Old Houses
Work Zone
This Old House
So many stories emerge from any abandoned dwellings.
I had a friend, it amused me to call him my student, which was true, he took every class I taught.
So many stories emerge from any abandoned dwellings.
I had a friend, it amused me to call him my student, which was true, he took every class I taught.
But he was 72 when I met him, 20 years older than me, had a PhD, had been on the board of the college where I was teaching, had raised many children, and had a lifetime of experience, being a coast watcher in Big Sur as a teenager watching for Japanese invaders, being on a tin can destroyer off the coast of Korea during that war, a long career as a plant breeder. The first time I met him I shook his hand, and he said "sorry if my hands smell funny, I've been thinning cilantro".
I visited him at his house on the side of a mountain with a view of the agricultural fields he worked, wife & 5 kids all gone then, just him alone there now. We talked about the fox that came onto his deck, and the house maintenance issues and he said "this house is just worn out".
He certainly was no coon hunter, but the mood of this song applies.
He certainly was no coon hunter, but the mood of this song applies.