March 21, 2025 • 28 mins
Mark Polish joins the episode to share insights into his writing journey and the inspiration behind his latest book. He discusses the themes of legacy and the influence of Alfred Nobel, emphasizing the importance of documenting personal history. Mark reflects on life lessons learned through writing and offers a reading from his book. The conversation covers historical events and the role of music, while also providing details on where to find the book. The episode wraps up with closing remarks, a teaser for future episodes, and final thank yous before signing off.
Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Hi.
Welcome to Reading Between the Words.
And today, do we have a great guest for you?
We have Mark here.
Mark, how are you doing?
I'm doing very well.
How are you, LS?
Oh, I'm great.
I'm great.
Now how many books have you written?
I've written two.
The first one was a collaboration with 20 otherauthors.
(00:36):
Oh.
And that one, I I just have one chapter in it.
But my latest book is Mine All Alone, and it'sit's called Living the Dream by Mark Polish.
Fifty five years skiing at Alton Snowbird andfinding the meaning of life.
(00:58):
It's a memoir that I wrote starting back ohgosh.
I think I started pre COVID, but it took methree years to write and edit, format, self
publish, and I got it on Amazon.
And I learned a lot, and I met a lot of greatpeople.
That's probably the best thing was meetinggreat people like you and other authors and
(01:22):
just different people from all walks of life.
Yeah.
So what is your book about?
I mean, you talked about skiing and finding themeaning of life, but I have a feeling there's
more to this book than that.
Well, just like your your podcast, readingbetween the words, there's a lot to that.
You know?
(01:42):
I think it was Shakespeare said that the pen ismightier than the sword.
Yeah.
And I found that out, and that's why I wantedto write a book.
And I I decided to do it to leave a legacy formy children to because I they're always asking
me about my heritage, and I wish I would havespent more time talking to my mom and dad when
(02:06):
they were alive because they had a great, greatstory.
They're part of the greatest generation.
And if if you don't know what that is, look itup.
But they survived the Great Depression, theGreat World War two, and they they were just
amazing generation.
So I wrote my book to kinda, you know, help mychildren, but it what it did for me is it made
(02:31):
me focus on my life and made me think my life,rethink it in my latter years.
And, I wanna leave a positive legacy for mygrandkids.
Yeah.
Definitely.
You brought up a really good point.
And as a genealogy, you know, I did, well,fifty years now of genealogy, and that was the
(02:56):
one thing I heard more than anything else is Iwish I would have taken the time to talk to my
parents or talk to my grandparents or writedown the stories they told me because now I
don't remember them all.
And and so for you audience, there's a greattakeaway.
(03:16):
We've got the holiday seasons coming up.
Now's the time.
Ask those questions.
Write down those stories.
Use a a digital recorder, you know, or recordit on Zoom or something.
Record it on your phone, but get those storieswritten down so you can pass them on.
That's how we learned about our ancestors andwhere we came from years ago was the stories
(03:39):
passed on.
And it's not like that game telephone where youhave 15 people and the first person says
something and the last person says somethingtotally different.
These stories were told again and again andagain for accuracy and to let the next
generation know where they came from, what isimportant about them so they can go on and make
(04:03):
their own mark in the world, but still carrytheir ancestors with them.
And and it's too bad we don't tell more storieslike that.
We really to.
That's so true.
I encourage everybody I meet, young or old, youneed to record your history and write your
memoir, even if it's just a journal, becausesomebody is gonna benefit from that.
(04:28):
And if you don't if you don't do it whileyou're alive, somebody else will.
There's a famous story, and I talk about it inmy book, about Alfred Nobel.
I don't know if you know who he was.
Yes.
Alfred Nobel, whom the Nobel Peace Prize isnamed after, was also the inventor of dynamite.
(04:49):
Yeah.
And I know all about dynamite because that'swhat I work with.
I spent my entire career as a professional, skipatrol, EMT, also blew up avalanches.
So I was trained in explosives.
And Alfred Nobel rewrote his legacy.
(05:11):
The story goes, he was, walking along thestreets of Paris and saw a newspaper, and it it
had a headline saying, Alfred Nobel passesaway.
The man who invented more ways to kill peoplewith dynamite has died.
And he went, oh, no.
Yep.
But it was his brother.
The the newspapers back then had got it wronglike they do today, And it was about his
(05:34):
brother.
So he decided to leave a legacy, and he startedthe Nobel Peace Prize in that foundation, and
it's still going on today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Amazing how one person can make a difference,and you don't know until you actually do
something.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(05:55):
Your book is a memoir.
And but what are some of the the things thatyou did learn in it?
You said you're learning about life.
What did you learn about life on this journeyyou were on?
Well, I learned about it was a transformationof my life.
And in a nutshell, this is my testimony.
(06:17):
Mhmm.
So I'm very much into the prophetic, into I Ilove I love God.
I love the bible.
I'm not a big fan of organized religion.
I just I just have a personal relationship withmy Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
And I I this is my story about how heinfluenced my life, and he turned it around.
(06:45):
He re he rewrote my epitaph.
So I could've That's wonderful.
Yeah.
