Reflections on my father and me, ala James Joyce.
He: Menahga High School, 1953 Chevy, Air Force, Airman, Sebeka, Radar, First Class, Korea, Senior Airman, Montana, Sioux City, IA, Springfield MO, Staff Sergeant, Canal Zone, Panama, ceviche, guinippes (Melicoccus bijugatus), Park Rapids, pistacchios, duck hunting, Viet Nam, reel-to-reel tapes to my mom, Technical Sergeant, Australia, Philippines, Master Sergeant, Duluth MN, smelt-fishing, weather maps, Sr. Master Sergeant, circus peanuts, US Post Office, dark-house spear-fishing, deer hunting. He loved to grill during a blizzard as did I. My brothers and I hauled a large rock to the spot in the Itasca State Park where he had his deer stand.
Me: Park Rapids High School, Dostoevsky, UMD, Fiat, Poland, mathematics, computational linguistics, rational logic, computer science, Control Data, Scandia, compilers, core-file analysis, Slovakia, Martin Marietta, EPIX, tcp/ip, lex/yacc, UnitedHealth, patent, design recovery, grad school, Kefissia, Milan, Istanbul, Mahler, CSC, fixed up a 1951 Chevy, SGS Borealis, grouse hunting, master gardener, Heinrich Buhl, Durrenmat, G. Grass, US Bank, Hartford, bikram yoga, P. Glass, Messiaen, Aetna, cricket, Bhimsen, triathlon, half-marathon, marathon, Cigna, up to 54 countries now, Gravity's Rainbow.
A while back, I was fly-fishing in the Fish-hook river (which feeds into the Straight River). Another guy was working his way downstream. We pass each other with greetings. A minute later, he says, Hey! Are you Ray's boy? I say yes, and feel wonderful at the recognition.
I was on a flight from Paris to Stockholm, and next to me was a Swedish man that had many facial features of my father. We could have been related. I wanted to talk with him but he only knew Swedish and me English.
