July 30, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Bob McLalan, a regular contributor to Our American Stories, shares why—after half a century—he still chats with his high school teacher.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time from the McLellan Files when we go deep inside
the life one of our regular contributors, Bob McClellan, someone
you don't know, but whose life and whose voice you're
sure to be captivated by. Today, Bob shares with us
his letter to his mentor, Bill Walker.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Dear Bill, I can already see that telling a story
about you is going to be very difficult. Not because
I'm short on material, but my emotions keep pulling me
away from our teacher and student relationship to something much
deeper and more complex, something much harder to express. I'm
reticent to talk about your thoughts or feelings, and very
(00:55):
reluctant to try and explain them to someone else, let
alone pretend to understand in your heart. I know my
own runs in all directions when I think about you,
as no one has impacted my life as much as
you have, and probably many people out there who will
enjoy the academic aspects of our relationship and the enlightenment
you brought me. But it's just at the surface. When
(01:18):
we met, I was imprisoned and lonely. I was an
unhappy corporal at twenty one years of age. I had
no idea of where to go on my life, or
that it was even capable of going anywhere. It was
just all too chaotic. This is the poem I wrote
at twenty one years of age and at the outset
of my college career, asking for help. The answer and
(01:41):
the messenger, however that arrived, was not what I expected.
The poem is called the Maze. How appropriate I sit
amid a maze, walled in by my desires. Sitting here
with me is this love I have? Someday, if I
ever get out, I'd like to show it to you.
(02:02):
I don't know how I got here, for it's certainly
no place to be. Though you're just on the other
side of the walls, you are still many miles from me.
So if you love me a little and are tired
of waiting about, you might find your way in and
help me to get out. And then you appeared disguised
(02:22):
as an English professor. Well are fifty years down the
road in our friendship, Bill. We still speak almost every day.
Even today, as I write my stories, I look to
you for advice and comments. I may never be able
to explain the why or the how of our friendship,
and if I did, I doubt that other than you,
(02:42):
there was no one I could explain it to. I
wasn't looking for a father, I had already left one behind,
and I hardly fit the role of a loving son,
which leads me without an answer or explanation. Maybe our
friendship is just best shared between you and may. I
was sitting in the back of the class one day
(03:04):
in May of nineteen seventy when mister Walker walked in
and advanced to the podium. In his arms were some
books and notepags and copies of a syllabus for the
English one, a course that he would teach. He wore
a French peree plaid shirt, tweed jacket, blue jeans.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
And cowboy boots.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Will not quite the dress I expected from a college professor,
but since I hadn't been to college before, I guess
I had no idea of how professors dressed.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He was twenty years older.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Than I, came from a wealthy Connecticut family, and had
an incredible education and experience, an immersion in the world
of literature and books.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
As they called the name of the students.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He paused when he reached mine, purposely mispronounced and moved
on down the page before I could respond, I thought
to myself, sitting there, g must really be pissed off
about the comment I made to him after his speech
class last night, on the day I was assigned to
deliver my speech in his class, he decided to let
(04:06):
the students rap about the war in Vietnam for the
next two weeks. I sat there, ready to go, but
everybody wanted to discuss their feelings about the war.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Being just released.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
From active duty in the Marines, I didn't want to
talk about the war. I didn't care about Vietnam anymore.
It was done. Who's out. I was a civilian. I
wanted an education. I answered up when he called on
me in that class, you should all run down in
the list if you're all so interested in the war. Finally,
(04:40):
I just ran out of patience and I cornered him
in the doorway to tell him what I thought of
him and his class, Leaning down under that French beret
and putting my face right up to that full beard
of his, I said, you know, mister Walker, I don't
like this class of yours. It doesn't have any structure
to it. Now, sitting here waiting for this class to begin.
(05:01):
I thought to myself, this is going to be a
tough semester. A few weeks later, Nixon invaded Cambodia and
four students were shot dead on the Kent State campus.
Colleges erupted all over the country and some closed, with
riots breaking out. After two nights about running tactical police
(05:22):
throwing rocks against their great shields of armor, and hearing
the metallic clunk, hiss and hiss of gas canisters enveloping
me in a caustic fog, I went home for the night.
