Tracy's Bears

After graduating from the University of Delaware in February of 1983, I enlisted in the Army for a period of two years in the Delayed Entry Program, which meant that I didn't report for duty until November of that year.  In the interim I worked in Rehoboth Beach, DE.  I asked a coworker, who had been in the Army, about good places to be assigned.  He said there were many nice Army Posts, just don't get assigned to Fort Hood, TX.  He said it was in the middle of nowhere.

After Basic and Advanced training at Fort Jackson, SC, I was assigned to the middle of nowhere.  Fortunately, I met a small group of people who made Fort Hood an oasis in the middle of a desert.  Joe - also a graduate of the U of D, and a native of Delaware -  became a life-long best friend.  Tracy was from the other side of the country - San Luis Obispo, CA, but we took her in despite that fact.  We constantly busied ourselves with such things as biking, running 10Ks, swimming, and going down to Austin once in a while, where we listened to live music and ate frozen yogurt.

While digging through the boxes of things from my folk's house (see "What you remember"), I found these two drawings which I had stored there in 1987.  When I first pulled them out, I couldn't recall exactly who the artist was, but upon seeing the initials, remembered that Tracy drew them for me while we were at Fort Hood.

I scanned the pictures and sent them off in an e-mail.  She was appreciative, and told me she had lost her portfolio of artwork over the years in the midst of moving.  She asked if I would mind mailing them to her, which I was happy to do.


Tracy has a framing business - Door 2 Door Frames -  in California.  I told her that my only condition of returning the pictures was that she display the one in a prominent place (the cowboy bear with my name), and when anyone asked, she is to tell them what a great person I am for being such a good friend and for returning her long lost artwork.  She indicated she would, although I have my doubts.