Did I tell you about my career as a smoke jumper? It was brief. I had a
plan. It made sense. I always wanted to be a forest ranger. After high
school, I would join the army paratroopers. I would learn to jump, then
when I got out I could join the forest service and be a smoke jumper. I was
going to be a smoke jumper.
I forgot. Years later, after I was out of the Army, after I was an
accountant, working in Denver, on a job in Montana, I drove past the smoke
jumper school at Missoula and it struck me. I was going to be a smoke
jumper! But I forgot! I came back from overseas, got married, got out of
the army and went on with my life. A life that didn't include
smoke-jumping.
