Growing up Military: Where are you from?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Life's Experiences

There isn’t a week that goes by where someone doesn’t ask “So, where are you from?” I always say “pick a state” – because there isn’t really a good answer .

I’ve lived in a lot of states, some by my own design but most because I grew up in a military household.  Let me tell you, at no point in time during a military upbringing do you get to suggest where we move next.

Nope. That’s someone else’s job.

So culturally I’m not really from anywhere.  Early on,  like before I was in 2nd grade, I’d already lived in Wyoming, Ohio, Florida, Texas and Washington state.  So I can’t really claim to be a Texan – or a Buckeye.

Then through my school years I lived in Alaska, New Hampshire and Nebraska.  So I can’t really say I’m a lifelong Celtics fan, nor can I claim to be a Husker.

But it didn’t stop there. Since high school I’ve lived in Romania, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona and now my second town in Tennessee.  At no point in those moves did some “culture” stick. No discernable accent. No regional food preferences. . . it’s like I belong to some Nomadic diaspora to which there is no Facebook fan page.

The only time this “lack of cultural identity” has hurt me was back in high school.  I was trying to win a “scholarship” to study in Japan for a semester, like a sister-city exchange program.

My application got selected as a finalist, and the final acceptance hurdle was a trip out to Grand Island, Nebraska for a formal interview.  It was clear, immediately, that I was different from the6 or 7 other finalists.

I didn’t own cattle. My family hadn’t lived there for generations, and I wasn’t “corn fed” from birth.  I did OK in the interview, but one of the qualifications they spoke about was choosing someone who was a good representative of the state.

That, I was not. So I,  didn’t win.

Other than that, my “cultural disability” has never really come into play.  On the flip side, people now ask me about places all the time. And on occasion, I’ve got to catch people lying about having visited a place (No, you didn’t take a boat ride under the Eiffel Tower).

So my cultural heritage is “domestic nomad”, with a little patriotism mixed in.  Nevertheless, I don’t regret any of it. It’s my life. One thing I can always guarantee – I’m always looking for the next place.

And now that I’m no longer “growing up military”, I get to choose where.

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Travel Is Fun When Things Look Different

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ever Been There Before?

I just don’t like driving in the U.S. much. Maybe I’ve just done too much of it, but seldom do things look different.

Sure going from Kansas to Vail, there’s a topography change – and it’s dramatic, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Once you get into the mountains, very few places look different from other Colorado mountain places. Pretty – but standard.

Driving from Nashville to Orlando, when you’re very close to the Georgia/Florida line the trees, the feel, the topography are quite different. It’s swampy and the trees are all short and odd looking. I really enjoyed the 30 or so miles of that drive where everything just looked different.

The Chiricaua Mountains in Arizona, close to the Arizona/New Mexico/Mexico are very different. I don’t remember seeing that anywhere else. The rock formations are so interesting, they certainly rival Garden of the Gods.

There’s a spot between Tucson and Rocky Point in Mexico that is crazy, weird. It’s the result of an asteroid field impact and really feels like you’re on a different planet. That and Rocky Point are great places to “be transported”.

Finally, what inspired this post, was my drive today from Nashville to the hotel here in Wytheville, VA. Just before you leave Tennessee there appears to have been a state effort to plant evergreens next to the highway. Well, for 15 miles or so, there are thousands of evergreens next to the highway – thousands. And all of them are 5 feet tall or shorter. It’s different – almost cute.

Been anyplace that just feels different? Leave me a note – I’d love to hear about it – then go there.

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My Favorite Place on Earth

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Ever Been There Before?

What a strange title I just wrote. I’ve spent my life traveling – seriously – my entire life. My father’s military career decided that he should move frequently so his family could test out restaurants, churches, schools and airports nationwide. It was a good plan, really. Making friends as a military kid is not so easy – but in the end you learn a lot.

Follow the sign . . .

So whenever I talk about my life people inevitably ask which place has been my favorite. Until this very moment, my answer 100% of the time has been “I always like where I am more than where I was, so I’ve never had a real favorite”. But I can say that 2 years ago I spent 25 minutes in a place I totally loved.

On the northern side of the Mediterranean, just east of Italy is a beautiful, little town called Dubrovnik – in a wonderful country re-named by our egocentric culture, Croatia. Dubrovnik is not the place though. In fact, Dubrovnik is a mix of good and bad. There are some really cool unknown swimming holes with tide pools and rock walls to climb, there’s a place that makes an unbelievably good hamburger (which sounds strange).

