David Lee

I go for walks during the day in our fair city and have recently started winding my walks through Oakwood Cemetery. It has been in existence since the late 1890s- early 1900s and has many interesting tombstones. I am going to pick out headstones of particular interest and do some research on the people buried at those locations.

Subject 1 is Daniel Washington Rowe (July 4, 1854 – June 30, 1888 at 33 years of age)

Married to Candace Seitz on April 13, 1876

Wife – Candace Seitz Rowe (August 13, 1859 – April 3, 1954 at 94 years of age)

Children: Lillie Gertrude Rowe (April 25, 1877 – December 29, 1945 at 68 years of age)

Carrie May Rowe (April 13, 1879 – July 3, 1897 at 18 years of age)

Daniel Guy Rowe, Sr. (March 19, 1883 – March 31, 1969 at 85 years of age)

Essie Pearl Rowe (October 3, 1885 - October 1, 1900 at 4 years of age)

Daniel was evidently a hard-working man. I found a newspaper article from the Hickory newspaper in 1881 that said he had a large livery stable. He had plenty of horses and carriages that would transport people to and from nearby towns. The business was reported as “red hot.” 

Daniel’s obituary was also to be found. It mentioned that he had died four days short of his 34th birthday. It says he had stood before his brother Junius’ grave several weeks before and had said he didn’t expect to live much longer. He seemingly was in good health at the time. He then went home to his bed and died seventeen days later.

His wife’s and two of his children’s gravestones are nearby.

I recently had an interesting trip to the North Carolina mountains. I’d been to the mountains plenty of times before, so nothing new there. It was the place where I stayed for the two nights I was there that had played a part in my past. It brought back some long-ago memories. Time can be tricky that way at times…

As best I can recall, it was likely some thirty years ago that I visited this inn. My then-wife and I had answered one of those marketing calls that would gain us some gift in return for letting the salespeople have a couple of hours of our time. I do not recall what that gift was these many years later. Turns out the salesperson must have been pretty good because we ended up purchasing a coveted one week per calendar year at some other place in the N.C. mountains.

This afternoon I decided it might be a neat idea to go to the lobby of the inn and try to recall what that day would have been like some thirty years ago. And while it didn’t bring back any immediate memories, I realized that place had been a part of my journey so many years ago. So many things had transpired since then. We were married at that time and would eventually have two children. Our children would grow up and become adults and have children of their own. Of course we would not be together forever, as we separated and then divorced after twenty-three years of marriage.

So I walked through the lobby of the inn this evening and thought to myself about the fact I’d been there before. If only I could go back to that time and tell myself what I know to be true today. I wouldn’t have purchased that time-share that day. I would be more cautious about areas in my life. But of course, I’m not accorded that opportunity. Time and life don’t work that way.

Perhaps, just perhaps, today is healing in a manner of speaking. I know I did the best that I could to make things right in life and of course, also made a lot of mistakes along the way. I know I’ll likely never return to this inn, and so tomorrow morning I’ll be saying good-bye one last time.

Summer vacation is quickly coming to a close and as it does, I reflect on what I’ve done during this time off from work.

Walking, walking, and more walking. It’s a healthy habit I renewed on Memorial Day of this year. It was my first real day off from working and I saw several people out enjoying their walks and decided to take it up again myself. Two summers ago I had done much the same and it didn’t take long before I was taking more than one walk per day. All told, I will have walked over 300 miles since that point and think it is a habit I’ll continue in the months to come.

While I am walking, I enjoy listening to music and audiobooks on my phone with the use of air pods. I have a playlist of favorite tunes and am consistently adding music to the list. I also am subscribed to an app that allows me to listen to quite a few insightful books. I’ve discovered quite a few texts that I’ve actually ended up buying the hard copy of the book and enjoy listening to and then reading or vice versa. Most of the books are what I guess you’d call self-help or spiritual in nature.

I’m preparing to start yet another interim position to begin my forty-third year in the classroom. It’ll be an eighth-grade social studies maternity leave. I’m presently scheduled to work through the first week in October. There will be some in my classes that I’ve been with for four years now in an interim capacity. I first taught this group of students when they were in the fourth grade, the “year of covid.” I then had them again in the sixth grade, when I taught them for half of the school year. Last year I once again did a half-year interim position. And now there’s this one. There will be a handful of students who I’ve been in contact with for three of their past four school years and I think that’s pretty neat.

This past week I celebrated my twenty-first year of sobriety from alcohol. I joked with my recovery family that I was now of legal drinking age…ha ha. I had ordered a fancy medallion, but had left it in its packaging until my actual sobriety date, August 10th. I contemplated writing a blog about my journey in recovery, but at present am just leaving it at this mention. I figure anonymity serves a purpose and if you’ve made it to this point in my post, you’re not anyone I would mind breaking my anonymity with.

So as I sit here at Barnes and Noble, I’ll enjoy these last few days of vacation and it’s off to the races again.

David Lee

Over the past ten weeks I have been walking to try to get back to physical wellness and create some mental clarity. In addition to the usual walking paths around town, I’ve ventured out to some that I haven’t traveled before. The results have been quite interesting and I’ve come to the conclusions that those walking/hiking paths can be a lot like life.

Several weeks I tried out a new walking trail at a park I hadn’t been to in quite some time