My Portfolio

Learning By Example Growing up I always had my Mom and Dad in my life. They were two pees in a pod. Was that pod perfect, no but it was all I knew. I learned how other parents treated their kids when I would spend time at my friends homes. I...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Not A Notebook, Exactly…But It Does Note Something About The Past   As a way to share news with family and friends, some 25 years ago the Footloose Forester started sending out semi-annual Newsletters to...

When I was 5 years old, my family and I lived on Post, as they say in the Army, in Arlington, VA. This was my first memory of living on Post, as I was the youngest of 4 girls. I really loved having so many kids available whenever there was playtime...

While serving in the Navy, one of my assignments took me to Jedda, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.  I was the detachment Aircraft Maintenance Officer and we were housed in a beautiful local hotel on one of the upper floors.  We would leave very early in the morning and drive...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Aroma Therapy   About a decade ago, the hip, the yuppies, and the avant-garde community came up with the commercially salable idea of aromatherapy.  Most big shopping malls in major cities now have at least one...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Ronny Taught Me How To Throw A Curve Ball   Ronny was the oldest of the children in the family.  He was the quiet type.  His actions spoke louder than his words.  Whereas there are some...

Ask anyone who in their family maintains the family tree and takes the pictures at reunions and celebrations. Without hesitation, "Oh, that's my niece" or "My sister does all that". These remarkable people are the heart of every famil y , StoryKeepers  who preserve and manage centuries of family history that...

Let me take you on a summer ride in the countryside. Imagine traveling down narrow roads that roll up and down green hills and snake along blind and winding turns. Picture passing cow pastures, corn and soybean fields, majestic horse farms and sweeping thickets of old, deciduous forest. Maybe you occasionally...

On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek A Short Botanical History Of Home We youngsters might have taken the trees for granted when we were very young, but as we grew older those trees around the house became keepsakes.  The old Pellek homestead...

Our Sweethearts for February are Lynn and Maurine Stewart.  They were married on September 27, 1950, some 63+ years ago.  Lynn wsa born in Milburn, Utah and Maruine was born in Fountain Green, Utah.  Her family moved to Moroni when she was five.  Lynn is 85 years old and Maurine is...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Overnight In Rangoon   In the mid-1960s the military-controlled government of Burma was run by a cabal of high-ranking officers who were quite unfriendly to outsiders, especially Westerners.  Thus, anybody passing through Burma on their way...

Keepers (author anonymous) One day someone's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more. No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to...

Vintage pictures are some of our best memory triggers. But, you may be amazed at how certain smells and odors can conjure up memories, both good and not so good. Try this exercise. Close your eyes and think of the sweet scent of Mom's apple pie or cinnamon buns just coming...

Our big family of 10 kids squeezed into the smallest house in the neighborhood on Rockland Street. Dad continually added on to the little house as each new child was born. One of Mum's greatest dreams was to have a home that was finished. That wasn't ever going to happen on...

One of my most cherished keesakes is a hand-painted china playte my Grandmother, Nelley Jane Leverton Livermore gave me on the occastion of my marriage in 1954. On the back of the plate she has written: "My wedding present 1914 for Sonddra 1954".  

On the road again..! Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Guns Take Their Toll In these times of a national subconscious fear about the next mass shooting, we all find ourselves choosing up sides regarding our own views about...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   If He Could Do It Over Again   The trappings of the modern world are so much a part of our daily lives that we seldom contemplate what it must be like in places where there...

On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Why Meeza Is Soooo…Cheep   First off, for those who don’t know heeza’s background, heeza is not a survivalist or a mountain man.  Heeza is a pragmatist and a realist who wants to share a...

On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Time Now To Burn Another American Flag   There were a few times that his neighbors had seen him burning an American flag in the back yard and probably were wondering what he was up...

  Growing up with two older sisters and a younger brother, each about two years apart, I longed to gain entry into ‘the big girls club.’ My brother, Kevin, was in a club – and room—of his own.   We three sisters shared a room, although I was a bit isolated...