And then there’s the old fort which is a bit like Disney. The old fort houses my favorite place, but it’s not the fort itself. When you enter the old fort at the main entrance you are greeted by tons and tons of tourists, shops, museums, vendors and outdoor seating. It’s fun for, like, 10 minutes and then it’s just annoying. Loud, obnoxious Americans and lots of tourists from cruise ships.

But walk all the way down the main hallway and take a right heading toward the outside western wall. Look for a sign that says “Cold Drinks With the Most Beautiful View” and follow it.

The bar from the castle wall

The bar from the castle wall

Eventually, you’ll come to a hole in the wall of the fort that actually take you outside the walls to a bar.

It’s not a typical bar – I mean it’s outside – on a the edge of an old fort. And you’re sitting in plastic chairs at plastic tables and there are people swimming just off the rocks. The bar itself is small; they sold simple stuff like refreshments and basic alcohol.

The unbelievable part is your sitting there looking out over the Mediterranean with a view so vast and wide that you can see the curvature of the earth. And there are yachts moored just off the shore. And down the way a bit, and around the corner of the fort wall is a water polo ‘pool’ laid out with buoys in the sea. And you’re just sitting there, enjoying the moment away from the maddening crowd. It’s beautiful. It’s my favorite place on the planet.

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Adventures of Mark and Dan – The Flat Tire

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in The Adventures of Dan & Mark

by Dan

We’d left Colorado several hours ago and had just arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was our “big” trip. Leave from Omaha, drive all the way to Los Angeles and return via Las Vegas. Of all our road trips, this one seemed to be the biggest. Sure the Canada trip was just as far – but it didn’t seem as big.

We had no place to stay – well to clarify that – we never have a place to stay. What’s the fun of that? So we were driving around Salt Lake looking for a hotel with some occupancy – nada. Nothing. Apparently there was a Police Convention in town and all the hotels were booked. So, being that Salt Lake is one of the most boring towns  (during the summer), we decided to just leave there and find accomodations somewhere down the road.

For some reason I was driving. That didn’t happen often, but it did this time. I was in the left hand turn lane at a stop light and proceeded to turn left when the light turned green. Well, I didn’t make a wide enough turn and cut across what appeared to be a striped median before entering my lane of traffic. It wasn’t striped. It was a hole of some sort and this hole popped both passenger side tires. Both of them.

So we pulled over to the side of the road, called AAA and waited for the tow truck to arrive. For what seemed like an eternity and beyond the sunset, we waited. Finally, the tow truck arrived and took us back downtown to a garage. Back downtown where there were no hotel rooms.

We headed across the street to a book store/cafe/coffee bar if I remember correctly and bought some light dinner fare. I believe I had something with moldy raspberries. (I forget what Mark had).

And then we headed back to the car. We reclined the seats, locked the doors, covered ourselves from head to toe with blankets and feigned sleep. We were obviously first in line the next morning to get into the garage. And then hours later, off we went to the Biggest Little City in the West – Reno, NV, where we amazed ourselves by finding free money left in slot machines and won money with money they gave us. (But that’s another story).

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Adventures of Mark and Dan – Dim Me Sum More

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in The Adventures of Dan & Mark

By Dan

Adventures don’t have to be big, or epic.  Sometimes trying to find an address in a new city is an adventure. Well, now that I’ve got the Garmin – that won’t be an issue. Nonetheless, we did have a small adventure this week. What’s funny is I didn’t expect the adventure – that’s what made it fun I suppose.

Originally, I intended to make my normal trip to Atlanta to see Mark and his family. But then I remembered that I ought to see if Mike Goode, who also lives in Atlanta, would be up for lunch or something. I haven’t seen Mike since 1990 (maybe for a few minutes in 1992) so lunch promised to be nostalgic and likely short. Nevertheless, I really did want to see Mike again and hear about his adventures over the last 19 years. 19 years. . . that sounds crazy.

So I sent a message to Mike and learned he was up for lunch. I said “what part of town?” and he said “Royal China, 12:00″. That was promising from the get go. Not only does he lack wishy-washy’ness’ or the inability to make a decision – but he’s efficient. Two e-mails and we’ve got a date, time and place. Not bad.

