Last Week in Tucson...

Piggy-back Endeavour - September 20, 2012

I finally saw a space shuttle!  Years ago, I went to see a space shuttle “launch.”  Well, I saw a movie anyway… in IMAX!  My dream though, one of them, was to travel to Florida to see an actual shuttle lift-off, but I never made it. I did hear one, one time.

I don’t remember which shuttle it was, but in the early years of the program, probably before the Challenger loss, I stood outside my truck one morning and listened, and watched, for the shuttle to come over Arizona as it prepared to land at its alternate runway at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.  I think it was the only time it landed there – Edwards AFB and the Kennedy Space Center were both weathered-in and NASA needed to get the machine back on the ground.  I think the hungry astronauts were running out of food or something…

So a few minutes before it would have to overfly the Arizona desert, I stood outside on a sidewalk beside a busy north Phoenix street, and hoped that I would see a contrail – or perhaps hear the twin sonic booms that were its signature.  I didn’t see it – but as the observers in New Mexico were exclaiming that it was in sight, I did hear those twin booms.  It was exhilarating, and I am sure I talked about it the rest of the day and probably the next day too.

I have mentioned before about my Dad’s work in the American space program, and almost everyone I know knows about his work on the SRB’s – I’ve told everyone that story – so I won’t repeat that one here. Likewise, I've yapped about the importance of the space program – including not just remote or automated exploration but also human space flight – in the end, that is the only way mankind can survive.  We may have plenty of time for that, or we may not.  But we better keep working on it…

So this last year, the space shuttle (Endeavour) went to space and back for the last time – with astronaut Mark Kelly at “the stick.”  Atlantis was the last shuttle to go to space and back – but Endeavour was the last to make its last flight to its post-space home.  Here’s what NASA says about it on their website…

Endeavour was NASA’s fifth and final space shuttle to be built. Construction began on Sept. 28, 1987 and it rolled out of the assembly plant in Palmdale, Calif. in April 1991. It was named after a ship chartered to traverse the South Pacific in 1768 and captained by 18th century explorer James Cook. Endeavour flew 25 times, traveling more than 122,000 miles and accumulating 299 days in space. Like shuttles Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis, Endeavour is embarking on its next mission – to inspire the next generation of explorers and engineers at the California Science Center.

Endeavour’s “26^th” mission brought it flying over Tucson, Arizona.  I was in Tucson, attending a training class; that entire class of American traffic school instructor patriots trooped out to the parking lot at Pima County Community College on Bonita Street – and we waited for it to arrive.

Endeavour arrived over Tucson on the back of its Boeing 747 transporter – and it made two broad-banking passes over the city.  This was so Mark Kelly and his wife, Arizona’s Gabrielle Giffords, could see the shuttle Kelly commanded, on its last journey.  I saw only one of its circuits around the city – and I am satisfied with that.  I didn’t know it was coming back around – I thought it might – but I didn’t stay outside long enough to see the second pass.

But it was awesome – it was glorious – it was magnificent.  Then it went on to Edwards AFB, eventually made a pass or two over SFO, and then landed in Los Angeles at LAX to spend some time in a hangar in preparation for its becoming a California Science Center museum piece.  Ah, gone too soon!

America, let’s get busy.  We need to regain our focus and initiative and reinvigorate our drive into the unknown, ideally with other space-looking nations as our partners. We need to get our next human-carrying spacecraft into the dark blue beyond, and we need to go to Mars.  I don’t think we’ll find much there.  But we’ll sure learn a lot in the endeavour.  Let’s GO.

September 24, 2012

The man tried to drown me once...

Would this man drown a kid?

When I was in grade 7 or 8, I do not remember which, my teacher tried to kill me.  I don’t know why exactly – he said I was “mouthy.”  Those who know me well know that this cannot possibly be true.  I am never anything if I am not respectful, especially of my elders. I always have been.   

But he apparently lost his temper with me over some perceived misconduct. He joyfully lifted me bodily from the floor, slid me horizontally down the “science lab” counter in a classroom at Cholla elementary school (somewhat like an otter on a water-slide) – from one end to the other where there was a deep sink – and then he tried to drown me. It was by the luckiest of coincidences that I was able to escape. This is all the more horrifying because this man professed to be my friend and as my teacher, was charged with my care and protection while at school.  I know!  Now that I think about it, there were probably a couple of other educators who might have had the same homicidal urges when they thought about me, but I digress...

