The most perfect quote

Kinda got snowed under this week with hiring a new yard helper to take care of jobs like trimming apple trees, mowing the large lawn, felling dead poplars, fixing the wooden fences, and other things I can’t get Iris to do since she got into her 80s.

So, going to write a short column about the most perfect quote I’ve heard for many years.

Have a dear friend I’ll call Harry. His dad drove ore trucks at the Flathead Mine for many years and raised a fine family during the tough Depression years.

Harry is not a tall, macho-type athletic man with a dominating personality and handsome features.

In fact, he’s rather short in stature, normal features, never had the lead in a high school play, went to Boys State but was never a class officer or “most popular” candidate.

Couple of years behind me in school, he knew my two younger brothers, but he disappeared from my life in the ‘40s.

I never saw or heard about him for many years until about a decade back, when he came to have coffee with my Over the Hill Gang. He was an immediate hit with his dazzling intellect and wit.

Harry has been coming back each summer to spend time at his local property, a home on Echo Lake, which is watched over by one of his nieces. He owns a home in California where he has a career, obviously connected to the business and academic world. He is hanging on to his rental properties in San Francisco, but says he’s not buying any more.

I do not have the slightest idea what Harry does or has done for a career.

He found a way to avoid common, infantry-type duty when he got drafted after the end of World War II by getting assigned as a “Rehabilitation Ski Instructor” in the Alps. He doesn’t look like a skier to me or anyone else.

A short time back, Harry was discussing personal life with one of his best friends, a noted world airline pilot.

Somewhere in a honest and poignant moment, the pilot said to him, “Harry, you are a perfect example of what a man can do without much going for him.”

Harry told me, “That’s the most touching compliment I ever received.”

G. George Ostrom is an award-winning columnist. He lives in Kalispell.