Columnists
If you’ve ever looked back on your childhood and wondered how you survived it, you’re not alone. Some of us were guided carefully. Others… were retrieved regularly. That was certainly true for my dad, Robert “Mark” King—known as “Bobbie” when he was a boy growing up in
Columnists
There was a time when you could keep a family secret. Not anymore. But the real surprise isn’t that we can now discover things. It’s that the truth seems to have been waiting for us all along. I saw that the day my dad, Mark King, looked at
Columnists
I escaped a head-on collision by the narrowest of margins four years ago. Back then, Hwy 50 past Silver Springs toward Fallon was a worn strip of asphalt—one lane each direction, no margin for error. Near misses were common. Accidents were no surprise. It is much improved now. But
Columnists
When my dad, Mark King, was young, he didn’t believe much in staying put. He worked at dude ranches in Wyoming, herded cattle, and rode in rodeos from the Texas/Mexico border all the way up to Canada. He loved the image and the lifestyle of the “Old West.
Columnists
On his thirteenth birthday, my dad, Robert “Mark” King, gave himself a present: a one-way ticket west. He walked into a Greyhound station in New Jersey with $23 in his pocket and more determination than common sense. He asked the ticket agent how far $12 would take him. He chose
Columnists
Traveling from South Australia to Reno usually takes about a day—longer if connections fail. When I was living “down under” and my dad, Mark King, and my step-mom Luanne were here in northern Nevada, that long journey became an annual ritual. Every 12 to 18 months, I boarded a
Columnists
The flashing airplane beacon in Stagecoach caught my father’s attention the first time he flew over this area in the 1960s. Mark King was working with the film crew of Bonanza, teaching horses and actors how to work together safely during stunts. While most outdoor filming took place at
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Can you recognize the opportunity waiting for you—or does it look too much like work to bother with? In the summer of 1859, miners in Dayton, Nevada thought they were chasing gold. For nearly four weeks after June 8, they sifted creek beds and mountain soil, tossing aside a
Religion
Perth sits where the Swan River meets the Indian Ocean, two and a half miles wide at its mouth, on the western edge of Australia—about as far from New Jersey as a 13-year-old boy could get without falling off the map. Ships entering the river are often escorted by
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At what point in life do you dare step out and take a chance, gambling everything? Most of us sense that we’re meant for some kind of adventure, but the moment to begin rarely announces itself. It usually arrives quietly—looking suspiciously like a bad idea. For my dad,
Columnists
Anger is one of the first things we ever do well. The moment we’re born, we announce our displeasure loudly—at the lights, the cold air, and the general surprise of being here at all. It’s not subtle. It’s not polite. But it is honest. That first
Columnists
The stretch limo was solid white. The handsome man standing through the sunroof—wearing a solid white tuxedo and a grin you could see from orbit—was my dad. As the limo crept around California’s state capitol buildings, a string of cans rattled loudly behind it, doing exactly what