Jim Mottin

In case anyone out there cares....I taught Psychology at the University of Guelph from 1969 until I retired in 2002. Since that time I have become an avid hiker, backpacker, kayak/canoe camper,and general traveler. Yes, there is a great life out there after retirement. When we travel we normally do not do tours but instead settle in for around a month by renting homes or cottages that allow us to travel around in the country we are learning about. We plan to do the same this January while staying in Costa Rica for 35 days. Next summer we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with our girls by going to the UK for some hiking, moving around from cottage to cottage as we explore UK history via coastal and Lake District trails. My blog, see above, covers some of those more recent activities, though I am behind by not yet doing one on our month in Italy. I sometimes am asked to give presentations on our travels to local clubs, and must prepare one on Italy to be given in December. We absolutely love what we do, but aging is starting to limit my grade 3 like scrambles of getting into trouble on ledges where I attempt to go to see what is just out of reach...grade 3 type behavior according to my wife, Betty.
PLEASE CONTINUE...What follows is important to me personally> As to the Class of 60's 55 reunion coming up soon, I have decided not to attend it nor any others. My draft status seems to be an issue with some of my classmates on the right (about half of them it appears), though I was simply never drafted, and when I tried to enlist I had two degrees already and was told they needed no more officers at that point; "Simply wait to be drafted" said all the services. The war ended only about 300 days before my 1A draft status would have sent me over, according to the web files, and very soon after the draft was ended. But far too many classmates have called me a draft dodger based on my Canadian Address that started in 1964 when I followed a KSU professor to York University to work on an MA and PhD in Psychology by doing work in his Molecular Psychobiology Laboratory using radioactive isotopes to study learning changes in the brain.
Worse, however, is that I have been in a foreign land for some 51 years, over half my life [and will be now forever], living with a dual citizenship in a great and gorgeous nation, a land very liberal, basically gun free, very culturally and racially diverse with people from around the world who, like me, have intentionally immigrated to Canada to make a better life for themselves and family members.
I have now spent some 55 years immersed in a university culture which has changed me seriously. I am now very used to significant discussions that demand going beyond belief and biases, religious or otherwise, and I am used to assessing things very carefully by reading very broadly, especially in contrast to how media coverage of things like politics is now mostly false or distortions of fact for the sake of controversy.
Yes, I am now a nerdy liberal who is interested in history and facts, including the facts(?) that seem to divide political parties. At this point, my studies on climate change and what it will mean to our future families is consuming me, especially given how little is done about it in North America compared to other nations around the world. As you can imagine, that worry makes me an outcast in any Republican gathering, for Kansas gatherings apparently generally assume it is taboo to discuss anything related to our future, especially when that future may actually be more bleak than simply the aches and pains and mental decline of growing old.
Apparently selfish profit and lower taxes remains king and queen there and so the lock is on relative to doing anything to save the children of the future. I am at this point somewhat fortunate that my children do not wish to have children that would likely end up confronting some of the worst of climate change.
So, enjoy the reunions and class web site reflections of the past when you were once a Scottie filled with the idea that you were to go out into the world and make it so much better. I took the route of mainly teaching, research, and investing money carefully so that I might help others learn and help my kids afford things that are getting out of reach for so many of our young. However, I think my impact was definitely too limited, even with several classes of 400 students at a time twice a semester and two semester a year; and yes, even with a teaching award and a scholarship given to mature students in my name.
At this point I am simply not sure my class of 60 as a whole, much less just me, has shifted us far enough forward, but perhaps that is because I am now basically a foreigner far removed from the daily lives of old classmates. For example, I do have a not very fond memory of a debate coach telling me of the hangings of blacks he had witnessed before becoming a teacher at HPHS. However, I have recently been told by one of my class of 60 classmates that Hispanics and blacks voted for Obama only because they love government handouts. Not a hanging exactly, but not something that I would mention to anybody while in Europe as coming from my High School Classmate who is now as old as I am, and she spends part of the year in the same state as where those hangings I was told about had taken place. No, I fear Europeans,just like the Canadians I know, would consider that statement by her as politically racist. Basically the racism and bigotry in the US saddens me greatly, and I fear that far too many once again do not speak out against it, and instead even vote as if they supported it. I certainly know I have had a number of Republicans, from class of 60, and even my KS relatives, drop me from FB discussions. Well, I should say drop me because of my postings, as those people never discussed anything, as if they apparently simply assumed they were right and I was wrong (that is, a liberal), no discussion of facts or issues what ever. Now that is indeed foreign to me at this stage of my life of over 50 years in a foreign land where I have become immersed in a university like culture.
Or, perhaps, it is simply that my climate change studies have become so depressing that I can't really appreciate not being able to discuss real science and political issues with so many who were at one time in school with me and told to go out and help ensure that the world was becoming a better place. Just how, without wise voting behaviour, do we bring better change for all.

