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From the Far Side of the Desk, Issue 26
Welcome to Issue 27, friends, fellow writers, readers extraordinaire
Team Trajectory thinks this one is a real winner with lots of old friends: Dana Stamps II, Morgan Smith,
Paula Yup, Cathy Porter, Alan Catlin, t. kilgore splake…ah, the list could go on and on. Plus, we’re
featuring some newer writers, at least for Trajectory. Check out John Warren McCauley, P.F. Powers,
Chris Clair, Betty Issacs Smith, and Ginny Smith. And we have another great cover photo from Bill
Adams, a Kentucky photography legend.
But before we get to all these wonderful writers, and many, many more, here’s a little something that
has been on the mind of Old Chris lately. Hope you enjoy.
Write On:
Memories
“Memories, pressed between the pages
of my mind.”*
Lately, I find myself renewing acquaintances
with old friends and reviving long-submerged
memories as I frequently drift off to Dreamland
rereading books that powerfully and positively
impacted my life when I was decades younger.
Reading these books today vividly restores
to life literary characters who proved truly
impactful, for better or worse, on my life.
Chaps like Lew Archer, Ross Macdonald’s
(Kenneth Millar) lonely detective who was
forever searching for justice in a caring,
passionate way, and a young high school
athlete named Chip Hilton.
Now, Chip Hilton was a totally fictional
character from the pen of Clair Bee, who had
been the highly successful basketball coach at
Long Island University. Chip was presented as
a wholesome young man who was an amazing
athlete in football, basketball, and baseball.
Coached by an admirable man (Hank Rockwell),
Chip was supported by a fun group of memorable
secondary characters and teammates: Soapy Smith,
Speed Morris, Biggie Cohen, Red Schwartz, and Taps
Browning.
Although I never became even a modestly good athlete,
I feel I did learn many positive qualities from the Chip
Hilton books; qualities such as hard work, dedication,
loyalty, and teamwork, which may have been the primary
reason my dad bought this series of books for me.
Rereading favorite books from yesteryear not only brings
back characters who influenced my life, but memories of
when and where I first read those volumes, or had them
read to me; memories of my mother reading Laura Ingalls
Wilder’s books to our family as a prelude to bedtime, of
reading biographies of Kit Carson and Jim Bridger as I
strolled home from the library in Crane, Missouri,
somehow managing at the same time to eat a doughnut,
or two, and as I grew older, devouring words about
Holden Caulfield, Long John Silver and Robinson Crusoe,
John Ridd and Lorna Doone, and the Hardy Boys.
In my mid-teens I started reading mystery novels and
still return to many of the Agatha Christie volumes featuring
Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot. While in college I discovered
the “Beats” and read Kerouac and his cohorts with great
enthusiasm. Reading Jack’s flowing prose again as a certified
senior citizen, I find myself once more on the road with the
unforgettable Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty. As an adult
certain series captured my imagination and I regularly find
myself at night with a Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito
Navajo Police novel or a Dave Robicheau tale of crime and evil
in Louisiana in my hands, reading of their adventures again as I
relive my vacations in the Southwest and my all too brief visits
to yesteryear New Orleans.
However, let me assure you, that far more than memories of
literary characters emerge from the pages of all these books
as I read them for the second, third, fourth time, Also arising
are gentle memories of my late mother and father, my grade
school friends, the 1950’s in small-town America, of a young boy
full of hopes and dreams—a shimmering glimpse of a past,
the events, the people who helped make me who I am today,
fading gradually into the distant mists of yesteryear, yet never
completely forgotten.
If you want to return, even for a few moments, to your own
pleasant and impactful yesterdays, why not close the curtain
on your evenings by rereading those books a younger you so
enjoyed—the very books that helped make you the unique
individual you are today.
The opening line to Elvis’s 1968 hit “Memories,” considered
one of the highlights of his “Comeback Special” of that same year. Written by Billy Strange and Mac Davis.
Kemosabes, feel free to holler to me anytime. I’d love to know what you especially like to read in Trajectory and/or what doesn’t appeal to your reading taste. Simply shoot me an email at adobechris@hotmail.com and Write ON!!
Now, on to Issue 27
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