I could've ended up early death like a lot ofthe people I wrote about in my book, a lot of
the rock stars that I grew up with, but passedaway at an early age.
A lot of them.
And I write about that in my book, and I just alot of good stories about skiing, avalanches,
(07:10):
hitchhiking all over South America,backpacking.
Wow.
Some good stories.
And I'd I'd love to read a little bit if you ifyou
would want maybe Yes.
Absolutely.
That'll give people a little bit of a history.
I I grew up with music, and one of the things Ilearned when I was writing this memoir was
(07:33):
music would trigger in me memories of thingsthat had happened Mhmm.
Different time.
And that that really helped me to write this.
So I'll just start at the very beginning.
This is called summer of love.
A new song popped on the radio.
(07:55):
Trapped with my sister in the backseat of myparents' 1963 Chevy Bel Air, suddenly a smooth
and gentle melody filled my consciousness.
The invitation of going to San Francisco andwearing flowers in my hair was compelling for
my wild 13 year old spirit.
I closed my eyes as the AM radio stationcontinued to draw me in.
(08:20):
People were in motion and summertime waspromised to be a love in there.
If only this lengthy car ride couldmiraculously deliver me at the intersection of
Haight And Ashbury in San Francisco and not thepredestined Salt Lake City.
It was 1967, the summer of love, and my familywas moving for the fifth time since I was born
(08:42):
in Butte, Montana in 1953.
Each place we lived in my short thirteen years,Montana, South America, Missouri, Arizona,
British Columbia, and lastly, Utah had all beenaccompanied by music.
In my family, I was raised with a love ofmusic.
But in 1967, things were changing and the musicwas driving the change.
(09:09):
The raw and escalating soundtrack spoke ofrebellion and promised freedom.
Each new song released exploded into myimagination and created my dreams.
I sank further down in the backseat and intothe visions of the summer of love blossoming in
sunny California, barely noticing the swishingof the windshield wipers and the pounding of
(09:32):
rain slapping the roof.
As we sloshed across the border from Canadainto The US near Bellingham, Washington that
memorial day in June, I dreamed of joining thehippies in California.
I pictured the sunny beaches where I'd surfevery day accompanied by girls in bikinis,
amazing new music, and no bossy parents.
(09:54):
What might it be like to live a carefree lifeof peace and love?
As the song ended, the DJ announced theupcoming three day rock concert, the Monterey
Pop Festival being held soon just outside ofSan Francisco.
I sat up and leaned forward.
Hey, mom.
Can I look at the map?
I asked.
Here you go, Mark, she said, passing the roadatlas over the seat to me.
(10:18):
See how far it is to Salt Lake City.
Instead, I scanned the map for the best routeto Monterey as the DJ listed the names of the
events performers.
The birds, my favorite band was gonna be there.
My brain kicked off the groups and popularsongs they sang that I recognized.
The mamas and papas with California dreaming.
(10:40):
The who, my generation, Simon and Garfunkel,the sounds of silence, Jefferson airplane,
somebody to love and white rabbit.
When he mentioned the grateful dead, it stoppedme cold.
I hadn't heard them on the radio yet.
Many years later, I saw them in concert andcame to appreciate their alternative style of
(11:02):
music.
But for now, I wondered about the alternativelifestyle I was being plunged into.
Salt Lake City was, quote, behind the Zioncurtain, slow and repressive or so I thought.
It seemed a lifetime away from California funand sun, featuring the rock festivals with lots
of talented bands blasting out my favoritesongs.
(11:25):
I was brought back from my state of Californiadreaming with a scream of wild thing song that
was on the radio.
The heavy guitar riff grabbed my attention.
I sat up and leaned forward.
My dad, however, reached over to turn the dialto another station.
Dad, I protested.
(11:46):
I really like that song.
It's the trogs.
He turned the volume down a couple of notchesand said, what did you call them?
The frogs?
I laughed.
All the new bands coming out since the Beatleshad weird sounding names.
The birds, the monkeys, the yard birds, therolling stones, the doors.
It could be anything.
(12:07):
The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,Eric Burden and the Animals, The Who.
My dad muttered something about this not beingmusic, but he left it on for my sake.
Music was such a huge part of my childhood.
My parents always had the latest vinyl albums,but this new song sound was totally different
(12:28):
from the early rock and roll music of Elvis andChubby Checker and the other artists of the
late fifties and early sixties.
This new rock had a cutting edge that took meinto another dimension.
I didn't know where this music field journeywould land me, but I knew there was no slowing
it down.
Like a train picking up speed, I was headingdown the track in a direction that would unfold
(12:53):
before me in unforeseen ways.
The nineteen sixties were a time of immensechange in my generation and the culture of The
United States.
The controversial Vietnam War instigated heatedarguments between fathers and sons.
The Cold War was also heating up.
Monumental changes happened in technology,especially in the space race between The US and
(13:16):
The Soviet Union.
The music scene changed too as singers andsongwriters became more vocal in their
political and cultural views.
This outspoken discontent combined withexplosive and unusual sounds increased my
growing desire to see changes in the statusquo.
