Blue Rose of Kenya

Blue Rose of Kenya
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Blue Rose of Kenya Young Lucy Pellek was given the privilege of naming our pets. She grew up chasing Dolie around our house in Cape Verde, so was comfortable with the idea of having a dog...
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3208 Views
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The Tiger And The Bear

The Tiger And The Bear
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...
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2927 Views
2 Comments

Faithful Four-Footed Friends in Saigon

Faithful Four-Footed Friends in Saigon
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester B y Dick Pellek   Faithful Four-Footed Friends in Saigon   Humans tend to crowd out unpleasant thoughts and retain the memories of the happy times in their lives. Living in a war zone in Viet Nam for almost three...
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2378 Views
3 Comments

The Pied Piper Learns a Lesson (First of a Coming Series)

The Pied Piper Learns a Lesson (First of a Coming Series)
Spend 36 years in “The Vineyards of Education” and unless you were somehow completely insensible to your surroundings you will have a truckload of incidents, some humorous, others poignant, and a few (although too many) tragic, lurking in your memory.   I began my career in September of 1957 as a band...
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1721 Views
3 Comments

Faith in Every Footstep

The question " What do I know about the faith of my grandparents?" is a powerful question. I have asked myself many times, "Can I live up to the legacy of the faith they exhibited?" "Can I pass to my future generations an example of the faith that they showed in...
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2161 Views
4 Comments

For The Birds

For The Birds
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   For the Birds   Just when he thought he had seen everything at his bird feeders outside the rear bedroom window, the Footloose Forester yesterday got a treat that he would never have predicted. The previous...
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2882 Views
3 Comments

Picking Magic Mushrooms With Jaelyn

Picking Magic Mushrooms With Jaelyn
  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Magic Mushrooms   My father told me about wild mushrooms way back, but it was a Hungarian immigrant in New Jersey who convinced me that if you know what to look for, you need not...
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10402 Views
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Blindsided by Joy: Mom's "British" Comes Full Circle

Sometimes unexpected joys come to us that are so far from being anticipated that they completely blindside us. I suspect God might specialize in using our children to bless us in this manner. During our son Daniel's growing up years I frequently put on my best (admittedly awful) British accent by...
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1463 Views
2 Comments

Fruit Of The Loom Logos Were Popular in Paris In 1963

Fruit Of The Loom Logos Were Popular in Paris In 1963
On the road....again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Montmartre, 1963   Joe Pellek Enjoyed Watching The Parisians From His Table At The Right Once again, thanks to the Internet and the power of sharing photos attached to e-mail messages; and those found on web...
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3226 Views
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Faith of My Fathers

We attended services at the Methodist church sporadically and we socialized with the minister's family who happened to live on our block.  We had friends from many walks and backgrounds but matters of faith were rarely discussed in my family of origin.  It wasn't that my parents didn't have beliefs--they just weren't a topic...
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1725 Views
7 Comments

New Year's Resolutions

I love the holiday season. Family gatherings, food, friends, more food--I even love shopping and gifting. But as much as I enjoy the holidays my favorite month of the year is January. There's just something about opening a fresh, new calendar with all those days ahead that fills me with optimism...
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1754 Views
5 Comments

Some Essentials For Story Tellers

Some Essentials For Story Tellers
On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   On Writing a Paper, or a Report, or a Book, or a Post-It-Note   People who have writing chores as part of their job descriptions have to follow certain guidelines when it comes to attaining...
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2271 Views
3 Comments

Encourage me to write about my grandfather!!!!

I am going to write a biography of my grandfather.  But first I must learn how to write such a story.  So I look to my favorite author, David McCullough, for guidance.  Why not learn from the best.  He has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams.  ...
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1991 Views
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Looking for Suzie

Looking for Suzie
On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Looking for Suzie When we lived in Honolulu, Thu and the Footloose Forester chose to seek out a church where we would be comfortable. The very old, traditional, but decidedly frumpy cathedral in Waikiki had...
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2562 Views
1 Comment

What I know of my Grandparent's faith

What I know of my Grandparent's faith
My grandparents on my Father's side...George and Lillian Cormier.   My Grandparents on my Mother's side...Wallace (Wally) and Helen Brackin.  Oh, and that's my brother on the left and me on the right at our home in Conway N.H.  Harvey Blake Rental.   On my Mother's side of the family my...
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1503 Views
5 Comments

Up the Zugspitze

Up the Zugspitze
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Telling Stories With Pictures A book with pictures always adds something positive to the storyline. Short stories usually don’t have pictures but that does not mean that pictures or sketches don’t suit the short-story genre. With...
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3486 Views
0 Comments

Obelisk in Shadow

Obelisk in Shadow
On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Obelisk in Shadow Some people look at a rock outcrop and just see rocks. Others look and don’t see anything, and they say so. Yet others look and see the manifestations of natural history; they...
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2898 Views
5 Comments

Picking Your Own Tropical Fruit

Picking Your Own Tropical Fruit
On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek         H is for Hawaii When it was over, the Footloose Forester blurted out in a public forum that the past six years were the shortest years in his life. They were probably the happiest years, as...
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7067 Views
2 Comments

Dona Thu Stares Down A Marine

Dona Thu Stares Down A Marine
On the road…again! Afgha nistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Gorée Island, Senegal During a 2-month extension of the Environmental Impact Statement phase of the Senegal River Basin Project, wife Thu joined with Footloose Forester and packed her things for a new adventure. We were...
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2881 Views
3 Comments

The Wisconsin Glacier Leaves Us Reminders

The Wisconsin Glacier Leaves Us Reminders
On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Living on the Terminal Moraine   After a short one-page article about terminal moraine boulders in Netcong, New Jersey was published in the geology section of About.com in April 2011, it now becomes apparent that...
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5040 Views
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