I returned to my apartment at midnight. As I climbed
into bed, I saw my English textbook. I had not
opened it in three weeks. Opening it up to the
(05:45):
assigned story was the title of a celestial omnibus by
im Forrester. By three point thirty am, I had read
it three times, and the next morning I was seated
in the first row when mister Walker walked in, surprised
to see me sitting in someone else's seat, but he
said nothing about it, neither did its prior occupant. Throughout
(06:08):
his lecture, my arms ceaselessly kept being raised until the
hour ended. I was on him immediately asking questions and
trying to understand more about this strange story that had
such a great effect on me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
He tried to ignore me, and when we reached his.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Office, he took a number of large books off the
shelf and abruptly told me if you liked that story,
then you should read these. I'm very busy right now,
and he abruptly closed the door. Summer came early that
year because all the campuses were closed due to demonstrations.
Working knights as a bartender gave me ample time to
read each and every.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Volume he pushed into my arms.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
When I completed them, I searched for his address and
I walked to Woodland Avenue in Palo Alta to return
them to him.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
His house was more like a Bungalore cottage.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
The front of it had a brick path of flowers
running along the edges. The cottage was shaded by leafy
trees and bushes in front of the windows and closing
it from sight to make it more private. When he
answered the door, he was surprised to see me. I
offered the books and said I read them and wanted
to return them.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
But the school was closed.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Then I extended my arms towards him and put the
books between his hands. Was an awkward moment, and then
he invited me into his house. Crossing over that threshold,
I stepped into his living room and was astonished by
what I saw. All the walls were covered in bookshelves, paintings,
and inscriptions of all kinds. I could see a trail
(07:38):
of shelves meandering down the hall into his bedroom in
the back. They were everywhere, from floor to ceiling. The
only sound was a record playing some classical music. A
couple open books sat on the arm of his couch.
On the wall, there was a sign that had an
inscription that read, quote, let us consider the way in
(07:59):
which we spend our lives end of quote. I asked
him who said that? Told me it was from Threau.
I didn't know who he was, but I thought I
just should try that advice.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Sometime.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I went over and I read the names the titles
of the many books that covered the walls. I had
to ask him, did you really read all of these?
I felt as if I was standing inside his mind,
that to understand who he is, one would have to
read all these books.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the McClelland files.
And by the way, if you have a friend or
a neighbor who's a great storyteller, send them our way.
Send them to our americannetwork dot org. I bumped into
Bob on a visit into the San Francisco area. A
friend of mine had told me to sit down with him,
and about four hours later I was just mesmerized and
(08:56):
his life experience and his writing talent, and he does
something completely different for a living, having to do a
financial services but my goodness, what a storyteller.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And what a writer.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And by the way, if you have stories about important
mental relationships, a teacher that encourage her in your life,
who changed your life again, send those stories to our
americannetwork dot org. That's our americannetwork dot org. We love
hearing from ordinary Americans. We're terrific writers as a country,
(09:27):
and we have terrific stories to tell. When we come back,
we continue with Bob McClellan and his talk and his
letter to Bill Walker.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
More after these.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Messages and we're back with our American stories and Bob
(10:12):
mcleowand's tribute who was English teacher and mentor Bill Walker.
When he left off, Bob had just crossed into uncharted
territory his teacher's home.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
We talked a little, and he remarked that since I
had such an attraction to literature, he would loan me
some more books. I read them, returned them, had received
more when I did. In the afternoons, I would come
over to his house and he would discuss with me
the substance within those books. It was like my own classroom.
