I return, a half-century old!

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Wed Jul 4 16:35:56 CEST 2001


SORRY that so many nice folks were wishing me a happy birthday here on the
ML with me seeming to ignore it all! I was away on a 50th Birthday Trip!
Just got home last night! And there were several hundred e-mail birthday
greetings waiting for me. I had to resort to sending a "form letter" to all
the nice folks who sent my happy-birthdays, and I guess I might as well
post it on the ML as well. It is below. But anyway, I'm back now and won't
ignore any further messages or questions for at least a week... then I'll
be gone again, this time to a comic convention in Luxembourg, and
immediately thereafter to San Diego.
-----------------------------
Hello!!!
In the 15 years I've been doing this Duckwork and communicating with so
many Duckfans, I have never stooped to sending a "form message" out. Even
now,
when I get 30-40 e-mails each day, I still send a personal reply to each
and every one of them, though that takes 2 or 3 hours of my spare time each
day. But I think the Duckfans deserve it.
Now I am returning from a camping trip -- I'm actually not even home yet...
I downloaded my e-mail last night at a motel and I'm reading it and
writing this on my laptop while riding in a car back to Louisville... and
it's *very* hard to hit the right keys on a bouncing, moving keyboard! I
must back up and retype virtually every other word!
But this IS a form message! SORRY!!! When I downloaded my mail last night
there were several hundred "Happy 50th Birthday" messages from all over
Europe! Some were very short messages from friends I'd never heard from
before, and many were longer messages from very *good* friends -- but
you're all getting the same form-reply. My next messages to you "regulars"
will be in the normal "longer mode"... hope you'll forgive me this time!

I am obviously VERY flattered and gratified by the many greetings I am
receiving from so far away, and I never want to forget it's the same Barks
Ducks that I grew up with who are *still* bringing me happiness so many
years later! I owe it all to them. Thanks!!!

But I'm 50? That seems impossible for me to believe. I actually feel better
and healthier (and certainly wiser!) than I did when I was 20. I really
still feel the same as I did when I was 10. I don't know if other people
feel older as they *get* older... but I know I don't. It surely has a lot
to do with the fact I've made my life out of my hobbies and especially out
of
the favorite entertainment of my youth. And it surely doesn't hurt that
I keep myself thin and active, physically and mentally. But that's the
easier part -- it's not as hard as "old" people make it sound. Just a bit
of mental discipline and anything is possible. I actually recently lost 22
pounds in time for my 50th as I had gained about 5 pounds on each of my
last 4 trips to Europe where I get treated too well to resist the great
food!
Now the *impossible* part will be to be as healthy and sharp at 80 as Mr.
Barks was
at 98.

Since this is a form message, I can take some extra time (since I'm saving
so much!). Where did I spend my 50th birthday? Where have I been?
We went on a 6 day canoe-camping trip into the Quentico Wilderness in
Canada. This is a VAST wilderness area of tens of thousands of lakes
containing nothing but that and moose and bears and wolves and fox and
like that. And it is one of the most remote areas in North America because,
even though it's not that far north, it is not accessible by anything but
canoe... and even then by carrying the canoe and all your equipment across
"portages" which are anywhere from a short hike to up to a half-mile or
more. NO MOTORS are allowed in this wilderness, and planes are forbidden
from flying below 4,000 ft. So we penetrated deep into this wilderness
across many portages and lakes, and camped on some truly stunning rocky
points and islands surrounded by magnificent scenery and bald eagles in the
towering firs!

By the way, as you may have already surmised, this is the same area that
Barks' "Land of the Pygmy Indians" took place. And it is absolutely
possible that there could be a "lost civilization" or a million other
things on these land-masses between these lakes. I imagine that hundreds of
years ago the Indians and French trappers swarmed across all of this land
killing every single moose and beaver and fox they could find (that's why
there are none left to see unless you're lucky), but now that access is
only by canoe and the woods are so thick and there is no hunting allowed,
there is now NO earthly reason for anyone to want to penetrate into these
mosquito-infested woods beyond taking a short hike from the campsite on the
shore to poop in the woods. So, as I found when we canoed the Everglades,
there could actually be tribes of Peeweegah in the Quentico Wilderness who
would easily stay out of sight, just as there could be Gneezles in the
Everglades hiding in a remote mangrove lake.

Another thing -- you've seen Barks' stories about the *mosquitoes* in
Canada, as in his Yukon tales? They truly are that bad! It's always fun to
have a campfire after dark and sit out and look at the
stars or gaze at the lake and listen for wildlife.
But where we were, at about 9:35 (when the last wisp of light had
disappeared) you literally began to hear a whirring sound in the woods. The
first night I thought it was a distant airplane. Then they come at about
9:45... it takes them that long to find you. We learned to be IN the tent
by 9:30. When we were late, it would take about 20 minutes to hunt down the
10 or 20 mosquitoes that slipped into the tiny backpacker tent with you
since they cover you head to toe. Then it's sorta fun to watch them
crawling all over the tent trying in vain to get at you. But all night you
hear their buzzing as if they were right by your ear. When untold
BILLIONS of mosquitoes take wing from every bush and tree, there are so
*many* that their combined tiny buzzings can be heard very distinctly. It's
scary. It's also as bad sometimes when you port the canoe through a marshy
area and you disturb their sleep and they want a snack.
And during the day, the flies are also as bad. They will likewise cover you
head to toe, dozens at a time, when you come to shore to port or camp. But
they can be chased off by bug spray. The mosquitoes don't seem to notice
the stuff when they come in such numbers.

And on my 50th birthday I climbed the small mountain on the island I was
camping on (to access a distant com-tower in Thunder Bay, Canada) and I
made a cel-phone call to one Ray Foushee. He was the guy who started me
into
collecting comics (not reading them, I'd always done that) back in high
school, and who introduced me to comic "fandom" about 1967. He is a
lifelong pal...
but why did I call him on that night? He was also born on June 29, 1951, in
the *same* hospital maternity ward that I was. We are alike in many ways,
but quite different in others -- he decided that where he wanted to spend
his 50th birthday was in New York City, in the center of the thickest
population and civilization, while I chose the absolute opposite idea.

Anyway, that's where I was on June 29, 2001. I hope I can do that again on
June 29, 2051. Anything is possible in a world where I can talk to someone
in Times Square from the rocky summit of an island in a lake in the North
Woods on a device no bigger than a deck of cards. Or in a world where some
comic
book characters make me so well-known that I get birthday greetings from
around the world! Who knows what marvels the next 50 years holds? I can say
that just the past 15 years as been pretty amazing to me!

Thanks again for your birthday greetings!!!!!





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