Against the Tide by Lester Fisher

Peace Corps invited Lester Michael Klungness to Kenya, he served in the idyllic Hills of Taita where began a romantic involvement with a Taita woman … and her 5 children. Their happy two years together ended when he was exiled from Taita by his military induction notice. By happenstance, he was declared unfit for military service, but Richard Nixon changed the course of his life. The Peace Corps budget cuts excluded him from returning to Kenya and to re-assignment. He worked for a beekeeper, and then returned to college to pursue his master’s degree. After a successful quarter at UC Davis, he happened on a summer job at Weyerhaeuser Co. Research Division. He successfully moved up to a permanent position. He believed he could afford to bring the African family to America. It took years, and they did not all come at the same time. Finally, he got them all to the little four acre homestead in Tenino Washington. Life was not easy, but the family farmed. The two oldest youths got jobs and established their own lives. The younger three and their American-born brother were able to attend local schools, and life seemed to be going well. Then Weyerhaeuser decided to move their research divisions to an urban facility at Federal Way WA; this was a disaster for our family! Lester told his manager that he would not continue as a permanent employee, but would contract his services. At first the Company hired him, but it was not enough. He took a summer job as a raspberry farm manager. When he returned to the Weyerhaeuser Co. base, he taught class and did contracts for Weyerhaeuser, but could not earn enough from contracts outside of the Weyerhaeuser. The situation became desperate. The only solution was to return to UC Davis, and reenroll in the master’s degree program and receive financial aid. Contracts began to pour in, so he was able to support the family at home. Finally he was hired on a federal project by which he would have been able to return the whole family to Africa. The wife came to Davis, and signed a contract on married student housing, but she never agreed to move the family to Davis. He broke off his education and returned to Washington to find out what had happened. She was not at home, but had rented out the house, and moved the family to Tacoma. He took the summer manager job on the raspberry farm, hoping to resolve the family issues. It failed and a young woman convinced him to return to UC Davis and finish his degree. One young man’s account chronicles the most turbulent growth in United States history. These were expansions in technology, global influence, wealth, power, popular unrest, and human rights. These changed America from an isolationist, racist enclave, to the present confusing, liberating, imperialistic and ideologically-divided envy of the world.

About the Author Born Lester Michael Fisher on Feb. 1 1947, he later took the surname of his stepfather, James G. Klungness. His education, after Catholic school and seminary, included a Bachelor of Sciences in Botany from the Univ. of Washington. After 2 years of Peace Corps as Youth Extension Officer in Taita, Kenya, he began a career with Weyerhaeuser Co., serving in the Wood Morphology and the Genetics Research Divisions. After 5 years, he returned to finish his Master’s degree in International Agricultural Development from Univ. of Cal. Davis. His thesis on honeybee digestion was published in three scientific papers. After 6 years of service in the Dept. of Pomology at UCD, he worked for the University of Hawaii for 10 yrs., performing research on fruit fly parasitoids. He then transferred to the US Dept. of Agriculture to pursue research on fruit fly suppression and management for 8 years. He returned back to the Univ. of Hawaii to assist on a program to protect the honeybee industry in Hawaii from invasive species such as the varroa mite and small hive beetle. Health issues forced him into full retirement in 2010. He had authored or co-authored 21 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and given many presentations to scientific and public meetings. He developed microscopic techniques, and invented the augmentorium for disposal of infested fruit and augmentation of parasitoids. The author is married to his high school sweetheart and has a son and a daughter, a stepson, one grandchild, and two step-grandchildren. “I decided to write the book because I am amazed how many twists and turns my very ordinary life has taken during what must be considered an extraordinary period in human history. This was a life which profoundly impacted or begat the lives of three wives, six African children, an Afro-American son, and a Caucasian American daughter. I will always wonder what other impacts I had during a 40 year career in public service.” This is part of a memoir in three volumes: Happenstance, Against the Tide and Three’s a Charm.

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So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west,

and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come

like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives.

English Standard Version (2001) Isaiah 59:19

Where we left off, I had just arrived in Chicago’s O’Hara Airport, after my

tour of duty in Kenya with the Peace Corps, and my visit to University of Guelf

to visit Dr. Gordon Townsend, Chairman of the Bee Biology Department

at the Univ. of Guelf, Canada. I was surprised to hear “Amazing Grace”

being played over the Musak as I walked down the causeway. As I said in the

conclusion of the 1st volume of my memoir, it gave me a glimmer of hope that

the country was on the right track. However, hopes do have a way of being

dashed. Personally, I believed that I would be returning to Kenya, and to my

adopted family of nearly two years. The purpose of the detour to Canada

was to talk about the CIDA1

Kenya Honeybee Development Project. I was

making arrangements to assist their project while working for the Peace Corps

at the Mtwapa Tropical Tree Crop Nursery which was in the process of being

established by the Ministry of Agriculture.