(13:37):
The Who released a song called My Generationthat summed up the passionate feeling of my
youth.
Our young generation was not satisfied with thestatus quo mindset or norms.
The injustice in different cultures and peoplegroups and the growing anti war movement fueled
our passion for change.
(13:57):
Older peoples tried to put us and the new musicscene down.
Many thought it was an awful sound, and wethought that they acted awfully cold.
Many of us had, I hope I die before I get oldsentiment, just like the song said.
On television, I watched as the peaceful civilrights marches turned into violent race riots
(14:21):
in major cities.
Amid the quagmire of my parents' generation, Isat desperately watching as a turmoil this
rapidly unraveling world.
I felt hopeless and without a voice.
Was there any hope?
Where?
I fondly remember when president John f Kennedysaying we would put a man on the moon by the
(14:44):
end of the decade.
I also remember the day we found out hewouldn't even live long enough to see it.
Our grade school principal came over theintercom to announce the shocking news.
We sat in stunned silence for a minute thatseemed like an eternity.
President Kennedy's death was the spark thatstarted me questioning the cultural
establishment of that time.
(15:06):
My parents and I followed the chaos on thenightly news with Walter Cronkite.
As the Vietnam war escalated, violent protestsexploded on college campuses.
The infamous summer of love was anything butlovely.
The following year, it got worse.
The assassinations of civil rights leader,Martin Luther King Junior, and presidential
(15:28):
candidate, Bobby Kennedy, shattered anyoptimism.
Next, the outbreak of a worldwide flu pandemicfrom Hong Kong killed millions and added to my
anxiety.
Our embattled nation was hungry for some goodnews, which finally came from space on
Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight.
(15:48):
As the year ended, The United States launchedits first manned mission to reach the moon,
Apollo eight.
Roughly a billion people tuned in to watchastronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lowell, and Frank
Borman broadcast live from the moon's orbit,revealing stunning views of the earth rising
(16:09):
over the moon's horizon.
I vividly remember the crew reading from thebook of Genesis as they were in the lunar
orbit.
This is what they read.
For all the people on earth, the crew of Apolloeight has a message we'd like to send you.
William Anders began with the reading.
(16:30):
In the beginning, God created the heaven andthe earth and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of thedeep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there waslight, and God saw the light and it was good,
and God divided the night from the darkness.
Jim Lowell continued, and God called the lightday, and the darkness he called night, and the
(16:55):
evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, let there be a firmament in themidst of the waters, let it divide the waters
from the waters.
And God made the firmament and divided thewaters which were under the firmament from the
waters, which were above the firmament.
And it was so, and God called the firmamentheaven and evening and the morning were the
(17:17):
second day.
Frank Borman finished the last two verses.
And God said, let the waters under the heavensbe gathered together into one place and let the
dry land appear and it was so.
And God called the dry land earth and thegathering together of the waters called the
seeds and God saw that it was good.
(17:39):
Ormid finished the address by adding.
And from the crew of Apollo eight, we closewith good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas,
and God bless all of you, all of you on thegood earth.
I have watched this broadcast many times sinceand it generates hope for me and all of us here
(18:00):
on this good earth.
Many people said that the successful Apolloeight mission saved the year 1968, a year full
of race riots, pandemics, families fightingover competing ideologies, wars and rumors of
wars.
Does that sound familiar?
(18:20):
Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, saidthere's nothing new under the sun.
The world's current chaos may prove Solomon'swisdom be true.
Is history just repeating itself?
My generation tried to change human history.
Us baby boomers came from the increase in thepopulation after the second World War.
(18:42):
Both of my parents served during World War two,dad in the United States Army and my mom in the
American Red Cross.
Theirs is known as the greatest generation.
They grew up during the Great Depression andbecame young adults during the war.
They were characterized by a strong work ethicand respect for authority.
(19:02):
My generation produced a bumper sticker thatsaid question authority.
We challenged the status quo during thetumultuous nineteen sixties.
I remember arguing with my dad over socialissues like the Vietnam war, anti war protests,
and the civil rights movement.
My generation was hoping to change the worldwith peace and love.
(19:25):
At that time, I was convinced that my way ofthinking, and I believed that there was
something new under the sun.
I believed my parents were just old fashionedand stubborn.
Little did I know that time would prove themcorrect.
Eventually, I would be the one to change and Iwould adjust my self serving way of life.
(19:46):
But for now, this train I was riding was out ofcontrol and not bound for glory.
When my family moved to Salt Lake City in 1967,I was already involved in drinking, smoking,
cussing, stealing, and causing mischief.
Trouble had no trouble finding me.
(20:06):
I was already walking on the wrong side of thetracks.
One redeeming quality of Utah, fortunately, wasthe incredible snow and powder skiing.
For the next fifty plus years, this sport wasmy salvation.
During my high school years, my friends and Ihit the major ski areas every chance we had.
(20:31):
Wow.
That's an intro to my story, and I just go onfrom there and talk more about music and skiing
and my salvation.
Yeah.
Not only did you bring in the history, and youbrought it in in such a beautiful way, you put
your emotion behind it and what was going onwith you and what you were thought.
