I would like to address this epistle to those of you who are going back to school with the great pandemic of 2020 still hanging over your heads. I used to work as a substitute teacher at the high school level. When a regular teacher gave an assignment to study for a test or to turn in work the next day, it was invariably a signal to the students to relax, talk to their friends, sneak out their cell phones and generally to do nothing.
When my wife and I travel we like to frequent the “Mom & Pop” restaurants in the cities and towns we visit. In doing so, we meet some remarkably interesting people along the way.
A few years ago, we were passing through Gallup, New Mexico, and stopped at such a place to eat.
“But, I declare to you,” said J. Reuben Clark, “that it (the Constitution) is what Gladstone said it was, the greatest document ‘ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man,’ a document which, according to my belief, the Lord himself ‘suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles,’ established ‘by the hands of wise men whom the Lord raised up for this very purpose’; a ...
Although I was born in the United States, I acquired Mexican citizenship through my father who was born in Chihuahua. Because I was living in Mexico as a youth, it was necessary to register with the Mexican military and to obtain some basic training. While still in high school I was issued a “cartilla” that certified that I had fulfilled my military obligation and that I was in good standing in the Mexican Army Reserve.
In 1969, as a graduate student at BYU, I spent a month in Guatemala ...
Before my father retired in Mexico City, he plotted on paper the placement of 14,000 apple trees and a sprinkler irrigation system on land he owned in the state of Chihuahua. However, as the time arrived for the actual planting of the trees he began to have second thoughts. “It will be five years before these trees come into production,” he told my mother.
I remember reading a letter to Ann Landers written by a woman who had just turned 40. She was lamenting that her “life was over.” She just didn’t know how she could cope with being a middle-aged woman. She felt betrayed and could no longer look forward to a bright future.
Shortly after Ms.
I was fortunate, indeed, to land a job right out of college that took me all over Mexico from top to bottom and places in-between. I was charged with the supervision of ten primary schools scattered along the west coast and in southeastern Mexico. In several of those places my father had either supervised the construction of the schools, had purchased the properties or had built a nearby church.
I took Linda Robinson to the high school Junior Prom. I remember that night well because the borrowed car I was driving almost got washed away in flood waters on the way to the dance.
Years later when I spotted her at a family gathering, we were both married and had families.
As a consequence of my work with a private school system in Mexico, I was invited to attend a social function at the residence of the United States Ambassador to Mexico in Mexico City. It was a semi-formal affair attended by dignitaries not only from the American Embassy, multi-national banks, businesses and corporations, but also from many top-shelf Mexican entrepreneurial, social and political entities.
Although decked out in my best freshly pressed business suit and power tie, I must adm ...
I several years ago I took a job with a major retailer in order to purchase a much-needed previously-owned pickup truck. It was hard for this old man to interrupt his retirement in order to reach that goal but, when I really think about it, the experience just might be helping me keep from becoming a total couch potato while staying active in body, mind and spirit.
