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Back Roads to Meliora
                                                            (Latin - always better, ever better)


University of Rochester
Rush Rhees Library,   University of Rochester 		  My daughter Anne attended the

University of Rochester in New York,

graduating in 2008.

Meliora is UR's motto, as well as

the chosen name of their 'Parent's Weekend'.

I attended every year.

At Meliora, Anne & I enjoyed 3 days of music, symposiums & fun.   Anne's experience at UR will always be

something cherished by me, as well as her.   Meliora marked a time for me to show up and participate,

if only momentarily, with Anne's work there.   From the Ramblers to the Yellow Jackets - from a meeting

of the minds on sustainability to 'midnight maddness'on the Quad - in a nitty gritty sort of way,

I bonded with Anne's education there.


In 2005 & 2006 I drove to Meliora from North Carolina.

In '05 it was due to some business in Kane, PA regarding

a FSC certified forestry program - and a niece's

christening in Brooklyn, NY.  Kane, is where the

highly figured lumber for the 'Painted Lady' chest

came from - cherry trees as thick as fleas

atop northwestern PA's vast Alleghany Plateau.



With the Back Roads story are several groupings of

photos.   Meliora '05 & '06 are two.

There are no pictures of the 'Parent's Weekend'

- only the journey to it & from it. 		  Allegheny Plateau forests outside Kane, PA


Mountain railroads, rivers & small townships are my destinations as I cipher through county maps . . .

   
. . . a compass balanced on one knee.


It seems these journeys, brought on by the choices my two children made as to where they would attend college,

rattled layers of my past loose, yet still stringing together a story about the present.   At Meliora '06,

it was in the flash of an instant that 12 years as a farm & food processing inspector fell forward,

shaping a remarkable, though fleeting, moment between Dad & daughter.



In that moment I realized I wasn't finished with my work as an 'environmentalist' - that I still roamed the

countryside talking to folks, taking pictures - mining out something that is embedded there.


Buckeye Knob - fall 1965 Buckeye Knob - fall 1965       photo: R. Ferguson   Other groupings of pictures in this story tell of

earlier years; of how this habit of roaming about

was made quick by my Mom & Dad; & of how my

'backroadsmanship' came of age.   The '1960's'

& 'Valle Crusis' groupings are exclusively

Dad's work from those times.   The entire 'Owl'

site is strewn with many of his images.



Looking back on all the back roads I took going

to & from NY State those two years,

though they were like many others trips with

similar 'destinations', these trips, for some

reason, made plain to me that my life is on

a back road - something less traveled, yet finely &

subtly enriching - a homeopathic brew

of plans and circumstances.




What is out beyond where

the pavement ends?

Much was shown to me as

a boy.   I continued by

following less traveled

choices to Razor Ridge Workshop

in Independence VA;  then on

to my apprenticeship with

Colonel Barr and Ralph. 		  Plymouth, NY Pleasant Valley Rd.   Chenango Co., NY




Spa Spring - Morrow Farm Spa Spring,   Morrow Farm - Opecgan Creek headwaters - Martinsburg, WV   My twelve years as a farm inspector

for the organic food industry

was the backroad tour of that

industry.   The picture grouping

'Inspection Daze' tells of my

farewell tour of a small group of

farmers in Florida.  I served

as a teacher/mentor to Rick Martinez,

who went on to inspect & train

all over the world




Today, I still watch for the unbeaten

track going off around some corner.

There is always more ditch than road,

but, out here you're also straddling

that ditch in the middle, sometimes

even walking the ground before driving it.



It winds up being, I think, a healthy

mixture of having to watch your feet

and those 20 to 30 paces ahead. 		  forested cartway - Kane, PA forested cartway - Kane, PA




I am an aging environmentalist with genetic bearings that follow a road off the road

& keeps county maps in the glove compartment.   In the tellin' of this story I have discovered

Buckeye Knob, Watauga Co., NC - 1985   Elk Knob, Watauga Co., NC - Easter 1996   Anne's graduation - May 2008

living, connective tissue between the need to go 'where there be dragons' & the decisions I make

to do one thing or another - like deciding to learn how to build furniture or be a farm inspector.





It was Mom & Dad who awakened the wandering wonderer in me.   But, this is more than a habit I

picked up from my folks - & it is more than a metaphor.   When I look out onto my life,

there are the backwater & headwater countries.

Barr Cabinetshop - 1984 Barr Cabinet Shop - 1984   Robert Bergelin Co. - 2005 Robert Bergelin Co. - 2005   Harlein Family Farm - Oct. 1993 Harlein Family Farm - Oct. 1993   Vale, NC - Jan. 2010 Vale, NC - Jan. 2010  
Back Roads to Meliora assures me that prosperity has many layers.

  And the most precious layers, the ones that pass things forward, can be as intangible as a piece

of furniture is tangible, as well as bear a mark similar to what I leave In the Wood.



So very small was the moment between Anne & I - the moment that revealed all these connections -

I wonder if I am not a bit touched to give so much attention to it - or only lucky - to see how

such a slight slice in time can reveal a life's landscape.




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