On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Always An Amateur Life can be so disheartening when you grow up without good looks, athletic ability, high intelligence, or with physical limitations. Poor posture and annoying mannerisms also add to the handicaps that we...
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When I was 10 years old my parents sold their house in Orem and bought a new one in American Fork. It was a brand new house on an acre and a third. Including our house, there were 4 new house, next to each other in the middle of the...
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On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek It's Saturday, Where Is The Yardstick? There were seven kids in the Pellek household, so there was plenty of mischief under our roof, and elsewhere. Five boys and two girls kept our...
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On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Knee-High By The 4 th Of July Growing up in the snow belt of Northern New Jersey, the Footloose Forester was aware of the fact that our little town was about 10 degrees colder than...
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I went to Third grade at Port Jefferson Station - Terryville, NY. My teachers name was Mrs. Rice. I didn't do very well in Spelling and Number work. Mom sent me to a neighbor who was a teacher for tutoring. He worked with me on these two subjects. I ended up...
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Mom and Dad were trying to make a go of it again. They purchased a three bedroom track home in Brentwood, NY. Dad was laying tile at the time and every time he finished a job he would bring home any left over tile that he had. My Mom wondered what...
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Once in a while my Dad would take us for a visit to Chick's house. They had a concrete back patio that had a 2" lip all the way around the outside edges. In the winter Chick would fill it with water and the kids could ice skate on it. We...
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We seemed to move between New York and Florida more than once. On one of these return trips to New York, Ralph Kraemer, the only father I ever knew, picked us up from the airport. He had rented a house for us to live in. What I remember most about this...
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SHOW AND TELL … One day after I returned from work, Michael, my youngest, came up to me bashfully and asked me if I was going to be busy Friday. I thought about it a moment. I told him that I was doing something, but asked what was...
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ALBERT BIERSTADT : On A Grand Scale So, you say you never heard of Albert Bierstadt, eh? That's what you think. You probably know his work, though you may not think of him right away. His story is unusual. No starving pauper, this artist; no tragic life to season his...
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Aunt Ruthie (Goff) Beatrice Macdonald’s sister Aunt Ruthie was one of my favorite people. It has been years since I’ve eaten any of her delicious cooking or experienced her warm hospitality – but I can still conjure up the sweet smell of her kitchen. It’s impeccably clean surfaces still...
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When I was a boy growing up in Somerton, Arizona, I fancied myself to be vastly more skilled in the art of athletic competition than I was, and I suffered significantly for my foolishness. For example, I played football as a boy, and couldn't make...
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DEDICATION TREES This tree is dedicated to: Jaelyn Hunt When I was born, the other baby trees in the nursery were much bigger than me; much cuter, too. But they were fun to be around and we all got along. After all, we are from the...
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On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek A Very Strange Bird Is The Pelican Having a short name with only 6 letters didn’t limit the number of ways his family name was mispronounced or misspelled. In junk mail, in particular, it...
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This article appeared in the Sun Sentinel (serving Avon, Avon Lake and North Ridgeville since 1990) on Thursday, September 6, 2012 My first job was working in the concession stand at the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Civic Auditorium. I was in high school in the late 50’s and it was...
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Quinn’s Hill Mrs. Anna Quinn was old and frail. We youngsters who lived on Church Street in Netcong, New Jersey remember her as tiny and wrinkled; and she walked slowly and deliberately. Maybe she was 85, maybe 90. But she was a sweetheart. She was always kind and...
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Well, it's been a while since I first signed up for this, and this will be my first story. I've been putting it off because I really only signed up for this so I could read grandpa's stories. But then I reflected on that and realized it was pretty selfish. And...
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My grandfather, the only grandparent I knew- we called him Daddy Ball, was so very dear to me. He lived in a shack about a mile or two out of McCaskill, Arkansas, in Hempstead County, Redland Towhship, near where I was born. I knew him from the time I...
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