My office is my haven

by Walter Higbee | Monday, April 21, 2003

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For many years, I have wanted to have an office in our house so I could go there and read or write or meditate without other people bothering me. Well, since my retirement from the college teaching game, I have had one. I cleaned out a storage room and equipped it as I like it. Not many people go there, but recently I took a friend down there. (It's in the basement). He was very impressed and started to say, "So this is where you write all that driv ..." He caught himself and finished, "... deathless prose."

The decor to my office is a little unusual, so I would like to describe it to those who are interested. The furnishings are sparse except for bookcases. I have seven of those crammed into the previous storeroom. But it is the wall decor that impresses the few visitors.

Above the word processor where I write my driv ... er, deathless prose, are two displays. One is a wall bookcase with my collection of Big Little Books with such titles as "Flash Gordon and the Jungles of Mongo," "Abbie and Slats" and "The Laughing Dragon of Oz."

Also above my word processor is a 2- by 3-foot picture frame with a collection of about 70 snapshots of former students — Patricia Fallbeck, Judy Wilson, Sheila Kari, Anita Trask and many others. On my word processor desk is an 18-inch bust of Nefertiti, a smaller bust of Mark Twain, and a bowl full of buckeyes. Also, an antique clock.

Near the next wall is a stack of five boxes I haven't opened in several years. Someday, I'm going to look through them. Next to them is a bookcase with several reference books. There is also a fine collection of World War II books with titles such as "The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe" and "The Campaign for Guadalcanal." Above the bookcase is my antique jigsaw puzzle of a tender pastoral scene, framed in a cookie pan. On the far side of the wall are pictures of the leaders in World War II — Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Hirohito, Hitler and Mussolini. There is also a picture of Graham W. Jackson, playing his accordion as Roosevelt's funeral cortege passed by.

On the back wall are four bookcases with books of every description in them. There are many textbooks, quite a few books on baseball and a series on mental retardation. I have a record player on which I can play Louis Armstrong records. I also have an antique cylinder player that is broken. Above the bookcases are framed World War II, Des Moines Tribune newspapers with blaring headlines such as, "WAR WITH NAZI and VICTORY — SURRENDER IS SIGNED!" I also have a framed April 15, 1865, New York Herald newspaper on that wall with details of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

There is also a framed picture of Company C. 82nd Infantry Training Battalion, Camp Maxey, Texas, with guess who standing very military-like in the third line.

On the right wall, there is a closet full of my outgrown clothes. On the front of the closet is a world map, an antique Coca-Cola sign and my daughter's collection of metal puzzles. Also on that wall are several pictures of the family. All of the pictures show me with dark hair.

That's about all there is. Oh yes, I have an exercise machine that almost takes up the rest of the room. When I get tired of exercising my brain by writing, I climb on the machine and exercise my body. I should do this more often.

Walter Higbee is a retired college educator living in Spearfish. Write him at the Rapid City Journal, Box 450, Rapid City, SD 57709.