1 CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) was formed in 1968 by the Canadian

government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates

in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well

as other international organizations. It reports to the Parliament of Canada through the

minister for International Cooperation. Its mandate is to “support sustainable development in

developing countries in order to reduce poverty and contribute to a more secure, equitable, and

prosperous world.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian International Development

Agency

One wee little glitch, I had received my “invitation” to take my induction

physical for the military. The youngsters among you will not remember the

time when any able-bodied young American could be called up for canon-

fodder at any time. We were under the lottery selection system but having

been deferred by my first two years of Peace Corps service, I was now eligible

for immediate enlistment.

Still, hope springs eternal in the human heart, and I was sure the good

Lord would make it possible for me to return to my work and “my family”

in Kenya. I had purchased my Handbook for the Conscientious Objector, but

I was not too sure I was going to be able to mount a defense in the event of

my being drafted. After all, I had been trained in a seminary of the Catholic

Church, a religion that has long supported the “moral foundation of war”.

Of more immediate concern, and the reason I came to the US to take the

physical, was that my mother was having further health issues, which involved

her heart. Instead of opting to take my physical in Italy (as the military

offered), I chose the alternative to take the induction physical in Oakland,

California. I decided to take my home leave (also an option for extending

Peace Corps volunteers at that time) and visit her in California. The least a

dutiful son could do. My first stop-over in the US would be Seattle, where

all my Christian friends from the Honeycomb Fellowship and the Catholic

Charismatic movement were located. Then I would visit my Father and

his new wife in Longview down in Southwest Washington, and then on to

California, where my mother lived in the Central Valley town of Galt. She

had lived with the parish priest under the guise of housekeeper ever since my

father and mother separated.

The Honeycomb fellowship had given me a big send-off when I left for

Peace Corps, and true to form, several of the group came to welcome me

home. I cannot remember who was present, but I think I spent the nights at

either Tom Griffith’s or Roy Gillette’s house or both. I think Emily and her

new husband came to see me. I had brought back carved wooden figures from

Kenya and gave several of them to people from the Fellowship. I had intended

to sell some, so I left them on consignment at the Christian bookstore on

University Ave. in the University of Washington district. I don’t remember

if they were ever sold. The bookstore was owned by a man named Clyde; I

can’t remember the name of his family or his wife. I do remember going to

visit him after they sold the bookstore and moved to Lynden, Washington.

They had first tried to homestead in British Columbia, but the mosquitos

drove them out the first summer. The farm they acquired in Lynden was a

Against the Tide

3

pleasant commune with a big old barn and a Clydesdale draft horse (it might

have been a Percheron, but it seemed more appropriate that Clyde would own

a Clydesdale). I don’t remember who went with me to visit them in Lynden,

but I remember being impressed with the communal life they had established.

Later I heard that this venture also did not work out for them. Even Christian

communes are made up of people.

It was interesting to see the culture of the Christians after the eye opening

experience of Kenya. I realized that a large part of the culture of a religious

community is just that, culture. The religious component is almost like

trimming on an otherwise ancient bond of friendship and mutual support

that probably pre-dates all organized religions. People of like mind and like

interests come together under the banner of a common belief. In some ways,

it really doesn’t matter what the belief is, as long as they hold it in common.

The problem is that holding that common set of beliefs and interests is a hard

thing for human nature.

Even the Honeycomb Fellowship was showing signs of splintering. Tom

Griffith, a counselor at Chief Sealth High School, was one of the original

Fellowship founders with his wife Jean. But Tom was intent on following

his calling to the missions. He eventually did take his wife and 5 children to

Europe. His oldest daughter went to school in Italy, and there may have been

other arrangements for others in the family. But some of the Griffith clan

ended up in Iran... or was it Lebanon. This was before the overthrow of the

Shah of Iran, which eventually drove Tom and clan out of Iran (or Lebanon).

You never know where a mission will take you, but traditionally it tends not

to be towards tranquility.

I think, at this point in time (1971) the Griffiths were still in Seattle

and hosting the fellowship at their large old University neighborhood house.

I believe I slept on their floor that night, my first day back in the good old

USA. Jean was such a sweet and generous person; she was the glue that held

the immediate and extended family together. There were always people like

me dropping in for dinner or a place on the floor. Roy and Ruth Gillette were

also founding members of the Fellowship. Roy had been very kind to rent his

basement to me when I was in transition to the Peace Corps. In addition, he

agreed to hold my possessions, including my bass, until I returned from my

Africa tour. He enjoyed playing the bass for the Fellowship. I was not ready

to take my possessions at that point in time, because I had no car and was

traveling by public transportation. Roy said I could leave everything with him.

