Slim Randles is here today with a story from Marvin’s point of view. Marvin is one of the guys from the gang at the Mule Barn Truck Stop who we don’t hear about as much as the others, but when Marvin speaks, it’s always with a depth of wisdom, touched with sardonic wit.
Since we’re getting closer and closer to Christmas, have a little holiday cheer by sampling these chocolate tree cookies.
Marvin Pincus understands that times change. He sure has. He’s a lot older now, of course, and it gives him more time to consider things, like snowboarding. There he was, the other day up on Parker’s Ridge, our local ski slope, resting his arms on the antique wooden ski poles he’s used since the Hoover Administration.
And down the hill came young people, swooping and swooshing on snowboards and it got ol’ Marvin shaking his head.
“Back when I was young,” he said, “we had to work at this. You had to have skiing lessons, of course. Then you had to buy the right equipment and the right wax.
“Oh yes, the wax.
“You had to know just what kind of wax to use for the current temperature and what kind of snow you had. Then you practiced learning to stop and turn. For some strange reason, we thought it was important to be able to turn on skis, and to stop.
“But now we have these snowboards. Near as I can tell, all you need to get started in that sport is an idiot and a six pack.”
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Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at www.slimrandles.com, and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here.
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books and is host of two podcasts and a television program.