Now there are times I wish I were about 40 years younger so that I could move myself and relatives to somewhere safe as climate change begins to prove the right wing wrong, and the science correct; yes, it is a big deal, a very big deal. 2016 could be a turning point, or not.

Care to you and your children anyway, and be particularly caring with any great grandchildren you may have or be expecting. I may be off line for awhile, so breath a sigh of relief if you are on FB with me. I am digging into the climate change issue even deeper to check out the facts even more to ensure that I am not just being a nerd about the issue, which to me, at this point, looks to be more serious than many appear to believe. Living in the north, I have seen changes over the years, including changes in the species that now live nicely in the north that were not here in 1964 when I arrived.

Drj (Deep River Jim, a nickname given to me by a hiking buddy, based on a 1940's author who wrote stories about going into the wilds. He says my ability to spot wildlife and tell stories reminded me of Deep River Jim's books, an original copy of one being his gift to me as he downsized due to early onset Alzheimer's )

My stories will mean little to others, as they are not like those reunion memories I have witnessed before from the stage, grand memories of football events, or BB events, or band events, or Proms filled with Kings and Queens and ladies in waiting. They are basically personal memories not likely applicable or of interest to others.

I was a nerd and student back then, not a wanna be athlete. Indeed, even my memories of dating a cheerleader are ten times shorter than my fantasies of her were/are?. But I do recall lowering the top on my fire engine red 51 Pontiac Convertible while on a date into the country. Problem was a Kansas dusty wind came up and like the dumb nerd I was I pushed the automatic button to raise the top, but was facing into the very strong Westerly hitting us. The top locked up, and I had to return to town very red faced as the top functioned as a sail and signal of a young man's stupidity. I can't even now recall the girl I was with.
My one effort at being athletic was to do with tennis. I joined a bunch of boys that went to a major tennis event in an old stretch limo the school owned at the time. My tennis racquet was an old wooden one with a sad bend to it, as I got it in the seventh grade but could not afford a racquet brace to go with it. After the match, I got in for the return trip and suddenly everyone else was calling out dibs for the seats they would have for future tennis team trips. I liked where I was sitting, so yelled out I would happily take the one where I was sitting. The response was simple, "Mottin, what makes you think you are going to make the team!" It was a chorus sung with lots of laughter, so that was the end of my athletic efforts in my first year at HPHS. And as an avid hiker, I am still ashamed that fully loaded I still can't do the 30 or 40 miles a day Lewis and Clark did regularly upon returning to their boat, nor the 40-46 miles treks done by those fighting for the Union during the Civil War; including my great grandfather who was shot 12 times and had 7 horses shot out from under him. Indeed, anything around 20 miles does me in even if I were hiking naked with no load at all.
I have now still a very clear memory of the time the Harvey Twins of HPHS introduced me to Time Magazine, an introduction that had a major impact on me to begin reading well beyond my hobby interests at the time (flying, hunting, cars, and...ok, I admit it, Playboy). Suddenly I discovered the wealth of information free in the School Library.