Martha Patton was no longer with the Honeycomb when I returned from

Africa. Like me, she had been swept away by the charismatic movement, and

had eventually ended up in a Christian commune associated with an African

American church in the Central District of Seattle. I went to visit her there,

and I met the man that she eventually married. I do not know what happened

to them after that, and I was not able to attend their wedding. I was a bit

suspicious of the pastor of the Black church; he was expensively dressed and

drove a high-end automobile, while the members of the commune looked like

they had to ration their finances carefully. They were obviously living a lot

closer to the gospel example than the pastor who guided them!

By then, Emily Du, who had originally brought me to the Honeycomb

Fellowship, had, or was about to marry another member of the Fellowship,

John Mattson. She was working at the University of Washington Hospital

in an immunology research lab, where I visited her the day after I arrived.

She had obviously become a crackerjack immunology technician but was

not happy with the pay scale. So she was intending to or had already started

taking classes (I can’t remember which). She was intent on getting a degree

in computer programming, which is what John did for a living. Eventually

they both were programmers for the same Seattle Bank, and to the best of my

knowledge became quite financially secure. Given the financial upheavals of

the late 2000s2

, I hope they are still doing well. I have tried to find them on

the internet, but without success. It would not be the last time I would see

2 The largest bankruptcy in history was of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings

Inc., which listed $639 billion in assets as of its Chapter 11 filing in 2008. 5

Company Filing date Total Assets

pre-filing

Total assets

pre-filing at

today’s value

Filing court

district

Lehman Brothers

Holdings Inc. 2008-09-15 $639,063,000,800 $646 billion NY-S

Washington

Mutual 2008-09-26 $327,913,000,000 $332 billion DE

General Motors

Corporation 2009-06-01 $82,300,000,000 $83.5 billion NY-S

CIT Group 2009-11-01 $71,019,200,000 $72.1 billion NY-S

Chrysler LLC 2009-04-30 $39,300,000,000 $39.9 billion NY-S

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code#Largest

bankruptcies

Emily and John, but the circumstances would be entirely different the next

time we met.

Having made contact and reacquainted myself with the Fellowship, I

proceeded to Southwest Washington and a stay with my dad and his new

wife, Elizabeth. They must have picked me up at the train station in Kelso. I

remember it was a dark and dreary Washington winter’s night. The welcoming

was cordial, and I was immediately impressed with the intensity of Dad’s

new wife. She was very engaging and had obviously done her homework

regarding me. There were a number of personal possessions and writings that

I had left with my dad, and she had taken the time to read them. She was an

Internal Revenue Agent, but she was the daughter of a newspaper editor, and

an aspiring writer herself. She has since published several books. Dad really

didn’t have many questions to ask, because Elizabeth held the conversation

the whole trip home. She asked a lot of questions and listened intently to my

answers. Most often I have found people to be only marginally interested in

my “adventures” in Africa, but Elizabeth was all ears. I assume that Dad was

interested too, but conversation was not an easy thing between us. I think he

was glad that Elizabeth had assumed the responsibility.

It was sweet to arrive back on the Toutle River and be greeted by Tippy.

I think my mother had taken the little girl, offspring of my favorite dog Sox

(deceased), when she moved to Galt, CA. However, the roar of the trains

and the strange circumstances had made the normally timid dog become

borderline terrified most of the time. My mother realized that her decision to

spend her life with the priest was not the best decision for Tippy, so she gave her back to my Dad. Nor did my mother have another pet, until after Fr.

Carl died of cancer. Fr. Carl had once had a beautiful German Shepherd, but

when that dog was killed, I think the priest could not feel right about having

another dog (like my grandfather and his only dog, Buck). After the priest

died of cancer, when my mother was living by herself, she went overboard

with dogs, cats, horses and hummingbirds.

Elizabeth liked animals, and she, my Dad and Tippy seemed well adjusted

on the Toutle River with the gentle roar of the winter flood waters, and the

howling of the wind through the trees. Tippy was the spitting image of her

sire but was only one quarter the size of him. She was so named because of

the white tip on her tail. Otherwise she had a multicolored coat with white

leggings and long soft fur with a large bushy tail. Her mother was Fox Terrier,

but Sox was a Boxer/Australian Shepherd mix. Perhaps part of the reason

Tippy was so timid was that we had been forced to put Sox down because of

a buck-inflicted injury that refused to heal. Up to that time, Tippy always

had her sire to protect her; after he died, she would run under furniture at

the sign of strangers and stayed close to Elizabeth or my Dad’s lap. The stay

in Galt had made her even more skittery.

