Snow Blindness

I'm having a little trouble typing this post, because I think I am suffering from an old Inuit malady called snow blindness...

Oh wait, snow blindness requires the SUN to reflect off the snow, and that is what causes the damage...

Well, it can't be snow blindness then, because no SUN was to be seen today....

Maybe I suffer from TV snow blindness, because that is what it seemed like I saw all day today, was white snowflakes in front of my eyes, like the snow on the television...

Does the television even have snow anymore? I'm not sure.

The point is on my round trip car trip to Clarkston, Washington today, the snow came down the whole time, except while I was in the towns of Lewiston and Clarkston.

In these two towns, the daffodils were blooming, the grass was green, the trees were budding out with beautiful pink flowers, and the forsythias were in bloom....
It was like I was on another planet.

I enjoyed a brief hour or so in the "banana belt" of Idaho while dropping Kiki Aru off at her best friend SG's house to spend a few days during spring break.

I did learn a very good lesson on this trip. Don't rely on the mapping skills of a seventh grader to help you arrive at your destination. We safely arrived in Lewiston, but getting from Lewiston to our destination (Kiki Aru's friend's house in Clarkston) was not working out with two seventh graders trying to navigate. Well, SG's grandpa came to the rescue, found us at the Lewiston Dairy Queen, and showed us the way. Thanks Grandpa!!

I bid fairwell to the fair weather, (mild, but still cloudy. No sun to be seen), and headed for my old alma mater, The University of Idaho.

It had been a while since I cruised around the campus in Moscow, so I drove around, and it has really changed a lot. I drove past the Tri Delt house, the sorority I lived in while a student at the University of Idaho. It hasn't changed much, at least on the outside.

Here is a picture of what it looks like in nice weather....it wouldn't have looked like this today.IEG and I will be visiting this sorority this summer, as the U of I Tri Delta house celebrates its' 80th anniversary.

I know Moscow has some pretty good eating establishments, and I thought I might try one out for a late lunch.

But an invisible force drew me to a place I used to eat while I was a student at the U of I---

Taco Time.
And this is a very special Taco Time, because this is where PKR and I went to celebrate after he proposed to me on December 10, 1984 at the Tri Delta house, and I said yes.

Students looked miserable as the snow was falling and the wind was blowing. Your typical April day in Moscow, Idaho was my thought.

Then I headed home, with a detour to the Coeur d'Alene Casino for some gas. Oh, FYI, there is now an exit to get to the Casino. Since I am so observant (probably the snow blindness had something to do with it), I missed the new exit heading down to Clarkston, but was a bit more observant on the way back through.

As I drove into Coeur d'Alene, I decided I needed to top off this journey with a treat. Maybe the short stay in the parking lot at the Lewiston Dairy Queen influenced this decision, but a DQ Peanut Buster Parfait sounded really good. But I realized, once the nice young man at the DQ window handed me this wonderful treat, that I was not going to be able to eat and drive with a Peanut Buster Parfait. H-m-m-m-m.

Hey, I'm in a town by a lake, so why not go look at the lake. Even if it is snowy and foggy, there is still beauty to be found along the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. So I headed down Lakeshore Drive down by Tony's and parked and watch the lake ...

while I dug into the Peanut Buster Parfait. Yum!!

Pam's First Novel..."Little Lost River"

I was reading through my University of Idaho Here We Have Idaho alumni magazine, and flipped to the back to read through the Class Notes section, and found out one of my Tri Delta sorority sister published a book this year.

Her name is Pamela Johnston, and her book is titled Little Lost River. It is a coming of age novel set in Boise, Idaho in the early 1980's.

According to the Class Notes, Pamela grew up in Boise, graduated from the University of Idaho, and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a doctoral degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She currently is an associate professor of English at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas.

I remember having a Literary Analysis class with Pam, and our instructor's name was Mason Tung. He was a wonderful teacher. In fact, that class changed the way I looked at literature, and writing.

