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On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   On Name Dropping   The Footloose Forester has been a practicing iconoclast for most of his adult life.  No, make that most of his entire life. As a teenager, he spent plenty of time musing about...

On the road…. again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Where The Deer And The Etcetera Play   When he looked out the back window this morning he spotted the waving tail of a grey squirrel. Nothing unusual about that; except that the squirrel in...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Washoe Indian Encampment at Wrights Lake, California Only after joining the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as a volunteer in 2009 did Footloose Forester rekindle his interest in geology.  Having the time to document his memoirs helped,...

In August, 1958 at the age of fourteen years (4), I was given the opportunity to spend a few days in Salt Lake City, Utah with my grandmother Thiessens, affectionately nicknamed "Mumpsy".  This was to be a special outing, just Mumpsy and me. As we walked along Main Street, I remember...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   C for Costa Rica The Switzerland of Central America is known as the country that has the most stable democracy in Latin America. Costa Rica is also a magnet for studies in tropical ecology, whether...

The one and only time I have intentionally killed anything more than a bug or mosquito...which they all need to perish if you ask me, was the time my best friend Donnie and I shot at a bird’s nest in the front yard of his house.  We were about 11 or...

FOR MY SON TAKE YOUR SON TO WORK DAY   I WAS WORKING AS A PLASTERER FOR MY BROTHER AND I ASKED IF HE COULD USE SOME EXTRA HELP. I WAS ASKING FOR MY SON.  HE SAID THAT WOULD BE FINE - BRING HIM TOMORROW.  MY BROTHER HAD TWO GUYS FROM...

  If you could broadcast a single lesson you've learned from your faith what would it be?  The most memorable lesson that comes to my mind is hearing my favorite pastor challenge his congregation:  Don't be afraid to Get out of the Boat.  The setting for this instruction was Jesus walking...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Deadline On Guam Of the many lucky breaks that made life a lot simpler and saved a ton of money at the same time, going to Guam was one of them. It really was planning, and not...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Tiger and The Bear   Lots of couples have nicknames for one another, and Footloose Forester and his soul mate were among that group. Thu’s mother was known by some people as Tiger Dao, and...

In the first few years after “The War” every American wanted either something they had been denied during “The War” or something they’d never had.  We teen agers were no exception.   There were, of course, some fads that came and went, such as boys insisting on a pair of boots –...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia      Chronicles of a Footloose F orester By Dick Pellek            Originally published on 2 January 2012                 A Story of War Joe Fodor is going on 90 now, but you would never...

When I was nine years old my mother quit her job at the factory. She was pregnant.  I was very excited for another sibling.  My sister was 4 years older than I and she was way ahead of me in school and ideas. My brother was born in March of 1945, that made...