I don’t know if Tippy actually recognize me after two years, but it was not

long before she was in my lap. I missed the affection of a good dog, because

in Kenya dogs are treated like riff raff. Kenyans keep dogs to eat trash and

scare away critters, but they don’t show affection to them. Consequently the

dogs are unkempt and usually sporting swollen ticks all over their bodies. We

acquired a puppy for the kids when I was in Kenya, but it died eating table

scraps. It tried to swallow a floret of broccoli, but the dog had nearly expired

when the kids finally called me to try to save it. So for the duration of my

stay in Kenya, we did not have pets. We had many rabbits and chickens, but

they were all destined for slaughter; you don’t want to get too attached to the

animals you intend to eat or sell. So it was nice to be back with a cute little

lap dog that would lick your face and sleep on your bed.

My Dad had always had a pet since our first dog, Boy, adopted us, and

he kept Tippy until she died of old age. Elizabeth and Dad also had cats, I

believe, but in later years they did not have pets. When my Dad was getting

kind of senile and expressed the need for a pet. Elizabeth bought him an

electromechanical pet called a Furby3

. It was actually unnerving to me to see

my Dad interact with the robotic fluff ball. It was so unlike the masterful

way he had trained Sox to fetch the newspaper and Tippy to perform her

repertoire of tricks.

Waking in the morning on the enclosed porch with a flannel lined

3 A Furby (plural Furbys or Furbies) was a popular electronic robotic toy resembling a

hamster/owl-like creature which went through a period of being a “must-have” toy following

its launch in the holiday season of 1998, with continual sales until 2000. Furbies sold 1.8

million units in 1998, 14 million units in 1999, and altogether in its three years of original

production, Furbies sold over 40 million units. Its speaking capabilities were translated into

24 languages.

Furbies were the first successful attempt to produce and sell a domestically-aimed robot.

A newly purchased Furby starts out speaking entirely Furbish, the unique language that all

Furbies use, but are programmed to speak less Furbish as they gradually start using English.

English is learned automatically, and no matter what culture they are nurtured in, they learn

English. In 2005, new Furbies were released, with voice-recognition and more complex facial

movements, and many other changes and improvements. The Emoto-Tronic Furbies (Furby,

Furby Baby, and Funky Furby) continued to be sold until late 2007, when these toys became

extremely rare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby

sleeping bag to keep me warm, I just laid there for a long while soaking in

the clean, damp, winter air and listening to the low rumbling sounds of the

swollen Toutle River which was less than 100 feet away across the road. Soon

the smell of breakfast wafted in from the little kitchen with the birds-eye pine

cupboards. Elizabeth was not one to skimp on breakfast, and she has prepared

some good vittles.

I think it might have been that very next day that Elizabeth insisted on

taking me to Portland to buy a whole new wardrobe. I didn’t understand why.

My boots, purchased when I started work at the pulp mill when I was 18, were

now held together with leather hand-sewn patches (they do that in Kenya).

My Logan, also several years old, was tattered and torn in several places (very

monkish in appearance with its hood and rope ties). Elizabeth was determined

to remove the emblems of my adventure from off my very back. The intention

was so sincere that I could not refuse.

I think Dad had to work that day, because Elizabeth and I went to

Portland without him. I don’t remember where we went, but it was some kind

of clothing warehouse. I think we were able to get pants, shirts, boots, and

a coat, all at the same store. We debated about the boots, but she eventually

insisted that I take sturdy high-top logging boots. They were of good quality

and lasted a long time. However, they were not a good choice for me. I have a

foot problem in that I walk over the edge of my right shoe, maybe a little on

the left too. Eventually the boots, which had a fairly tall heel, were run over

so badly that I should have stopped using them. Of course, being frugal, I

kept using those boots for years. I wore them though beekeeping, doing tree

inventories in the Cascades, farming in Tenino, and all points in between.

The old Penny’s brand $25 boots would have been a better replacement for

the boots that got me through Kenya, but one does not want to look a gift

horse in the mouth4

.

Boots are important to a young man. They sort of define who you are and

what you can do. A good fitting pair of boot will let you go farther, do more

and show your stamina. More importantly, the boots you wear in your heavy-

work years may save you from problems in your later years. I have never been

4 Look a gift horse in the mouth: to criticize or refuse to take something that has been

offered to you. Example: “I know the car’s not in great condition, but you shouldn’t look a

gift horse in the mouth.”

Usage notes: usually follows never or not, as in the example.

Etymology: based on the idea that you can discover a lot about a horse’s condition by

looking at its teeth http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/look+a+gift+horse+in+the+mouth

very coordinated and having a pair of tall-heeled boots which were wearing

unevenly, added to my ungainliness. Sometime my ankle would give way and

twist my foot over on its side. That was always painful. To this day, my shoes

wear out on the inside and my heels turn out. To a young man, these issues

are hardly considered worthy of concern. I am glad my son learned early in

his fire-fighting career, that good boots are essential for survival. It probably

saved his life on at least one occasion; he was almost trapped by a fire that

jumped the controlled burn zone. The fire got his all-terrain vehicle, but his

all-terrain boots got him out! He later told me that the rubber foot peddle

had melted to his boot, but his protective gear had saved him from burns. He

did, however, have to run 40 yards without breathing to keep from inhaling

the lung-searing hot air.

