Exchange student

[Dave]

There is a town (Unity population 40), more like a wide spot 40 some miles west of here. It has to be 60 miles to the nearest grocery store. They have a boarding school there. One of the local boys graduated from that high school. At his graduation party there was 4 or 5 Japanese exchange students who went to school with him. Talk about culture shock. Come from Japan where they pack people on to the trains to wide open ranches with miles after miles of sage brush pastures.

 

[50/50Farms]

There is a town (Unity population 40), more like a wide spot 40 some miles west of here. It has to be 60 miles to the nearest grocery store. They have a boarding school there. One of the local boys graduated from that high school. At his graduation party there was 4 or 5 Japanese exchange students who went to school with him. Talk about culture shock. Come from Japan where they pack people on to the trains to wide open ranches with miles after miles of sage brush pastures.

The girl that I dated loved the difference. She told me she wanted to really get into the rural culture so I took her hunting, shooting, horseback riding, hiking, anything else she wanted to do. Must have been crazy to eat venison off of a fire for someone who's probably never even been to a real barbecue.

 

[shaz]

There is a town (Unity population 40), more like a wide spot 40 some miles west of here. It has to be 60 miles to the nearest grocery store. They have a boarding school there. One of the local boys graduated from that high school. At his graduation party there was 4 or 5 Japanese exchange students who went to school with him. Talk about culture shock. Come from Japan where they pack people on to the trains to wide open ranches with miles after miles of sage brush pastures.

I invited a Japanese coworker out to the farm to shoot guns. Got pictures of him feeding cows and driving a tractor. He's got stories to take back to Japan for sure

 

[Dave]

I over estimated the distance from Unity to anything. there are three directions out of there. It is 48, 49, or 56 miles to towns with groceries, gas stations, and food service of some sort. All three of those routes take you over mountain passes that all exceed 5,000 feet. You are pretty much isolated there in the winter.

 

[greybeard]

I think about her sometimes, just a passing little thought that the wind blows in.

Dangerous thoughts but I can sure relate. 3 counties and 80 miles east of here, I left one 40 years ago next year. Lying if I said her face doesn't cross my mind about once in every odd #'d blue moon, but love my current wife dearly and don't dare let that fading memory stick for long. Got lots of memories I have to keep down deep, most pretty bad but they visit me some nights anyway.

 

[Dave]

Dangerous thoughts but I can sure relate. 3 counties and 80 miles east of here, I left one 40 years ago next year. Lying if I said her face doesn't cross my mind about once in every odd #'d blue moon, but love my current wife dearly and don't dare let that fading memory stick for long. Got lots of memories I have to keep down deep, most pretty bad but they visit me some nights anyway.

You are certainly not alone. There was one I knew over by Spokane. I was headed that way to see her in October. Blew up the transmission in my car. Never got over there. The next spring at a rodeo she was there. She had married a guy who was in the Air Force. He was getting out in a week or two and moving to his home town in Oklahoma. When I saw her she was about to pop. Did the math...... but she was married so I just walked away. But I do wonder and think about them from time to time.

 

[50/50Farms]

Dangerous thoughts but I can sure relate. 3 counties and 80 miles east of here, I left one 40 years ago next year. Lying if I said her face doesn't cross my mind about once in every odd #'d blue moon, but love my current wife dearly and don't dare let that fading memory stick for long. Got lots of memories I have to keep down deep, most pretty bad but they visit me some nights anyway.

Funny how that works, ain't it? They always told me the past fades, but mostly it just accumulates if you ask me.

 

[greybeard]

I think it does on the other side too. A line from an old song, about a married woman thinking about things.
"Dreams of the Everyday Housewife..Glen Campbell 1968"
She looks in the mirror and stares at the wrinkles
That weren't there yesterday
And thinks of the young man that she almost married
What would he think if he saw her this way?

 

[GoWyo]

"Grandpa's sitting on the front porch staring at a rake,
wondering if his marriage was a terrible mistake"

John Prine

This line is pretty deep given Grandpa is implied in the song to have kids and grandkids - not sure whether to laugh about it or if it is a sad statement. Then again, it could have been a more recent marriage.

