Managing Editor
Don’t bother to ask me because the answer will always be no.
#1. Remove the gas pedal from an automobile. On a Saturday morning when I was about 8, my father asked me if I wanted to ride along with him when he went shopping at a nearby five-and-dime store. When he went into the store, I stayed behind in the car. Crawling along on the floorboard, I went to get up and grabbed the gas medal by mistake. It broke off, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t reattach it. I propped it up as if nothing had happened but when my father returned and tried to start the car, he noticed what had happened. He told me that if I ever did that again, he wouldn’t ask me to ride with him anymore.
#2. Handle a snake. When I was a member of the U.S. Air Force, I went to a party at a friend’s house, and he showed me several of his pet snakes. He insisted that I hold one of them and to not show fear in front of the other party guests, I held it briefly and the entire time that it was happening my knees were shaking, and I was trembling deep down inside with fright. I swore thereafter to never do that again and I’ve kept that vow for more than four decades now and counting.
#3. Arrive at a fire scene before the fire department while covering it for the newspaper. Once while working in the newsroom for a daily newspaper in New Hampshire, I listened to a radio call for firefighters to respond to a house fire. I knew exactly where the fire was and drove there quickly, arriving at least a minute before the fire trucks got there. A fire truck parked behind me and a firefighter laid two 6-inch fire hoses up the middle of the street, making it impossible for me to leave once the fire department had extinguished the fire. I had to wait for 45 minutes afterward until the fire hoses had been drained and reeled up before I could drive away.
#4. Eat lima beans, parsnips, artichokes or Brussels sprouts. When I was growing up, my mother was a stay-at-home mom and instituted a “Vegetable of the Day” program for our household. She said she did it to introduce us to the taste of as many different types of vegetables as possible. Through that experience, I came to loathe lima beans, parsnips, artichokes and Brussels sprouts and made myself a promise that I would try to avoid eating them in the future. I can honestly say I have never willingly ordered any of those vegetables throughout my adult life.
#5. Wear waist Size 32 or 34 pants. For at least 10 years when I was in my 30s, I only purchased trousers which were waist size 32. At age 41, that increased to waist size 34. But by the time I turned 45, my waist expanded again to a size 36 and I’ve pretty much stayed there ever since. It’s reassuring to know that I cannot fit into Size 32 or Size 34 pants, so I don’t even try to.
#6. Report at the scene of a fire without checking with firefighters. When I was a newspaper reporter in the 1980s, my editor sent me to cover a massive mobile home blaze. I got there and ran up the driveway while starting to take photos. Suddenly I heard a fireman behind me shouting for me to stop and not take another step. I looked down at my feet and noticed a live electric wire wriggling around and snapping just inches from my shoes. They never taught us this in journalism classes in college, but I have made it a point since then that if I am out covering a fire somewhere, I always ask firefighters where they advise is a place that I can stand and observe things safely.
#7. Pick up a stack of lumber without checking what’s underneath it first. Living on a farm in New Mexico in the 1970s, I was gathering small pieces of wood to use as kindling for the fireplace. We had a pile of old lumber behind a barn on the property, and I thought I’d grab a few pieces from there for kindling. I didn’t realize it but underneath the first few pieces there, hornets had decided to make a nest for the winter, and I ended up getting stung 44 times on my arms, on the top of my head and all over my back. Forced to drive myself to the urgent care clinic, I watched the physician carefully remove as many of the stingers as he could find over the course of the next hour. After that painful incident, I vowed that I would never reach blindly into a pile of wood without examining the wood pile first and I’ve zealously kept that promise. <
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