(20:54):
Now if I was to write that, I would look at itvery differently than you did because
everybody's different.
One band you did not mention was the Guess Who.
They were my favorite.
I I was so mad at the Who for copying their
Right.
But guess who?
They were great men from Yeah.
(21:15):
Think they were from Canada.
Yeah.
I actually got to see them in Canada.
I was much older, but, I was actually, we werein a field at a friend of ours.
It was their field, and and they happened toknow them.
And so they came, and they sang as part of theband for for just, just having an enjoyable
(21:36):
nice evening in the summertime.
I love that band.
There's a lot of bands I didn't mention.
But
Yeah.
Yeah.
That that was just it's like, you mentioned TheWho, but not The Guess Who.
Okay.
I gotta say something here.
But yeah.
You know?
And it's it's interesting.
I love the way you were thinking of things.
(21:59):
I you were 13, and your mind was already going,and you were seeing what you wanted, and you
were you were hearing these things.
And and I grew up very different.
So to hear how you were thinking and what youwere going through is was really great to hear
that and and to, I love the way that you toldabout the Apollo, you know, that it took all
(22:26):
three of them to read that and and and the wayyou you brought in Kennedy and and everything
was changing.
It it was a huge change.
So I'm really interested now to read what youyou have in the other chapters and and what
they did.
And I love being read to.
There's you know?
(22:46):
You think reading stories is just for kids.
It's like, no.
We love hearing stories.
Otherwise, Audible would not do very well, youknow, or or any of the the ones that you're
being read to.
You know, even on my YouVersion app that Ihave, sometimes I just wanna hear somebody else
read the words that that I'm reading, and it'sit's really nice.
(23:10):
I love that you were inspired because youwanted to leave the legacy, and and that's
really great.
A lot of us wanna do that, but there's so fewwho actually write it.
And it's like, again, I impress upon you.
Holidays are here.
Family is here.
Start recording those stories.
Record them on your phone if nothing else, andand write them down.
(23:34):
We had a family reunion where we had would havebeen the great grandkids and great great
grandkids of my grandparents.
And so I had my grandparents up, each of theirkids up who were now grandparents themselves.
And you were supposed to go, you know, findyour your family from them.
(23:57):
And the one comment I heard from the very youngchildren, we're talking, like, 10 years and
under.
They're like, who is that?
Who are those people?
And I thought, oh my goodness.
That's only two generations from me.
Usually, it's three generations they startforgetting.
Now it was a second generation, and a lot ofthem, it was one generation down, didn't even
(24:20):
know who their great grandparents were or theirgrandparents.
And and it's like, wow.
That's really sad that we're losing it thatfast.
So, yeah, it's it is important to write thisdown.
And what I really like about yours is you havecurrent events in it.
As a historian, a genealogist, looking forbooks that have current events of what's going
(24:45):
on, it's really hard to find that withouthaving it transposed into somebody's.
Well, this is my opinion of what happened towhere you're saying, you know, what really did
happen.
So that's good.
Gosh.
We this time went by too fast.
I wanna hear more from you and about about thisjourney, but let people know where they can
(25:09):
find the book right now.
Probably the easiest thing is to you can findit on Amazon, but unless you you type in living
without the the g and the Yeah.
You type in 55.
But the easiest thing is just type in my name.
My website is www.markpolish, all one word, andthat's polish with two l's.
(25:38):
And I have a a link right there to Amazon whereyou can purchase a book in either either a
Kindle or the the paperback copy.
Okay.
And I don't have it on Audible yet, but I'mdoing a I'm trying to do a little rewrite and
relaunch on the book.
Oh, good.
(25:58):
Gonna happen soon.
But, right now, the best place is just on mywebsite, and my website has my all of my
contact information.
It's got my email.
It's got my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
I'm starting a YouTube channel.
I offer free free coaching on that.
(26:19):
If you wanna learn more, you can contact me onmy my email.
That's why I put it on there.
But just Mark Polish dot com.
That's the best way.
Oh, good.
Good.
And I'm glad you said .com.
I was gonna ask if it was .com or if it was.ca.
You know?
You never know where anybody's at anymore, sowe wanna be sure.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Oh, Mark, thank you so much for being here.
I really hate to end this.
There's yeah.
It was just so good.
I wanna know more about your book.
Now what's the name of the first book you werein, the anthology book?
That anthology was called Broken Chapters.
Okay.
Okay.
So they can look for that too.
Yeah.
And that's that's also on Amazon.
(27:00):
Broken Chapters, and that came out just priorto this book.
But I I I wanna continue writing.
I've got some more ideas, and I just lovemeeting people.
I I love meeting you, LS, and what what you'redoing, and I just need to up my game in this
technology so I can be more like you.
(27:23):
Well, be more of you.
We'll put it that way.
Yeah.
More of me, but I, you know, I it's okay tocopy and learn from other people.
That's Yeah.
That's what life is all about.
Yep.
That's what we're here.
We'll get together later too and do that.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So thank you so much for being here.
(27:44):
Really honored to have you as my guest.
And to our audience, thank you for being here.