 

[50/50Farms]

The good news is that all of our decisions outlive us anyway, so if ya wait around long enough you'll lose the problem.

 

[Travlr]

Dangerous thoughts but I can sure relate. 3 counties and 80 miles east of here, I left one 40 years ago next year. Lying if I said her face doesn't cross my mind about once in every odd #'d blue moon, but love my current wife dearly and don't dare let that fading memory stick for long. Got lots of memories I have to keep down deep, most pretty bad but they visit me some nights anyway.

Old girlfriends make for some... interesting memories. Some pretty heart wrenching, but in the end I wouldn't trade them for different results. Even with the tough endings the good memories outweigh the bad. And in the end... old men have a lot more memories to choose from.

 

[50/50Farms]

Old girlfriends make for some... interesting memories. Some pretty heart wrenching, but in the end I wouldn't trade them for different results. Even with the tough endings the good memories outweigh the bad. And in the end... old men have a lot more memories to choose from.

100%

I wouldn't change anything either, I've got a wonderful wife and great kids. But a body who spends a lot of time alone in the majesty of nature just catches those little colorful memories carried in on the breeze, and every now and then you relish one and relive it with a smile. There's two sides of the coin for me. On the one side, I see life as brief, brutal and random. On the other, I see it as a beautiful journey in a beautiful world built for us and in which I see God in everything.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I only have one person that floods my thoughts and dreams. He was my best friend, my partner, my lover and my husband of a short 43 years. I was one of the lucky ones. We did everything together. He didn't have "his" friends nor did I. They were all our friends. He is all around me all the time. Life is good.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

There are two stories within all of us. The first and most obvious sets behind the eye, teetering upon the precipice of our
imagination, yet clinging with tenacity to the walls of truth. This is the tale of the past. We are living proof and testimony of this story.
Our existence verifies it and we have but to condense it to script in such a manner as pleases the imagination.

Comes now the second story and therein lies the rub. The second story is the one that lives within the heart, the inside story if you will.
This is about our present and future and lies like an embryo buried soul deep within us. We are all curious how the story ends but fear,
common sense and Divine Wisdom keeps us from turning the pages and reading ahead. It grows day by day, nurtured by the successes
and failures of the first story. One wonders if both stories will have the same ending. This is the tale we must live ourselves whether or not it is written which leads me to ask, How can anyone know or feel the disillusionment or frustration another man feels when he stands alone in the yellow woods? And without knowing, who are we to judge the one who must turn right.......or left?

 

[greybeard]

Robert Frost endures..

 

[sunnyblueskies]

Going back to the original topic, back from old girlfriends and boyfriends..........
The original post about exchange student get's me back to the days too.
I was about 17 or 18, back in Germany. And I looked seriously at exchange student programs to the US of A. Wanting to see what country life in 'the states' was all about. Didn't work out for some reason, something about having already graduated or how placement was chosen. Don't remember exactly. Went for a holiday to Africa when I was 18 instead.
But life plays a trick on all of us either way. Hahahahaha
Now, many many moons later, I'm Canadian and my husbands "permanent exchange student" on the farm.

My hats off to you families who are willing to take on young people wanting to see life on a different path and a different world. You are making a great impact on a new life, one they will never forget.

 

[shaz]

Old girlfriends make for some... interesting memories. Some pretty heart wrenching, but in the end I wouldn't trade them for different results. Even with the tough endings the good memories outweigh the bad. And in the end... old men have a lot more memories to choose from.

I dated a stripper who's nickname was Slugger. No fond memories here

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I dated a stripper who's nickname was Slugger. No fond memories here

At least she said she loves you!!

 

[kenny thomas]

I dated a stripper who's nickname was Slugger. No fond memories here

Do you realize how many questions that opens up.

 

[50/50Farms]

Not too many for me, if he'd been enlisted when he dated her he'd have married her, had a kid with her, divorced her after she took up pain pills and day drinking, and every Monday morning in formation we'd know why they called her "Slugger"