Gaylord

Nine years ago, an old Peace Corps friend, Gaylord Barr, passed away unexpectedly. In those days, I knew him as well as anyone. We shared a house for almost four years as well as many adventures and joint travel.

I thought that I would remember him to his friends on this, the day he died, with a few photos labeled with his own commentary from emails he sent in the last years of his life. Gaylord had a great sense of humor, a blend of silliness, self-deprecation, irony, and mild sarcasm. If he’s watching somewhere, he will surely get a chuckle from his remarks—or mine.

The pool of eels in the Chellah in Rabat, below this text, is a favorite both of women who feed the fish eggs and of the many cats that beg and scrounge scraps from them. Vendors would sell hard boiled eggs to visitors.

“The shoe salesman at the Bon Marche in Yakima had insisted I buy those boots because ‘There are a lot of snakes in Africa…’ Made sense to me. Several Morccans offered me the djellabas off their backs for those boots. I should have taken them up on it.” 1968
“Memories of the Pyrenees still sometimes tug at my heart and brain.  I would love to be ‘in them’ right now…but I couldn’t take the hiking we did all those decades ago.  I’m thinking Paris next summer.” El Parque de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, Spain. 1969
“I make friends when I’m living in other countries. The sheep lived for a time on our roof, being fattened for Aïd el Kebir. Terrasse of the Setti Messaouda medina house. 1970

But I’ve never discovered the secret of making them in the U.S.  Here I’m shy.” Sheep loved him wherever he went! Resting in the azib on the way to Tazaghart. High Atlas. 1973

“In the photo of me with Marc and Phil, I look like I’m 12 years old.” None of us were very old. Gaylord was just 21. Sefrou. 1968

“My room in our house looks a little more austere than I remember. Still, I loved it, and I loved the house.  Coincidentally, I found that decorated map that hung on the wall in my Mom’s old cedar chest just last weekend.” The front room of the Sefrou medina house. 1970

“Torla!  Ah…some of the best meals I’ve had in all my life. Struggling to get up the ice/snow wall with my Country Store Yakima boots.” From Torla to Gavarnie via the Brèche de Roland. El Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, Spain. 1969
“The Bouiblane snow and the flowers are lovely.  I can smell that country now as I write…that mix of woodsmoke, flowers, and goat droppings.” In the hills above Sefrou, riding a mokhazni’s horse. 1968

“When I picture Marc, he’s wearing that red and black jacket.” Atop the Tour Hassan. Rabat. 1968
Tunis. 1971

I’m sure Gaylord would have chided me for omitting pictures of his Sefrou friends and students. That’s for next year.

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Author: Dave

Retired. Formerly school librarian, social studies teacher, and urban planner.

7 thoughts on “Gaylord”

  2. thank you for the photos and wonderful quotes from Gaylord. What a wonderful way to honor him, Baraka fi rasu.

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