Narrative essay draft
by R. Burke assignment related to blog topic Geography and sceneries.
This is a narrative of America and the many places the USA
has to see and the timeless beauty we often take for granted if only to see
them in photos or on television. We really don’t have much to say unless we see
them first hand. That is why I have chosen this topic, there is an abundance of
places to read about and the topics can be daunting but we’ll keep it simple
and straight forward. Although we may not have many first hand photo’s personally
or even articles, we will keep the timeliness relative to its topic. I would also like to share photos from other viewers so if
you have a particular place or topic e-mail the clip with pertinent information
and we will add them into our blog.
I’ll begin here about myself and give you some idea of who I am and where my background comes to this. My Name is Robert Burke, 54 yrs. old, divorced with 3 grown children that live in Oregon. I married young at 18 and marriage ended when I was 30. I came to Wisc. when my brother and I built my mother’s home for her in Osseo, Wisc. In the early middle 1980’s. She enjoyed her later years there after suffering debilitating arthritis and other complications. Building her dream come true was the best we could do for her after raising 3 kids on her own, being a nurse and art student in the 60’s and 70’s she had done the best she could and we really didn’t have much then but we had family. It was important for her to raise us with values and respect for others as well as ourselves. I have one brother and one sister older than myself. I decided to stay here after coming from the twin cities (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Mn.) I felt that I needed to get away from the fast pace of metro living and regain my family values. It was a tough change to make but worth it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make a living but I was brave enough to make serious changes. The one thing that really made me commit to becoming a Wisconsin resident then was the fact that my mother had become ill with cancer and her hopes were not good at all. She had contracted colon cancer and it had come on rather swiftly and caused her much more suffering than she had already endured. In the 1980’s the hopes for serious cancer survival was nil and still is but if it had happened today the cancer may have been treatable. She passed away shortly after my move to Wisconsin. I took it rather hard and still do at times but I don’t like to dwell on my bad times in life. This may be the first time I have reflected on this to express something that has made an impact on me.
One of the reasons I have chosen this topic is because when we were children my mother and my aunt would take summer vacations in a camper and we would visit states and go traveling for the entire summer. With my 3 cousins my mom and aunt we would travel in a camper covering as many states as possible with money and time restrictions, we would go to one, two, or even four or five states depending on available camping arrangements. Many times we would revisit places like Mt. Rushmore or Yellowstone National forest. We had preferences yet we tried to accomplish all 50 states we actually made it to 46. That was quite a feat back then and as two women traveling the states with four kids in a camper wasn’t really a normal thing. It was however fun yet boring as you think of the endless miles covered in an old Ford truck and big top over camper. There were enough obstacles to deal with on the roads and break downs were some of them. So let me stop here briefly and say that, the things I do remember that are fun and memorable of my youth was when I could travel across the country with my family.
