Dave Wright Writes

  I Was Born an Adult: My Early Years by Dave Wright Embryo 1952-1953 On the twenty-third of August, 1953, I was born an adult. If I calculate my gestation properly, I was conceived the previous November while my dad was on leave from Fort Leonard Wood after he had been drafted into the army. It would have been blessedly cool in Missouri at that time of year so my parents would not have needed to find the rare hotel with air conditioning. Marie never struck me as being particularly passionate, but John made up for it in his amorous persistence. Dad chased her from the moment he glimpsed her in the Dassel high school band. Dad was from Cokato and Mom was from Dassel, small towns in central Minnesota about ten miles apart. They both played clarinet and were playing in a concert that combined the two bands. As the concert ended, Dad had to futz with his multi-piece wood instrument while Mom threw her one-piece metal clarinet in its case in thirty seconds. Dad chased her out ...

A Month in England and Europe on $800 by Dave Wright I recently finished reading Rick Steves’ book, “On the Hippie Trail,” an account of his travels from Istanbul to Kathmandu as a 23-year-old in 1978. It inspired me to rummage through the archives in my basement to find the journal I had written when I was a 23-year-old in 1977. It documents a one-month trip to England and Europe with several of my fraternity buddies. Although his trip was longer and far more adventurous than mine, Rick Steves and I were traveling at the same time of our lives on the same frugal budget. When I applied to veterinary school at the University of Minnesota in1973, I naively thought it was a one-and-done deal—either I’d get in after one application or I’d need to find a different occupation. I figured that if I didn’t get accepted, I’d take a backpacking trip through Europe to decide what else I should do with my life. I got accepted, which meant my European trip was delayed four years. (The first day...