Make sure and get the book, living the dream,and we'll see you next time on Reading Between
the Words.
Thank you so much, Ellis.
Thank you for joining us.
We'll see you next time on Reading Between theWords.
Hi.
Welcome to Reading Between the Words.
And today, do we have a great guest for you?
We have Mark here.
Mark, how are you doing?
I'm doing very well.
How are you, LS?
Oh, I'm great.
I'm great.
Now how many books have you written?
I've written two.
The first one was a collaboration with 20 otherauthors.
(00:36):
Oh.
And that one, I I just have one chapter in it.
But my latest book is Mine All Alone, and it'sit's called Living the Dream by Mark Polish.
Fifty five years skiing at Alton Snowbird andfinding the meaning of life.
(00:58):
It's a memoir that I wrote starting back ohgosh.
I think I started pre COVID, but it took methree years to write and edit, format, self
publish, and I got it on Amazon.
And I learned a lot, and I met a lot of greatpeople.
That's probably the best thing was meetinggreat people like you and other authors and
(01:22):
just different people from all walks of life.
Yeah.
So what is your book about?
I mean, you talked about skiing and finding themeaning of life, but I have a feeling there's
more to this book than that.
Well, just like your your podcast, readingbetween the words, there's a lot to that.
You know?
(01:42):
I think it was Shakespeare said that the pen ismightier than the sword.
Yeah.
And I found that out, and that's why I wantedto write a book.
And I I decided to do it to leave a legacy formy children to because I they're always asking
me about my heritage, and I wish I would havespent more time talking to my mom and dad when
(02:06):
they were alive because they had a great, greatstory.
They're part of the greatest generation.
And if if you don't know what that is, look itup.
But they survived the Great Depression, theGreat World War two, and they they were just
amazing generation.
So I wrote my book to kinda, you know, help mychildren, but it what it did for me is it made
(02:31):
me focus on my life and made me think my life,rethink it in my latter years.
And, I wanna leave a positive legacy for mygrandkids.
Yeah.
Definitely.
You brought up a really good point.
And as a genealogy, you know, I did, well,fifty years now of genealogy, and that was the
(02:56):
one thing I heard more than anything else is Iwish I would have taken the time to talk to my
parents or talk to my grandparents or writedown the stories they told me because now I
don't remember them all.
And and so for you audience, there's a greattakeaway.
(03:16):
We've got the holiday seasons coming up.
Now's the time.
Ask those questions.
Write down those stories.
Use a a digital recorder, you know, or recordit on Zoom or something.
Record it on your phone, but get those storieswritten down so you can pass them on.
That's how we learned about our ancestors andwhere we came from years ago was the stories
(03:39):
passed on.
And it's not like that game telephone where youhave 15 people and the first person says
something and the last person says somethingtotally different.
These stories were told again and again andagain for accuracy and to let the next
generation know where they came from, what isimportant about them so they can go on and make
(04:03):
their own mark in the world, but still carrytheir ancestors with them.
And and it's too bad we don't tell more storieslike that.
We really to.
That's so true.
I encourage everybody I meet, young or old, youneed to record your history and write your
memoir, even if it's just a journal, becausesomebody is gonna benefit from that.
(04:28):
And if you don't if you don't do it whileyou're alive, somebody else will.
There's a famous story, and I talk about it inmy book, about Alfred Nobel.
I don't know if you know who he was.
Yes.
Alfred Nobel, whom the Nobel Peace Prize isnamed after, was also the inventor of dynamite.
(04:49):
Yeah.
And I know all about dynamite because that'swhat I work with.
I spent my entire career as a professional, skipatrol, EMT, also blew up avalanches.
So I was trained in explosives.
And Alfred Nobel rewrote his legacy.
(05:11):
The story goes, he was, walking along thestreets of Paris and saw a newspaper, and it it
had a headline saying, Alfred Nobel passesaway.
The man who invented more ways to kill peoplewith dynamite has died.
And he went, oh, no.
Yep.
But it was his brother.
The the newspapers back then had got it wronglike they do today, And it was about his
(05:34):
brother.
So he decided to leave a legacy, and he startedthe Nobel Peace Prize in that foundation, and
it's still going on today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Amazing how one person can make a difference,and you don't know until you actually do
something.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(05:55):
Your book is a memoir.
And but what are some of the the things thatyou did learn in it?
You said you're learning about life.
What did you learn about life on this journeyyou were on?
Well, I learned about it was a transformationof my life.
And in a nutshell, this is my testimony.
(06:17):
Mhmm.
So I'm very much into the prophetic, into I Ilove I love God.
I love the bible.
I'm not a big fan of organized religion.
I just I just have a personal relationship withmy Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
And I I this is my story about how heinfluenced my life, and he turned it around.
(06:45):
He re he rewrote my epitaph.
So I could've That's wonderful.
Yeah.
I could've ended up early death like a lot ofthe people I wrote about in my book, a lot of
the rock stars that I grew up with, but passedaway at an early age.
A lot of them.
And I write about that in my book, and I just alot of good stories about skiing, avalanches,
(07:10):
hitchhiking all over South America,backpacking.
