Don, An Online Friend and Poet - I Fell in Love With His Voice! An Open Memoir

 

Way back when AOL was the "only" way to connect online, I and others enjoyed getting to know people from all over the United States, and sometimes, even from other places... Of course, many became connected because we were interested in writing...and books! One of the men I got to know was Don. I always thought of him as my Grizzly Adams, with a smile... Don't know who that is? Well, fortunately, we can still enjoy him even these days!

Somehow, we connected as a small group of those involved with publishing. Don lived way out in Oregon and did indeed live out in the woods, just like, ironically, I do now, even though I think he lived much further away from main roads.  LOL I remember that I at least got to "see" him one time since he was then acting in a local, I think, Elizabethan fair where he was performing... I thought...in costume, which he was, but I didn't realize that his costume really was exactly how he looked...full beard and all! That's when I first thought of him as Grizzly Adams, a television show that was popular in "those" days... Google says that would have been in the late seventies--1970s! 

We were soon emailing each other and that is the main reason I'm talking about it. I wanted to at least share one of those letters that I just found hidden away in old papers... It is a pleasant memory for me and, I hope, those who happen to read it...

There were three stars in the eastern sky when I turned and headed home. I had stayed too long.

It was a nice up in the backwaters of the lake. It is a long canyon that used to be part of the Rouge River. I had pulled the boat onto a gentle beach and walked up a side canyon.

Quiet and cold and dark under the big trees. When I heard an owl I turned back to the boat. I started back up the long arm of the lake, navigating by the few lights on the canyon rim. Quiet, I could hear the water hissing under the canvas skin of the boat. The long, thin oars were making little or no noise. I could hear geese flying over head but could not see them.

I had a long time to think. The hour and a half of rowing felt good and I could only hope that I wouldn't hit any floating object in the inky black water. There was enough light to see the canyon walls and keep the boat to mid channel.

So much of what I do and enjoy is done with no company. I would love to share the sights and sounds and smells of my adventure with a friend.

There are many places to leave a footprint. Shores on which to ground a boat. Mountains to climb. Places to swim and feel sand between the toes.

They are all better shared with a friend.

djf 16 December 1997

Don and I met just once. He had another trip scheduled back to this side of the nation. He wanted to stop by... When he called me, he was in Morgantown... But I couldn't figure out where he possibly could be... He was in Morgantown, PA. I was in Morgantown, WV... He came on, but we didn't have much time together and didn't connect once he was back home except briefly. I remember he apologized and said he really wasn't that dumb, or something like that, to have driven to the wrong state... I felt sad, but, still, a fond memory came back to me when I found this email...

I fell in love with his voice...We had talked a lot on the phone and I could tell why he was an actor...His voice was made to be shared with an audience...even if it was just...me... But, you know, he really was "country" and I, a "city girl..." and we both knew that we lived entirely different lives. Still, now, as I live among the trees, with, maybe not bears, but deer, 'coons, 'possums and lots of cats outside, I find that peace, that connection with nature that I knew when I was younger. 

I would go off by myself, either up the back road to sit on a large rock behind where we went to grade school, and watch the traffic down below, which would be passing in front of my home... Or, I would walk the railroad tracks across from my home and overlooking the river...or go down underneath the railroad track bridge and sit for hours, watching the river flow by... There was a damn nearby and in those days, we could walk along the riverside down to where it was... One other favorite, longer walk, would go on a country road that went along an creek offshoot of the river. There used to be long vines on which we could swing when we were young... I would walk there with my sister or go watch a ball game in which my brother played in a field back then... 

Lots of times, we would just take an old blanket and lie under the big pear tree of our home, looking up to where apple trees grew in what we called the orchard... 

And, just like Don talked about when he wrote to me, I was glad, for awhile, that I did have a friend back then. His name was Kenny and he was a neighbor boy whose aunt and uncle lived above our house. He once brought me a kitten from the farm where he helped his uncle... It was my first kitten...and I don't think I have ever been without a cat except for a short time, since then...

And as I write, I also remember the time I, too, went down the rapids...but that deserves another page...some day! Meanwhile, let's listen to the words of Grizzly Adams, as, he, too, enjoyed being out in God's wonderful gifts for us to enjoy...

God Bless

Gabbie