the following week to get copies of two West Side News articles about him written by Pat Wilkins and published in 2010 and 2012.

When I went to Salem, I discovered that being in a newspaper office with real journalists got me thinking about some of the things I learned in journalism school. As I mentioned in the last post about Art, his life is what makes this story interesting (“the hook”). Personally, I think people are much more interesting than inanimate objects. I discovered that years ago when I was really into photography (before digital), taking many pictures of plants and bugs but hardly any pictures of people. Finally, I realized that people were much more interesting as photo subjects.

I already talked about Art’s background and the remarkable things that have happened in his past, but in my opinion, what is happening now in his life is the most remarkable. This current chapter began about 11 years ago when his daughter Samantha, who suffered from seizures similar to his own, died in a Portland hospital. The very next day he considered taking his own life, but instead, in his own words quite miraculously, discovered that he had a natural talent for music. Fast forward to now, 11 years later, and Art can be found playing his guitar and singing his own songs at the I-5 rest stop. Did I mention that Art is a Vietnam vet that was exposed to Agent Orange. He was diagnosed with cancer and given 15 months to live in May 2008, but he plays on.

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Art Sings to God

April 5, 2013

Art Sings to God

Krazy Cross: Rest Stop Songs

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The Start

March 26, 2013

The red-tailed hawk soared overhead, a mere 20 feet, so close the runner could nearly count the individual feathers at the end of his wings. It was a wonderful sight to see as he ran down the country road. Oblivious to any cars that might have been on the road at that early hour on a Sunday morning, he stared up at the raptor for what seemed like a long time, hardly missing a step. The sight of the hawk deepened the enjoyment of the run immensely, although he was less than an hour into it, with well over an hour left before he completed the circuit. Long distance running can be lonesome and tedious, but only if you forget to appreciate the experience.

So what’s the point of it all — this striving for physical attainment, running marathons? Is it a good thing to want to achieve, to be the best and to win? Is it OK not to win, if you do your best and just finish? What if you don’t finish? If you knew that you would be no better than second in every race or event or whatever (competing for a job, running for a political office), would you still give it your best effort all the time?

Even champions, who know they are the best, must have doubts going into their competition, but for champions losing is not an option. I think the average person usually does not go into an endeavor with a no-lose attitude, although they may hope for a victory.

What is this blog about and why should anyone read it? It’s about struggles and victories, usually more of the former than the latter. But you know, in the end it doesn’t matter — as that old saying goes, “it’s not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game”. Let me tell you about my experiences in playing the game.

Just a passing comment on the “Rufous” thing. You may have seen the picture of the bird that I posted. I love birds; they are very interesting and efficient creatures. They live out the year wearing the same clothes, fluffing their feathers in the winter to hold in the warmth, etc., etc. They don’t need to hit the malls to upgrade their wardrobes. If they lose feathers, they just grow them back. I like the Rufous-sided Towhee a lot. It resembles a Robin, but is smaller and more animated. It has those wonderful bright red eyes and the white specks on its plumage. I always think of it as the Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt of the bird species, similar but much more noticeable than a Robin. However, they are a bit reclusive and prefer to hang out in the underbrush. When I spot a Rufous, I think of it as a good sign, that it’s going to be a very good day. I guess if there is a message here, it would be that you sometimes have to look for the good things in life.

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What’s It About?

March 26, 2013

Life

This is my blog – I am a writer living in the USA. This is more of a literary attempt at finding a common thread about living, based on my journalling, from new stories that I’m working on, and from my dusty manuscripts written years ago. Hopefully, this blog will provide food for thought about your life. In my blog posts you will see a fair number of quotations – I love quotations.

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: ‘Wow, what a ride’.”

In my English classes in college I read a lot, in fact copious amounts of writing, different genres and styles, from Beowulf to Kurt Vonnegut, who at the time (70’s) had practically a cult following – at least my book-bound friends thought he was a very good read.

I remember that certain styles earned certain novels the label “episodic”, the reason being there was no coherent thread to the story line, just vignettes that weren’t always directly related to each other or in sequence. You may ask, how does that apply to this literary effort, which also has vignettes (I like to call them snapshots)? Strictly speaking, it’s not “fiction” because I’ve drawn from life in talking to people and writing about our conversations and about reflections from my own life. I think of it more thematic than episodic – themes such as avocations, occupational stagnation, fear of change, running, photography, and bridges are interlaced throughout. Hopefully you will be able to relate to some of it.

