Hi Sinsull ... Again, I'm impressed with the perceptions. You expressed an interest in Walt's apparent ability to "just go and make it work." Then you mentioned that his talent would have "amounted to nothing without the courage ... that allowed him to travel on a whim, ease into the situation and take advantage." Many of the observations are somewhat true, yet there was always a price.

He had the freedom to pick up and go as he had no binding roots. I won't discuss his marriages or his children, except to say that as "IDAHO 50" implied, at the end of his life he brought these various threads together, and quite successfully. (and admirably I would add.)

Was he courageous? You bet. I remember when he was packing for his year in Tonga. His entire living room floor was strewn with little piles of this and that. I spent a few days helping him return things, dispose of things, organize, etc. During that last week, he slept on the living room floor on a very thin mat. He still had a perfectly good bed in the bedroom, but he was getting ready to travel again and was clearing out his mind as well as his possesions. I drove him to the airport, and he got on the plane carrying a little bag, 8" X 8" x 15", smiling all the way.

He was a survivor like few I've known, and I've known a few. When he first arrived in Honolulu, he spent two and a half years virtually unemployed because of anti white discrimination. During that time, he managed. He sent me 2 or 3 postcards (cheap) every week, and I did so also. I offered him the occasional few dollars, and he always turned it down. I well remember his answer,"I make a poor debtor." (remember now that he and I argued on his deathbed about who owed who the last $100.)

But no matter where he went, or how well preopared he was, he always landed on his feet, independent, proud, and enjoying the hell out of the process. CHEERS, Bob