:Vickie sent..take me back to the sixties
With a hot cup of java, I clicked on the link Vickie sent this morning. Could I remember those things? You bet! And plenty more.
I remember when Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. For some reason, that really pissed my dad off. As photos of cars of the sixties were popping up in the video, I wondered where was Orville Falcoon. Oh! There he is..or at least an older, less classy cousin. Orville Falcoon wasn’t just a Ford Falcon, he was a 1964 Futura. His chrome trim shined against his white body. Inside Orville was red. He was a good car. Dad paid $200 for Orville..after all he was a used car. Orville took me to dog shows. He took me to Vet Tech school. He moved me to Colorado. I wish Orville Falcoon was still here.
I’ve become a bit of a music history buff, mainly because it’s been tossed at me, not that I’ve actively sought it. Can’t hardly get around it when blues is your favorite genre. The video presents the British Invasion before Surfing music, which is backwards. The British Invasion put the kabosh on surfing music.
The sixties, while nostalgic for those of us growing up in that era, was arguably the most turbulent decade…certainly of my time. There was a brief clip of protests, so brief I can’t remember if it was a war protest or a protest about (lack of) civil rights. From a list of ‘remembers’: Remember when everyone wanted to be an American, not a hyphenated-American? I found that ironic, since the civil rights movement was a sixties happening.
At any rate (and gas was a LOT CHEAPER!) enjoy:
http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm
All aboard!
Your second stop, as you Armchair Travel, is Chessler’s Books. Specialing in mountaineering, rock climbing and exploration, they carry a lot of books about the Himalayas. Several months ago I ordered an out-of-print book and discovered they’re located right here in Evergreen! This is Micheal Chessler’s tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary:
Ed Hillary on his deck in August 2007, holding the
Simond Ice Axe he used on Mount Everest in 1953.
Dear friends, The world lost one of its finest citizens on January 10, 2008, when Sir Edmund Hillary died at the age of 88. Sir Ed turned Lionel Terray’s statement, that climbing was a useless activity, on its head, because as humans we can find significant meaning in any activity if we look deep enough. Ed was a normal climber, just a little stronger and better acclimated than most in 1953, when by chance and tenacity he and Tenzing became the first people to stand at the highest place on earth.
The symbolism of that achievement was instantly apparant to people all over the world, as proof that humans can overcome any obstacle, even those that the experts say are unassailable, and become as infinite as man may undergo. Hillary at first felt that the adulation and awards heaped upon him were misplaced, and that he was a simple man who was just in the right place at the right time.
But the act of being called a special person had an amazing effect on him, as he became what people thought of him, and even more than what they thought, because he was real, he did his work on his own terms, with utter honesty and lack of guile. He tried to devote his life to one thing, helping the people of Nepal who had given so much to the visiting climbers. And by doing that, he had the effect of causing all of us to realize that he was a selfless man who used his fame only for doing good works, and not his own enrichment. He became a symbol of the good that one person can do for fellow man, and perhaps gave us a glimpse of what the meaning of life itself is.
I had the honor of knowing him, as we met with him every few years when he would autograph books for us. To avoid the time constraints of meeting with him in the middle of his busy travel schedule in hotels in big American cities, in 2001 we started visiting him in New Zealand where we could work leisurely. We made sizeable donations to his foundation, the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust, and over the years we are proud that it amounted to many tens of thousands of dollars.
The last time we met was August 2007, and we could tell his health was failing, but he was still in good spirits and invited us to visit even though he was getting weaker. On Wednesday January 9, 2008 his wife June and I exchanged e-mails, as I inquired about his health, and she told me he was in hospital, but was feeling better and was coming home in a day or two. Sadly, that was not to be as he died in his sleep that night.
Michael Chessler
Armchair Traveling
I’ve added a new feature to the blog. Look down the left hand column and note Armchair Traveling. People often share really cool sites with me, which I’d like to share with you. Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside Helen Thayer’s site:
Three Among the Wolves: A Year of Friendship with Wolves in the Wild
In the summer of 1994, Helen Thayer and her husband Bill, hiked above the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Yukon Territory to live for six months one hundred feet from a wolf den to observe and document their daily lives. They returned in the winter months to interact with and document the lives of wolves and polar bears on the frozen polar sea and the vast Mackenzie Delta in Canada’s frozen north.
This remarkable book is a result of those unique experiences. The key to Thayer’s acceptance was Charlie, the author’s Inuit dog of magnetic North Pole fame. Following Charlie’s lead the Thayers’ discover the complexities of wolf family structure, including the alpha male and female, care of the pups, hunting and survival skills. This book is both a natural history of wolves and adventure tale. Far from being the viscous killers of popular imagining, the Thayer’s found that wolves form loving family bonds in a world that offers them neither safety nor understanding.
Finalist at the Banff National Book Festival 2005.
Armchair Travel to the Himalayas
Chris sent this link and I thought some of you might enjoy a cybertrip to the Himalayas. For a complete journey, visit all three parts!
To start, click this photo of the Himalayas from Likir gompa…
