My old friend Adam joined our class via Zoom. He’s recently stepped down from a command of American Forces Network Europe, where he managed dozens of stations on two continents. It seemed a good perspective to add to our international media class. And he had a lot to offer, so I’m glad he took the time.
I was trying to remember, but we met in 2011. I wrote a piece about a distant cousin of his, a World War 2 hero, one of the Doolittle Raiders. Soon after we met in person, and became fast friends. He took a master’s degree and became one of my lovely bride’s students. We’ve toured Alaska and Ireland together.
We are close in age. His hometown is just one or two towns over from my grandparents. Once, we tried to decide if we’d ever been to some event as kids. We decided the most likely place would have been a steakhouse. My grandparents’ church dismissed earlier than his church, so it’s possible that he had to wait on us to leave so he could eat lunch.
I wrote a little bio of him for my students. It’s been an impressive, long career. Multiple deployments, some great experiences and some less than great. He’s now just a few months from retiring from the Army, an exceedingly happy family man, and studying to become a commercial pilot. We’re trying to talk him and his wife into moving close to us. I’m not sure if I’ve sold him on it yet, but you’ve seen the pictures around here. One of my angles is that it is a lot like home.
(Speaking of home … He knew where his ancestor who immigrated from England came from. Adam and I once visited that road in London.)
Speaking of pictures, I took these the other day and I’m cleaning up my phone.
As the weather warms up and the bikes go back on the roads, it is good to see these signs still out there reminding people about the rules of the road.
That one is relatively new. At least I don’t remember seeing it last year.
And here’s a man out there discing that dirt. That field, if it is all his, goes back some ways. He was probably doing that all afternoon.
That was Saturday, because you work every day on a farm. I wonder what they were doing there today. A lot more than me, I’m sure of it.