Wow.
Some good stories.
And I'd I'd love to read a little bit if you ifyou
would want maybe Yes.
Absolutely.
That'll give people a little bit of a history.
I I grew up with music, and one of the things Ilearned when I was writing this memoir was
(07:33):
music would trigger in me memories of thingsthat had happened Mhmm.
Different time.
And that that really helped me to write this.
So I'll just start at the very beginning.
This is called summer of love.
A new song popped on the radio.
(07:55):
Trapped with my sister in the backseat of myparents' 1963 Chevy Bel Air, suddenly a smooth
and gentle melody filled my consciousness.
The invitation of going to San Francisco andwearing flowers in my hair was compelling for
my wild 13 year old spirit.
I closed my eyes as the AM radio stationcontinued to draw me in.
(08:20):
People were in motion and summertime waspromised to be a love in there.
If only this lengthy car ride couldmiraculously deliver me at the intersection of
Haight And Ashbury in San Francisco and not thepredestined Salt Lake City.
It was 1967, the summer of love, and my familywas moving for the fifth time since I was born
(08:42):
in Butte, Montana in 1953.
Each place we lived in my short thirteen years,Montana, South America, Missouri, Arizona,
British Columbia, and lastly, Utah had all beenaccompanied by music.
In my family, I was raised with a love ofmusic.
But in 1967, things were changing and the musicwas driving the change.
(09:09):
The raw and escalating soundtrack spoke ofrebellion and promised freedom.
Each new song released exploded into myimagination and created my dreams.
I sank further down in the backseat and intothe visions of the summer of love blossoming in
sunny California, barely noticing the swishingof the windshield wipers and the pounding of
(09:32):
rain slapping the roof.
As we sloshed across the border from Canadainto The US near Bellingham, Washington that
memorial day in June, I dreamed of joining thehippies in California.
I pictured the sunny beaches where I'd surfevery day accompanied by girls in bikinis,
amazing new music, and no bossy parents.
(09:54):
What might it be like to live a carefree lifeof peace and love?
As the song ended, the DJ announced theupcoming three day rock concert, the Monterey
Pop Festival being held soon just outside ofSan Francisco.
I sat up and leaned forward.
Hey, mom.
Can I look at the map?
I asked.
Here you go, Mark, she said, passing the roadatlas over the seat to me.
(10:18):
See how far it is to Salt Lake City.
Instead, I scanned the map for the best routeto Monterey as the DJ listed the names of the
events performers.
The birds, my favorite band was gonna be there.
My brain kicked off the groups and popularsongs they sang that I recognized.
The mamas and papas with California dreaming.
(10:40):
The who, my generation, Simon and Garfunkel,the sounds of silence, Jefferson airplane,
somebody to love and white rabbit.
When he mentioned the grateful dead, it stoppedme cold.
I hadn't heard them on the radio yet.
Many years later, I saw them in concert andcame to appreciate their alternative style of
(11:02):
music.
But for now, I wondered about the alternativelifestyle I was being plunged into.
Salt Lake City was, quote, behind the Zioncurtain, slow and repressive or so I thought.
It seemed a lifetime away from California funand sun, featuring the rock festivals with lots
of talented bands blasting out my favoritesongs.
(11:25):
I was brought back from my state of Californiadreaming with a scream of wild thing song that
was on the radio.
The heavy guitar riff grabbed my attention.
I sat up and leaned forward.
My dad, however, reached over to turn the dialto another station.
Dad, I protested.
(11:46):
I really like that song.
It's the trogs.
He turned the volume down a couple of notchesand said, what did you call them?
The frogs?
I laughed.
All the new bands coming out since the Beatleshad weird sounding names.
The birds, the monkeys, the yard birds, therolling stones, the doors.
It could be anything.
(12:07):
The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,Eric Burden and the Animals, The Who.
My dad muttered something about this not beingmusic, but he left it on for my sake.
Music was such a huge part of my childhood.
My parents always had the latest vinyl albums,but this new song sound was totally different
(12:28):
from the early rock and roll music of Elvis andChubby Checker and the other artists of the
late fifties and early sixties.
This new rock had a cutting edge that took meinto another dimension.
I didn't know where this music field journeywould land me, but I knew there was no slowing
it down.
Like a train picking up speed, I was headingdown the track in a direction that would unfold
(12:53):
before me in unforeseen ways.
The nineteen sixties were a time of immensechange in my generation and the culture of The
United States.
The controversial Vietnam War instigated heatedarguments between fathers and sons.
The Cold War was also heating up.
Monumental changes happened in technology,especially in the space race between The US and
(13:16):
The Soviet Union.
The music scene changed too as singers andsongwriters became more vocal in their
political and cultural views.
This outspoken discontent combined withexplosive and unusual sounds increased my
growing desire to see changes in the statusquo.
(13:37):
The Who released a song called My Generationthat summed up the passionate feeling of my
youth.
Our young generation was not satisfied with thestatus quo mindset or norms.
The injustice in different cultures and peoplegroups and the growing anti war movement fueled
our passion for change.