I can’t remember exactly how long I stayed with my Dad and Elizabeth,

but I assume it was not too long. I know I did visit Gretchen at the law office

of Walstead Mertsching, where she had worked since her return from San

Francisco. She was surprised to see me but pleased. She was already engaged

to marry a man with whom she had attended Lower Columbia College in

Longview, WA. I explained to her my situation with Charity and the family

in Kenya. Had I stayed in Longview longer, I probably would have visited

Gretchen’s parents, but both Gretchen and I think that I did not visit them.

Sadly, I left a potted flowering plant for Jana when Gretchen’s father died of

Parkinson’s and cancer. I meant to visit her but she was not home. I did call

her later, and she appreciated the condolences. In fact, she told Gretchen I

would have made a good priest because I had a sincere manner. Unfortunately,

I did not actually see her again until Gretchen and I were considering marriage

years later. Most assuredly my loss; she was a good woman, who had been

kind to me over the years.

I was, of course, all wrapped up in my life and what I was going to do.

I still had to get to California, to take my induction physical in Oakland

CA. I think I must have taken the bus to Galt, because I remember being

picked up by Fr. Carl and my mother in the center of town. Of course I was

lugging my 90 lb. duffle bag with various and sundry artifacts from Kenya,

and my personal possession, which were few. My mother was, of course,

most enthusiastic to see me. Fr. Carl was circumspect, but welcomed me,

nevertheless. The parish house had a guest room for visiting priests, and I

was offered temporary lodging in Galt while deciding what my next turn in

life would be.

It felt a bit awkward to be back in a Catholic Parish, with my mother

parading me around to all of her friends in the parish. There were a couple

of very lovely daughters of the Portuguese dairy farmers, and I suspect my

mother had intentions of “lining me up” with a good Catholic girl, so I would

forget all this foolishness about my African family. This, in spite of the fact

that she had already become quite vicariously involved with my little Taita

tribe, sending gift etc. and waiting longingly for the next installments of my

tape recordings from Africa. Still, I guess she had to try, because it certainly

did not seem the sensible thing for me to commit my youth to a family of

seven.

I think the date of the induction physical came soon after I arrived. I may

have taken the bus to Oakland for the medical exam. I was one of several

hundred. We were lined up and told to strip down to our shorts, and then

the examining physician proceeded down the line. He was doing a cursory

examination of eyes, ears, nose, and throat so to speak, and then he would

put his hand up the groin of each inductee to check for herniation. This

was probably the first step in the examination, because I don’t remember

taking any other tests. As we were being dismissed from that exam, the

physician called me and told me to wait in a room down the hall. This was

peculiar because no one else was so instructed. In fact, I sat in that room

for a number of minutes. During this time I was able to read the list of Un-

American Activities which were grounds for being disqualified for military

service. Organizations like the Communist Party were on the list, but also a

number of other organizations that I would have considered benign at best,

inconsequential at worst. It made me realize how much our country, and

especially our military, were still reactionary and paranoid, thanks to the

efforts of Joe McCarthy.5

It made me wonder what I had done; why was I

5 McCarthyism

U.S. anti-Communist propaganda of the 1950s, specifically addressing the entertainment

industry

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without

proper regard for evidence. The term refers to U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and has its

origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the

late 1940s through the 1950s and characterized by heightened political repression as well as

an alleged campaign spreading fear of Communist influence on American institutions and

of espionage by Soviet agents.

What would become known as the McCarthy era began before McCarthy’s term in

1953. Following the First Red Scare, President Truman signed in 1947 an executive order

to screen federal employees for association with organizations deemed “Totalitarian, Fascist,

Communist or subversive” or advocating “to alter the form of Government of the United

selected out? Was I involved with any organization on the list of un-American

Activities?

Finally the Physician came back to the room and invited me into his office.

He asked me to remove my pants again and proceeded with a more thorough

examination of my genitals. These days I would have been suspicious, but

then the whole process was so commonplace that I was not even surprised. I

was still concerned about what the devil was going on? Then the physician

said “Sorry, we can’t take ya.” I was stunned at first. What was wrong with

me? Why, was I unfit? Funny things run through the mind of a young man

that is trying to figure out how to get out of the draft, only to be told that he

wouldn’t be eligible. “You have a pre-hernia condition, and I can’t approve

you for basic training.” The physician said. Sometimes it is hard to imagine

how fateful a decision like that can be. I might not be writing this now if that

doctor had been a little less thorough. To this day it boggles my mind that I

was the only one picked out of the line that day. How many of those young

men that passed the physical that day are alive to tell the story? At times I have

thought of it as karmic or divine intervention. At other times I think what a

States by unconstitutional means.” In 1949 a high level State Department official was

convicted of perjury in a case of espionage and the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb,

while the Korea War started the next year, raising tensions in the United States. In a speech

in May 1951, McCarthy presented a list of members of the Communist Party working in the

