Memories from the past

In my messages that I send out to people in the Joy Ceramics mailing list I often include stories from my past. Partly it is good for me to remember my past. Partly it is that others have found the stories interesting.

I grew up for my first 6 years in the Redwoods of California. When I was very young we would often travel to my father's hometown high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. I remember thinking as a young child that we were almost home as my parents drove us down the Avenue of the Giants toward Scotia and Rohnerville.

When I was 6 years old my father went deer hunting with his brothers in Portola his hometown. He called my mother and said that he wanted to buy a hardware and toy store he saw in Portola. He bought the store, my Uncle Al, a home builder, built a house for us and we move to Portola.

Portola

Memory Oct 8, 2026: My youth was spent high in the California Sierra Nevada mountains. Because of my childhood's location I often got involved with situations that were challenging or interesting. As I said to some of those in the class imagine yourself working on the fire line at a forest fire as I was one day long ago. I was in this case the crew chief of a crew fighting the fire. We were at the edge of a steep hill or perhaps a cliff. It was long ago. The wind had shifted towards us. I cannot remember where we were trying to go that put in this situation. The fire headed right towards us creating a dangerous situation. We were miles from the nearest road in danger pondering what to do. Many years have past since then but my memory of the moment is that I heard a siren go off behind me, it might have been instead the sound of large engines coming towards me. I turned around away from the approaching fire and found a B-17 borate bomber flying at my nose. We were high on the edge of the cliff or hill with very little around us. At a fire, when a fire fighting plane approaches we had been trained to quickly lie down, head towards the approaching aircraft, hands over your head and helmet, and the instructors then said using a little slang "and kiss your bottom good bye. They used a slightly less dignified word than my grandchildren would use in saying butt or bottom. Tons of fire retardant might land on top of you so we did as trained. The plane flew low over our heads and dropped its load of fire retardant missing us but hitting and knocking down the fire. Thank you pilot. The supervisor of our fire district had a face that was scared from being caught in a fire. He once told me that he was in a forest service truck fleeing the fire across a brush covered plain and the fire caught him and the truck. I think that he said that he was going 75 miles an hour when the fire caught up to him. I sometimes wonder whether I heard a tall tale or reality. He definitely had been burned during his life. I see articles in the online news about fires in western states and climate change increasing their ferocity. Here in the east we cannot imagine the danger that some of those fire fighters put themselves in. Long ago I saw and lived the danger. Now it seems like a good tale to tell. Back then adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I felt fear.

Memory Oct 22, 2026: Once I was the manager of web development at a large company on the east coast. Three teams worked for me each with their own room. In the summer I would take off three weeks and go to Carbondale IL where my sister and mother lived. My wife and I would stay at my sister's house and go to my mother's house a few blocks away to be with her each day. This allowed my sister to take a vacation each year. It also allowed me to do the items that my mother had listed on a piece of paper as Don's chores. When I left my teams without my supervision I would leave the phone number where I could be reached with the Executive Vice President. This particular trip I got a phone call from the Executive Vice President. I was told that there was a problem with two of my employees. There was one thermostat controlling the heat in the room where this team was situated. Ms. R (immigrant from Russian thus the R to keep from using real names) and Mr. M (former mayor, somewhat conservative, of a small town to keep from naming anyone) got into an argument. Ms. R was cold and wanted the room warmer. She turned up the thermostat. Mr. M was hot and got up and turned the thermostat back down. They got into a kerfuffle with words flying between their desks. I am not sure which made the first physical item fly towards the other's desk but was told the item was a keyboard. The response coming back was a telephone. Members of the development group went to the person in charge which was the Executive Vice President. The two combatants were hauled off to the Executive Vice President's office. I was called while the combatants were on their way to the principal's office. I was asked what should be done. I said that it sounded like they most likely should be separated and perhaps the dividers in the office could be moved around. I was told by the Executive Vice President that it sounded like a good idea. Later I got a call from the Executive Vice President. I was told that Mr. M. once with the Executive Vice President went on a fairly lengthy rant concerning what he thought of women and in particular what he thought of Ms. R. I said "Wow that does not sound good what did you do." The Executive Vice President, being one of nicest women that I ever worked with, said to me "Mr M. now has his desk in a closet, I took your advice and moved them apart. Ms. R. is now sort of gloating in the developer's room." Now, Mr. M's mistake was not taking into account during his rant about women that the Executive Vice President was a woman. When I got back to the office after my two week vacation I went off to find the location of Mr. M. He was in the office supply closet back in a far corner. He was now free to rant about office supplies to the items around him. He looked at me as I approached with a very sheepish, very sorry look on his face. He said to me something along the lines of "Sorry Don, I should not have done what I did." I smiled and laughed. It really was quite amusing what we humans can do. Therefore, the old saying comes to mind "Think before you speak."