(10:44):
During long evenings over drinks, he shared his thoughts and
encounters with the many writers he had met, and how
each writer enlarged his view of the world.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And his appreciation of it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
From drinking with Faulkner to dinner with the back Off,
parties with Tennessee Williams, and Truebig Capodi was the world
that he visited. These visits with him at his house
continued daily through the summer as he fed my imagination
about the world of literature and art. When he asked
me about what my plans were, I skipped over the
(11:18):
enormous hole in my education and background and told him
I wanted to be a lawyer and go either to
Harvard or Berkeley. I'm sure he was amused, but if
he knew I didn't know. The difference between a verb
and an adverb. That I only had a one point
five GPA in high school and my test for admission
revealed that I needed to spend one year in remedial
(11:38):
high school classes before even taking college level courses. He
would have either laughed himself to death or kicked me
out of his house, but he didn't. Mister Walker really
was a stickler for details. There were times when I
would mispronounce a word or make some egregiously stupid remark,
and he would glance at me over his glasses with
(12:00):
his perturbed look.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
On his face.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I thought, Gee, any minute, he's going to wrap me
across the knuckles with the ruler and make me write
the correct answer on the blackboard one hundred times. But
he made his point, and I became more prepared in
the future when I came over to see him. I
became an avid fan and user of the dictionary after that,
and I still am. The limitations of the classroom quickly
(12:25):
became apparent to me from the start when reading Homer
for the first time, three lectures in a week for
fifteen minutes doesn't quite get into my mind deep enough.
Reading fifteen th six hundred lines of the Iliad just
to find out who won the Trojan war makes for
a long and ardorous quarter. How could I learn anything
from a twenty nine hundred year old epic when I
(12:47):
didn't even know what an epich was? From mister Walker,
I received lectures at night on epic poems, their structure
in themes, and who wrote them, after which she'd suggested
to start again with the Iliad in the Odyssey. I
was grateful that he allowed me to read it in
English rather than classical Greek. I needed another drink after that,
(13:08):
and he made one for the both of us. It
seems he found me as tiring and arduous as I
did the epic. What did I take away from these
lectures on the epic? Over cocktails late in the evenings
at his house? While during an English class at Berkeley,
the students were asked who has read an epic poem before?
Out of twenty five students, only five of us had.
(13:32):
When asked if anyone had read more than one, my
hand was the only one that went up. My professor
asked me how many have you read? And I answered four?
Still I only got a C in the class. It
was becoming clear to me that no matter how passionate
I was, I lacked the educational background, temperament, and preparation
(13:54):
to be an academic or a lawyer. There were too
many holes in my secondary education that I neglected to fill,
and now it was too late. Just reading the books
would be my consolation. But since there are no absolutes
in literature, I found a place for me. Words defy
(14:14):
precision and exactitude. Definition of words can be multiple, ambiguous,
and malleable, leaving them open to different interpretation and understanding.
Words in a sentence can blend together like colors on
a canvas. There is no model to measure, meaning you
can't quantify your emotions. The answers don't lie at the
(14:35):
bottom of the column. They reside inside the laboratory of
your imagination and experience. The ambiguity of words and nuances
and definitions require a different approach to thinking. One needs
a look at a passage from different angles and determine
its meaning from the.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Support of the text.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
The multiple definition of the words and the reaction of
the reader are very important. I needed more evidence of
those beliefs about language. All I have to do is
reach Shakespeare. I was in class in the morning and
reading in the early afternoons. All of it was only
preparation for the classroom in the living room of mister
(15:14):
Walker's house at night. Soon I would be there almost
every night. All the open books and records of poetry
spread out across this floor was evidence of what we discussed.
The empty glasses and ice trays and bottles gave a
clue of how long we talked. This was where my
education and our friendship began. Bill was not a cloistered academic.
(15:38):
It'd served in the army as an enlisted man in
Japan at the end of the war who worked as
a purser for Gracelines. He flew from twa to Europe,
and he was a desk clerk of the Dell Coronado
in San Diego.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
He also was a truck driver in San Diego.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And yet he received both a scholarship to do a PhD.
On Conrad at Stanford and later received a writing fellowship
from Stanford. One issue of Esquire magazine listed him as
one of the top fifty up and coming writers.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He is one of the few.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Who are blessed or curs to have art torque and
jerk him into a world that resides in the realm
of imagination and creativity, and so consequently it's not easy
to find other people affected so deeply. The desire to
write and live in the world of art can be
a lonely experienced. There is risk and danger in that
(16:29):
if it becomes your life work. Art's not a hobby,
requires sacrifices, and sometimes that sacrifice his companionship. And every
so often Bill would say the price he paid was
he loved his books, but they can't put their arms
around and loving back. He was brilliant, but alone. This
(16:50):
was his faustian bargain. He told me many years later
after he retired, he wondered if he did anything important,
did he do anything that made a difference since someone's life.
