I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah, and every one of the 3162 counties in between.
I raise a glass to James Koltes and the Youth Human Relations Club at the Hearth, and pop a top for our 18 Annual Camping Trips at Yellow River while driving down a gravel road with James D. Mitchell. I miss the Idealism of nights at the Crossroads in 1969. My regards to Chris Wemmer, Gary Martin, Frank Mihal, Chris Osuch, Bob March and Bruce Bonnewell, who held out longer than I did, and steadfastly refused to join the Bourgeoise. I watched Stand By Me again the other night, and thought of my similar 6th grade summer in Dubuque with Guy Kennicker, Denny Goedert, Gordy Wells, and Terry Ahmann. I'd like to place a rose on Barb O'Toole's grave. I'm buying a house on the Mississippi River in Lansing to watch the spring and fall leaves come and go as the birds migrate north and then south, and so I can catch fish like I did as a kid. I finally did it with a girl from Dubuque in Austin, Texas in 1978. I became a lawyer and made lots of money, have lived in Rio de Janeiro, London, and Holland, but remain an Iowa boy at heart, and wish the world had turned out like we believed it would in 1969.