Memories – Since 1963.

It’s been TWELVE (12)!!! years??! Holy cow. In spite of all the special dogs (Feargal, Fergus, Fred, Roux, Sascha, Bosco, Goose, Tessa and now Charlie) we’ve had since Bayley crossed the Rainbow Bridge, the first dog who enters your life always leaves the most special imprint on your heart. And Bayley was indeed a special first one. So much so that we remember him and his anniversaries all the time. Here’s the post from 12 years ago, maudlin and sentimental and all that.

Bayley Murphey Beagle
20-Aug-1994 — 2-Mar-2007
Dear Bayley Murphey,
Thank you for being such a wonderful and good dog, a loving companion, for keeping us sane, for loving us unconditionally, for being such an incredibly important part of our lives for 12-and-a-half years. Thank you for putting up with all the picture-taking, ear rubbing, nail clipping, bathing, teefs-brushing and hugs and kisses. Thank you for curling up against us on cold, winter nights. Thank you being the touchstone of our lives. Thank you for being you.
We tried hard to give you a good life, full of all the things that good dogs such as you deserve. From the time of your puppyhood until today, you tried so hard to be good and please us, and you always did. We are richer for having had you in our lives, much, much poorer for your passing. Your suffering is over, now it’s time to run baying through the fields, chasing rabbits, rolling in squirrel pee, and lying under a tree gnawing a never-ending supply of beagle bagels.
Rest and sleep well, pookus. You leave a very large hole in our hearts and our lives.
Love,
Dad, Unca Frankie, and Unca David.
Steve Pollock

Anniversaries … so bittersweet. Sigh.

Young Bayley being dignified, Plano, 1995.

Bayley napping in the sun, San Francisco, 2001.

Bayley and Frank in Ann Arbor, Autumn 2003.

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Well, it’s all a random mess, actually. Mostly history. Politics. Gay old times.

One of the obscure corners of the vast Intertubesnetweb, AirBeagle has been online since 1999. Its creator, Steve, has been inhaling and exhaling since 1963. Steve is a former small-town daily newspaper reporter, public education communications director, elementary/secondary teacher and author.

He has over 30 years writing experience in a variety of media. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Cameron University in Oklahoma and a master’s in elementary education from the University of Michigan. He currently lives in Nashville, TN, with his partner, Frank, (a university research librarian), their beagle, Fergus (11), their basset/treeing coonhound Goose (4), and their basset hounds, Roux (8) and Sascha (11). They are fostering a chocolate lab, Tessa, (13). Their beagles Bayley (12) (2007), Fred (5) (2012) and Feargal (8) (2015), and their basset/corgi/beagle Bosco (10) (2018) have all sadly crossed the Rainbow Bridge. They are missed terribly.

Steve was born in Roswell, NM, at the Eastern New Mexico Medical Center. In his family are his mother and theoretically a couple of siblings with scads of kids and grandkids; his father died in 2013.

He and Frank met and fell in love 27-Feb-00 in San Francisco. Their first commitment ceremony was presided over by Gavin Newsome, current Lt. Gov. of the state of California, and a candidate for governor in the next election. They also had a real wedding at a lovely bed and breakfast on the river overlooking Detroit from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. An American celebration was had on the beach at Malibu, California, in 2008, which made them one of only 18,000 couples to tie the knot in the short period before California voters were pressed by the Mormon Church to ban marriage equality, a vote that was overturned in 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court, thank you very much. Frank is a native of the Los Angeles area, mainly Pasadena. He is a university research librarian.

Steve fell in love with airliners at the age of five during a fateful encounter with a brand-new Pan Am 747 at the Roswell Industrial Air Center, New Mexico, in the fall of 1969, just before the 747s wdere put into regular passenger service. He has lived in Roswell and Clovis, NM; Duncan, OK; Plano and Dallas, TX; Pleasant Hill, San Francisco and Brentwood, CA; Highlands Ranch, CO; Ann Arbor, MI; and Nashville, TN. He is the author of Deadly Turbulence: The Air Safety Lessons of Braniff Flight 250 and Other Airliners, 1959-1966, his first aviation book, released in 2014, and is currently planning, researching, and writing his second.

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Guys of the Month

He’s staring up at the giant orb in the sky. He hasn’t seen the sun around here in ages, so he’s surprised. I’m about to surprise him myself. Woof. | ECotM—March 2019.