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From: David B. Martin [superdave@rightparts.com]

Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 4:33 PM

To: Roy Mcdonald (E-mail)

Cc: JOANNE’N’TOM (E-mail); Cindy @ Home Shaw (E-mail)

Subject: ECHOES OF THE 60’S - MEMOIRES OF BRENT

So many wonderful memories of Brent, and one that still wakes me up at night Who remembers the senior dorm in the fall of 1963? Mr Villiaba (spell check pls) was dorm master, and he was kind of easy on us. Thankfully he, also, was a smoker!........not that any of us smoked in the dorm! Anyway....back to my story. One evening I had an unquenchable hunger for pizza. As there was no pizza shop on campus...I needed badly to get to town to slake my appetite. I dressed in dark clothes and set off for pizza. As I was sneaking past the infirmary...low and behold!...a taxi pulled past me on the path. What good fortune! Now I wouldn’t have to walk all the way into Baguio! I looked around....didn’t see anyone around, so I popped into the taxi, went and bought 2 pizzas to share with my dorm mates, and “snuck” back to campus in record time!. As I entered back into the dorm......YIKES!! There was Fr. Griffiths at the end of the hall! He kinda smiled out one side of his mouth and asked me if I’d brought him any pizza?  Then he said “I’ll see you in my office tomorrow morning at 8:00 sharp! (He wasn’t smiling any more!) Well.......I didn’t sleep at all well that nite.......and the next morning after breakfast I sat shaking on the ‘beggers side’ of Fr. Griffiths desk. He informed me he was ‘only’ giving me 24 demerits (25 got you suspended) and asked me if I was still interested in becoming a veternarian after college. (what’s this about, I wondered). I informed him that yes, in fact, that was my ambition. Fr. said ‘well.........I think I’ll arrange some practice for you. Report to the pig pens after you change clothes, and work your 12 hours off cleaning out the pig sh.. from the pens. (oh...I get it) Well.........as glad as I was not to be suspended.....after about 2 hours shoveling pit sh.., I began to seriouslywonder which would have been worse!

To this day, every time I eat a piece of bacon, I think of pizza and Fr. Griffiths. Don’t need no psychoanalyzing to figure that one out!

Oink! Dave Martin

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S I N C E  B R E N T...

I am at one of my many forks in the road at this very moment in time, as I write this little essay to catch you all up to date. In between writing this literary inspiration,  I am packing, sorting, selling and giving away my accumulations of many years. I am moving to Panama on a permanent basis. I figured out that I simply cannot afford to live out my golden years in this country, where my retirement investments have slid to less than 40% of their original values. I have been researching for over a year, trying to find a place not too far, not expensive, and yet offering reasonable and fine health care, and a good infrastructure. Panama’s doctors are mostly US trained. All of Panama is in the Eastern time zone, and only 4 hours from Atlanta and Houston. Their tax laws, banking regulations, general laws and many other benefits initiated to encourage ex-pats and retirees are very liberal. I sold my flat, and am scheduled to leave on October 1. From October to late December (when the house is finished) I will be over seeing the boat business, and closely watching the construction of the new house. 

For a long time, I have been longing for the unpressured time to be creative, the bright turquoise seas, the consistantly warm weather, time that is my own without the commutes, car maintenance, and crazy drivers. I have decided that I need a kinder pace of life.  So all of my remaining investments have been cashed in and I have opened a Panamanian corporation and bought a lot on Isla Colon in the Bocas del Toro Province next to the Costa Rica boarder.

I have also purchased, with a partner (a woman I have been working with for the last 4 years) a lovely 24 foot Panga boat, custom made for 12-16 passengers for touring the islands of Bocas del Toro. The boat is already in operation and making some money, (much more than yield of my former stock portfolio). The new house will be zoned commercial with 5 guest quarters to be rented out, on the lower level, and an office (sort of a hobby room, actually) The upper level will be where I plan to live out my years. For those of you who might be interested in finding out where this place is, you can see the map on the web site for the boat tour business which is http://www.ccboattours.com. And of course, any and all of you are welcome to come and visit once I get the rental guest rooms furnished and I am settled in.