He looked at me and said, I've asked myself many
times did my efforts make any difference to anyone?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And then I.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thought of you, Vardsley. I still have my friendship with
mister Walker. Our conversations are not as loud or lengthy
since we quit drinking, but every once in a while
we disagree and joust about literature. When he addresses me
as Robert, I know he is once again reminded me,
(17:29):
who's the student? As I continue to write these stories
for our American Story, our conversations together have increased to
almost every day. Is it just a coincidence that I
ended up being a storyteller at ninety? He continues to
astonish me about how much he reads, and more importantly,
how much he loves literature. Mister Walker was the messenger
(17:52):
who sparked that same passion in me. I'm sure that
many of you were asking who really is mister Walker.
I discovered the answer to that question a year after
I met him. Tacked to a wall in mister Walker's
apartments a copy of a drawing by Gustave Dorey. I
bought it for him forty eight years ago after seeing
(18:13):
it hanging on a wall of a poster shop in
North Beach. I could immediately see that this portrait truly
captured the essence of mister Walker's personality and mania that
are manifestations of his passion for books and life. It
is a picture of Don Quixote seated the loan in
his library, with his right arm raising his sword above
(18:34):
as he reads from the book in his left hand.
All around him, of the many monsters and damsels that
he encounters on his sally into the world of complete madness, fantasy,
and imagination as a medieval night driven to delusion after
reading so many stories about love, romance, and chivalry, don
Quixote lives, interprets, transforms the world around him from reality
(18:57):
to fiction. His story is about the power a man
who possessed by stories and imagination can make himself.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And the world and anything he wants.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The end, and my goodness, what a beautiful piece of writing,
and what a celebration of a lifelong mentor and friend.
Bill Walker's story, Bob McClelland's story here on our American
Stories
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time from the McLellan Files when we go deep inside
the life one of our regular contributors, Bob McClellan, someone
you don't know, but whose life and whose voice you're
sure to be captivated by. Today, Bob shares with us
his letter to his mentor, Bill Walker.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Dear Bill, I can already see that telling a story
about you is going to be very difficult. Not because
I'm short on material, but my emotions keep pulling me
away from our teacher and student relationship to something much
deeper and more complex, something much harder to express. I'm
reticent to talk about your thoughts or feelings, and very
(00:55):
reluctant to try and explain them to someone else, let
alone pretend to understand in your heart. I know my
own runs in all directions when I think about you,
as no one has impacted my life as much as
you have, and probably many people out there who will
enjoy the academic aspects of our relationship and the enlightenment
you brought me. But it's just at the surface. When
(01:18):
we met, I was imprisoned and lonely. I was an
unhappy corporal at twenty one years of age. I had
no idea of where to go on my life, or
that it was even capable of going anywhere. It was
just all too chaotic. This is the poem I wrote
at twenty one years of age and at the outset
of my college career, asking for help. The answer and
(01:41):
the messenger, however that arrived, was not what I expected.
The poem is called the Maze. How appropriate I sit
amid a maze, walled in by my desires. Sitting here
with me is this love I have? Someday, if I
ever get out, I'd like to show it to you.
(02:02):
I don't know how I got here, for it's certainly
no place to be. Though you're just on the other
side of the walls, you are still many miles from me.
So if you love me a little and are tired
of waiting about, you might find your way in and
help me to get out. And then you appeared disguised
(02:22):
as an English professor. Well are fifty years down the
road in our friendship, Bill. We still speak almost every day.
