Doug Marlette


Yesterday, on the way home from work, I heard the sad news that Doug Marlette had been killed. He was the passenger in a car when it left the road in a rain storm and hit a tree. He was a political cartoonist and an author as well. The news was doubly sad as Mr. Marlette and his family had only just buried his father a week ago in Greensboro North Carolina. The family still in grieving for the loss of Doug's father now have even more pain to deal with.

Back in 2004, my mother-in-law gave me a book for Christmas, as she knew I liked to read interesting and different things. She gave me a copy of Doug Marlette's book 'The Bridge' and once I began reading it found it very tough to put down. The book is a story within a story about the General Textile Strike of 1934. While the book is a work of fiction, the places and events that took place actually did happen and, surprisingly to me, many of them took place in my home town and county. More than one of the mill buildings in the book are still around with one just up the street.

I like to read and if you have something you like ;let us hear from you. See, and you thought that people who were into motorcycles could think of nothing else. That was the misconception in the old days until Malcolm Forbes came along. But, I am reading about a motorcycle journey to Alaska.