Dutch

It was sometime before I entered First Grade that I was befriended by Dutch. Dutch was an old man working as a church janitor in a small East Texas town. My folks were faithful members at their Baptist church and spent a fair amount of time there. Dutch would let me follow him around and "help" out as only a pre-schooler can. Dutch at one time had been a sailor, and how a sailor from Holland ever ended up in East Texas I will never know.

My family figured I was probably spending too much time with Dutch as I begin to speak with a Netherlands accent. Dutch was a kind man and very tolerant of a young boy who wanted to get into everything and had a million questions.

Dutch had a hobby. It was building model ships. He also built ships in a bottle.

Some of my earliest memories were of wonderful model ships and ships in a bottle built by the "Old Salt" from the Netherlands.

As I grew older, I had a curiousity and taste for things international. I became interested in languages, worked with international students when I taught, worked on an international law journal, and later worked and travelled all over the world.

I suspect that some of my interest in things international was sparked by a kind and patient church janitor who worked on model ships in a bottle.

In the movie Citizen Kane, a very rich man thought of his early sled named Rosebud as he lay dying. I think that if I had a "Rosebud" it might just be a ship in a bottle.