State Department, which attracted the press’ attention, and the term appeared for the first

time in a political cartoon by Herblock in the Washington Post that same year. The term has

taken on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now

used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic

attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

During the McCarthy era, hundreds of Americans were accused of being communists

or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and

questioning before government or private industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and labor union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person’s real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was sometimes exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment or destruction of their careers; some even suffered imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that were later declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-

legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most notable examples of McCarthyism include the investigations made by Senator

McCarthy himself, and the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities

Committee (HUAC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

fluke it was. I have never had trouble with that “hernia” and the next thing I

did was take a job lifting 100 lb. beehives.

For a moment, I need to step back. Very soon after I arrived in Galt, my

Aunt Mary and Uncle Vernon visited us in Galt. I was impressed that they

would do that, since their son, Ralph, was still in Vietnam. He expected to

have home leave sometime in the near future, but I was grateful that my

aunt and uncle thought enough of me to make the trip up to visit. They also

invited me to visit them in Hayward, and I told them I would do so when I

went down to take my induction physical.

So when I walked out of the Induction Center in Oakland as a free man,

I called my uncle to pick me up. There are several ironic details about that

fateful day about which I must comment. First, it is so ironic that one of the

largest induction centers on the west coast of the United States is in one of the

largest population of African American on the same coast. Second, I had just

returned from an all-black community in a post-colonial African country, and

I would be allowed to remain, whereas so many blacks were being shipped off

to Vietnam to fight a senseless war for a post-colonial country in Southeast

Asia. I guess the biggest irony is that I didn’t even want to be in this country,

and as fate would have it, I never left.

Mary and Vern were very hospitable, but both were working so we did

most of our getting reacquainted in the evening. Ralph was not back yet, but

I can’t remember if Cousin Vern was living in the area at the time with his

first wife and daughter. I don’t remember seeing much of him. However, their

cousin on their father’s brother, Eldon’s side of the family, was visiting Mary

and Vernon. I remember taking her in Uncle Vernon’s 1959 Chevy pickup to

the Zellerbach Hall for a concert or a dance performance. He would probably

not be happy to know that I was driving on a suspended license; but I didn’t

know it then myself. Karen probably had not been to a concert like that; I

really could not tell if she enjoyed it. I do remember that Vernon was very

concerned because we were late getting home. I don’t think he was worried

about the two of us, but more about my driving. I had not driven in the big

city since before Kenya. Nevertheless we made it back in good condition.

I think that was the last time I ever saw Ralph’s cousin Karen. Vern sends

me pictures of her family periodically, so I know she is happily married in

Ashland, OR.

The other humorous event of that visit, from my standpoint, was when I

asked my uncle to drop me at a movie theater to see “The Pawnbroker.” I had

read reviews of the movie which gave glowing praise to Rod Steiger for his

performance.6

The humor in the request was where the movie was playing;

it was at the Castro Theater in the middle of the Castro District. Of course

I was totally unaware that this was the heart of the gay community, but my

uncle certainly knew. He queried me, “Are you sure you want to go THERE?”,

but he did not explain why he was concerned. So he took me there, but he

dropped me at the street corner, and didn’t wait around. To this day I have to

laugh about how naïve I was, but I just watched the superb movie and then

called my uncle, and he came to pick me up. I don’t think he even asked me

anything about the movie. My mother told stories about my uncle when he

was young, but I am not going to repeat any of them, because there is no

way of knowing if any of them are true. Even if they were, telling the stories

would be to what purpose now? Vernon was married to Mary until he died

at age 80. He had two sons and a parcel of grandchildren. After the Navy, he

worked hard all of his life as a steelworker and later as an ironwork inspector.

If he was a victim of anything, it was the tobacco industry since emphysema

plagued him in his later years.

When I returned to Galt, I was stoked about the prospect of returning to

Africa, and I wrote a letter to the PC Director in Nairobi as soon as I returned.

But in the meantime I would have to find something to do with myself. I

was loaned an electric bass and asked to help out with the Folk music Mass

on Sunday, but aside from a Thursday night practice and 11 o’clock Mass on

Sunday, which was not much to keep me busy. I don’t even remember if they

let me mow the lawn. Of course, my mother and I had long conversations

about the family, and what I was going to do with my life. Fr. Carl must have

thought we were totally nuts, because sometimes we would talk until three

AM. She had to get up and cook breakfast for father after the 7 AM Mass.

