My Portfolio

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The New Fliegerhorst   The old Fliegerhorst Kaserne of World War II is becoming a modern housing complex.  Based on the construction activity seen on the most recent Google Earth satellite photos, the old military...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujubaEssays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Beautiful Benjamin Fig   At last, the time has come to share information about the most beautiful tree in the world.  You will have to use some of your navigational skills to locate it...

Chapt 5                  1965-1968            Ohio State University, Columbus,  Ohio       During ‘our” graduate school days, Keith and I had moved from Lawrence, Kansas to Champaign, Urbana, where Keith began his graduate studies in earnest at University of Illinois.  Scott was a year old by then and soon would be...

  When the generations of a family stop interacting on a daily basis the spontaneity of the interactions begins to suffer. Likewise, family visits with an elder under care become stilted and awkward, and ultimately less frequent. Changing the dynamic of the family visit to become engaging, rewarding, purposeful and productive...

Marv and I wanting to bag another peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, so we turned to our trusty hiking book and settled on Mount Waterman with a possible side trip over to one of the twin peaks. We made it as far as Twin Peaks saddle, then turned around and...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Why Footloose Forester Won’t Write A Novel As snippets of clichés and other prompts for new chronicles popped into his head, the Footloose Forester decided that at least two of them were determining factors in his decision to forever eschew...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Canal House   The intention of this chronicle was to document with Google Earth screenshots one or more of the places where the Bengal Tiger and the Footloose Forester once lived.  When they were successfully captured...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Fantastic Sale - Moral Compass   Own a piece of history.             Order your very own Moral Compass.                         Designed and field tested in the USA.                                     Made in China by factory representatives of noted fabricators.                                                 Don’t miss out. ...

                                                  Professor of Physiology at Ohio State University         During ‘our” graduate school days at U of I, we had lived very frugally on the...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Hacking the Russian Environmental Report   Once in a while when a suspect news report gets aired with a misleading spin, the Footloose Forester goes into one of his petulant moods and yearns to compose a chronicle to mollify...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   You Remember Birdies and Eagles   One of the differences between daydreams and night time dreams is the simple proposition that daydreams are induced recollections and night time dreams are involuntary.  We may awaken to recall...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     The Healthcare Lifeboat   When does a chronicle belong in the Ancestors portfolio?  Where does a story about Education belong?  Who should be the general audience for a personal legacy tale about Growing Up Years?  Obvious humor...

Along the Elizabeth River waterfront on the southwest corner of Town Point Park in Norfolk, Virginia, is the Armed Forces Memorial that features 20 letters written home by U.S. soldiers and sailors who died serving their country from the Revolutionary War up to and including the Gulf wars.  The letters appear...

After returning from Viet Nam in 1970, my only skills were shooting people and playing music. With those limitations, combined with the humiliation of returning to an unsupportive America, it was impossible to find work to support my wife, Christine, and newborn son, Justin. So, I got together with two of...

From my birth until I was 18 I always lived next door to my mothers parents and brother and sister.  Starting in Bronx, NY and including our move out to Tucson, AZ I always had a large family looking after me.

­Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     What Goes Around Came Around, Again   The passing phases of our lives are marked by words and phrases that come into vogue out of the blue, are repeated often by trendsetters and hipsters, and eventually disappear...

Get ready to hear some very interesting facts about little Raymond.

Chapter 4 -   What do you know about your parents' upbringing?

Famous people get all the adoration and recognition. But Peanuts creator, Charles Schultz, helps us recognize the real heroes in our lives, whose story should be part of our own legacy. The questions below should inspire you to share a legacy story! Just read the questions to this quiz. You don't...

-- By Jane W. Topham            This month we are spotlighting a very prominent couple of Salem, Stephen M. and Linda B. Rees.  Stephen’s parents, Spencer and Luzenia Rees, lived in Loa, Utah and he was born in Salina where the nearest hospital was located.  Linda’s parents,...