Bones A Memoir

NOW 69 AND RETIRED, DALE MCKEAN chronicles with clarity his bare-bones childhood growing up on a small dairy farm in Stanwood, Wash., his college education and a satisfying journalism career.McKean's great-grandfather was one of the early settlers in Stanwood. The author also traces the community's strong Scandinavian heritage.With a liberal dose of humor, McKean writes about the interesting people in his life'including Dr. John Corbally, his high school principal; daredevil Evel Knievel; the eccentric L.H. Gregory, legendary sports editor of The Oregonian; and Jerry Loughridge, a quadriplegic who could give all of us a lesson or two on overcoming disability.Evident in his memoirs are amusing anecdotes of McKean's passions for poker, baseball, travel, his family and gardening. For the curious, there are stories about a neighbor's pet crow, fossil hunting, a tin whistle serenade by an Irish musician, a roadside chat with Maori gardeners in the Cook Islands and a visit to Alcatraz, one-time home of a wayward in-law. And, along the way, he hasn't forgotten his long-ago high school classmates.McKean spent the last 33 years of his newspaper career at The Oregonian in Portland, retiring in January 1998. He substituted one rural town for another, having lived the past 32 years in the unincorporated community of Scholls, southwest of Portland.McKean, Dale is the author of 'Bones A Memoir', published 2004 under ISBN 9781592990856 and ISBN 1592990851.