Somewhere in there my English Teacher at the time told my Mom that I took to English like a Duck does to water. I puzzled for some time what the heck that really meant, but I took to writing anyway. I had one major problem with writing, my script could not be read, it was as if I was training to write out medical prescriptions [yes, if you can't read it, that is a signal that the pharmacist is to call the doctor and do a consult, as the doctor does not know what you need...advice from a close Pharmacist friend] So, I took a summer school course on typing, and suddenly my grades went up. The shift to typing was stimulated by the following story. I had received back a term paper with a note at the top that I could not read. I went up after class and asked the teacher what the note said. He said, in a rather emphatic voice, "IT SAYS, I CAN'T READ YOUR WRITING." Enough said...for both of us. It was during that typing class, filled with all girls of course (1957), that I learned an important fact about the Kansas climate and girls. If you left a convertible parked in the sun, the seats could then blister a girl's legs if they had a short or thin dress on. I only let that happen once!
Ah, yes, cars. I recall turning as red as my first car one day while trying to burn rubber (gravel actually) as I floored it going out of the gravel parking lot north of the school. This was in my freshly painted Caribbean Blue 52 Ford Convertible my biggest pride that I had to sell in order to go to the University of my choice, not the university that had given me a scholarship. Unfortunately, it was a stick shift, and I had allowed it to roll backwards slightly in the rush to floor it, snapped the clutch while it was still rolling, and whack, the U bolt snapped, leaving me with a useless car blocking the driveway.
Prior to the custom paint job, I drove that Ford to school the first day I got it. I was parked out back and after school proudly hoped someone I knew would come by as I started it up to leave for home. Not sure I waited long for that to happen, but I do recall that when it did, I nervously adjusted the choke setting, new to me, and the car stalled upon starting . I had to just sit there and not drive away so very flashy. Come to think of it, a great deal of my HPHS memories were of having a face as red as the red in the HPHS Hunter's Tartan. I have a book of them (yet unpublished...actually only a manuscript called HPHS Memories which I left behind with the reunion Committee of years and years ago, our 30th I think. At the time I received a small trophy for the longest response to the information asked for by the reunion committee), but I have no doubt lost too many readers already at this point, so you can add your own memories of me...just be kind, as I am a sensitive liberal.

I have been told I am a subject of much gossip, so expect to entertain many who lean hard right at this point. [Liberals appear to be at the top of Kansas hate listing] I have several decades of serious study behind me, and in Psychology at that, yet I confess of having absolutely no understanding of the Republican contradictions, lies, and basic attempt to match hates with the population in order to gain power. I tend to focus too much on policy and facts about whether they will work out for the best for all. The right wing is not any longer the party of Eisenhower that was my first introduction to politics.

Here is an easy thing to reflect on, as you reflect on our past schooling. Imagine you are in a small discussion group organized by someone like Mr. Banks. You are given the amount of donations to politicians complete with who donated what, and the amount of lobby expenditures spent willingly by the big oil, coal, and gas fracking companies. You are then given the facts about the environmental cost of carbon pollution and the methane pollution that comes from fracking, all as opposed to renewable energy methods. Then you are asked to discuss just why is it one political party would be so willing to reject climate science and evidence of climate change, fight to de-fund the EPA, attempt to force deregulation of energy extraction, or to do nothing that might alter the current economy by supporting renewables, and to do all that concurrent with more than half the population of the US believing they want something done about climate change. That is a fantasy memory we should all reflect on if we are one of those that thought we had such a great education, one that would allow us to continue to reflect openly with others about the future of our families within the next 35 to 45 years. Does such a discussion occur in Kansas schools concurrent with all those education cuts going on? I can only recall the silly sex education session my gym teacher had with us boys, all the while the fellow next to me secretly drew pictures of female genitals as if that staked his claim to being a very experienced man. There were no questions or discussion at that session either, as if sex was a political or religious topic not to be discussed in polite company. Add that to the cultural constraints that might suggest a question on the topic would be deemed less manly. I should have taken it as a symbol of the culture of Kansas, where nice, polite people do not discuss religion or politics, or anything seriously related to our future that might not align well with the local cultural constraints. My error has been to think that climate science discussions were about science, including all its history and fallibility.

I now feel a bit like Janis Lyn Joplin returning to my reunion with my Psychedelic Porsche filled with drugs. Oh my, do I love Canada, not the country of my birth, although some family history is indeed French Canadian, by way of Saint Louis when some of the family had slaves, and a child from them. Historically, some people do leave a culture they find uncomfortable. Now how is that for stimulating some Mottin gossip? "Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn" went the song from my Canadian past during the electronic music of the 70s.