A few months ago I saw a link to this blog & bookmarked it. Can't remember for sure but I think I saw it on BoingBoing. [Yup, here's their post.] I'm sure Don Crowdis is one of the oldest bloggers out there. He doesn't even own a computer, just writes his posts out in longhand and mails them to a relative who posts them for him.
Don To Earth
A Nonagenarian (90+) Ponders Life, the Universe, and Aging
Yesterday he posted about having survived the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb in 1917. I had never heard of this. A ship loaded with bomb-making materials exploded in Halifax Harbor, and over 1500 people were killed from the explosion.
I was four years old, and survived physically unscathed, but my mother lost an eye and my aunt was thoroughly crippled. The large family across the street was not so fortunate -- all but one died at breakfast. It was, and still is, the dividing date in my life. During the next two and half years, I lived in seven places, three of them foster homes.
All this made me anything but a headstrong hero about anything. I learned I was not the boss anywhere, and this made me a very good boss later on, as a teacher, as the head of museums, and as the chairman of associations of various sorts. I was careful, and preferred to be understated until I showed my hand, although I know my real nature was to take charge. The Halifax Explosion took my DNA and made me what I became. On December 6 each year, I am very conscious of all this.
Read the rest, he writes well and has an interesting and informed perspective on things.
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