Happy 4th of July!!
Wow - it's been about five months since my last entry! I've been very busy - you can imagine!!
I wanted to write up what I call "My Bear Story". I've told this story a couple of times in class. My students seem to like it. I like it because there's a moral and it seems to fit so many others' lives as well as my own.
It's a true story. I grew up in Philadelphia. The closest thing I ever knew about the "wild" was the park across the street from our house in west Philly. I was actually born in Camden, NJ, across the river from Philadelphia, but we moved in with my mom's relatives when I was eight years old. No, there were no bears in either Camden or Philadelphia, none that I can remember, that is. There were bears in California though, large bears!
I happened to be in Los Angeles in about 1975 and decided to join the army. We won't go into why I made that decision or why I happened to be in LA. I make extraordinary decisions sometimes. They seem perfectly reasonable at the time and rather strange later on. Needless to say, I did my basic training at Ft. Ord, CA which is now closed I believe. I had visions of leading an artillery assault on the Berlin Wall and finally giving our side a win against the "commies". I was very patriotic then. I still am. I just needed some catching up to do on reality - political and otherwise. Certainly bears!
So I shined my boots and ran and jumped and marched and did push ups. I also threw things that blew up and fired my weapon and signed up for the field artillery. Then it was all over and we had to wait a while to transfer to our advanced training. Mine was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Now, you have to understand that preparing your mind and body to destroy people - whether large scale or small scale, affects you emotionally. I was not feeling particularly great about people at all. This was not the movies. This was real life. It's different. I am not naturally like that. I like people. I don't like bad people, but most people are not bad, at least not the people I've met.
I had a couple of weeks and I had to break out of a particularly dark mood. I went down to the PX and rented a back pack and a little pup tent, an entrenching tool (a fold-up little shovel) and some other camping gear.
I caught a bus and headed down to the "Big Sur". I just wanted to get away, particularly people and cars and
telephone wires and helicopters and noise. I wanted to hear birds and start my campfire miles away from any town or vestige of civilization. Heat up some water in my canteen and mix in some instant coffee and sugar and powdered milk and light up a cigarette and take a deep breath of the peace and quiet of the wilderness. I could taste the coffee already. So I'd bought some salami and rolls, mustard and potato salad, coffee, donuts and a couple of packs of cigarettes from a store near where I got off the bus and just started wallking into the forest. Further and further, until I couldn't hear a car engine or see a power line. I walked until it started getting dark and picked a spot and pitched my tent. I built a large fire and brewed my coffee just like I wanted, sat back on a log and took in a deep breath and realized something that hit fairly hard. You know how you can suddently know something like, "I forgot the keys"? It hits you. I knew. I simply knew, "there's bears in here". I could just about smell them.
I felt like I'd really dug myself into a hole - deep! I was way too far into the forest to reach any kind of help. There were no cell phones in those days. It was nearly dark and I certainly coulnd't make my way back. I'd made sure of that!
It was me and the bears and my entrenching tool!
Gosh! "Why do I do this"? I asked myself. There went me and nature and my salami sandwich and my perfect night of rest. You have no idea how a first sergeant booming into your barracks in the middle of the night can spoil a good rest. Now this was worse!
"OK - think!" There was no way some old bear was going to get at my food. I put all my food into one bag and inside my tent. He was going to have to get by me if he dared and I was a basically trained American soldier. I felt sorry for that bear if he came anywhere near me and that entrenching tool! I learned later that the last place you store food is anywhere near yourself. You throw a line over a tree limb and tie your food onto it so no animal can reach it. But, hey, I grew up in the city.
Here I was as far away from any kind of help as you could get and no way back till morning.
Well "OK!" I built the fire up very high and stood guard. It must have taken a full hour before I fell totally asleep!
I woke in the morning. The fire was nearly out. I threw some dirt over it to make sure it wouldn't blaze again.
In an hour or so, I heard traffic on the highway. Then I could see it and telephone poles and the general store where I'd bought my coffee and donuts. Let me tell you something if you haven't yet guessed. I was very very happy to see and hear people again, cars and busses and telephones.
God bless America. Have a great fourth of July!
