Publisher's Synopsis
This story is a flow of consciousness from a man, who started out as an auto mechanic, realized his dream of being a Pilot Captain, grew old (as we all do), and searched for meaning in his life.This is his story as told to me over the years. My former name was Tim before I pulled up stakes and immigrated to Israel where I translated my names into Hebrew (David Ramati being the translation of Tim Bratvold) so he refers to me in here as Tim. Donald is part big bother and surrogate father. There is 12 years between us and he never had much to do with me until I was in my early teens when he became my hunting, fishing and safari buddy, philosophy lecturer, and an all-around interesting part of my life. This continued until I joined the USMC and left for Vietnam. My mother was shot to death while I was there in-country and, little by little, we drifted apart. Some of this was because of our mutual grief, and the certainty that an epoch had ended. Donald went on to become a professional pilot and moved to Alaska with his family, and I drifted until I built a family of my own and moved to Israel...but that is another story. We did keep in contact over the years by snail mail, and with the advent of the internet and skype, our communications improved a thousand-fold. I could have called it an autobiography, but the word 'biography' is better suited since it is really a story of his journeys from which he returns, like Ulysses, an old man with memories of former glories. His spirit exemplifies the story of one man's search for a dream, a dream only possible in the America of his times. I have been fortunate to share a part of his life and his story:
