In the late 1980s, thanks to an unexpected turn of Providence, I completed a long-ago-interrupted education at the University of Washington. It had been almost 40 years since I left the halls of Ivy (at that time, San Francisco State College [now University]), and it became a completely rejuvenating experience -- such that I consider it, now, extremely fortunate to have left my education incomplete at that earlier stage. I think I would have otherwise had neither the inspiration nor the inclination to return for another round. If you're curious as to how the opportunity came about, read Derelict Days in the Northwest.
I was a seasoned writer, by this time, though not in a commercial framework and therefore unknown to anyone at the University Daily. I might not even have thought about it, but one of the editors shared a class with me and he felt it would be worthwhile to have a regular column by an older person on campus.
It was a marvelous opening, for the campus of a large university can be a very alienating experience to anyone who is clearly outside the teen-age milieu. The weekly column, complete with inset photo, gave me recognition status and standing there, and before long the quality and themes of my writing attracted a regular readership.
Some forty columns were published over the course of about a year and a half, and I'll gradually be adding them to this site, for the first time most of them have been 'reprinted.'
Crockpot Cookery, from 10/24/88 - a meditation on my early days with the VSC collective in Canyon
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