Jim Caldwell and I went to Mt. Lebanon High School and were college roommates at Muskingum College in the early 60s. He transferred to the University of Montana after our sophomore year. We hadn’t had any contact with each other for several decades. He happened to come across my website and read a couple articles that I had written about Norman Maclean’s book and movie, A River Runs Through It.

Maclean grew up and wrote about those years growing up in Missoula. This is the ending of the movie. Maclean is haunted by the water. I told Jim that I was haunted each time I watched the movie or looked at the poster I had framed of the movie.

This is the last couple of minutes of the movie.

Jim and I shared stories about our dogs via our emails. Jim has an Irish Red and White Setter, one of the four breeds of setters. I had told him that I had my third Irish Setter. Our setters have bonded each of us.

However, this email from Jim had to do with my essay, Life is All About Your Owner’s Manual. He liked Harrison Ford’s commercial for the Jeep Rubicon.

Harrison and his Rubicon

Nonetheless, Jim wrote about a young guy who lives in Missoula. This kid is in his 20s and is an avid supporter of Trump. He drives around Missoula as if he was someone extremely special. This guy has a MAGA bumper sticker on his Rubicon's front and back bumpers. Jim said that he thinks that he might be a student at the university. If he attended the university, Jim was sure he wouldn’t have majored in history. Jim wanted to ask this Trumper about how he felt when driving his Rubicon across the bridge in Missoula. Did he feel like Caesar crossing the Rubicon River in 49 BC? Jim was sure his comment would have gone over this Trumper’s head.

I was also surprised that Jim had seen an article I wrote about Nancy Nurenburg, who also graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School the same year we did. Nancy was the valedictorian of the class and took college classes while still in high school. Nancy would have qualified as a Mensa candidate, which neither Jim nor I would have.