An Adventure Story for the Adventurer

In response to Miss Brader.

When I was in Chelyabinsk, shortly after Naw Ruz, a member of our community showed up at my door. As she presented me with a pair of knitted socks, she apologized for missing the Naw Ruz party.

I was happy to accept this thoughtful gift, since you can still put warm socks to use at this time of year in the Urals. I was impressed by her humility by deflecting the attention from herself saying, "these are from Charlie."

A few days later, I put on my nice warm socks and headed to her flat for a home visit. Of course there were no official home visits in those days, but what else could I do? Upon being greeted at the door, it was apparent that Charlie the black poodle had lost a lot of weight. Coming into the living room, I saw the pile of hair in the corner next to the spinning machine. Although we were not yet officially living in a culture of learning at the time, I did learn something that day.