Introduction

In my eighty-eight years, I have traveled as far west from the United States as Okinawa (near Japan) and as far east as St. Petersburg, Russia. I have been in visited most of the fifty states, lived in eight states, and bought homes in five. I After graduatinged from the University of California at Berkeley with a major in geological science in 1937, andI spent several years working in petroleum geology, during which time I married (to Eleanor). When World War II came, I went into the Seabees and my wife went into the Coast Guard.

After the war was over, we had a daughter and a son,(Nancy and Bill) and I found myself working for the Army Corps of Engineers (as a civilian) in a new field, engineering geology, (which wasnt even taught when I went to college). I did quite well as an engineering geologist, spending sixteen years as a district geologist in the important Nashville District and eventually becoming a division geologist in the Huntsville Division, the next- to highest level a geologist could reach in the Corps of Engineers. I retired, reluctantly, just before the Huntsville Division was closed. `

I spent the next twelve years running a paper route (up to 800 papers) before I retired to do volunteer work and to travel. Following this periodIn 192001, my wife of sixty- and- a- half
years died and I moved to Tthe Arbors, an assisted- living community in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, where my daughter, Nancy, lives. Ill probably stay in Tthe Arbors as long as my health allows Im able to.

I have certainly lived an interesting life, yet, at times, Im inclined to envy those people who, after a good education, have spent the rest of their lives living and working in one place, but doing a reasonable amount of traveling during vacations. For one thing, their friends are not so widely scattered as mine, many of whom Ive not seen in many years. My Christmas card list has over sixty families from seventeen states and two foreign countries, Canada and England.

This book is being written, at the suggestion of my son and daughter, in the hope that it will be of some interest to my descendants, perhaps to and a few of my friends, and perhaps, eventually, to historians. I also hope that readers will find my description of my present life in an assisted- living community of interest. If my account goes into much more detail about my life in the last year, it iss because it was those pages were written more or less as things happened, so my memory of them is fresher. I started writing this in April, 2001 just before my 87th birthday, hoping that I might be granted time to finish it. To a large extent this book is based on my memory, which is not the best in the world, as well as on information in my Ffathers Memorial (published by the Geological[CT1] Society of America in 1947[CT2]); and the diary my Mmother kept of our experiences in crossing the United States . and traveling in Europe during 1932 and 1933; and diaries my wife, Eleanor, kept on a few of our cruises,; as well asand the diary she kept of our house exchange in England in 1984.[CT3][CT4] Of course my account of my life after I started writing this book in April, 2001 was written pretty much as things happened.[CT5] I started writing this book in April 2001, just before my eighty; -seventh birthday, in the hope that I would be granted time to finish and publish it. [CT6]
Since I was amy teenager years, I have had many dreams. Perhaps the first such stimulus was Joshua Slocum,s whose book Sailing Alone Aaround the World,[CT7] which gave me a strong interest
iin boats and sailing, although I never desired to emulate Slocum. Besides some ideas involving better sailboats, I also had several ideas involving for the design and construction of an unusual musical instrument, an electronic clavichord.[CT8]

. I also had several ideas involving making better sailboats. In recent years, I have had a modest ambition to write a book summarizing the work of one of my favorite authors, the detective story writer Robert Parker . [CT9]Mentioning that dream to my son and daughter led them to suggest that I write about how I met and married their mother instead.[CT10] That story didnt take long to tell, but it got me started on this account of my life.
[CT1]"Geological," not "Geologic," correct?
[CT2]Please supply the year.
[CT3]"Mother" and "father" are not proper nouns here and should not be capitalized.
[CT4]Quoted passages from these sources, and even whole letters, would add human interest to the book.
[CT5]The deleted sentence repeats an earlier sentence in the same paragraph.
[CT6]Should this sentence be moved so it precedes rather than follows the sentence on sources?
[CT7]Book titles are italicized (no quotation marks).
[CT8]How about a few details here? Was the instrument a woodwind? A stringed instrument? In what way was it unusual? Why did you give up the idea?
[CT9]Please identify the author. If hes not well-known, indicate the kinds of books he wrote or provide a title or two.
[CT10]Why werent they interested in your favorite author?






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