Exploring Nature: Fond Memories

Don’t get me wrong, I’m basically a happy camper, very content with life, but sometimes I do look back wistfully and think about some things that are now gone.

Some are probably not overly important in the overall scheme of things — like comic strip characters. I can remember Major Hoople, the Katzenjammer Kids, Wee Willie Winkle, Mutt and Jeff. Also, Calvin and Hobbes, Terry and the Pirates, Smiling Jack and Pogo.

And who can forget Mary Worth?

I’ve always been amazed how some comic strips seem to go on forever, outlasting the artists who first created them, such as Charles Shultz’s “Peanuts” and Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant.”

Movie stars never really die if you consider the films that live on after them. Probably no one gave me more classic moments to remember than Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca.” Here’s looking at you, kid.

From television, I miss Betty White, Lucille Ball, Gwen Ifill and Jim Lehr. Also, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, although they seem to go on forever in reruns.

I also remember when the Pecos cantaloupe was a great thing to enjoy. It was a prized melon and served on many luxury train dining cars, back when there was such a thing. Now Pecos cantaloupes seem to have disappeared.

Likewise, one of the most glorious swimming pools I ever enjoyed was the massive spring-fed pool at Fort Stockton. Back in the 1950s, I would drive down and feel like the sultan of the world as I swam in those cool waters and listened to outdoor speakers broadcast “Some Enchanted Evening.” Ahh, paradise.

Today, those springs have turned to dust, dried up when farmers began irrigating alfalfa crops and drew down the water table.

So, yes indeed, some things I really miss. But I’m sure glad I had the opportunity to enjoy them in the first place.