STRAYING HOME
A Leave from a Love
by
Darrell Reeck
Neahkahnie Press
Portland, OR
©Darrell
Reeck. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form without permission in writing from Darrell Reeck
(dreeck@msn.com)
Previous Books by
Darrell Reeck
Deep Mende
Ethics for the Professions: a Christian Perspective
Growing Green Two Ways!
Acknowledgements
I'm so grateful for the assistance given me by family and friends in writing this e-book. Decades ago (1960-61) my parents and teachers
gave a huge boost. The book honors them all, deceased and alive.
Citizens
of and expatriates in the ten countries I visited in 1960 and 1961 opened their
doors and my eyes to their joys in their homes, town and cities. In the book I’ve
mentioned many by name and have written of others anonymously. I take enormous
pleasure in making public through this writing their gifts and sacrifices
toward helping me. I’d like to think that they helped me as a young traveler
get beyond wandering and into deeper levels of life.
The
Bradfords (Lester and Winnie), the Thomases (Jack and Dolores), and Esther
Megill not only hosted me in West Africa in 1960 but also, in 2013 and 2014, gave
suggestions on earlier versions of the book.
I
received valuable editing services from Tammy Adamson-McMullen of Poulsbo,
Washington and Val Dumond of Lakewood, Washington. Sharon Smith of Hayden Lake, Idaho, provided a list of grammatical errors. My son, David, of Seattle,
has given much by way of suggestion and help, particularly with e-publishing
options. Grady Holaday of Philomath, Oregon, contributed his photo preparation
magic.
I saw Bill,
my travel partner, for the last time when he boarded an old green Piper Cub on
a jungle airstrip in Liberia in 1961. You’ll read about Bill, the plane and the
airfield. Bill flew off on his own extension of the trip we’d made together. I
remain grateful to him for sharing the trip with me.
In producing the book, my wife, Lucille, has helped me add life into the
text through her hours of proofreading and comments. In a way that you’ll
realize if you read from beginning to end, she forms the true arc of the story.
I dedicate the book to her.
Free
reading and read freely! I’m asking for no compensation for Straying Home in this electronic form.
If you’d like to be supportive, I suggest that you purchase Growing Green Two Ways! Filled with many
delightful stories, it’s the prequel to Straying
Home.
Growing Green Two Ways! is
available at many outlets, both at online or walk-in bookstores.
The present book is divided into chapters and, for your reading convenience, the chapters
are subdivided into episodes. At the end of each reading session, jot down the
page number. I’ll appreciate your feedback on the entire book as a single post.
CONTENTS
Taking Leave of Love: January, 1960. .
. . .
. . .
. . . .
. . .
. . .
. .Page 9
Preparations, breaking up with Lucy, laboring for funds
Preparations, breaking up with Lucy, laboring for funds
European Paths, Fall 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .Page 30
U.K., Paris, Berlin, West Germany, Switzerland and France
U.K., Paris, Berlin, West Germany, Switzerland and France
I Love West Africa, 1960 to 1961. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . Page 104
Dakar,
Guinea, Sierra Leone and back again.
Beeline Home to Love .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page
264
Darting home
to Lucy via New York and Chicago
DEDICATION
To Lucy
(Who Waited)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Right after
completing my previous story of coming of age in the Pacific Northwest, Growing Green Two Ways!, I continued
writing stories about people and places I encountered as a frontiersman, virtually
a hick, going global. As a 21 year I left from Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport in September, 1960 for Europe. After weeks of mind-blowing discoveries
in England, France, Germany and Switzerland, traveling and living out of a
Volkswagen Kombi minivan, I noticed that it was colder every single subsequent
week. Fall slid toward winter. Daylight was shorter and the dark hours of night
longer. I knew I needed to shift toward the equator. Like storks and swans, I migrated
to Africa. After the winter weeks there, I wandered back through Europe to home
through ice, snow and high seas.
When I left my home in Tacoma to wander my family was in
full support. But my departure was considered irregular by others. For example,
I was required to obtain a special exemption from my draft board. I upset
admissions officers by delaying entrance into my prospective graduate school. And
especially difficult, I took a leave of absence from my girlfriend, Lucy. Had I
simply continued on to graduate school after my senior year of college and
married after a couple of years, many would have been considered my pattern to
be normal.
I, though, felt that some were failing to consider the
downside of someone of my age and disposition by simply doing the normal and
expected. Had I done the normal and expected, I would have missed my best
chance at a life-changing experience. The year of travel put me into
interaction with exceptional models of successful, faithful living. I don’t
mean that I gained by taking a year out and getting counseling from a personal
coach. I mean something different: that, by wandering from place to place, many
wonderful people shared their lives and life callings with me. Their incredible
generosity changed my life for the better. These sharers-of-life-callings took
me in, told me their stories, gave me access to situations I could never have entered
on my own, and sent me on my way with introductions to their friends down the
road. These persons were American expatriates, Brits, Germans, French, Sierra
Leoneans, Liberians, and other West Africans. I would have missed that
opportunity had I done the normal thing.
Because I want you to meet these notable people I write of
those times in complete confidence that what you’ll read of them can change
your life also. I write to take my hat off to them and to applaud them, too.
The events I write occurred half a century ago. The life principles I discovered
are applicable today and will remain so tomorrow.
That I wandered in a particularly critical year, 1960-61, when
West African nations were bowing on the world stage as independent countries,
is essential to the story, too, and so is the reality that several European
nations I visited were still in recovery from World War II. I was a witness to
big plays on the world stage. But much of what I write is right down to earth.
It has to do with hosting the stranger.
The itinerary we’ll follow is London,
Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt. Then on we go on to Basel, Geneva and Bordeaux.
Some experiences on a coastal paquebot
en route to Africa lead to time spent in Dakar, Conakry, and the countries of
Sierra Leone and Liberia. An early spring voyage on the storm-tossed North
Atlantic brings us back to the States: New York, Chicago, and home.
This travel book is less about scenic peaks and valleys and
more about peak human beings, lined up like a chain of mountains. Some of my
travel associations from 1960-61 lasted a few days. Others have persisted
through more than fifty years and our lives’ journeys.
As I’ve read about other wanderers like ibn Battuta, 1304 to
1368 AD, and a Marco Polo, 1254 to 1324 AD, both extensive travelers, or watched Siegfried’s maneuvers in
Wagner’s woods, I’ve felt a kindred spirit. They set out on long journeys,
discovered a lot about themselves, made sense of it, all and brought something
significant home. I feel a bit like the Lord Jesus, who wandered about, had no
home, and conversed with strangers in fishing boats and beside wells in the desert.
I don’t need to say more to justify having done my own stint in my world in my
time as a 21-year old.
There’s a sweet madness to the life of a wanderer. You’ll
find much that’s sweet and some that’s just crazy in what follows.
You’ll find many original photos. They’ll help you re-live
the story.
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