In the year before he died, we collected a number of Sid’s stories (he had a lot of them) as recordings on his phone. I transcribed them and created this book, now available as a free downloadable PDF,
or from Amazon as either a
Note that the process was relatively easy and the book brought a lot of joy to Sid and his wife Harriet, as well as all the people who knew him from his years as a teacher and a coach.
Preface
I’ve known Sid since the 1960 Boy Scout Jamboree. We’ve been best friends ever since, well, maybe more like brothers.
One of the things about Sid from back then to now is his love of telling stories. He got me doing it too. For the whole 64 years we’ve known each other we’ve told each other stories, about big events and small, and after hearing one of mine, he’d always say “I’ve got a better one!”
He often did.
I’ve always enjoyed hearing them, and especially enjoyed gathering a bunch together for this book, some I’d never heard before.
Dennis Merritt
Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts 2024
Forward
The first part of this book tells of my adventures. By adventure I mean entering wilderness areas to face my fears with no safety net other than my own determination and abilities to make it in, and out.
I paddled wild rivers, climbed mountains and walked through jungles filled with the sorts of animals you usually only see on TV.
And I had fears. I had severe acrophobia, fear of heights. How bad was it? When I went to the Boy Scout Jamboree in 1960, in Colorado Springs, I got up on Steamboat Rock in the Garden of the Gods. It wasn’t very high and was about 12 feet wide with a railing around it and gentle stairs going up and down. I had a full-on anxiety attack and never got near the edge and wound up crawling down the center of the stairs, grasping the center handrail.
I didn’t want to live my life that way and when I got to college I willed myself to learn to rock climb, and from there started up mountains. I pushed myself to paddle more and more challenging rivers, and in Africa confronted my fears and walked alone through wild jungles.
I was seeking adventure, seeking experiences that would cause trepidation and then dealing with it. I wanted to overcome my fears.
I did just that.
The first part of this book tells of some of those adventures.
The second part tells of life as a tour guide for Harriet, my wife of 42 years.
The time when Harriet and I went from adventurers to tourists was when we went on our first trip out west and we were leaving Yellowstone to go to the Tetons.
As you leave Yellowstone you go down this long 20 mile slope and the entire time you can see a view of the Tetons. There’s a lake at the bottom of a road and it looks across at Mount Moran.
As we approached I could sense Harriet was getting more and more nervous. We finally reached the lake in the Tetons and I pulled into a parking area. I said “aren’t these the most beautiful mountains you’ve ever seen?”
She said some kind of crazy nervous thing and I asked what was wrong. She said she was scared because she thought I would want to make her climb them.
I looked back at her in amazement and said, “I don’t even want to climb them!” So that was the moment we went from adventurers to tourists. And that was the change, from battling fear in the wilderness to enjoying the view.
“I don’t even want to climb them.”
I didn’t have to reach the top of the Grand Teton. I didn’t have to rappel 180’ into Hell Hole cave. I didn’t have to walk among the elephants in the Rwenzori, and I didn’t have to paddle the wild Middle Fork of the Salmon River before it became a rafting destination.
Now all I wanted to do was to enjoy being outdoors with Harriet, to walk some trail easy enough that you didn’t lose your breath, and enjoy pretty scenes along the way. She taught me to slow down.
And it was good.
Sidney Feldman
Athens, Georgia 2024