Even today, as I write my stories, I look to
you for advice and comments. I may never be able
to explain the why or the how of our friendship,
and if I did, I doubt that other than you,
(02:42):
there was no one I could explain it to. I
wasn't looking for a father, I had already left one behind,
and I hardly fit the role of a loving son,
which leads me without an answer or explanation. Maybe our
friendship is just best shared between you and may. I
was sitting in the back of the class one day
(03:04):
in May of nineteen seventy when mister Walker walked in
and advanced to the podium. In his arms were some
books and notepags and copies of a syllabus for the
English one, a course that he would teach. He wore
a French peree plaid shirt, tweed jacket, blue jeans.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
And cowboy boots.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Will not quite the dress I expected from a college professor,
but since I hadn't been to college before, I guess
I had no idea of how professors dressed.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He was twenty years older.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Than I, came from a wealthy Connecticut family, and had
an incredible education and experience, an immersion in the world
of literature and books.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
As they called the name of the students.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He paused when he reached mine, purposely mispronounced and moved
on down the page before I could respond, I thought
to myself, sitting there, g must really be pissed off
about the comment I made to him after his speech
class last night, on the day I was assigned to
deliver my speech in his class, he decided to let
(04:06):
the students rap about the war in Vietnam for the
next two weeks. I sat there, ready to go, but
everybody wanted to discuss their feelings about the war.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Being just released.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
From active duty in the Marines, I didn't want to
talk about the war. I didn't care about Vietnam anymore.
It was done. Who's out. I was a civilian. I
wanted an education. I answered up when he called on
me in that class, you should all run down in
the list if you're all so interested in the war. Finally,
(04:40):
I just ran out of patience and I cornered him
in the doorway to tell him what I thought of
him and his class, Leaning down under that French beret
and putting my face right up to that full beard
of his, I said, you know, mister Walker, I don't
like this class of yours. It doesn't have any structure
to it. Now, sitting here waiting for this class to begin.
(05:01):
I thought to myself, this is going to be a
tough semester. A few weeks later, Nixon invaded Cambodia and
four students were shot dead on the Kent State campus.
Colleges erupted all over the country and some closed, with
riots breaking out. After two nights about running tactical police
(05:22):
throwing rocks against their great shields of armor, and hearing
the metallic clunk, hiss and hiss of gas canisters enveloping
me in a caustic fog, I went home for the night.
I returned to my apartment at midnight. As I climbed
into bed, I saw my English textbook. I had not
opened it in three weeks. Opening it up to the
(05:45):
assigned story was the title of a celestial omnibus by
im Forrester. By three point thirty am, I had read
it three times, and the next morning I was seated
in the first row when mister Walker walked in, surprised
to see me sitting in someone else's seat, but he
said nothing about it, neither did its prior occupant. Throughout
(06:08):
his lecture, my arms ceaselessly kept being raised until the
hour ended. I was on him immediately asking questions and
trying to understand more about this strange story that had
such a great effect on me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
He tried to ignore me, and when we reached his.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Office, he took a number of large books off the
shelf and abruptly told me if you liked that story,
then you should read these. I'm very busy right now,
and he abruptly closed the door. Summer came early that
year because all the campuses were closed due to demonstrations.
Working knights as a bartender gave me ample time to
read each and every.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Volume he pushed into my arms.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
When I completed them, I searched for his address and
I walked to Woodland Avenue in Palo Alta to return
them to him.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
His house was more like a Bungalore cottage.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
The front of it had a brick path of flowers
running along the edges. The cottage was shaded by leafy
trees and bushes in front of the windows and closing
it from sight to make it more private. When he
answered the door, he was surprised to see me. I
offered the books and said I read them and wanted
to return them.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
But the school was closed.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Then I extended my arms towards him and put the
books between his hands. Was an awkward moment, and then
he invited me into his house. Crossing over that threshold,
I stepped into his living room and was astonished by
what I saw. All the walls were covered in bookshelves, paintings,
and inscriptions of all kinds. I could see a trail
(07:38):
of shelves meandering down the hall into his bedroom in
the back. They were everywhere, from floor to ceiling. The
only sound was a record playing some classical music. A
couple open books sat on the arm of his couch.
On the wall, there was a sign that had an
inscription that read, quote, let us consider the way in
(07:59):
which we spend our lives end of quote. I asked
him who said that? Told me it was from Threau.
