Discovering a World Lost

“I’m from a world that doesn’t exist anymore!”– Robert Barth

Discovering a World Lost

It was a Saturday morning on a coolish winter’s day when I was driving to meet Robert Barth for the first time.  As I turned down the correct street, I kept my eyes on the road while allowing my eyes to dart to the right just enough to be able to keep track of the decreasing house numbers.  Soon I saw 209 posted on a small bungalow and pulled over to park.

As soon as I left my idle car I began to walk up to the front door where I was greeted by Hal, his mother and Robert, her son-in-law.  We exchanged greetings and then I began to tour the property with Robert.  I was there for the tour of a home and I got that, but I also got a tour of something I wasn’t expecting, a journey to a world lost.

Robert and I sat down in the dining area where I asked him to tell me where he was from.  That was the beginning of a journey I’ll never forget.  He told me he was from Tiburon, California in Marin County, just across the bay from San Francisco.  He said, “I’m from a world that doesn’t exist anymore!”

“When I was a boy, in the early fifties, there was a railroad track that came through our town to connect with San Francisco Bay.  You know how it was?  We would take pennies and lay them on the tracks, so when the trains would come past they would flatten the pennies.”

He spoke of rail cars filled with huge, ancient Redwood Trees and how they would roll through town and be placed on a big railroad barge so they could cross the bay to be milled in Oakland.  Then he told me how he and his friends would take boats and row them across Belvedere Cove, around the point and cross the bay to Sausalito where they would spend the day exploring.

“Sometimes we would be able to go to Mill Valley and watch movies for the entire day for a mere twenty-five cents!”  He said.

I sat listening to his tales for most of an hour and then asked him one small question, “When are you going to write your story of a world lost?”

He looked at me with surprise and said, “I didn’t think anyone would be interested!”

“I would be interested!”  I replied.  “There are thousands of people who would love to be able to discover a world lost, a world that doesn’t exist any more.  Places and things they could never discover today, a place only you can introduce them to!”

Robert had given me a brief introduction and I yearned for more, but our time together had come to an end.  I needed to attend to other business.  We stood and shook hands.  “I’m looking forward to reading your book!”  I said.

His eyes brightened as he responded, “I’m going to get started!”

I started my drive away, thinking of all the millions of worlds lost that are yet to be discovered.  I wondered if you would be the next one to allow me, and others like me, the pleasure of a journey into the world only you know intimately. 

Everyone has a significant and revealing story to tell.  Let others discover what only you can reveal and teach.  Write your story so the world you knew won’t be a world lost.