(13:57):
Older peoples tried to put us and the new musicscene down.
Many thought it was an awful sound, and wethought that they acted awfully cold.
Many of us had, I hope I die before I get oldsentiment, just like the song said.
On television, I watched as the peaceful civilrights marches turned into violent race riots
(14:21):
in major cities.
Amid the quagmire of my parents' generation, Isat desperately watching as a turmoil this
rapidly unraveling world.
I felt hopeless and without a voice.
Was there any hope?
Where?
I fondly remember when president John f Kennedysaying we would put a man on the moon by the
(14:44):
end of the decade.
I also remember the day we found out hewouldn't even live long enough to see it.
Our grade school principal came over theintercom to announce the shocking news.
We sat in stunned silence for a minute thatseemed like an eternity.
President Kennedy's death was the spark thatstarted me questioning the cultural
establishment of that time.
(15:06):
My parents and I followed the chaos on thenightly news with Walter Cronkite.
As the Vietnam war escalated, violent protestsexploded on college campuses.
The infamous summer of love was anything butlovely.
The following year, it got worse.
The assassinations of civil rights leader,Martin Luther King Junior, and presidential
(15:28):
candidate, Bobby Kennedy, shattered anyoptimism.
Next, the outbreak of a worldwide flu pandemicfrom Hong Kong killed millions and added to my
anxiety.
Our embattled nation was hungry for some goodnews, which finally came from space on
Christmas Eve nineteen sixty eight.
(15:48):
As the year ended, The United States launchedits first manned mission to reach the moon,
Apollo eight.
Roughly a billion people tuned in to watchastronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lowell, and Frank
Borman broadcast live from the moon's orbit,revealing stunning views of the earth rising
(16:09):
over the moon's horizon.
I vividly remember the crew reading from thebook of Genesis as they were in the lunar
orbit.
This is what they read.
For all the people on earth, the crew of Apolloeight has a message we'd like to send you.
William Anders began with the reading.
(16:30):
In the beginning, God created the heaven andthe earth and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of thedeep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there waslight, and God saw the light and it was good,
and God divided the night from the darkness.
Jim Lowell continued, and God called the lightday, and the darkness he called night, and the
(16:55):
evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, let there be a firmament in themidst of the waters, let it divide the waters
from the waters.
And God made the firmament and divided thewaters which were under the firmament from the
waters, which were above the firmament.
And it was so, and God called the firmamentheaven and evening and the morning were the
(17:17):
second day.
Frank Borman finished the last two verses.
And God said, let the waters under the heavensbe gathered together into one place and let the
dry land appear and it was so.
And God called the dry land earth and thegathering together of the waters called the
seeds and God saw that it was good.
(17:39):
Ormid finished the address by adding.
And from the crew of Apollo eight, we closewith good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas,
and God bless all of you, all of you on thegood earth.
I have watched this broadcast many times sinceand it generates hope for me and all of us here
(18:00):
on this good earth.
Many people said that the successful Apolloeight mission saved the year 1968, a year full
of race riots, pandemics, families fightingover competing ideologies, wars and rumors of
wars.
Does that sound familiar?
(18:20):
Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, saidthere's nothing new under the sun.
The world's current chaos may prove Solomon'swisdom be true.
Is history just repeating itself?
My generation tried to change human history.
Us baby boomers came from the increase in thepopulation after the second World War.
(18:42):
Both of my parents served during World War two,dad in the United States Army and my mom in the
American Red Cross.
Theirs is known as the greatest generation.
They grew up during the Great Depression andbecame young adults during the war.
They were characterized by a strong work ethicand respect for authority.
(19:02):
My generation produced a bumper sticker thatsaid question authority.
We challenged the status quo during thetumultuous nineteen sixties.
I remember arguing with my dad over socialissues like the Vietnam war, anti war protests,
and the civil rights movement.
My generation was hoping to change the worldwith peace and love.
(19:25):
At that time, I was convinced that my way ofthinking, and I believed that there was
something new under the sun.
I believed my parents were just old fashionedand stubborn.
Little did I know that time would prove themcorrect.
Eventually, I would be the one to change and Iwould adjust my self serving way of life.
(19:46):
But for now, this train I was riding was out ofcontrol and not bound for glory.
When my family moved to Salt Lake City in 1967,I was already involved in drinking, smoking,
cussing, stealing, and causing mischief.
Trouble had no trouble finding me.
(20:06):
I was already walking on the wrong side of thetracks.
One redeeming quality of Utah, fortunately, wasthe incredible snow and powder skiing.
For the next fifty plus years, this sport wasmy salvation.
During my high school years, my friends and Ihit the major ski areas every chance we had.
(20:31):
Wow.
That's an intro to my story, and I just go onfrom there and talk more about music and skiing
and my salvation.
Yeah.
Not only did you bring in the history, and youbrought it in in such a beautiful way, you put
your emotion behind it and what was going onwith you and what you were thought.
(20:54):
Now if I was to write that, I would look at itvery differently than you did because
everybody's different.
One band you did not mention was the Guess Who.
They were my favorite.
I I was so mad at the Who for copying their
Right.