Here you can see Pam's book at amazon.com.

I hope to get the book soon, and read it. From the description, it sounds like a very good book.

Would I Be Remembered at U of I?

My brother sent in a "Hat Tip" to DFO at Huckleberries Online about an article in the LA Times that talks about Sarah Palin, and her obscurity as a student at the University of Idaho.

When I was a senior in the School of Communications, Palin was just arriving. If a reporter had investigated my tenure at the university, there would be some tangible evidence I existed.

But I'm not sure anyone would really remember working with me. I'm not sure classmates would remember me either.

And I think of my professors. I really don't think I made a lasting impression on any of them. If my name was brought up, I seriously doubt they could recall much about me. And the School of Communications wasn't a very tight knit group at the time. You had journalism majors, public relations majors, advertising majors, and radio and tv production. But, if I recall, not a whole lot of cohesiveness in the department.

Yes, I realize I'm not running for political office, but, if by some weird turn of fate I was all of a sudden running for some high profile office, and a reporter started looking into my career at the U of I, they might find this:

1) She was known by members of her Tri Delta sorority, but if questioned by members of other Greek houses, only the ones who were from her hometown even remembered her.

2) Yes, she did work at the Argonaut as a reporter, and she sold advertising, and was an announcer the radio station. Perhaps the name may be familiar, but not sure if I can place the face.

3) She was in the marching band and sang in Jazz Choir but, again, unless she went to high school, or lived with them in the same house, students can't really place her.

4) Was involved in a campus ministry group called Campus Crusade for Christ. The leader at the time remembers her, and maybe a few students involved, even though she was in leadership positions in the group for more than two years.

5) She also got second place her junior year in the U of I talent show. But no one seems to recall who she was, or what talent she performed.

So I was a fairly active college student, but I still think unless you lived with me in the same house, or we went to high school together, I probably didn't make that great of impression on anyone.

Partly because I was very unsure of myself. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I pretty much stayed under the radar. I think it was my choice not to be out there too much.

I remember going to a few UI Alumni functions, and always feeling uncomfortable, because I always felt no one really knew who I was.

And Palin was only there maybe 2 years. And probably a bit unsure of herself, as well.

But now that I am 45, I too have a much stronger personality. I know a bit more who I am, what I want, and have much more confidence than that unsure college student. And I think a big part of it came from moving back home 8 years ago. I'd say a majority of the people here in the Silver Valley know who I am, because I'm out there more. And I'm more outgoing, and friendlier, and am not afraid to take risks and state my opinion.

So, what it all boils down to is it doesn't surprise me that Sarah Palin emerged as a dynamic personality in her home state of Alaska, where she probably gained her confidence in her hometown of Wasilla. And, like me, she was probably helped by having a loving relationship with her husband, family, and her church family.

The Way We Were

Inland Empire Girl continues to keep us on track with Sibling Assignments. Her current assignment is this:

"Think of a movie theme song that stayed with you long after you saw the film. Share an experience about that movie or the theme." Here is Inland Empire's story, and Raymond Pert's is here.

Well, I think I am going about this a bit backward. I think I actually knew the theme song to the movie "The Way We Were" long before I actually saw the movie. Being a huge Barbra Streisand fan, I purchased many of her albums at a young age, and listened to this song quite a bit.

One memory this song conjures up is being in college at the University of Idaho with PKR. When I started as a freshman in college, PKR was attending college at Western Montana College in Dillon. The following summer we met, (officially, that is, but that is a whole other story), and at the end of the summer, I returned to Moscow to college, and he returned to Dillon. The next fall, he was enrolled at the University of Idaho.

My senior year, two of Paul's siblings, DR and LR were also enrolled as students at the University of Idaho. PKR, LR and I enrolled in a class together together called "Professional Presentation Techniques". We were a team most of the semester, and our assignment was to take a company and make three different types of presentations based on this company. We chose Hewlitt Packard, because my sister's best friend from college had worked there and had some connections.

