The Dartmouth Stowaway

The day our paths crossed. I was busy with no job, no residency, traveling the country going to baseball games. Then I met 21-year-old Carl Strom, who made me look like a conformist.

Steve, a college friend, and I had been traveling since California. As we were getting back on the freeway in Houston I saw a guy standing on the onramp holding a cardboard sign that read, “New Orleans.” That happened to be where we were going. Soon three of us were jammed into the compact rental car. Carl had left California about a week earlier and hadn’t showered since. This was evident.

His backpack consisted of some metal pipes, two olive canisters, some straps, and an old seatbelt. Connected to it was his tarp, and red plastic gasoline canister, which he used for water. He even wrote "water" in big letters on one side so people wouldn't question his sanity when he drank from the container. Carl had taken a bus from Los Angeles to El Paso, and then jumped on a freight train and rode it to Houston. He said, "I admit it was a little bit of a thrill to take that train, but it was also real practical too." He had just spent a month in California with his parents and was returning to New Orleans. He said it was nice to be "home for a while."

Carl allegedly after high school went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He was there one year, but left because it was "elitist." Steve asked him what he studied there and he responded, "Well, nothin' really. That's why I left." Later I commented that he must have got good grades in high school. He replied, "Yeah, I played that game for a while." It sounds like the main character in Water for Elephants, a book set in the 1930’s. However, I think finding an Ivy-league educated stowaway has to be even less common now.

Carl’s upper middle class parents live in Tapanga Canyon in southern California. His younger sister attended UC Berkeley. He began an education at Dartmouth, and then chose to spend a half a year living in a canoe. He started with his canoe in the Atlantic up in the New England area and went through the Great Lakes and made his way over to the Mississippi. He took the Mississippi River all the way to New Orleans. Then stayed there for a while and worked as a deckhand. Carl took the road less traveled.

He seemed very intelligent, but spoke more like a deckhand from Louisiana than a student from a prestigious New England university. He was heading back to New Orleans to get work on the boat again. This time he scheduled an appointment for mid-July to get certification to become an able bodied seaman. He thought this would make him more employable, and maybe one day land him a job off a Californian coast. Our car ride discussion topics ranged from geography, to war to abortion. When we finally arrived in New Orleans Carl asked to come into the motel to clean-up. He pitched in $10 and spent the night on the floor.

His odor infected the hotel room less severely than it did the car.

Thought of the Week

If you're driving in the rain thinking your car is getting cleaner... it's probably been too long since you washed it.

Car Seat Fail

I've never had kids. So can you guys that have
them let me know if this looks alright.

...

Now if your husband said he was just doing it to help a
neighbor and earn some money couldn't you, as his wife,
insist he doesn't have sex with another woman just out of
principle. That sounds reasonable to me. Especially if you
already assumed he was sterile.

When the Ads say too Much

On-line advertising. Obviously, it is a huge marketing source, and will only get bigger as more and more of our lives move into the world of the internet. Here are the three ads sitting on right side of my Facebook page a couple weeks ago:

Get Fit to Teach

Even with the busy schedule of a
teacher, you can get in great shape
without the gym or lifting weights.
I'll show you how I did it.

Thirty Plus Local Singles

Meet and chat with successful beautiful
singles at Thirty Plus Singles. Sign up
today.

Looking for Love Over 30?



Do you every find it scary how much your ads know about you? Damn. Get off my back. I’ve been “over 30” for one month. Why you gotta go and rub it in already? Maybe with my teacher’s schedule I’m so overweight and unattractive from my lack of workouts girls under thirty don’t find me attractive anymore. I don’t really care that the advertisers know stuff about my life, but stop insulting me. You’re right I am thirty, and I’m not as active as I’d like to be. I know. I’m a teacher. I’m getting my Master’s. I just had surgery. Cut me some slack.

Thought of the Week: Tuesdays

When booking tickets for flights at sites like travelocity and expedia Tuesday is a good day to look. (Also, if you find the price you like don't assume it will still be there in the morning.)

If Thirsty...

A minimum.

The Roommate Switch

My friend Gio made an allusion to a Seinfeld episode. I hadn't seen it. Probably many of you have. But just in case you missed it. The Roommate Switch. TV writers have moments of brilliance, that non-TV guys like me, can simply laugh and appreciate.