Chris Sehmel Summer 2007
This is me. "I used to be a little boy..." I always liked that line from Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm". Wow. It's true. What happened? I DID used to be a little boy. I still remember Mrs. Foster's pre-school. I was a little boy then.
Chris Sehmel Me with my "first girlfriend", Mary Margaret Meyer in 1966 Chris Williamson Preparing to shell Husky Stadium with Chris and Greg Williamson back in '68
I remember running in the green fields of my parents farm. I remember climbing trees. I remember that mean girl with the red jacket at Kindergarten. I remember punching Kurt Schirra in the noise in first grade. I remember toys, and treehouses, birthday parties, and games. Building model tanks, ships, and planes. Drawing pictures, and whittling sticks. I remember dogs and cats long gone. I remember camping and playing endlessly.
Chris Sehmel At the "Homestead", 1969
Then something happened, and I turned into a 40-something father. Another lyric that comes to mind is "What a long strange trip it's been" by the Grateful Dead. I've never been a big Dead fan, but that lyric rings true.
Chris Sehmel With my first dirt bikes, spring '79 Home from Marine Corps boot camp, Oct. '82
Somewhere in between I went to Gig Harbor High School, got a B.A. in History from Central Washington University (and drank A LOT of beer!), did a tour in the United States Marine Corps (Ooh-rah!), survived bone cancer and chemo therapy, floundered into computer networking and spent all my money on toys, motorcycles, guns, beer, steaks, scuba diving, sports cars, jeeps, beer, trucks, you know…bachelor stuff.
Chris Sehmel Sporting a beard, and squashing my nephew, Billy Sehmel ...around 1990? Collecting "samples" at Ft. Worden, 1990-ish
Then, suddenly, one day I seem to have descended out of that fog, and found the woman who put meaning back into my bachelor be-fogged brain. It's funny, because I really can't remember too much of my 20's and 30's. Not to say I was always drunk, and thus forgetful, but twenty years of my life were composed of working hard all week as a network geek, and then playing harder all weekend. I can't begin to enumerate how many BBQ's and parties I attended in that time, always with GIANT cuts of beef, and HUGE quantities of beer. It was a blast, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I was happy, content, a hero in my own mind. It was great, I couldn't ask for more.
Chris Sehmel On a "Peacekeeping" mission at the Columbia River Gorge Chris Sehmel "Fighting" in the hills above Cle Elum circa 1997-98
I just wish I could remember it more clearly. An endless parade of more or less similar weekends tends to coalesce with time into a generic fog. I remember shooting little Estes rockets off of Kohler's deck under the Narrows bridge. I remember going dirt-biking in Cle Elum. I remember doing Punk Rock gigs in Olympia and Seattle as the singer for the pathetic and yet much fun early '80's band "Zamo".
I remember countless expeditions to Eastern Washington to hunt, camp, or watch rock concerts at the Gorge (and camping down by the river before “they” shut that all down). I remember my nephew Billy and My niece Lindsey...when they were both about four...Now they are 6 foot 57, and a mother respectively. I remember the women (but don’t tell my wife!). I remember trees and stars, deserts and mountains. I remember close friends. I remember fantastic times. And I remember the music.
Chris Sehmel Diving Hood Canal with Curt Carter and Kevin Kohler, circa 2000
There were camping trips, hunting trips, diving trips, Jeeping trips and a vast assortment of beer be-slimed evenings with friends mixed in there in a more or less random fashion, but as I was saying, they seem to swirl together in a mental porridge of random, timeless, vastly fun, but entirely MEANINGLESS weekends.
At the legendary Prospect St. house, Circa 1999
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Chris Sehmel Here I am seated in the fuselage of an Me-262 jet fighter being built in Everett, WA in the year 2000
Then Andrea found me. I'm sure a lot of my old friends label this the "Death of Zamo"*, and, in many ways they are correct. But another viewpoint, which not surprisingly, is mine, is that she saved me. Not that I felt I was in any great peril, but I now have a wife who loves me, a beautiful home, and two amazing little boys who are EVERYTHING to her and I.
We are very much the merging of a Yin and a Yang (A Canadi-Yin, and a Yang-kee?) whose reagent has produced these wondrous little men. It's pretty cool. And I thank her almost daily for giving me this chance before it was too late. We were 37 when we met. If we had met a few years later, we might not have been able to produce these tykes. A miracle.
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Looking pretty stupid, around 2002
I was (and am, no doubt) a very difficult man to live with, and it took just the right woman to put up with me. She found me. I am the luckiest man alive.
Getting married, 2001
What will the future hold? The last four or five years have seen us become pretty reclusive, as we spent all of our time nurturing Luke and John through their early years. I am hoping to return to the days of high adventure, not alone, but as part of Team Sehmel. It should prove even more fun than before. Though I still miss all that beer...
Chris Sehmel , Andrea Sehmel , Me, and my family, Mt. Rainier, 2006 Luke Sehmel , John Sehmel
NEXT:
Next time I feel like soul searching you get to hear about my ridiculous sentimentality (I cry over TV commercials, and acts of heroism), my spirit of roguish fool heartedness (I still think myself a pirate!), and maybe some political, musical or literary prattling (Oh, lucky you!).
Chris Sehmel Fat, bald, and armed - Fourth of July, 2008 M1 Garand
"Life's been good to me so far..."
*I have gone by the nick-name of Zamo since at least Junior High, as nobody could ever spell or pronounce my last name correctly, which is pronounced "Zay-Mole"...hence: "Zamo"
