Growing Up
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Almost in tears, Tina bravely said that “Riding a bike is something I can’t do even with the training wheels. How can a two wheel bike stand up anyway? Why doesn’t it always fall down? That is something I will never be able to do.”
About three weeks later, Tina was buzzing around on her bike with all the rest of the kids, and she always made it a point to buzz into and out of my driveway, using it as a convenient turn around spot. She usually had a mouthful of bubble gum too. So I called out to her one day as she buzzed in, out and away if it was easy to chew gum and ride a bike at the same time. She nodded yes, and so did her ponytail as she happily zipped away.
The bad news part of all this is that I live on a corner lot and she cuts all corners short, including in and out of the driveway. The grass at those corners got worn down and died out, never to revive again till after she and her family moved out, pink bicycle, ponytail, bubblegum and all.
* * *
By the time I felt rather comfortable with the whole deer hunting routine, I got lost in the woods only about a mile from our cabin. This whole ordeal was a very humiliating experience. The only reason to write about it is that there is a good lesson or two to be learned from it, and if these lessons save just one person’s life it is worth my time, trouble and effort to include this humbling experience in the book. As a matter of fact, I think one or two of our other hunting buddies had the same or similar experience and gave no explanation for their tardiness, and just sheepishly sluffed it off when they finally got back to the cabin so late.
* * *
I am grateful to one of my opponents on the tennis court that he was a good sport. Let’s call him Roy. We were playing singles. He called a let (and we played the point over) when he clearly could have blasted a winner. The situation was that we were playing on an end court. He ran me off the court. I returned the ball, but my momentum carried me into the side fence. The fencing was loose at the bottom and my foot slipped under. He saw what happened and yelled a blood curdling yell, “FREEZE, SAM FREEZE, DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE.” He apparently had seen this happen before and knew what would happen if I tried to run back on court. I was trapped. He ran over to me and held the fencing back so I could safely withdraw my foot. Otherwise, in my haste the jagged ends of the cyclone fencing would have sprung back and down into my foot and ankle ripping and making a bloody mess of it all. Thanks to
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Much of the book is written like a diary and presupposes you are not really grown up till you are 75 years old. The author is 77 years old and considers himself to be a boring grown up now. The book contains 17 chapters and 12 appendices (expanding on the various chapters) which are about some experiences of his own growing up that he considers to have a message, involve lessons to be learned, are of general interest or are about things one may have wondered about but never took the time to fully understand.
The first chapter sets the tone for the early chapters which are rather light reading. The remainder of the book (appendices included) take on a deeper and at times a more somber note. The word “cooperation” is woven throughout the various chapters and in Chapter 16 a case is made for insects (cockroaches in particular) inheriting the earth because they know how to cooperate with each other to survive, after we human beings crusade ourselves into extinction, and go the way of the dinosaur.
Religious leaders are implored to surface and get involved:
? Cooperate with other religious leaders.
? Quell the extremists.
? Let there be universal freedom of religion with mutual celebration and respect.
? Eventually let a universal system of weights, measures, time, mathematics, languages and religions evolve. Some of these are already established, so please get on with it.
About the Author
The author is retired from industry and government services. His work history involved work in solid state physics, x-ray diffraction, spectrographic analysis, materials engineering and was a tennis instructor. He holds an M.S. degree in physics and an M.S. degree in industrial engineering. He has given/published six technical papers, holds two patents, published two books (see bibliography to this book) and has won two tennis trophies.
His involvement with precise laboratory equipment and studies in the exact sciences and teaching tennis provided him with the insight/background and ability to explain seemingly complex topics in a rather simple and straight forward manner understandable to children of all ages. This ability to perceive, understand and explain was of great value in writing this book. Simple questions from children like “How can a two wheel bike stay up when you ride it anyway, and how can I learn to ride one?” was answered in such a simple manner, a four year old could understand and quickly learn how to ride her bike. Previously, Tina thought she was a “basket case” when it came to learning to ride her nice little pink bicycle.
The author thanks the good Lord for this ability and gladly uses it just because it’s fun and he is happy to be able to help.