I've had a rather rootless existence my entire life. I could justifiably say I was born under a wandering star! I was born is a nondescript (unspecified) mid western town in which not a single trace of my existence yet remains. I confirmed this as I happened to be making a drive east a few years ago and on a whim decided to pass by the family farm. A building or 2 is left, but no the house or anything of importance. I doubt a single person remembers that I (we) ever lived there and there are probably only 2 to 4 other people alive that can tell you where that is.We lived in Vail Colorado after that. Similar story there too. We stayed about 4 years, but ultimately failed to set down roots there as well. There may be a few more people that remember us. I did manage to find some scraps of wood my brother and I nailed together 23 years before.We went to Kodiak Alaska after that. The shadow of that experience looms huge in my life though the amount of time spent there barely justifies a footnote. Possibly a huge reason the experience leaves such an impression on me and my brother is that Alaska by nature leaves an indelible mark on all of those who pass through her. Our experience there was also punctuated by the death of our father.A brief note here about my family. I have felt for some time my father was simply a misplaced pirate. He was an almost perfect casting of Han Solo from Star Wars. I 
could say that he was the original Corsair in our family, except he was following a pattern established by his own father. My 
father was not beyond a serious breech of the law for financial gain, i.e: smuggling, though I believe he didn't consider himself a scoundrel. I thought he might have been the original black sheep of our family until I discovered that there exists the possibility his father was involved in smuggling Nazi gold to South America. I always knew my grandfather wasn't above bending ethics to suit his whims, but I was rather shocked to come across the possible nazi gold connection, -especially since I had always considered Opa an anti-nazi. I'm still not sure if he was a black sheep or a gray sheep. I'm reasonably assured my great grandfather had a less colourful existence as a tenured professor of mathematics at the U of Berlin, up through the early 30s.
After Alaska, we moved to Telluride, which probably left the largest indelible "postmark" of all, in my life. This was recently confirmed when I was challenged with one of those silly Facebook quizzes "Are You from Telluride?" At first I was completely intimidated by the quiz finding a lot of the questions seemingly in Greek. I responded illogically by creating my own quiz about Telluride feeling that this other's quiz was from an interloper. I hadn't really realized how "from" Telluride I am until I 
begin to consider that I am probably more "from" Telluride than anyplace else on earth. My construction of the quiz on Facebook was a real spin down memory lane. Strangely I probably have an advantage over many Telluriders; I was an assistant museum curator for more than 3 seasons. I'm not sure what that would amount to in university credit, but I imagine it would be roughly equivalent to all the required history courses at a state university, but all only on Telluride! I sort of amazed myself by outlining 35 part quiz in about 20 to 30 minutes with what I imagine are probably very challenging questions, after not having thought to awfully much on the subject in 25 years. Time will tell...
I still wasn't quite feeling amiable toward my unknown "interloper". Continuing to feel insecure about taking that person's quiz, I'm afraid I somewhat threw a gauntlet down; I derided the earlier quiz as targeted only to tenderfoots and my quiz being geared toward old timers! It would be interesting to see how my "opponent" does on my quiz. Thus feeling vindicated, I rose to the challenge of taking my opponents quiz. I got the highest placing, which makes me feel rather silly about my reservations in the first place. I did manage to ascertain for once and for all via both quizzes that I have roots permanently placed in Telluride. 
could say that he was the original Corsair in our family, except he was following a pattern established by his own father. My 
father was not beyond a serious breech of the law for financial gain, i.e: smuggling, though I believe he didn't consider himself a scoundrel. I thought he might have been the original black sheep of our family until I discovered that there exists the possibility his father was involved in smuggling Nazi gold to South America. I always knew my grandfather wasn't above bending ethics to suit his whims, but I was rather shocked to come across the possible nazi gold connection, -especially since I had always considered Opa an anti-nazi. I'm still not sure if he was a black sheep or a gray sheep. I'm reasonably assured my great grandfather had a less colourful existence as a tenured professor of mathematics at the U of Berlin, up through the early 30s.
After Alaska, we moved to Telluride, which probably left the largest indelible "postmark" of all, in my life. This was recently confirmed when I was challenged with one of those silly Facebook quizzes "Are You from Telluride?" At first I was completely intimidated by the quiz finding a lot of the questions seemingly in Greek. I responded illogically by creating my own quiz about Telluride feeling that this other's quiz was from an interloper. I hadn't really realized how "from" Telluride I am until I 
begin to consider that I am probably more "from" Telluride than anyplace else on earth. My construction of the quiz on Facebook was a real spin down memory lane. Strangely I probably have an advantage over many Telluriders; I was an assistant museum curator for more than 3 seasons. I'm not sure what that would amount to in university credit, but I imagine it would be roughly equivalent to all the required history courses at a state university, but all only on Telluride! I sort of amazed myself by outlining 35 part quiz in about 20 to 30 minutes with what I imagine are probably very challenging questions, after not having thought to awfully much on the subject in 25 years. Time will tell...
I still wasn't quite feeling amiable toward my unknown "interloper". Continuing to feel insecure about taking that person's quiz, I'm afraid I somewhat threw a gauntlet down; I derided the earlier quiz as targeted only to tenderfoots and my quiz being geared toward old timers! It would be interesting to see how my "opponent" does on my quiz. Thus feeling vindicated, I rose to the challenge of taking my opponents quiz. I got the highest placing, which makes me feel rather silly about my reservations in the first place. I did manage to ascertain for once and for all via both quizzes that I have roots permanently placed in Telluride. 
No comments:
Post a Comment