For about the past twenty years, he and I spoke almost every day. We traveled together, we ate together and we sat and talked together; it was enough happiness for me to simply sit somewhere with him and talk; it didn’t really matter where. He was my mentor, my “father,” my buddy, my true friend. He was always available when I needed him (even when I didn’t know I needed him) and he never asked for anything in return. He was my friend every day of my life from 12 years old to the day he left us all behind, no doubt unwillingly (the leaving, I mean).

He was my seventh-grade home-room teacher at Cholla Elementary School in 1965-66.  I don’t remember a single thing about how we became friends outside of the usual teacher-student relationship.  I just remember that we did. Such a close relationship between a teacher and a student would not even be possible today. 

I remember rough-housing with him in the classroom (see story above) – before, after, and even during class to some extent; that drowning story was his favorite too -- he always told that one when he'd introduce me to someone. I wasn't just mouthy, I was a load of trouble both inside and outside the schoolhouse - but he loved kids, even troublesome ones. It wasn’t long before he and I were trading items from our lunch boxes – the way I remember it, he brought the same sandwich every day – a cotto-salami sandwich on “yellow-colored” bread, like maybe buttermilk bread (with mustard)? We’d swap occasionally. I can't eat a salami sandwich today without thinking of Dave.

Dave was probably always a counselor and a “mentor” at heart. I’m not the only one he looked after – there were literally hundreds over the years. One thing I learned about him today that I do not remember he ever shared with me, was that he once was chosen the national "middle school counselor of the year." While I may not have known that fact, it doesn't surprise me. As a teacher and later a counselor, he and his teacher-counselor partners ended up with all the problem boys. I was simply one of his first and he could never get rid of me after that. His care wasn’t limited to school hours – I was invited to his home on multiple occasions. I met his wife, his in-laws, and his kids. They all became part of my life and made me feel like “family” when I was with them. I still do today.

He saw me, as he did others he helped, as an at-risk kid. I don't think he was wrong about that; I believe I was an at-risk kid – and I also believe that I didn’t get too far off the path to decency because of his guidance and his care for me. I think I very easily could have. I wonder today how many others like me could say the same thing? I’ll bet there are many. But not all of them were lucky enough to become an every day part of his life, as I did, once they were past school age. Many kids who get into trouble today do so because they don't have a Dave Melian in their life who cares for them -- who decides that it is the most important thing in the world to make a difference for someone. It isn't always convenient to do that, you know.

Sometimes on Saturday mornings I would ride my bicycle over to their house in Moon Valley – and once there, I would follow him around. He and Gloria would have me eat with them and I think he usually threw my bike in the back of his station wagon and would cart me home afterwards. The first Crepes Suzettes I ever had, Dave made for me when I was just a kid - they were always one of his specialties. 

My teacher - 1967

My first trip to the Grand Canyon was with Dave and his family – in that green Ford station wagon.  He had given me a camera – a little 35mm Agfa (which he later got back for his son), and I still remember a photo I took on that trip of the San Francisco Peaks in the rear-view side-mirror; creative photography at 14!  It was a winter-time trip and there was snow on the mountains. I often wonder if there is a connection between that wonderful experience and my love for the Grand Canyon today – it is certainly not the entire story – but I’ll bet it didn’t hurt.

I was a rather timid boy – bullied occasionally – and I rarely stood up for myself. One particularly spoiled and socially-inappropriate kid (not naming names here) jumped up on a chair in the music-room one day and kicked me in the ribs – either breaking or bruising them pretty seriously (don’t remember which, but seems to me they were cracked, at least). I couldn’t retaliate for this offense for quite some time – if you’ve ever had injured ribs you know why. So anger and the desire for revenge smoldered in me… Finally, weeks or months later, I caught that skunk in the hallway at the school when there were no witnesses around, and I backed him into a corner and lit into him. 

I am sure Dave knew a good part of the background of the dispute. As luck would have it, he rounded the corner a minute or two (or at least a few seconds) into the fight, saw what was going on – and unfortunately for the rat who was being "corrected,” Dave wheeled around and disappeared back down the hallway from whence he came, having never been seen by my enemy. The other guy lost that fight big time; righteousness was on my side that day and Dave firmly believed in justice - even if it was schoolyard justice.

In the years after I got a little older and was in high school, Dave and his peers arranged to take the boys he was charged with on camping trips and outings. Many of his favorite stories were about those adventures - he was almost arrested on probably more than one occasion because of things that they did. I never got to go along on any of those - but I went camping once with his family - out to Apache Lake. 

