So much for New Year's Resolutions in regards to "blogging every day". I haven't been idle. During the school year, I substitute-teach in local elementary, middle, and high schools. Quite the adventure, for the sake of "doing something" and earning a small paycheck. Sometimes it is enjoyable and sometimes it's maddening. (I have another part-time job, as well, though it is on a quarterly basis.) And when time, spirit, and circumstances permit I have been involved in several writing projects (to be recounted below). And writing projects, also recounted, below).
In its own way, 2019 is proving itself to be a momentous year, giving me much pause to reflect. Some of the numerous considerations:
1) Turning 65 and outliving my Dad. Almost three years ago, I posted on my Dad's 100th birthday and how he influenced my life, in so many ways.
2) Realizing that anniversaries just keep zipping by, especially decadal (and half-decadal) anniversaries, as we age). Two important "crossroads events" happened in 1974 and 1977, both of which involved travel and new experiences, when I was 20 and 23. And as each event approached its respective 40th anniversary, I felt the desire to write about it and at least produce a spiral-bound narrative, if only for my adult kids or nieces and nephews (if they someday care).
[I am now in the 40th anniversary year of another "crossroads event" (more accurately a "crossroads year" (1979)), which is a mixture of good and bad. That being the case, though it would be shorter, it is much more complex and must wait for one or the other of the 1974 and 1977 projects to reach some sort of fruition.]
While I am still working on writing projects I began in their respective 40th anniversary years, the rapidly-passing subsequent years have necessitated updating and somewhat changing the original goals. My "1974 Project" and my "1977 Project" were both begun with the realization that those "crossroads" years were 40 years ago, in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
In that first 40th anniversary year (2014), to induce myself into a "writing mood", I reread the excellent "Blue Highways", by William Least Heat-Moon. [Proclaimed by many to be the best American autobiographical travelogue, especially noteworthy as Heat-Moon was an unknown author - at the time. As William Least Heat-Moon (the Osage penname for William Trogdon) was unknown as an author, editing and finding a publisher was a Herculean task, as recounted in the book "Writing Blue Highways"]
[To briefly recount the events leading to Heat-Moon's 1978 journey, having lost his teaching job as a college English teacher and being separated from his wife, in his "low point", he disposed of many of his possessions and outfitted his Ford Econoline van with a bed, a portable toilet, and other travel supplies, he set out to "find himself" on America's back roads on a solo 13,000 mile journey.]
After rereading "Blue Highways" in 2014, I did start an Introduction, roughed-out a Table of Contents, and started several chapters for the "1974 Project", but then "life events" intervened later in the year and into the following year, culminating in my first wife's (Marla) passing away on May 1, 2015, due to a stroke and other health problems. In the wake of that event and following several job losses (one of which was an adjunct teaching position, after 12 and 1/2 years of part-time teaching, thinking I was "paying my dues" towards a full-time position that never happened).
So, by that point, I understood the melancholy that probably followed William Least Heat-Moon on his 1978 journey.
By the time the 40th anniversary of my 1977 moving from my Georgia hometown to El Paso for Geology grad school rolled about in 2017, I had met my second wife Mary Alice (and was thus occupied).
When time, circumstances, health, and mood permit, the first goal is completion (for each) and at least getting it spiral bound for posterity, in case any descendants care about some of the events and how they influenced my life. If I am satisfied with the final results, I might go the "e-book route", for one or both.
The 1974 narrative largely centers on a Western U.S. road trip with my college roommate, wherein we covered approximately 8,800 miles in about 4 weeks. It was preceded by a 1973 family vacation to visit relatives and numerous Western U.S. National Parks and other points of interest. [Note: college-age young men don't do "vacations", they do "road trips".] During the 1973 family vacation (my first crossing of the Mississippi River), my sister (almost 17) and I (19) each got in some driving practice in the wide-open spaces.
There was an "event" during the 1973 family vacation that largely inspired the 1974 road trip, but perhaps I will save that for a later blogpost or maybe the hoped-for "e-book".
Unknown to me at the time, the 1973 vacation was the last family vacation including Dad, Mom, my sister, and me. After that, it was just a matter of my sister and me having both "left the nest" for college, 1972 for me and 1974 for her. Without the influence of my parents during the 1974 road trip, it was a mixture of more new experiences and some youthful caution.
Other than passing through Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, visiting Yellowstone National Park, crossing through a sliver of Montana, Idaho, and the SE corner of Oregon, most of the 1974 road trip revisited the National Parks my family visited in 1973, with some minor variations. As it was latest-July through mid-August, my college-roommate Dave and I were somewhat constrained by time, needing to be back in Statesboro, GA in time to get settled and registered for our Junior year of college at Georgia Southern in early September.
In order to maintain a frugal budget, we generally camped at KOA Campgrounds and lived off of sandwiches, pizzas, fast food, and beer. [We were both 20 and 1/2 years old and we not of "legal age" in all of the states we visited.]
3) My first grandchild (a grandson) turning 10. One of the ways I am blessed. Two feisty grandsons (10 and 6). I wish my Dad had gotten to meet his four grandkids (two boys and two girls), now all adults. I think he would have been a good grandpa. Hope my health holds out so maybe I can demonstrate gold panning and other neat things about being outdoors.
4) Other aspects of getting older. As you proceed through your 40's and 50's (and beyond), you expect the passing of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, but when it starts including folks "your age" (classmates, friends, spouses,...) and younger, it becomes distressing and thought-provoking. Aside from that, your own approaching mortality leads to thinking about "Bucket List" items (which is another subject).
[Editorial note: After being relatively inactive for a few years, I am unfamiliar with any current Blogger quirks, such as random changes in font size. I will endeavor to figure these out.]