I told Mark I’d pick him up on the way (in the spirit of efficiency) and this adventure began. The Garmin Navigator eliminated any crazyiness associated with finding the place – but finding the place was where it began. We pulled up to a non-descript, typical Chinese restaurant – except for the fact that the parking lot was full. Not only full but the kind of full where you know pulling into the drive that you’re either going to get lucky and park next to the front door or you were going to park next to the dumpster of the neighboring business. We did the latter.  Walking up we then noticed that everyone entering the place was Asian. Now this has got to be a good sign. Not only is this place full, but Asian people are eating there.

Seriously when you go out for Chinese – do you ever see Asian people there? No – that’s because Chinese food is really just food influenced by Chinese recipes but Americanized so that we buy it. We figured immediately that we were in for something good.

Then we entered the place and the noted that the daily specials board was written in Chinese – no English anywhere.  At this point I’m thinking Mike Goode is cool – and he’s picked the perfect lunch spot for adventure seeking boys like Mark and I. Looking around to make sure Mike wasn’t already there, we decided to get a table and wait for him.

Immediately a woman  pushing a cart with dinner rolls in plates of 3 pulled up. She asked in broken English if we wanted some and we said yes, but somehow it was more difficult to get that across. She also gave us a plate with three little shrimp ball things. Cool, bread and appetizers and we haven’t even been given the menu yet.

As we waited for Mike, I decided to try one of these dinner rolls, bit into it and found it to be filled with some sort of red, barbequish meat (that I didn’t like). Almost immediately upon realizing that these weren’t dinner rolls more people in carts with food started coming up to our table. Crazily, we didn’t recognize any food on any cart and decided we better wait for Mike – so we shooed them all away (politely of course).

Everything was plated on small appetizer plates and came in groups of 2, 3 or 4.  And most of it was wrapped in rice tortillas, or bread or something else. And the ‘cart pushers’ didn’t really speak that much English. It was really quite amusing and fun. Well Mike came right away which ended the amusing part but enabled us to start the food adventure part. (I’m going to skip the parts about Mike – what he’s doing and how cool he is because that’s a different story).

So we found out that we were eating Dim Sum (is that spelled right?). It’s like Tapas, but in a Chinese restaurant. It’s not fixed price dining like a Brazillian joint because you pay for each item. There is no menu, which is kind of like a buffett. But it’s more like a moving buffett and you’re wearing a blindfold. Anyway, the food was cool. I can’t tell you what we ate because I don’t really know. Some of it has shrimp in it, some had pork in it – but they were all too different to figure out.  I just know it was a cool adventure and we were both surprised that we hadn’t experienced Dim Sum before. And even stranger is not knowing what it was at all.

Now it wasn’t over there. But, I’ll just say that if you get a chance to go to a Korean cafe, order Bubble Tea. You won’t be disappointed.

Small – but fun. Another good adventure.

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You Want Me To Think?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Life's Experiences

Have you seen Wall-E yet? What about the Jetsons? Just like you, I used to wonder what life would be like in the year 2000. Would we really have robots and hovercrafts and jetpacks? Would dinner just appear on a platter? And would we really all wear the same outfit? Well, it seems in 2009 life hasn’t changed as much as I thought it might, but one things that seems to be coming true is the advance of brain reduction technologies.

In the Disney movie Wall-E, society sits in hovering chairs, in front of computer screens content to just sit there, being entertained and fed without thinking. How far away are we, really? Remember when calculators became small enough to fit on a watch? Do you really need to know what 12 x 12 is anymore? That’s the argument I made back then. If I can have a calculator on my watch – why do I have to do flash cards? That was just the beginning.

I’ve got tons of phone numbers stored in my head from my youth, but only 6 or 7 from my current friends and family. My phone stores them – why should I remember them? I can just press speed dial or look up my friend’s number in the contact list. My kids have no idea how long it takes to microwave popcorn because there’s a button that says ‘popcorn’. No reason to read the directions, plug in 3:00, or monitor the progress – there’s a button.It says ‘popcorn’. And cops who used to walk the beat – now they ride segues. No need to walk, when you can just stand there.

Well for Christmas we got a Garmin GPS navigator for the car, and today I drove to Atlanta using the Garmin. I plugged in the address and whoosh – away we went – just listen to the computerized voice tell me where to go. It even took me a different way to my friend’s house. I didn’t even bother to look for landmarks or street signs – why would I? I have a Garmin. And then when I got there I just “Saved This Location” for my next trip. Guess what? I don’t even have to remember his address now.

