In the movie the “Last Samurai”, in the final scene Capt Algren is presenting a samurai sword, to the Emperor of Japan, that belonged to the last samurai – Katsumoto. The scene ends with the Emperor saying to Captain Algren “Tell me how he died.” Captain Algren responds, “I will tell you how he lived.” Let me Tell you how Curtiss lived.
First I must say, we are not a close family. There aren’t daily phone calls or emails or letters. There are status checks once in a while. I believe there are a multitude of reasons for this. No regrets, it is just the fact that we aren’t a close family.
When four boys and a girl are raised in a three bedroom house, and transported in a two door coupe (Ford), you spend a lot of time together. Living on the edge of town, we became our own community. Once we traveled to
Now throw into these adventures the fact that these kids, Don, Iris, Curtiss, Myself and Brad are basically 1 year apart on birthdates. Looking at the five of us, in retrospect, there were 5 totally different kids. An outdoorsman, a hippie, a family person, a nerd and a mad scientist. Curtiss was a mad scientist. Who else would buy a device for listening to a baby’s heartbeat to see if it could do something else, or a oscilloscope so he could watch sound, or build electric motors from nails and copper wire, or crystal radios from scraps. Curtiss was willing to try something cautiously, and fix anything.
We were a family. We were raised to believe in God, and know the difference between right and wrong. We shoveled the neighbors sidewalks when it snowed, at no charge to the folks – because that’s what Mom said. We learned it is great to give, and good to receive, and there are some things you shouldn’t charge other people for. We were taught to do more than was asked, and expect little in return. We got hurt, we got tired, maybe we went hungry once in a while, but that memory didn’t stay. We were the benefactors of gifts and love from many people in our hometown of
I think that we saw so much of each other, and that we spent so much time together, fighting, laughing, playing around and horsing around, that when we started leaving home we were glad to say goodbye and begin new lives and new adventures. From that point on, our mother was the glue that bound us together. She was the clearing house for information as we moved about the world and about our lives. When mom passed away, Iris picked up the responsibility, but her health now prevents any routine interaction with us. So once in a while, I did a communications check, and our lives continued, not dependent on any other, but tied loosely to each other.
By the time Curtiss left home to go join the United States Air Force he had started to form his view of the world, as he learned in our little town of 4000. This would is very black and white, right or wrong, good and bad. A man’s word was his bond. He traveled the world. He was an electrical guy that repaired power grids in
Curtiss could complain with the best of them, and many conversations with him were kind of one-sided. If Curtiss said he was going to do something, he did it. If you crossed Curtiss, you knew it. If you had a question Curtiss had answers. Because we are not a close family, there are many many things that I can’t tell you about Curtiss. Like his RV adventures. You need to talk to Cathy, Debbie and Steven to hear those wonderful stories and find out what other great things Curtiss did.
When we were young, one of our grandmothers use to tell us that no man ever walked on the Moon, it was a Disney movie. Curtiss and I once discussed that she thought this because she had seen so many inventions in her life, that it wasn’t plausible to imagine another new invention.
In Curtiss’ lifetime he saw the invention or creation of:
Space Travel
Teflon
Modems
Lasers
AstroTurf
ATMs
Televisions
Kevlar
Solar Cells
Airplane Black Box
Fiber Optic Cable
Pull tab tops
8 track tape players
Compact Discs
Cassett
VHS
BETA
DVD
Huggies/Pampers
Glen Elder Dam
MTV
Mobile Phones
Portable calculators
Electric Typewriters
Personal Computers (32 MB of storage)
Liquid Crystal Displays
Plasma Displays
Leaf Blowers
The Internet
MRIs
CT Scans
POGs
Ipods
Disco
Digital Cameras
Thumbdrives
And so much more.
In years to come, many will never know how Curtiss lived, they will see only some memorial, But if you listen closely you will hear the echoes of his voice as he made his opinions known.
If you look close, you will see his footprints where he stopped to help.
If you open your heart and soul you will feel the breeze of change created by Curtiss’ life.
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