It’s been about three years since I posted my first blog with a reference to “cleaning up the garage.” (Bill’s Blog #16 – The time has come too -) When we moved to Petaluma in 1993 from the “Big City,” I had most of my personal “stuff” in cardboard boxes – about 50 of them. As of August 7, 2008, Bill’s Blog #20 reported that there were “over 80 boxes, 35 file drawers, and 65 notebooks to look through.” (Where did all that new “stuff” come from?)

To make the long story short, we’re making progress; but slowly, in spite of all the promises that were made with “announced deadlines” of 7/4/08 and 9/5/08. Over the past few week (2009), I’ve managed to go through 2-4 boxes/week – folder by folder and in some cases, page by page.

What an experience! Your life comes back before your very eyes and your mind remembers the good times and the significance of “this and that” activity or project. Even after moving in to a new house, that “old” habit of putting “stuff” in boxes continued; so now the collection has grown and the pile has gotten higher.

What I’m leading up to is what some of these memories are about. For example: In 1962, while I was a SFSU, the campus newspaper – The Golden Gater – ran a series of articles about Camp Leonard in the Sierra (which I directed during the summer months for 10 years). One of the students mentioned in an article was Abe Evenich, who still lives in the Petaluma today.

There are tons of materials related to the ECO Education (Environmental, Conservation, and Outdoor Education) program I was hired to develop. Over the next two decades, special projects that made use of the out-of-doors as a laboratory for learning included: Peace Corps Training for Liberia volunteers in the mid-60’s, the Sausalito Teacher Education Project (STEP) late ’60s, several Title I programs for grades 4, 5, & 6, travel camps for Jr. & Sr. High School students, plus several skiing and winter camp expeditions during semester breaks.

After the Camp was renamed the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, my ECO Education efforts were directed more toward helping plan local S.F. area projects that included: the Fort Funston EE Center, the YMCA Point Bonita OE Center, The Yosemite Institute, Audubon Canyon Ranch, and Walker Creek Ranch.

I could go on; but then, I wouldn’t get around to cleaning out the garage – right? Stay tuned.