What Was the Question?

I thought early on that I should set the tone for this literary effort by posing questions to put it all in a frame of reference, I guess to make sure it would be a worthwhile reading experience. Questions like:

Do famous and successful people always love their work?

Would you rather be happy or successful if you had the choice?

Why are some “darn lucky” or have the Midas touch, sailing through life, while others struggle their whole lives just to survive?

Why do many or most people hate Mondays and love Fridays?

OK, you get the idea. I guess using this approach would make it a thematic piece with specific threads of thought throughout and this might guarantee that you got “the message”. However, I have to mention that one very famous writer who has written about the art of writing suggests that you NOT include themes in your books. So, I will leave it up to the reader to glean whatever tidbits about life that they can from reading this work. In my opinion and most importantly, people are people, and they are what make this story.

As promised or forewarned (barely started and here is the second quote), try this excellent quote from Nelson Demille’s book Up Country (the bolding in the quote is mine):

“The journey home is never a direct route – it is in fact always circuitous and somewhere along the way we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever.”

City Slickers

I’m a movie buff so you may see little sketches or metaphors drawn from movies. This one is more or less word for word from “City Slickers”. The scene is with Jack Palance (Curly) and Billy Crystal (Mitch) talking – they’re in the middle of a cattle drive and somehow got into a philosophical discussion about life.

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: (He holds up one finger.) This
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: Just one thing.
Mitch: What’s the one thing?
Curly: That’s what you’ve got to figure out.

The Time is Now

I originally titled this as a chapter, “Fourteen Minutes”, with the idea that I would pose the question, what would you do if you suddenly discovered that you only had 14 minutes to live? The number 14 isn’t important, it could have been 23 minutes, or 3 days, or a month. I had read a book by Daniel Wolk titled The Time is Now. In his book, Wolk presents thought provoking ideas about life, time, relationships, and the Cicada complex (more on that later).

Because I live in the Pacific Northwest (or “Northwet”) – it’s raining as I write this, waiting to catch the MAX (light rail) into Portland – I thought of titling this part, “Just Do It”, but then I realized that I might upset the Nike corporate folks because I borrowed their tag line.
In racing to finish this chapter with 6 minutes left, I need to finish on a note of substance and that is, “don’t be like the Cicada living for 4 years underground only to move up through layers of dirt, hatch, and die within 3 or 4 months”.

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Lucky Gets Lucky

March 26, 2013

Sometimes, it’s just plain luck or timing that saves the moment. That’s the way it was that sultry, summer day in the river bottoms of southeast Texas. It started out peaceful enough, just a bunch of Boy Scouts on a field trip. Many of us, as you might expect from kids growing up in a small, one-horse town where the only source of amusement was a single indoor theater, a drive-in theater, and a couple of drive-ins (more like “drive-arounds”) with carhops no less, were lovers of nature.

At one point, there was also a bowling alley, but that burned to the ground a few years after it was built.

But it was a lucky day, especially for “Lucky”, the squirrel. But I’m getting a little ahead of my story. If you’ve spent any time in the Texas woods, you know about the snakes. Yessir, enough to make any Freudian fool giggle with delight, or a person with snake phobias might just lie in bed on sleepless nights with cold beads of sweat on their brow.

Go figure how a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin weighing several pounds could climb high up in an Oak tree, nary a branch to be found close to the ground, climb into a squirrel’s nest, grab him for lunch, and bail.

WHOOOMPPPHH!!!

That was the sound we heard or something like that. Up until that moment, we were just walking through the woods appreciating nature and horsing around. Many of us knew about the snakes in the river bottoms, although our relationships with the creatures were often punctuated by looking down the barrel of a .22 caliber rifle and pulling the trigger. As I was saying, there wasn’t much to do in Liberty, so you invented your own entertainment, often at the expense of the wildlife.

But let’s get back to Lucky who at the moment is being eaten for lunch. With part of his body already in the snake’s mouth, he was starting to get a bit anxious, given the fact that this was not his idea. Scoutmaster Bill took out his machete and ended the snake’s lunch and life by removing his head. You could almost hear a sigh of relief as we removed the living, breathing squirrel from the snake’s mouth, or more accurately removed the severed head from the squirrel.

Duly named “Lucky” the squirrel lived out his remaining years at the home of the scoutmaster.

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