Aug 18Europe by Eurail 6: 1973Chapter 39: Heading into Germany Larry and I rode into Germany on our first German train and I remember thinking about the Third Reich. What would Germans be like? Would there be evidence of the madness? The German train itself was a step-up from the Italian trains we had spent…Traveling28 min readTraveling28 min read
Jul 22Europe by Eurail 5: 1973Chapter 32: A welcome back to Italy Early in the morning I heard the sounds of our ship coming into port. As it got light, the deck passengers all started to get up, repacking their things and preparing to de-board at the port of Bari, Italy. It was a late…Travel22 min readTravel22 min read
Jun 8Europe by Eurail 4: 1973Part 4: Yugoslavia Chapter 15: Welcome to Yugoslavia Our train left Trieste and headed east. In our compartment that we shared with the older British guys, Rod and Mike, Rod was holding court as the expert in economical traveling through Europe. …Traveling31 min readTraveling31 min read
May 15Europe by Eurail 3: 1973Part 3: Italy, the first time Chapter 10: Crossing into Italy As our train descended from the high Alps, through the foothills of the Swiss Italian region of Switzerland, we passed through very small towns and the train stopped briefly at a larger town. …Traveling13 min readTraveling13 min read
Mar 30Europe by Eurail 2: 1973Part 2: Switzerland Chapter 3: Zurich It was a crisp, sparklingly sunny morning in Zurich when Larry and I walked towards the address for Louise’s house, Larry’s childhood nanny. We carried our Kelty mountaineering packs through this old, business focused city. I felt drugged and walked through a slightly out…Traveling33 min readTraveling33 min read
Feb 27Europe by Eurail 1: 1973Part 1: The Trip to Europe Chapter 1: Preparation I graduated from high school in 1973, during the Watergate crisis, while our war in southeast Asia was failing, and with the cold war in Europe feeling rather heated. The dawning of the age of Aquarius was merely a pipe dream…Traveling20 min readTraveling20 min read
Feb 5The Eucalyptus SuckerThis is a story about an odd boy…, and my dad. After ten years of financial purgatory, my folks grabbed at a lower rung to once again own a home. Sometime in the early to mid-50’s, around the time I was born, my dad’s fencing business failed and my folks lost their home. We ended up in a ‘single-wide’, in a…Parenting35 min readParenting35 min read
Dec 25, 2021My Mother, the Mother Plant & Mother-of-PearlI come from a family of gardeners. To be clear, my mother was the lead gardener. She was passionate about her garden. My dad prepared the garden for her and he taught me that role. 1975 was a year of extremes for me, both high and low. I was finishing…Family History18 min readFamily History18 min read
Dec 12, 2021Loma Prieta 1989The strongest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay area since 1906, occurred on October 17, 1989, a few minutes after 5PM. That evening, one of the historic World Series games between the SF Giants and the Oakland A’s was being played at Candlestick Park in south San Francisco. The…Earthquake17 min readEarthquake17 min read
Nov 14, 2021The Day I Met Tonto**Jay Silverheels, born Harold Jay Smith in 1912, Canadian Mohawk My Dad was into horse racing, really into the ‘ponies’. When I was a boy, he had us regularly visit the race tracks in California. Bay Meadows in Albany was our ‘home’ track. …Childhood Memories8 min readChildhood Memories8 min read
