Blog 2791 – 06.19.2024

Archaeopteryx

A big word, difficult to spell, and a challenge to pronounce is Archaeopteryx. I recall a dear friend I met in college, Michael Ross Rosensweig, taught his little Rachel to say locomotive instead of choo choo train to impress all his friends with her intelligence. It definitely did hearing that wee little girl use such a big word.

Michael, whom we all called Ross back then, like myself was a Vietnam vet. He had been an Infantryman and was exposed repeatedly to the defoliant Agent Orange and died several years ago from medical issues due to that exposure. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a Saturday with him in Terre Haute. I was on a work assignment there and Michael drove over from Bedford, Indiana his home. He passed six months later. On my next to last away work assignment I stayed at an RV Resort thirty miles north of Bedford and the last job I inspected while on that trip was a two month job in Bedford itself so I got to know the town pretty well. I often thought of Michael as I drove through the town he knew so well for so long.

It has been almost fifty years since I first met Michael Ross Rosensweig. He and his pregnant wife Cora were staying in an empty room in the boys dorm where I stayed for two semesters. Four two person rooms shared a shower and I almost took a shower with Cora before Michael laughingly warning me off at the last moment. He had such a wonderful since of fun and a smile that still warms my heart.

During our college days we shared several classes and even worked a second shift job at the same Houston bank data processing center for a couple years, riding to work together. We rented homes near one another and our wives were friends too. They moved away after Michael graduated to pastor a church somewhere and we lost touch. Over forty years later we reconnected and spent the bigger part of a Saturday sharing old times and catching up. Neither of us were Christians any longer. He had returned to the Jewish faith of his youth and I to being simply a child of the Universe as I had been as an unchurched boy.

I still sometimes expect to see Michael’s smiling face in a crowd or around the next turn. I keep an eye out for him as I do for locomotives and Archaeopteryx’s.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z4t9gduCuERpS0z5NbEEiUROD7CkPruY/view?usp=drivesd

Archaeopteryx

Andrew Gold – Thank You For Being A Friend (Official Music Video)

Andrew Gold – Thank You For Being A Friend (Official Music Video)