So in 2009, be conscious of progress, or one day Progress will be defined as: the absence of thought.

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Thinking Back: Holiday Memories

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Life's Experiences

Christmas certainly is the biggest holiday of the year. That first impression when you wake up and see Santa’s bounty – some of those will memories will never die.

But I think I’m writing about Thanksgiving this time. Strange way to start because it’s not my favorite holiday – that would be July 4th, but I remember more Thanksgivings than I do Christmas’s, Valentine’s and July 4ths combined. Crazy, eh? Starting in 1982 or so, we lived outside Anchorage, Alaska on Elemendorf Air Force Base. Most of the military families up there are without family nearby to celebrate Thanksgiving (I think most people’s families would either come in the summer or visit for Christmas) – so that afforded great opportunity to do something together.

We all used to rent a cabin and have Thanksgiving there. It was at a place called the ‘base lakes” – well that’s what us kids called it. And it wasn’t an ordinary cabin – it was the kind of cabin you’d have company banquets at or random family Thanksgivings. I remember there being 50 or more people there each time. Inside was a big room with long tables, and there was another room with the big kitchen. I think the moms were in the kitchen putting together the meal. Us kids – no way. We were outside.That’s why I don’t remember what the dads were doing.

For some reason I remember being taught, by some other kids, the song “On top of old Smokey, all covered with blood . . . ” and then something about a meatball. We all brought ice skates to go ice skating on the frozen lake, did some ice fishing, built snow forts and brought sleds for sledding down the hill and onto the lake. Just the idea that we all had ice skates and knew how to skate – that’s part of growing up in Alaska, I guess. None of the kids around here are prepared for that. (Did you know that most of the schools in Alaska have ice rinks?) I remember being very cold, coming in to get warm, and then going right back out again – many times. I guess the sunlight would have been pretty short lived – but I don’t really remember it being dark at all. That seems strange to me now. I wonder if it was dark . . .

I imagine the soldiers abroad share a similar holiday relationship with the other soldiers. When you’re away from home – away is home and everyone there is family. I don’t recall eating a single sweet potato or slice of turkey. I can’t recall anyones names or even their faces; I guess that’s the bain of moving a lot and losing permanent contact with people.  I do remember the laughing, playing and fun.

I guess the hole that is left from things you forget gets gelled over by the overall joy and happiness the memory brings.

Maybe Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday. I’ll have to think about that. . .

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Will Facebook Kill The Christmas Letter

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in The Social Media Phenomenon

So I’ve been against Christmas letters for some time, though what’s worse is the unsigned card or unsigned photo card. (I suppose most of you know that). If you get a card from me, (you got lucky because I just haven’t been motivated to get that done yet) but if you did I wrote in it. My goal in sending Christmas cards is to tell you that you’re important to me. I appreciate your friendship and truly enjoy hearing from you. Having moved around my whole life, I’ve really tried to maintain the friendships I already have. It’s not easy being friends with someone who moves all the time (me) – and thus those of you who still are – you mean a lot.

I wonder in the age of Facebook if the Christmas Letter is a thing of the past. Most of the ones I get just boast about how great life is. The Disney trip, fabulous and wonderful travels, how your kid is the best reader in the school. These are all things that  most people put on their social profile site. If you went to Greece – we’ll have enjoyed pictures the day you got back. If your kid was in the Christmas play – the same thing. What’s left to put in the Christmas Letter?

In one word – Sentiment.

Facebook isn’t good with sentiment. It’s a black and white piece of paper, words without sound, smiles without the accompanying laugh. But it’s also the daily contact with people you used to send cards to once a year, or talk to once a month. It almost provides reason to be more open and appreciative with those that you love. Finally, distance is no barrier to constant contact.

So here’s my attempt to add sentiment to Facebook. I give you my first Christmas Letter.
2008 – This year I re-learned another lesson. I went to Mike Cain’s wedding and felt like the outsider. It wasn’t in a bad way – a realistic way. You see I used to be one of Mike’s best friends  but that was during my Senior year of high school – his junior year. I learned, again, that when you leave life goes on. New ‘best friendships’ are made, new memories are set in stone, new inside jokes with new friends. There is no malice – but I must have learned it 5 times now – proximity creates the strongest bond. I hope that Facebook creates ‘proximity’ between you and your best friends.

I also raised my first son. Alex is our third child, but parenting was so new to me during the first two – and toddlers were so hard for me to adjust to – that I’ve found joy in Alex’s first year that wasn’t present before. For this I am thankful. I am thankful to my wife who has found boundless joy in each one of them.

