My Portfolio

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Countdown to More Sweat Getting started on a job that will likely promote sweat involves a short span of personal contemplation.  The upcoming job may be one of short or long duration, but when real sweat is in the...

It is needless to mention that; our parents are our assets. They are someone that had given enough care, attention and compassion to us in all our situations. But, when they grow elder, they do expect the same from us. Of course, you can give your all attention, care and love...

Great question about traits that can be attributed to the next generation.    Without a doubt, it happened to my fathers 1st brother Bill (Boleslaw) Zukowski.   He was a muscian all of his life and retired with honors from playing with the Air Force Symphony based out of Washington, DC....

Bunker 18 outpost in An Hoa, Viet Nam Me and My 106mm   I don’t know if JJ Ryder is still alive and I’m not sure he ever made it back from Viet Nam. I met him 'under fire' for about fifteen terrifying minutes. It was a typical hot, humid and...

Thirty-nine years old, long-married, father of five children and there I stood, tears welling up in my eyes.  No, it wasn’t a family tragedy.  My wife loved me, our children were all healthy, our parents were still alive and doing well.  But not me.   My world was crashing around me. I had...

I received an incredible email that was so emotionally powerful I thought I'd recreate it here in by story blog. Hopefully, others will share this because it says it all.  REMEMBER THIS! It is the  VETERAN,   not the preacher,   who has given us freedom of religion.    It is  the VETERAN,   not...

Uncle John Zukowski, my fathers younger brother who was also my God Father.  Uncle John was better know to his fans as Johnny Zeke.  Here is his story: Johnny Zeke was a race car driver, promoter, starter, driving instructor, crew chief and a member of the Air Corps during World War...

On the road...again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Communicating on Social Media   When I review the number of friends or subscribers that traffic counters on social media sites tell me that I have, it is a bit dismaying to think that my sphere of...

Richard and LaNay Magoffin – By Jane Topham She was still there when he returned from his LDS mission.  Richard was born in San Diego, California on October 30, 1939.  His parents were Garold A. and Areletta C. Magoffin.  He had 2 older brothers and an older sister who died when...

 On the road…again!!!Afghanistan to ZambiaEssays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Google Earth Comes Of Age   Storytelling skills evolve with the storyteller. Not that the story changes, if the storyteller is honest and sincere, but the details that were forgotten or unavailable the first few times...

On the road…again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Sometimes I Just Want To Spell It Out   With all the fake news coming out of the White House these days, I sometimes want to drop my self-imposed injunction about writing snarky political editorials.  Writing a folksy...

On the road…again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek    In Flanders Fields the Poppies Grow  Of the many poems that haunted his imagination from grammar school, the one about a field of poppies in Ypres, Belgium had enough staying power to remain as a fragment in his...

            “I love to teach” was the response from Mavis Nybo.  Mavis was born in a hospital in Salt Lake on January 27, 1930 to Rulon Stromberg and Dorothy Banks Stromberg.  Her father was from Sweden and her mother was from Australia.  Her parents lived in...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek    We Took the Tuk-Tuk When you are thinking of taking a cruise you can readily imagine what the major mode of conveyance is going to be and perhaps even know in advance what it will look like. The cruise...

It was the trip of a lifetime, the fulfillment of a long-held dream  I was flying from St. Louis to California in my small plane exulting as I watched the West Texas pastureland unfold below me.  I had a chart across my lap to keep track of my progress but I’d been so enthralled with...

Life is made up of achievement, failure, frustration, fulfillment, ecstasy and agony: and in my 84 years I have both sampled and sometimes dwelled too long in every one of them.  That is as it should be. I would find it impossible to say which among the thousands of joyful moments,...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Lost Bag in Lisbon Long known as the poor man of Europe, Portugal has consistently had an economy that lagged behind other movers and shakers in modern European society. And that is perhaps the secret in...

    Why is it that some people, when the conversation turns to flying, enter into an almost rapturous state, their eyes a’gleam like an Old Testament prophet?   Why will they spend fifty dollars to fly a hundred miles or more to eat a hamburger served in a little café alongside...

                                                                               Baja Peninsula Every year, we eagerly anticipate our visit to the stunning Pueblo...

I've been interested in aviation all my life. My dad was a pilot, and I grew up in a house with a basement full of airplane parts, since he also restored one airplane and built another. We had books and magazines about flying and took annual trips to Oshkosh to the...