I got a little sick to my stomach that weekend (probably from the heat) – but I still remember it as a good experience because of Dave’s care. Then, as they do now, the Melians had a small travel trailer – but I remember Dave and I sleeping outside under the stars. David and Kathleen were both still smaller at the time. Probably my clearest memory of that weekend is Dave and I floating on inner tubes, bobbing around in the middle of Apache Lake with speed boats flying by and swerving all around us! Hey, Dave knew how to live and enjoy life! On the way home that Sunday, we stopped for church in Globe. Dave and Gloria are devout Catholics and church is always part of their week. They don’t make excuses why they can’t go, they plan to do it as it is unthinkable not to. I still remember that Mass, which we attended at a pretty church in downtown Globe.

Dave's faith shaped his entire life – he told me at one time he had planned and studied to be a priest and was attending school for that purpose. I don’t remember why he got sidetracked; it was probably Gloria’s fault (‘cause you know priests cannot marry…) This distraction from the priesthood was probably a massive stroke of luck for David, Kathleen and Jim... Still, he “ministered” all his life; I can name dozens of people that he cared about and cared for. Although he was never "preachy" about it, we talked about it all the time and it was always plain what he was up to. Dave’s ministry, every day that I knew him, was looking after the people around him.

As I grew up, went away to the service, got married, Dave faded out of my life for about twenty years. It seems like a long period as I think about it, but twenty years isn’t really that long. I thought about the Melians often during those years, but life got in the way of any connection with them I might have had, given my distractions, family and job. I regret that now of course, those "missing years," but I think it is a normal thing that happens to many of us. Friends and acquaintances, even good ones, pass in and out of our lives during the course of it all. The great thing, and my good fortune, is that with Dave and his family that drifting apart was not permanent like it often is for some.

I found myself thinking about him, wondering how he was doing, and eventually I looked him up and we reconnected in the 1990s. We picked up right where we left off. I know absolutely that our re-acquaintance was meant to be and it came about exactly the way it was supposed to. I don't believe in fate, or pre-destination, but Dave and I were meant to be friends and there was no avoiding it. We have spoken almost every day since. We never had a disagreement or a fight – and I do not believe he was ever mad at me.  If he was ever mad at me, he never showed it.  And knowing me, that’s a huge compliment to him… and indicative of his great patience.

Since then, he and I traveled together frequently – so many times that some of the memories run together. Sometimes we traveled with others of his family – sometimes just the two of us – at least once it was just the “boys” – Dave, me, John (another friend) and Jim – all making a pilgrimage together to the Melian cabin above Prescott, where we mostly just sat around and talked – we talked about what big beer-drinkers we were, and the pleasures of biscuits and gravy. I don’t remember drinking that much beer, but we talked about it… all weekend long.

Some of our other trips included Mexico (Rocky Point), San Diego, a couple of Royal Caribbean cruises (Mexico and Alaska), Grand Canyon and Southern Utah, Quebec and New England, the Arizona border from Bisbee to Canyon de Chelly… you get the idea. He and Gloria took me to Los Angeles a couple of years ago for my birthday – we stayed with Haig and Kathleen a day or two and then we drove up the coast. On that trip -- Jim, Gloria and I took turns in the cramped back seat of Dave's little Chevy Cobalt -- and the air conditioning quit right in the middle of the Mohave Desert coming home - in August - over by Needles.  Hey, it's an adventure! He and I even went out chasing thunderstorms once or twice... In recent months, we talked about still more future trips we might take together -- to Los Angeles for a hot dog at Pink's, and a windjammer cruise I found out about up in Maine.

Dave and Gen on a St Lawrence ferry

Dave and I took a trip to Maine and Quebec back in 2009 - we drove from Portsmouth up the coast into Quebec to visit my friend Genevieve; along the way we had a lobster dinner in Bangor.  

You know, the way they eat lobster in Maine?  They cook the whole lobster. Everything. They put that "whole" lobster on the plate and there you have it. And they expect you to eat the whole thing and they don't consider you normal unless you do. My adventurous friend tried it. I didn't, but he did. Neither one of us ate the whole thing though; even Dave only took a few bites of that nasty middle part.  From then on, I order just the tail! The next morning, on a beautiful sunny Maine day in October, we stopped at a rest area and took photos of Mt Katahdin (which is where I took that photo of him above, sitting in the rental car); Mt Katahdin is the place where the rays of the morning sun first strike mainland US soil each day.