I decided I needed to find out more about beekeeping, so I visited

Ward Stanger, the Extension Apiculturist, at Univ. of California Davis. He

6 The Pawnbroker is a 1965 drama film, starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock

Peters and Jaime Sánchez and directed by Sidney Lumet. It was adapted by Morton S. Fine

and David Friedkin from the novel of the same name by Ed Lewis Wallant.

The film was the first American movie to deal with the Holocaust from the viewpoint of

a survivor. It earned international acclaim for Steiger, launching his career as an A-list actor,

and was among the first American movies to feature nudity during the Production Code and

was the first film featuring bare breasts to receive Production Code approval.

In 2008, The Pawnbroker was selected for preservation in the United States National

Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically

significant”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Pawnbroker (film)

arranged for me to attend a couple of beekeepers meetings. The hot topic

at the time was the Africanized bee that was working its way up the South

American continent. Several of the scientists were heavily involved with the

US Department of Agriculture’s attempt to determine how that sub-species

could be stopped from entering the United States. I remember Professor

Norman Gary was a particularly vocal part of the investigative team. At one

of these meeting he addressed the Beekeepers’ meeting by saying that he did

not believe that the African honeybee would be that difficult to manage.

Ward mentioned that I had just come from Africa, and the beekeepers were

interested to hear what I thought of the pure African honeybees. I said that

they were very aggressive, even in their native state.

I did not mention that I myself had been attacked by a recently caught

swarm, and they fanned out into the neighborhood around the Wundanyi

Farmers Training Center and killed a goat and stung members of a family

within fifty yards. I only escaped because another Peace Corps volunteer

drove up as I came under attack for the second time. I was walking back along

the road around the training center and the bees picked up my scent again

(buggers don’t forget!). He backed the truck up to me, and I dove into the

back as we drove off. Later we came back to assess the damages. We ended

up taking an elderly man and two children to the Wesu hospital for bee sting

treatments. I believe I paid the man for the dead goat.

Norm Gary was disdainful of my report, and the beekeepers agreed that

they should send a team to Brazil to find out first-hand what the European

African cross was really like. A few years later I watched a documentary

that was made on that exploratory trip. I had to laugh! Dr. Gary and the

other scientist were equipped with full bee suits, while Norm was sporting

a black leather patch on his chest. They entered the hives without smoke

and proceeded to examine the frames. Almost immediately they were under

attack. Norm was stunned at how aggressive they were. He could hardly

maintain his observational dialogue into the microphone. Soon they all began

to leave, and the video ended abruptly as the cameramen began to flee. I

guess maybe Norm had underestimated the hybrid? Dr. Gary later appeared

in several movies such as The Swarm7

. The reason he was hired for these

7 The Swarm is a 1978 American disaster film about a killer bee invasion of Texas. It was

adapted from a novel of the same name by Arthur Herzog.

The director was Irwin Allen, and the cast included Michael Caine, Katharine Ross,

Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Patty

projects was because he made a practice of demonstrating covering a person

with honeybees by spraying queen pheromone on the person. The willing

staff or students who participated in those demonstrations were usually not

severely stung. Although it is inevitable when you are covered with 40 lbs. of

bees, that one or the other bee will get caught in your clothes and deliver a

sting. To his credit, Norm sometimes played the farmer or bystander under

attack by the bees. I guess you could call him the honeybee stunt man. Of

course, in the movie, they always used the docile European honeybee, not

their mulatto sisters.

On the subject of the Africanized bee, there is one other person I must

mention. Dr. Harry Laidlaw was a much older, wiser, and knowledgeable

professor of Apiculture at University of California, Davis. He was the first

bee geneticists to maintain pure selected strains of bees using artificial

insemination. In fact, the Honeybee Laboratory at UC Davis is now called

the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honeybee Research Facility. His argument about

the Africanized honeybee was that they would eventually be able to breed out

the aggressive characteristics just as they had done with the original European

strains of bees that were first brought to the Americas. In Hawaii we call them

the ‘Nasty Germans’. Although the Africanized honeybee did spread all over

South and Central American and into the southern regions of the United

States, Harry Laidlaw’s prediction is now being realized in countries where

the beekeepers have adapted to the hybrid; unlike the United States where we

are still trying to eradicate them.

Beekeepers in Guatemala and other Latin countries report that the

domesticated Africanized bees are not only gentler and manageable, but they

are also resistant to parasitic mites that threaten to decimate honeybees all

over the world. It is this resistant African gene pool that may, in the end, save

the honeybee from total annihilation by the ubiquitous Varroa destructor.

