Comments:
What have I been up to since 1968? Good grief, that's forty years of history! Here goes:
I went to U of I seven years straight, graduating in '72 with a B.A., and again in '75 with a juris doctor (law).
Deb and I got married in 1974. After graduation, we moved to the town of Kamiah, on the Clearwater River in north-central Idaho. I opened a solo law practice there, and did private legal work, represented small cities and also was Idaho County prosecuting attorney for a time before returning to A.F.
We had a great home about a mile out of town with a huge garden and rented pasture and a view of an island and the rest of the valley. We had a swimming beach and a steelhead hole within walking distance of our house, deer in the back yard, and elk in the canyon draws.
We had all three boys born there, with middle son Adam actually being born at home in the middle of a blizzard and no way to get to the hospital in Grangeville.
We left Kamiah for the old home town in the spring of '86. Both my folks were still alive then, and Deb had her sister Liz and brother Dan still living in AF, along with nieces and nephews.
The old home town had changed some, but we thoroughly enjoyed being seeing old friends and family. It was great, too, for the boys to connect with my folks, who took those kids everywhere. When we moved back, my Dad was in great health, but he got cancer and died in '89. Mom still lives in Pocatello, and is doing fine. My sister and brother and I try to make sure at least one of us sees her once a month or so. With the distances involved, we don't get to spend much time in AF on those trips.
I practiced law in American Falls until February of 2001, when we moved to Valley County (Cascade and McCall) to accept an appointment as a Magistrate Judge.
I'm the only judge in the county, and I handle everything from small claims and traffic court to criminal cases to divorces between millionaires and everything in between. I like the challenges, and I especially enjoy juvenile court, where I try especially hard to make a difference with kids before the cement dries, so to speak.
Unfortunately, in the years before we moved to McCall, Deb started having some mysterious health problems that would arrive and then go away, usually before we got to a doctor. To make a long story short, she was diagnosised with MS (multiple sclerosis) that we learned of shortly before moving to McCall.
MS is pretty nasty stuff, and it affects different people in different ways, depending upon what part of the brain is attacked. In Deb's case, she has serious issues with her vision, with short term memory, and her balance is poor. She walks slowly with a cane, or on my arm. I've got a snowshoe path that I tromp out and ski out for her in the winter, which is still going on here, by the way! The trail goes out our backyard and through the timber and an open field that she enjoys on sunny days, using ski poles and her hi-tech snowshoes. She also gets carsick easily, which makes travel difficult. She might not appreciate me sharing all of this with my old classmates, as she's a little sensitive about the limitations she now has, but that's the way it is.
I still love to fish, but don't hunt very much anymore. I've really gotten into skiing, both downhill and cross-country, and I take day hikes into the high mountain lakes around here and have climbed a few peaks. And, yes, I love to float the rivers, and I'm looking forward to the chinook salmon season this spring.
We live in a post card here in McCall, and we've got some good friends here. Living in a tourist town takes some getting used too, though.
This is turning into a long, long story, but it's quite iffy whether we'll able to make it to the reunion, so I thought I'd better cough up some details!
It's for certain at this point, we won't be attending the reunion. It's a long and complicated story, but we had a family/friends trip planned for this weekend long before the reunion dates were available, and this is the only weekend we can run a certain river that has a lot of sentimental value for my wife. Anyway, it's family first. I'll miss seeing all of you. I'm going to TRY to attach a photo!
Many thanks to Bob Ruff for all his efforts, and also to Ron and Colleen and so many other people.