Alain's B&B - a 17th century farmhouse

We continued north across the border, met Genevieve and toured with her along the St Lawrence - we ate crepes in Quebec City and we rode the ferry across the seaway.  We stayed at Alain's B and B and had huge blueberry pancakes baked slowly on Alain's antique iron stove, and we drank Alain's "stands-up-by-itself" cowboy coffee. We had a reluctant but ultimately roaring bonfire on a cold, dark beach. We sat on the shores of Lake Champlain in the sunshine and watched the boats. 

Dave and Gloria's 50th anniversary in Alaska

One of the best times was his and Gloria’s 50th Anniversary cruise from Alaska to Vancouver three years ago.  It was a really wonderful thing to be able to celebrate that milestone with these two friends, their real family, and several of us who are "adopted" family.  We ate together every evening – and Dave and I walked around Ketchikan with Jim for an afternoon when our ship stopped there. We made several trips to the ship's sauna and jacuzzi. We had a late-evening drink together onboard a couple of times – and also met several times in the ship’s hamburger joint for late night snacks with Jim. Jim’s like me – always hungry (or at least ready to eat). There was much more, of course, but these are some of the individual memories that stand out for me as being particularly good ones.

It bothers me right at the moment that as I think back on the years of our friendship, not every little bit of our shared history is present in my memory.  It’s that there is so much to remember – and that many things have become so familiar that it seems we always knew them, they’re always there.  Little bits and memories are there – pieces of things that we did together, woven into the fabric of many years passed by.  My mind is hungry for memories right now, because now he's gone and that is an immediate hurt. I don't want to forget any of him, or to allow the memories to grow dim.

I cannot say that I have any regrets.  It's just that I long for another minute or two where I could give him a hug, or hear him tell me in great detail about one of his boyhood memories, or about a great meal he had on the ship a couple of weeks ago. His departure was sudden; I had no time to prepare for it.  The news of his passing literally took my breath away, it was such an unexpected shock. In that, I know I am not alone and I am not complaining. 

I know Dave is OK. Dave was 82, almost 83, and his physical heart was struggling, so this moment should not have been, and in the end was not, a surprise. He and I talked about this. Our discussions about death were matter of fact, not fearful. I told him more than once that he was not allowed to die, that I needed him too much; but we never get our heart's desire when it comes to that. Many times we encounter people who never had the chance to say goodbye, farewell, to someone they loved. While it is true that I did not get to specifically say goodbye to him, we had left nothing unsaid. 

He knew that I loved him, and I think he knew how important he was to me. I am a much poorer person now that he is gone – and it will be most difficult, if not impossible, to fill the hole he leaves. Without any worries about "manly" reserve or etiquette, I can tell you that I loved him – that I could not have loved anyone more.

My friend David H. Melian died this past week. I’ve done nothing but think about him since the moment I heard that sad news, which is a natural thing when you lose someone who was such a large part of your life. And today, there was a funeral mass for Dave. Afterward, many went to his son and daughter’s home for a celebration of his life. There was lots of comfortable conversation between people who shared love, food, laughter, friendship, not just a few tears and experiences that were all tied together in our memories of this wonderful man. 

I repeatedly heard the memories of Dave that others shared – and the themes were the same as I have written here; everyone remembers him in much the same way. As I heard others speak of him – I thought more than once that what they said would have been just as true – even the same words – as if I had spoken them myself. This, I think, is the legacy of a very successful man, a man who lived his faith consistently each day. He was a person who loved life and the people he shared it with and he knew how to express that love, both in word and deed.

On his last vacation, just days before he passed away, I followed his ship’s progress around the Mediterranean and the flights he, Gloria and Jim took – the way I almost always do when any of my friends are away on trips. As their time away grew to a close, I got impatient for their return, so much so that I went to the airport to greet them on their arrival home. I do not usually do that unless I am giving someone a ride. But I was missing him, even though there was no idea that our time together was at its end.

I unfortunately had the wrong flight – I had lost the paper I wrote the flight numbers on and I guessed and picked the wrong one. They were already headed home from the airport a few minutes before I got there and so, on Sunday evening, I missed what would have been my last sight of Dave in this world. That, I regret. We did talk on the telephone the next evening, as we almost always did each day.  His last words to me as we ended our conversation on Monday night, were “I love you.”

Can you think of any better way to remember your best friend?

My best friend Dave Melian was born on December 21, 1929 in Melvindale, Michigan. He passed away at his home in Cave Creek, Arizona on a Wednesday; September 12, 2012 at about eight o'clock in the morning. In between, he lived and loved each day the best way he knew how. What an example he was for me; I am a better person for having known him.

Even though he tried to drown me once, maybe even because he did, I will miss him each and every day.

September 15, 2012