Ironically, the later was originally a parasite of only Apis cerana, the Asian

honeybee. Naturally, V. destructor did adapt to Apis mellifera, the western

honeybee, in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Ward Stanger also invited me to attend the meeting of the California

Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray (in his final movie appearance),

and Henry Fonda. Despite negative reviews and being a box office failure, the film was

nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and retained a cult following

for Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the film, its all-star cast, as well as being part of the horror film

genre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Swarm (film)

State Beekeepers Association at the later part of October, at which he would

introduce me to beekeepers for whom I might be interested to intern. By

the time I attended that meeting I had still not heard back from the Peace

Corps. I wanted to know whether I would be returned to Kenya to assume

the assignment to which I had previously been posted at the Mtwapa Tropical

Fruit Tree Nursery in the Coast Province. But I attended the meeting thinking

it would be useful to meet the beekeepers.

One in particular impressed me. His name was Oliver Hill; he was an

officer in the Association, and he was very interested in my experience and

seemed the very image of the thoughtful, scholarly beekeeper that I had in my

mind’s eye. I interviewed with other larger Apiarists, but their operations were

massive, and the prospects of moving all over the country was not appealing

to me. Oliver left me with contact information and told me to contact him if

I wanted to participate in the spring packaged-bee business. The California

apiaries derived a large portion of their annual earnings by producing queens

and packaged bees. This happens during the massive colony build up in

February and March, when all the flowers in California bloom profusely.

Harry and Ward had assured me that Oliver was one of the best of these

queen breeders, and that I would learn a great deal from him. I said I would

definitely keep his invitation in mind.

The news from Peace Corps was a shocking blow. It did not come from

the Director, Ed White. Rather, he left the difficult task to Dave Redgrave

who was the Agriculture Program Director and my direct supervisor in Kenya.

The argument was that the Nixon Administration had slashed the Peace

Corps budget, and that volunteers that were already on home leave between

tours of duty would not be returned to country. I was of course devastated

because my whole future, and that of my adopted family, was all tied up

in this fateful decision. Of course, I was suspicious that there were deeper

implications and that Ed White had decided that it was not right for me to

have an African family. I said so in a letter to Dave, but in his reply he assured

me that there was not ulterior motive. Rather, it was a simple but tragic matter

of the Nixon Administration defunding the Peace Corps. They were probably

lucky he didn’t axe the whole program, lock stock and barrel. I don’t know

how many other volunteers were in my position, but what a wasteful decision

it was. Here you had volunteers with two years of on-the-ground experience,

who knew the local language, and who were willing to offer two more years

of service, surreptitiously cut from the program.

I was desperate; I did not know what I would do. I felt like a pawn in

an international chess game being played by despots who had no empathy

for the plight of ordinary men. Still, I had to do something. About that

time, Dr. Townsend had sent me a letter informing me that he would be in

Davis and asking if I could meet him. Of course, I jumped at the chance,

and he was on close terms with Dr. Laidlaw, so it was a chance for me to be

introduced to the Bee Biology Program at Davis. I was, of course, hoping

that Dr. Townsend could put some pressure on the Peace Corps to take me

back. In Dr. Townsend’s case, he was, in fact, prejudicial against my plans to

marry a Kenyan. He strongly suggested that I forget the family relationship

and concentrate on getting more education or experience in beekeeping. I

found out later that he had been in communication with Mr. Moon, who

had also recommended that I not be encouraged to continue my relationship

with Charity. It was Mr. Moon who introduced me to beekeeping in Kenya,

where he was a Near East Foundation Advisor. Of course, I felt very strongly

that the forces were arrayed against me, and I was not pleased. I did not say

anything to Dr. Townsend or Dr. Laidlaw, but I decided to go to work for

Oliver Hill and see if I could make enough money to fund a new strategy.

About the Author

Born Lester Fisher on Feb. 1 1947, he later took the surname of his step-father, James G. Klungness. His education, after Catholic school and seminary, included a Bachelorette in Botany from the Univ. of Washington. After two years of Peace Corps as Youth Extension Officer in Taita, Kenya, he began a career with Weyerhaeuser Co., serving in the Wood Morphology and the Genetics Research Divisions. After five years, he returned to finish his Master’s degree in International Agricultural Development from Univ. of Cal. Davis. His thesis on honeybee digestion was published in three scientific papers. After 6 years of service in the Dept. of Pomology, he worked for the University of Hawaii for 10 yrs., performing research on fruit fly parasitoids. He then transferred to the US Dept. of Agriculture to pursue research on fruit fly suppression and management for eight years. He retired back to the Univ. of Hawaii to assist on a program to protect the honey bee industry in Hawaii from invasive species such as the vorroa mite and small hive beetle. Health issues forced him into full retirement in 2010. He had authored or co-authored 21 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and many presentations to scientific and public meetings. He developed microscopic techniques, and invented the augmentorium for disposal of infested fruit and augmentation of parasitoids. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has a son and a daughter, a step-son, one grandchild, and two step-grandchildren.

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