Shortly after my family moved to North Carolina from Michigan, I received this correspondence from my friend and, the oldest hubskier Ralph Stallard. I believe he was 92
- Hi you all,
Hope things are going o.k for the three of you! New friends - new surroundings - new experiences -not bad! Steve, your new CD is on my 'A' list along with the N.Y Times & Stumptown Roasters superb coffee!
My garden looks happy -thanks to the helpful neighbors.
At 90 years old, Ralph was one of the biggest supporters of my music. He constantly told me that I needed to always keep it as part of my life. He referred to this time of my life as the "productive era," a time when I would focus on my career, my family and be very busy. He was in a reflective era. He was an avid gardener and producer of the best sweet pickles I'll ever have. He was known to collect jars of his urine so he could take it outside and spill it on the ground in a protective circle around his garden. He swore by it.
He loved my wife. Man, I think Ralph had a huge crush on her and that was just fine by me. He lit up when she walked in the room. We would go out to dinner together once every few months and we would talk for hours about religions, God, geopolitics, spirituality, music, reading etc. He was a fascinating man. A WWII pilot turned devout pacifist.
Late in life he turned to poetry to help express himself and would send us examples of his work. At the bottom of the above letter, he wrote this poem:
Myth Aborning
Two curious young men were
half way up the pillar of knowledge
one looked down and became a conservative
the other looked up and became a liberal
Ah so!
RIP Ralph Stallard. As it turns out I was at a funeral this morning, on my birthday of all things - a close friend's father. Even though it's brilliant summer, I couldn't stop thinking of the last lines of James Joyce's story "The Dead": His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling . . . upon all the living and the dead.
Thank you for those words, and happy birthday my dear friend! I hope it's a wonderful one. Carpe diem!