I don't remember what our first product we presented was about, but I do remember we started out with PKR singing, "The Way We Were". Our next product we presented were HP defibrillators, and, believe it or not, back in 1984, HP was just coming out with the first laptop computer. And that was our final product we presented.





HP-110: HP’s first laptop computer, 1984
An industry breakthrough, the HP-110 weighed only 8.5 pounds and had a 16-bit IBM PC-compatible processor. With 384K ROM and 272K RAM, it had the largest amount of memory available in a portable computer at the time. Unlike previous machines, the computer was aimed at a less technical audience.

I remember we ended our presentation with LR having a briefcase, and opening it up, as if she was going to unveil this production, and she exclaimed, "Oh, it is so light, I must have forgotten it at home!" or something like that.

We were a great team, and got an A in that class.

So "The Way We Were" doesn't bring to mind Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand trying to make their relationship work in this film. Instead, it takes me back to those days at the University of Idaho when PKR and I were falling in love.

Fortunately, we have a much better relationship than Katie and Hubbell could ever manage to have in the movie.

The Relevance of the Essay

Inland Empire Girls has been keeping us on track this summer with our sibling assignments. This week she posed this assignment:

"As we near the start of the school year here is the assignment. Write about a school experience that was significant to your school life. Describe the experience and why it was significant."

Entering college was a wakeup call when it came to learning to write compositions. I remember entering English 103 at the University of Idaho and finding out exactly what the term essay meant, and what my teacher's expectations were in writing an essay.

Unfortunately, what I was taught in high school didn't resemble this form of writing. English 103 at the University of Idaho focused a lot on learning how to write an introductory paragraph and learning the form and basics of essay writing.

I passed English 103, and entered English 104. This class provided me one of those "Ah-ha" moments as a student.

I don't remember the teaching assistant's name that taught the class, but I do remember the day he brought in the Rolling Stones Magazine. He was kind of a hippie looking guy, and it didn't surprise me that he would bring in this magazine to share with the students in class.

But, what he did next was share some writing from the magazine, and, in doing so, he gave us a really good example of what essay writing was all about.

I was blown away.

I'm not sure it was ever explained to me in any of my English classes that essay writing was a type of writing, and that there were people who actually wrote essays on purpose.

This is the definition of an essay: a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

Essay writing had a purpose. It was not a writing exercise students were forced to repeat over and over again with much repetition. People actually wrote essays and earned money for doing this writing feat.

I wish I could go back and find this TA and thank him for this revelation. I would like to thank him for the wisdom he showed to this group of freshmen writers who needed to give their writing a bit of purpose, a bit of relevance.

I can even recommend a couple books if you would like to explore the genre of essay writing. Two of my favorites are "Having Everything Right: Essays of Place" by Kim Stafford, a collection of essays which revolves around the history, folklore, and physical beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Kim Stafford writes poetic and evocative prose as he reflects on such subjects as Indian place names, bears, and local eccentrics. (As described on amazon.com)

Another recommendation is Barbara Kingsolver's book of essays titled "High Tide in Tucson"."

Displaying a diverse background and multiple interests, Kingsolver has written about subjects as varied as the biological clock of hermit crabs, tourist wanderings in Benin, and visiting an obsolete Titan missile site. The recurring themes here are the wonder and excitement of parenting; the respect for all creatures, religions, and points of view; and the importance of the natural world in our lives. She weaves these themes throughout her essays and presents readers with a vision of beliefs too often undervalued in our modern world. The author, a skilled observer of both people and nature, claims "to want to know and to write, about the places where disparate points of view rub together?the spaces between." These essays are her attempts to open the doors for her readers to see into those spaces.

Penny Stevens, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

If you have never read really good essays, because you still remember having to write those essays back in school, I encourage you to try either of these essayists books, or search for some of your own.

Then you, like myself, will realize that essays do have a purpose, and are very relevent.

