A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Myths and more

From:          LMixson lmixson@pec.com> amml)
Date:          Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:46:29 -0500
To:            Elizabeth 
Subject:       Myths and more
 
The Joeph Campbell tapes are quite interesting. A couple of years ago PBS showed his video series on TV and we taped them and watched them, or at least most of them as they were many hours long. That got me into Robert Bly and I went down to DC to an all day "mens" seminar in which we beat on drums and "got in touch" with our masculinity. I found it somewhat interesting but never really got fully into it.
 
The scouts age range from 12 to 18. We are just a general troop. I got into it about five years ago when our daughter went off to school. I just had an urge one day to get involved with the scouts and called up the local headquarters and found a nearby troop and found that they would be glad to have me help out. I really like the camping part the best but I usually go to the meeting every week and help with anything that needs to be done. I think I mentioned I was Scout Master for one year but found it too much work. I did take a several day Scout Master's Fundamentals course and we are always reviewing first aid. Just about every year we have a nurse come and do a several week first aid merit badge course so I get plenty of first aid review. Our weekend caving trip went great. We left at 6:30am Saturday, (a bit early for me!) and got to the cave in West Virginia about 11am. I had not planned to go into the cave but they had an extra helmet and light so I went in to check it out. Other than about a 10ft hands & knees crawl to get in we could stand up in the rest of the cave. Another of the asst. scout masters went in with me and we went in about a half a mile. We spent about two hours in the cave. For the most part it was pretty dry but there was a small stream flowing along the side of the main cave and there was some mud on the floor but it could, for the most part, be avoided. It was a limestone cave and didn't have much in the way of formations so after a while it got to be somewhat boring. It was a fun weekend.
 
I never did go into "the" cave in G'Ville. I think it's name was Warrens cave, I'll check the web later to see if I can find it. It is supposed to be a very dangerous cave. When I was in high school a boy and two girls went into the cave and got hurt. He hit his head and was in a coma which I think he never woke from. One girl broke her leg.
 
The other girl was the sister of a friend of mine. She broke her arm but managed to climb out and get help. I never thought spelunking seemed like much fun but I always enjoyed going into the commercial caves and seeing all the formations.
 
Your right, two incomes should help but Julie is just starting her second career and so is at the bottom of the income scale but it does help and will only improve. Yes we "own" our townhouse (along with the bank). When we moved up here from Fla. we found that we could not sell our house in Fla. without taking a big loss. As a result we rented it for three years and, likewise, we rented a place up here. After three years we finally sold our house in Fla. with only a minor loss. Our house in Fla. was a big house on a 1/4 acre lot and worth about $75,000. That will not get you anything up here. Three bedroom townhouses start around $150,000 and it only goes up from there. We finally scraped up enough to get into our current place just three years ago.
 
No, I did not know the story of Ann Rice. I never have read any of her books as I never cared much for the vampire stuff. My daughter, on the other had, has read all of her books. I also hope you don't have to go though a tragedy to write but sometimes it takes some form of life changing event to spark that flow.
 
Well I don't know what happened to spring as it got up to 85 degrees yesterday and is supposed to get even warmer today. It is supposed to get back into the upper 60's at the end of the week which is much more pleasant.
 
Larry

See my story, Sinkholes, Caves and the Devil’s Millhopper, A trip to hell and back that ends at Warren’s cave.

Adventures