I didn't know who he was, but I thought I
just should try that advice.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Sometime.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I went over and I read the names the titles
of the many books that covered the walls. I had
to ask him, did you really read all of these?
I felt as if I was standing inside his mind,
that to understand who he is, one would have to
read all these books.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the McClelland files.
And by the way, if you have a friend or
a neighbor who's a great storyteller, send them our way.
Send them to our americannetwork dot org. I bumped into
Bob on a visit into the San Francisco area. A
friend of mine had told me to sit down with him,
and about four hours later I was just mesmerized and
(08:56):
his life experience and his writing talent, and he does
something completely different for a living, having to do a
financial services but my goodness, what a storyteller.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And what a writer.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And by the way, if you have stories about important
mental relationships, a teacher that encourage her in your life,
who changed your life again, send those stories to our
americannetwork dot org. That's our americannetwork dot org. We love
hearing from ordinary Americans. We're terrific writers as a country,
(09:27):
and we have terrific stories to tell. When we come back,
we continue with Bob McClellan and his talk and his
letter to Bill Walker.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
More after these.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Messages and we're back with our American stories and Bob
(10:12):
mcleowand's tribute who was English teacher and mentor Bill Walker.
When he left off, Bob had just crossed into uncharted
territory his teacher's home.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
We talked a little, and he remarked that since I
had such an attraction to literature, he would loan me
some more books. I read them, returned them, had received
more when I did. In the afternoons, I would come
over to his house and he would discuss with me
the substance within those books. It was like my own classroom.
(10:44):
During long evenings over drinks, he shared his thoughts and
encounters with the many writers he had met, and how
each writer enlarged his view of the world.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And his appreciation of it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
From drinking with Faulkner to dinner with the back Off,
parties with Tennessee Williams, and Truebig Capodi was the world
that he visited. These visits with him at his house
continued daily through the summer as he fed my imagination
about the world of literature and art. When he asked
me about what my plans were, I skipped over the
(11:18):
enormous hole in my education and background and told him
I wanted to be a lawyer and go either to
Harvard or Berkeley. I'm sure he was amused, but if
he knew I didn't know. The difference between a verb
and an adverb. That I only had a one point
five GPA in high school and my test for admission
revealed that I needed to spend one year in remedial
(11:38):
high school classes before even taking college level courses. He
would have either laughed himself to death or kicked me
out of his house, but he didn't. Mister Walker really
was a stickler for details. There were times when I
would mispronounce a word or make some egregiously stupid remark,
and he would glance at me over his glasses with
(12:00):
his perturbed look.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
On his face.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I thought, Gee, any minute, he's going to wrap me
across the knuckles with the ruler and make me write
the correct answer on the blackboard one hundred times. But
he made his point, and I became more prepared in
the future when I came over to see him. I
became an avid fan and user of the dictionary after that,
and I still am. The limitations of the classroom quickly
(12:25):
became apparent to me from the start when reading Homer
for the first time, three lectures in a week for
fifteen minutes doesn't quite get into my mind deep enough.
Reading fifteen th six hundred lines of the Iliad just
to find out who won the Trojan war makes for
a long and ardorous quarter. How could I learn anything
from a twenty nine hundred year old epic when I
(12:47):
didn't even know what an epich was? From mister Walker,
I received lectures at night on epic poems, their structure
in themes, and who wrote them, after which she'd suggested
to start again with the Iliad in the Odyssey. I
was grateful that he allowed me to read it in
English rather than classical Greek. I needed another drink after that,
(13:08):
and he made one for the both of us. It
seems he found me as tiring and arduous as I
did the epic. What did I take away from these
lectures on the epic? Over cocktails late in the evenings
at his house? While during an English class at Berkeley,
the students were asked who has read an epic poem before?
Out of twenty five students, only five of us had.
(13:32):
When asked if anyone had read more than one, my
hand was the only one that went up. My professor
asked me how many have you read? And I answered four?