But guess who?
They were great men from Yeah.
(21:15):
Think they were from Canada.
Yeah.
I actually got to see them in Canada.
I was much older, but, I was actually, we werein a field at a friend of ours.
It was their field, and and they happened toknow them.
And so they came, and they sang as part of theband for for just, just having an enjoyable
(21:36):
nice evening in the summertime.
I love that band.
There's a lot of bands I didn't mention.
But
Yeah.
Yeah.
That that was just it's like, you mentioned TheWho, but not The Guess Who.
Okay.
I gotta say something here.
But yeah.
You know?
And it's it's interesting.
I love the way you were thinking of things.
(21:59):
I you were 13, and your mind was already going,and you were seeing what you wanted, and you
were you were hearing these things.
And and I grew up very different.
So to hear how you were thinking and what youwere going through is was really great to hear
that and and to, I love the way that you toldabout the Apollo, you know, that it took all
(22:26):
three of them to read that and and and the wayyou you brought in Kennedy and and everything
was changing.
It it was a huge change.
So I'm really interested now to read what youyou have in the other chapters and and what
they did.
And I love being read to.
There's you know?
(22:46):
You think reading stories is just for kids.
It's like, no.
We love hearing stories.
Otherwise, Audible would not do very well, youknow, or or any of the the ones that you're
being read to.
You know, even on my YouVersion app that Ihave, sometimes I just wanna hear somebody else
read the words that that I'm reading, and it'sit's really nice.
(23:10):
I love that you were inspired because youwanted to leave the legacy, and and that's
really great.
A lot of us wanna do that, but there's so fewwho actually write it.
And it's like, again, I impress upon you.
Holidays are here.
Family is here.
Start recording those stories.
Record them on your phone if nothing else, andand write them down.
(23:34):
We had a family reunion where we had would havebeen the great grandkids and great great
grandkids of my grandparents.
And so I had my grandparents up, each of theirkids up who were now grandparents themselves.
And you were supposed to go, you know, findyour your family from them.
(23:57):
And the one comment I heard from the very youngchildren, we're talking, like, 10 years and
under.
They're like, who is that?
Who are those people?
And I thought, oh my goodness.
That's only two generations from me.
Usually, it's three generations they startforgetting.
Now it was a second generation, and a lot ofthem, it was one generation down, didn't even
(24:20):
know who their great grandparents were or theirgrandparents.
And and it's like, wow.
That's really sad that we're losing it thatfast.
So, yeah, it's it is important to write thisdown.
And what I really like about yours is you havecurrent events in it.
As a historian, a genealogist, looking forbooks that have current events of what's going
(24:45):
on, it's really hard to find that withouthaving it transposed into somebody's.
Well, this is my opinion of what happened towhere you're saying, you know, what really did
happen.
So that's good.
Gosh.
We this time went by too fast.
I wanna hear more from you and about about thisjourney, but let people know where they can
(25:09):
find the book right now.
Probably the easiest thing is to you can findit on Amazon, but unless you you type in living
without the the g and the Yeah.
You type in 55.
But the easiest thing is just type in my name.
My website is www.markpolish, all one word, andthat's polish with two l's.
(25:38):
And I have a a link right there to Amazon whereyou can purchase a book in either either a
Kindle or the the paperback copy.
Okay.
And I don't have it on Audible yet, but I'mdoing a I'm trying to do a little rewrite and
relaunch on the book.
Oh, good.
(25:58):
Gonna happen soon.
But, right now, the best place is just on mywebsite, and my website has my all of my
contact information.
It's got my email.
It's got my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
I'm starting a YouTube channel.
I offer free free coaching on that.
(26:19):
If you wanna learn more, you can contact me onmy my email.
That's why I put it on there.
But just Mark Polish dot com.
That's the best way.
Oh, good.
Good.
And I'm glad you said .com.
I was gonna ask if it was .com or if it was.ca.
You know?
You never know where anybody's at anymore, sowe wanna be sure.
(26:39):
Yeah.
Oh, Mark, thank you so much for being here.
I really hate to end this.
There's yeah.
It was just so good.
I wanna know more about your book.
Now what's the name of the first book you werein, the anthology book?
That anthology was called Broken Chapters.
Okay.
Okay.
So they can look for that too.
Yeah.
And that's that's also on Amazon.
(27:00):
Broken Chapters, and that came out just priorto this book.
But I I I wanna continue writing.
I've got some more ideas, and I just lovemeeting people.
I I love meeting you, LS, and what what you'redoing, and I just need to up my game in this
technology so I can be more like you.
(27:23):
Well, be more of you.
We'll put it that way.
Yeah.
More of me, but I, you know, I it's okay tocopy and learn from other people.
That's Yeah.
That's what life is all about.
Yep.
That's what we're here.
We'll get together later too and do that.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So thank you so much for being here.
(27:44):
Really honored to have you as my guest.
And to our audience, thank you for being here.
Make sure and get the book, living the dream,and we'll see you next time on Reading Between
the Words.
Thank you so much, Ellis.
Thank you for joining us.
We'll see you next time on Reading Between theWords.
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