It was 20 Years Ago Today

It was 20 years ago this afternoon, I've always remembered the date, that I finished my last paper at American Military University. The subject was the Duke of Marlborough and Professor Douglas Streussand gave me an A. He taught me a lot about history writing. Ten years after graduating high school, I'd finally earned my BA. 

Later I turned that Marlborough paper into a magazine article, the cover of Strategy &Tactics #238. This was one of dozens I'd publish within the Decision Games Magazine empire over the next decade. Other magazine article examples may be found on the right sidebar.

It'd been unseasonably hot all that week, well into the 80's. Mrs. Stroock was away for some reason and I had our rustic farmhouse in bucolic Peapack, New Jersey all to myself. I wrote 5,000 words on Monday and Tuesday and edited the paper on Wednesday. Don't ask me how I did that. At 28 I was still young enough to be too stupid to understand it couldn't be done. Yet it was done. 

This was an existential week, a transformative week. It's always stuck with me. I was utterly exhausted from a long weak capping a long year of academic endeavor and rigor.

The next day Mrs. Stroock and I drove into NYC and watched the Blue Jays play the New York Yankees. Here's the game. We sat in the leftfield seats next to a nice couple that came down from Toronto. 'You have a good knowledge of the Yankees, eh?' The husband said, and asked if anyone had ever hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium. An old timer said Mickey Mantle once hit the top of the rightfield foul poll. Euro readers, that's impressive. 

We drove up to my folks that night. Later I lay down on the couch watching TV and listened to my wife and mother whisper about me in the kitchen. Something about school.

It felt good, I had to admit, and feels good till this day.

But you won't believe what would happen the next week...