The dear Doctor always treated me as an equal, at least, although his knowledge, wisdom and experience outstripped mine by far. We shared stories, although he never let on that his were far better. He always thanked me for any correspondence and even asked me to do a little research for him - but it was probably really to help me. He helped so very much, and I have missed him more.
Some time back, I was lamenting some silly squawking that was going on here, and this is how he soothed me. As always - with a given smile:
"Dear Owlbow:
Tolerance is something we all have to learn.
When I was small, a favorite game for our gang was 'fireman'.
There firealarm in the town consisted of
a bell on tower where firehoses were hung to dry, (to keep them
from being weakened by mildew, before nylong was invwented)
and a steam powered whistle on a shoefactory a quarter
of a mile due east of firestation, electrically synchronized.
We were due north of the fire station, and heard the
bell before we heard the whistle.
So in our game, we pushed our little carts and wagons
around yelling 'Dang Hoot! Dang Hoot'.
One day we got an invitation to play firemen on Sprague's Hill
a mile due east of firestation.(On a line from firestation
to shoe factory, to top of Sprague's Hill.
When we got there, those stupid kids didn't know what to
yell. They were all yelling 'Hoot Dang, Hoot Dang'. They
wouldn't listen when we tried to tell them they were
wrong.
Just as the fists were about to fly, we heard the
fire alarm, and were absolutely dumbfounded to hear it
go 'Hoot Dang. Hoot Dang'.
We suddenly realized that on Sprague's Hill, the
shoe factory was nearer than the firestation, so the
Hoot got there before the Dang.
It taught me not to be so quick to think the
other guy a damned fool. "