To read more on this sibling post, here is Inland Empire Girl's post about becoming a poet, here, and Raymond Pert's post will one day be here.

What Do You Mean You Aren't A Reader??????

This week’s sibling writing assignment from Raymond Pert is writing about who or what instilled in the three of us our love of reading and writing. RP's post is here, and Inland Empire Girl's post here.

I don’t remember learning to read. Reading has always been something I could do. It has been shared with me that I knew how to read when I entered kindergarten, but I wouldn’t read out loud when Mrs. Clark, my kindergarten teacher, asked me to read. But she knew I could read because when I was asked to hand out papers to the other students in the class, I could read the names and hand them out just fine. (But I don’t remember this).

From my earliest school days, I was reading. Our home was filled with shelves of books. But I know I was read to as a child, but I have no memory of someone reading books to me. But I remember going to the library from a very young age, and I remember attending story time. I have this very vivid memory of my friend Tina’s mom telling the story of the “Three Billy Goats Gruff” during story time at the library, down in the basement, and she used a felt board to tell the story.

I don’t remember ever making the conscious choice to be a reader…I just was a reader. Dad read books. Mom read books. My brother and sister read books. I read books. We were always reading. Dad liked sports themed books. Mom liked romance and humor, and Danielle Steele and Erma Bombeck were two of her favorites. I’m not sure what Raymond Pert read as I was growing up. I think he liked the sports books as well. Inland Empire Girl shared with me her love of Nancy Drew Mysteries and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books.

As I got older, and I realized that there were people who didn’t read books for pleasure and enjoyment...I was really shocked. What do you mean you aren't a reader???

I always had a book on the floor next to my bed. Sometimes two or three. Rarely did I fall asleep growing up without reading something. (I'm still like that to this day.)

My husband and daughters are the same way. PKR is a reader, and so are all three of my girls. I remember when The Princess was a baby, and a pile of thick cardboard books were her favorite toys.

Writing is something that clicked for me in college. I always liked writing, and it was never hard for me. I kept diaries and journals on and off growing up. I had pen pals at various times growing up.

When I was at the University of Idaho, I was put in the English 103 class, because my writing needed some work. I’m not sure we had the greatest writing teachers at Kellogg High School. I remember taking English 103, then English 104, and thinking to myself, oh this is what an essay is suppose to be.

I had several writing epiphanies in college. The first was from a Teacher’s Assistant who was my English 104 teacher. We were learning the art of writing essays, and one day he brought in a Rolling Stone’s magazine, and read an essay from the magazine, and it made essays make sense to me. It was as if it gave this writing exercise some meaning. I don’t think anyone every explained to me that essay writing was a form of writing, and that the essay was a legitinate form of writing.

The second epiphany came my sophomore year in college in an Introduction to Literature class. My professor’s name was Mason Tung. This is the first class I had where you read a story and analyzed the content and wrote about the meaning of the writing. I loved it, and I was good at it. I remember reading Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivner” and writing an analysis of the story, and finding it a quite enjoyable assignment, and receiving a really good grade on the paper.

When I was a senior in high school, I received a U of I scholarship for Journalism, and one of the requirements of getting the scholarship was to take a journalism class. When I headed off the college, I had no idea what field I wanted to pursue. The only thing I knew I didn’t want to do was be a school teacher. (I guess I thought there were too many in the family already.)

I took some journalism and communications classes, and worked for the college’s newspaper The Argonaut the second semester of my freshman year, and my sophomore year. I enjoyed writing, and did a pretty good job. So a journalism degree I would pursue, then added Communications, and ended up with a Communications degree with an emphasis in Public Relations.

Writing became more and more a part of my life. I love writing people’s stories. I love writing something positive that makes people feel better about themselves. I like being an encouraging writer.

I believe my love of reading and writing was passed down in a somewhat subliminal way through my parents who believed a college education was very important, and the expression of the written word through books and other publications was the way you learned more about the world around you.