Re[2]: [at-l] Walden (was Bryson's Book)

[Bob C." <ellen@clinic.net (Bob C.)]

I first read Walden around 1947 at the age of 17. The book helped get me through
basic  training  when I was drafted into the Korean War in 1951. It was my night
time reading. One barracks mate wanted to know if it were my "bible."

I first visited Walden Pond a year later while serving in the Military Police at
nearby Fort Devans.

I  first  wrote  about  Henry  Thoreau  a  few years later when as a freshman at
Illinois  Institute  of  Technology  I  was  assigned  to  describe a space in a
beginning "reading, writing" class. I described Walden Pond.

The  instructor  handed  the  paper  back without a grade, but with a cautionary
note: "These assignments are all to be original works."

I  eventually  convinced  him  that  I  had in fact written it -- since with the
passage of time the physical attributes of the pond had faded from my memory and
my essay contained details that were not precisely true.

I  eventually  got an A in that class, and Cs in all my engineering classes. But
being  a  slow  learner,  it was nearly three years later before I switched from
engineering to journalism.

Despairing  of  trying to pass another class in calculus, I crammed two years of
journalism subjects into one and finally earned a degree. (just barely)

Just  think,  if  I  had  only  stuck it out, like Jim, I too could have been an
engineer.

Weary