And we’ve grown together as a family this year. I love my wife more than I did last year and I look foward to playing with the kids more. 2008 was not necessarily memorable (at least I can’t envision in 2018 thinking back about the great 2008) – but the memories will serve me well.

Happy Holidays to all of you,
Dan

(also posted on my facebook page http://profile.to/Danrmorris) .

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Traveling the World as a Bill

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Life's Experiences

Money really does make the world go ’round.  Here’s a true story that not only proves the point – but illustrates the power of money.

There’s a dollar bill that was printed in 1999 in a mint in Delaware. It’s probably still out there somewhere, still changing hands, still making people happy one purchase at a time. In March of 2002 it had made its way to Dayton, Ohio and 61 days later it showed up in Scottsville, KY. A server at a Sonic acquired it as a tip. What did she do with it? Along with her other tips, she probably paid bills, downloaded music, bought a soda or paid for her gas. 48 days later someone got it as change at a Shell gas station in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. By January of 2005 it had made its way through Texas, Louisiana, Utah and Michigan. That’s over 4,000 miles in 6 years.

In each of those instances, the dollar  bill enabled someone to buy something they needed or just wanted. The economy runs on this dollar, on your dollar, on every dollar.  And strangely, no matter what you do with it, it’s not wasted. You may have squandered an opportunity to get something else, to pay a bill that would have alleviated some of your stress or to help someone out. But no matter what – that bill will travel and it will help someone, and then someone else and then someone else.

Take a dollar out and go to where’sgeorge.com and plug the serial number in. Maybe you’ll be the first person to do so, maybe the 100th. See who’s life was changed by that dollar.  Envision the joy the 5 year old experienced when he sold some lemonade, or the waitress whose tip topped $100 that night. Respect that dollar – and use it wisely. But know that whatever you do with it, it will travel many miles and your spending it will make someone else smile.

P.S. And don’t worry, even if you take it to the bank and put it in your Savings Account – the teller will shell it out to the next customer and the happiness will continue.

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Santa Claus’s House is Just As I Remember

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ever Been There Before?

I lived on Elmendorf Air Force Base when I was a kid. That’s the one just outside Anchorage and just down the street from Sarah Palin’s Wasilla. It’s a cool place to grow up, let me tell you. Having grown up in 11 or 12 different states I feel like an expert on ‘cool’ places to grow up. Think about this from a kid’s perspective. In the summer – it’s light all the time. 2:00 it’s light. 6:00 it’s light. Bedtime it’s light. Playing outside never ends. And Anchorage is not too hot, not too cold – just right. And then in the winter you get to make snowmen, go sledding and build snow forts from October through March. Did you know that just about every elementary school has an ice rink? And then there are moose walking around and they are the biggest animals ever. The neighborhood dads used to make an ice rink in the backyard by shoveling out a big 20 x 30 area and using the snow to make walls around the outside edge. Then they’d all put their hoses into the middle and fill it up overnight.  Like I said, living in Alaska as a kid is cool.

Well one year we drove north to Fairbanks. Do you know what’s in Fairbanks – Santa Claus’s house. Cool, eh? Yeah, just outside of Fairbanks is North Pole, Alaska and alongside the highway is the cheesiest, giant Santa themed gift shop. Oh wait, from a kid’s perspective – and then when you’re leaving Fairbanks you get to a place where the snowbank is really high, you turn into the parking lot where the reindeer land and you get to go into Santa’s candy covered house. It’s filled with toys and ornaments and elves and music and colors. It’s awesome. And all the toys are on racks that you can spin around and there are toys hanging on all sides of the racks. And toys are on shelves down low and way up high – so high your dad has to help get things down. Santa Claus’s house is the greatest place to visit because it doesn’t matter when you go there – it’s always Christmas.

Anyway, I think we visited it in July. But for some reason I remember all that snow. What’s funny is I remember all kinds of stuff like that.  It’s kinda like the smurfs. I remember them so vividly all blue with white hats and yellow mushrooms, green trees and Gargamel’s grey cat. I have this clear vision of life when I was a kid that’s so different than reality.  I have 3 kids now – and I wonder.  Are the smurfs blue in their world?  I wonder – because I remember them so vividly and yet we had a black and white TV.

I hope your childhood memories are as kid-like, and you have memories of Santa too.

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