Pine: A species of evergreen tree. Wood: cellular material for building things. Derby: A style of hat, also a race, as in the Kentucky Derby. Combined, Pine, Wood, Derby is a Cub Scout activity wherein boys watch their fathers race cars they (5

Learning how to not dance

Jun 7th, 2020 13m 18s

"Watch this," Mr. Olson beamed. He opened the wide little wooden door of the new table top record player. He slipped in one fo the 33 1/3 rpm long playing records which were just appearing on the market. Music poured from the box, but not for l

School of hard rocks (and puncture weeds)

Jun 7th, 2020 11m 46s

Our school was named after Chief Peteetneet, leader of a Native American tribe who roamed the valley before the white settlers crowded them out. The teachers didn't tell us much about the chief, or how having his name on our old school would in

My mother taught me

Jun 7th, 2020 9m 41s

I smoked my first cigarette when I was 5 years old. It wasn't easy. It was wet from the rain. It took about half a box of matches that Max Reese snitched from their kitchen to keep it going. We found the pack of cigarettes in a train coal car a

There is a war on

Jun 7th, 2020 12m 56s

You wouldn't believe what it takes to fight a war. Besides guns, tanks, ships, and airplanes, it takes cowboy boots, candy bars, baseball bats, fathers, ground up nuts, and handkerchiefs, lots of handkerchiefs.

I want to do that someday

Jun 7th, 2020 2m 44s

The experience burned itself into my brain, and kept echoing through my youthful years, "I want to do that someday."

Traveling Light

Jun 7th, 2020 7m 7s

My brother on the front fender gripped the small sailing ship medallion on the hood that signified we were driving a Plymouth. The breeze began to blow his hair as we moved a bit faster into the darkness; black night penetrated feebly by the wa

My Father's Footsteps

Feb 22nd, 2020 12m 5s

If some is good, more is better—or not, my father taught me.

Beware of Old Swede

Feb 16th, 2020 9m 47s

"In addition to our world-class playground, we had Saturday movies which included rustlers, fistfights, gunslingers and the ever-present danger of growing up."

The World's Greatest Playground

Feb 16th, 2020 18m 18s

"She was a woman of adventure from the big town, Salt Lake City. She visited several times a day, and she had a backyard any imaginative child would die for (and almost did as our parents sometimes warned us)."