Already Old And Getting Older

Decorations For My Apartment
Legget, California
May ’80


When I passed through Legget, a small California logging town,
I found a celebration going on. The townspeople were
having their annual Memorial Mountain Folk Festival. I decided to take
in some of the "doings," so after I got my tent set up, and walked
back into town (about 1.5 miles), I enjoyed watching the ax throwing
contest and the saw competition. There were lots of booths selling
wares and crafts, and a beer booth that I visited on a number of
occasions. I spent a lot of time admiring the blond haired kid's
pictures at his photography exhibit. A lot of his pictures, all nature pictures,
were taken in the same National Parks that I had visited. I was so impressed that I
decided to buy three photographs. The seller was more than obliging.
Together, we got the framed photographs ready to mail back to
Michigan. I would give the birch tree sunset one to my parents. The
other two I would hang on my apartment wall. I paid $14. for the birch
tree, and $60. more for the picture of a water droplet falling off a
pine bough and the panoramic shot of Hawaii's Waimea Canyon. That
purchase was a little out of character for me, as it cut into my
travel money, but I wasn't charged tax and when I left, the kid said,
"You just made my weekend."

I didn't need those photographs. I wanted them. For the first time in
my life I had a place to put them and that made me feel good. I had no
intention of abandoning my apartment. It was home. I had "roots" now,
and those photographs were not only beautiful, they were reminders of
the feelings I had had when I felt closest to nature—priceless
feelings. If you can't spend money on meaningful things, what good is
it? Health is more important than money, and what is healthier than
the beauty and bounty of nature, or at least in my case, the memories
of it!

I've been giving my knee a rest for the last couple of days, but now
I'm getting ready to leave this campground. By providing hiker biker
campgrounds, California has been very good to me. If you walk or ride
a bike into a campground you only have to pay fifty cents per night.
California has always been on the leading edge of progressive
thinking; now I know why John Mayall is always coming back here. Well
its time to give my knee a whirl. Hopefully, it will hold up.