Matches are pretty neat

A practical man.

If you look at your memories, do you find as well that you can only vaguely grasp at what the subject of so much of your conviction, emotion, heartbreak, elation and anger back then had been exactly, while you can still re-experience the exact feeling of - this little thing? Lying in the grass looking into the pond and dipping your finger into it? Entering this rather dingy Prague neighbourhood supermarket, where they had this really cheap kind of crunchy muesli that was better than anything available here?

Actually, did I tell this story yet of the East-German guy I met walking in the Lower Tatra, back in 1991? It was the first time I'd gone hiking in years and I went up there on my sneakers, earning the wrath of a passing Dutch couple berating me for my irresponsibility. A little up into the forest, I met this guy, and we climbed up together for a few hours. Saw two cub bears, only time I've ever seen a bear in the wild - only time he'd ever seen a bear, and he'd be going there for fifteen years. We talked about the recent changes in East-Germany, which had just ceased to be a state of its own, and of 1989. In the end, I asked what had been the one thing he'd liked most about the change-over. He said: the yoghurt. In the GDR, you could only get the one or two kinds of yoghurt. I really like yoghurt. And now, in every supermarket, you have these unbelievable ranges of all these different fruity yoghurts ...

I agree, matches are neat.

The story of Ishi has always horrified me, but his ability to survive and draw his own conclusions about life, made me realize how strong he was as a human being.

Nimh's reply confirms that, regardless of education, class in society, alien or native, all of us tend to remember the small things. For me, some of my fondest memories include the sunset in Rocky Point, Mexico and the howl of a coyote; kissing my baby on the back of his neck and the sweet, baby smell of him; standing with Dys on a bridge spanning the Rio Grande and smelling the forest while hiking in the Catalina mountains in Arizona.

That said, it is amazing that Ishi managed to come through his captivity with an ironic sense of humor; a sign to me, of a remarkable man.

Hey Tyrius, kid, long time no see. You doing OK?

ishi - isn't that the name of the little shell beads?

Good to see you Tyrius!

Matches ARE pretty neat, it's only that nobody lets me play with them since that unfortunate accident with the barn. Still, magnifying glasses and ants are also pretty neat.

It is always the little things which you remember when you leave a place.

I could be better honestly. How about you?

Sorry about thread hijack =P

Stick matches?

Dr. Saxton Pope -- Ishi's physician, student & friend

Tyrius... I'm sorry you have to move. Are you an AF brat? Clovis is so close to Texas.


A Neat Clovis Point

Lighters are better.

Ishi was pretty neat...