Still I only got a C in the class. It
was becoming clear to me that no matter how passionate
I was, I lacked the educational background, temperament, and preparation
(13:54):
to be an academic or a lawyer. There were too
many holes in my secondary education that I neglected to fill,
and now it was too late. Just reading the books
would be my consolation. But since there are no absolutes
in literature, I found a place for me. Words defy
(14:14):
precision and exactitude. Definition of words can be multiple, ambiguous,
and malleable, leaving them open to different interpretation and understanding.
Words in a sentence can blend together like colors on
a canvas. There is no model to measure, meaning you
can't quantify your emotions. The answers don't lie at the
(14:35):
bottom of the column. They reside inside the laboratory of
your imagination and experience. The ambiguity of words and nuances
and definitions require a different approach to thinking. One needs
a look at a passage from different angles and determine
its meaning from the.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Support of the text.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
The multiple definition of the words and the reaction of
the reader are very important. I needed more evidence of
those beliefs about language. All I have to do is
reach Shakespeare. I was in class in the morning and
reading in the early afternoons. All of it was only
preparation for the classroom in the living room of mister
(15:14):
Walker's house at night. Soon I would be there almost
every night. All the open books and records of poetry
spread out across this floor was evidence of what we discussed.
The empty glasses and ice trays and bottles gave a
clue of how long we talked. This was where my
education and our friendship began. Bill was not a cloistered academic.
(15:38):
It'd served in the army as an enlisted man in
Japan at the end of the war who worked as
a purser for Gracelines. He flew from twa to Europe,
and he was a desk clerk of the Dell Coronado
in San Diego.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
He also was a truck driver in San Diego.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And yet he received both a scholarship to do a PhD.
On Conrad at Stanford and later received a writing fellowship
from Stanford. One issue of Esquire magazine listed him as
one of the top fifty up and coming writers.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He is one of the few.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Who are blessed or curs to have art torque and
jerk him into a world that resides in the realm
of imagination and creativity, and so consequently it's not easy
to find other people affected so deeply. The desire to
write and live in the world of art can be
a lonely experienced. There is risk and danger in that
(16:29):
if it becomes your life work. Art's not a hobby,
requires sacrifices, and sometimes that sacrifice his companionship. And every
so often Bill would say the price he paid was
he loved his books, but they can't put their arms
around and loving back. He was brilliant, but alone. This
(16:50):
was his faustian bargain. He told me many years later
after he retired, he wondered if he did anything important,
did he do anything that made a difference since someone's life.
He looked at me and said, I've asked myself many
times did my efforts make any difference to anyone?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And then I.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thought of you, Vardsley. I still have my friendship with
mister Walker. Our conversations are not as loud or lengthy
since we quit drinking, but every once in a while
we disagree and joust about literature. When he addresses me
as Robert, I know he is once again reminded me,
(17:29):
who's the student? As I continue to write these stories
for our American Story, our conversations together have increased to
almost every day. Is it just a coincidence that I
ended up being a storyteller at ninety? He continues to
astonish me about how much he reads, and more importantly,
how much he loves literature. Mister Walker was the messenger
(17:52):
who sparked that same passion in me. I'm sure that
many of you were asking who really is mister Walker.
I discovered the answer to that question a year after
I met him. Tacked to a wall in mister Walker's
apartments a copy of a drawing by Gustave Dorey. I
bought it for him forty eight years ago after seeing
(18:13):
it hanging on a wall of a poster shop in
North Beach. I could immediately see that this portrait truly
captured the essence of mister Walker's personality and mania that
are manifestations of his passion for books and life. It
is a picture of Don Quixote seated the loan in
his library, with his right arm raising his sword above
(18:34):
as he reads from the book in his left hand.
All around him, of the many monsters and damsels that
he encounters on his sally into the world of complete madness, fantasy,
and imagination as a medieval night driven to delusion after
reading so many stories about love, romance, and chivalry, don
Quixote lives, interprets, transforms the world around him from reality
(18:57):
to fiction. His story is about the power a man
who possessed by stories and imagination can make himself.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And the world and anything he wants.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The end, and my goodness, what a beautiful piece of writing,
and what a celebration of a lifelong mentor and friend.
Bill Walker's story, Bob McClelland's story here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.