When I retired in 2005, I made two solemn vows: I would never again wear a wristwatch, and I would never again set an alarm clock. So far, I have kept those vows. If I want to know the time, I whip out my cell phone. If I need to get up early, I go [...]
Archive for the ‘Recollections, Personal’ Category
Diabolical
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Family, Life, Memories, School on February 19, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Rolling My Eyes
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Humor, Memories, Military, People on October 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A few weeks ago, when I was writing a post about my former boss Major Walker, I found an old newspaper clipping in a souvenir box. I can’t remember the last time that saw the light of day. I remember precisely where it came from: the base newspaper when I was in the Air Force. [...]
Major Walker
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Memories, Military, People on October 2, 2011 | 3 Comments »
In every war, they kill you in a new way. – Will Rogers ————— During the Vietnam War, American military forces sprayed 20 million gallons of herbicides onto South Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia. In effect, we caused Roundup to rain from the skies. For a decade. Initially, the idea was to clear [...]
The Mercy of the Court
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Memories, People, Society, The South, Travel on August 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Bryson City is a small mountain town in Swain County, North Carolina, located on the southern slope of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The town straddles the Tuckasegee River, just upstream from Fontana Lake. If you visit the North Carolina mountains very often, as I did back in the 80s and 90s, you’ll pass through [...]
A Glorious Habit Rekindled
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Books, Life, Memories on March 21, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Seeing my granddaughters blossom into reading machines has been very gratifying. I am, after all, a wordsmith, and a veteran one at that. Not only is it a delight to watch them, but it also gave me a reason to relearn the art of selecting high-quality children’s books. Which is a lot of fun. Reading [...]
Out of the Closet
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Family, Memories, Military on March 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In 1960, when we Smiths left Germany and returned to the ZI (Military abbreviation for Zone of the Interior, meaning the US of A), I took with me about 200 45 rpm records from the four years we lived overseas. As I explained previously, I got most of those records free, as a perk for [...]
The AYA
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Memories, Military, School on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Army takes care of its own. In the late 1950s, when I was a teenager, we lived in Stuttgart, Germany. My dad was the Air Force liaison officer to Seventh Army Headquarters at Patch Barracks. In those days, the U.S. Army had seven or eight bases around Stuttgart. Each was a small, self-contained American [...]
Night Shift
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged College, Family, Memories, People, Work on March 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
As one would hope it to be, my college experience was a happy, entertaining, and enlightening time of my life. I loved the freedom, the challenge, the sheer joy of those years. Every day was fun and exhilarating, not just for me, but for those around me. What could be better than that? As I [...]
Boot Camp Lite
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged College, Memories, Military on February 23, 2011 | 6 Comments »
When I was in college, as I’ve written before, I was in Air Force ROTC. Upon graduation in 1964, I got my commission as a loo-tenant, and I served four years on active duty. I chose the ROTC route to avoid being drafted as an infantryman, sent to Vietnam, and probably shot. I chose Air [...]
Adventures in Tech Support
Posted in Recollections, Personal, tagged Books, People, Society on January 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird on my Kindle, and I was ready to archive the file. On a Kindle, that means moving it to the Archived Items folder. Seemed simple enough. But I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I tried and tried, and the only option [...]
