My Portfolio

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Re-Learning Geography Learning the names of state capitals was a fundamental part of geography classes, and in grammar school, Geography was his favorite subject.  Although some people believe that knowledge is power; others discount the importance of book learning...

Newspapers may just give us the "story behind the story!"

  On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION Attalea crassispatha (C. Martius) Burret, the "Coco rosse" known only to a handful of botanists and the Haitian villagers in the Southwest of Haiti, may be one of the rarest palms in the world. At this...

  On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Drink the Water   Once again during his later years, the Footloose Forester was inspired by a dream to craft a chronicle about something that might not otherwise stand alone as an interesting story. As usual, the thoughts...

Your Family Heritage Recipes Within your circle of family and friends are you known for making a special dish, the dish you are always asked to bring to a family gathering or a social get-together?  I remember interviewing a blind 90 year old lady who told me that she was known...

The following may be little more than a rant,,,,but I wonder where we will be in the coming years? The growing popularity of things like Twitter and Texting which necessarily limit messages to extremely short blasts could have a detrimental effect on the growth of knowledge and understanding. The great lessons in...

  On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek  I is for India   A hundred people in a banyan tree? The banyan tree in India is many times larger than this one While watching a sci-fi movie in which three young adventurers were filmed sitting in...

Along about 1967 the tsunami of money from the Federal Government to “Education” that was created by the nerve shattering “beep-beep-beeping” of the world’s first space vehicle had reached its crest and was receding.   It was Russia’s vehicle. . . and it was called “Sputnik” or fellow traveler. Those beeps were...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Growing Bamboo Almost every time that he passed the dwarf bamboo thicket planted alongside his house in Pennsylvania, the Footloose Forester was reminded that bamboo was part of his family life. At one time or another, he fished...

  On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Learning The Local Geology Around Netcong, New Jersey OK, maybe he always was a slow learner.  For sure he would never deny that he was slow to put things together.  So it took 50 years to come to...

On the road …again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy 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 see various shapes, colors,...

All science classes in the small-town high school from which I graduated were taught by a poor soul whom, for out of respect for his memory, I will not name.  Consider him “Mr. X.”  Mr. X became infamous for the total anarchy that reigned in his classroom.  This unfortunate man had...

In reply to the question to write about one's greatest achievement in my life, I wrote the following: Since only one in ten students graduate from stenotype school, I would have to say that this has been my greatest achievement. The fall after graduating from Frank W. Cox High School in 1970, I...

It was my mother's idea that I go "into nursing".  The Episcopal priest from the church we attended  visited us one hot  August day prior to my entering high school.  He suggested a particular school in New York City.  Over time I sent for information, jumped through the hoops to apply...

Today I taught week #2 of my 6 week 'Unlock Your Personal Stories' workshop at my local library, near my home nestled in the foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges in Adelaide. I was tired this morning, having sat up until 1.30am to participate in a webinar with colleagues in the...

I have lots a acquaintances, but a true friend is a treasue!  Laurel is one of the few acquaintances I have that I would consider a true friend. In the 1980s, I was teaching at Farrer Jr. High School in Provo, Utah.  Bruce Evans and I had been the mainstays in...

Pleasant Hill’s school bus, like those of today, had a lever with a big handle attached to a rod that opened and closed the door.  The younger boys considered it fun and an honor to stand alongside the bus driver to open and close the door at each stop.  The bus...

This has really been a difficult one to come up with in my memory banks! When I was in eighth grade--the grade that I have taught every year of my teaching career--I wonder what the outcome would have been if my ability to read well hadn't been taken from me! This...

I never attended  Public school.  I attended three different Parochial schools. My first seven years was at St. Charles in Waltham, Mssachusetts.  Eighth grade was at St.Joseph's as my family had moved to the other side of Waltham. For the ninth grade and two months of the tenth grade I attended...

We were a blue collar family through and through. From my great grandfather who was a logger in Nova Scotia to my Grandfather and then my father, who both farmed to live