With Byrd at Bottom of World

While vacationing in Alaska, I picked up this wonderful account of Antartic exploration in the 1920's by Norman Vaughn. It's a graphic description of life in the Antartic that convinced me that men were much tougher back then than they are today. Vaughn even spent time as a "coal stoker" on the ship carrying them to their eventual home for a year. Four hours of the hell he describes in the hold of that ship would reduce most of us to tears. He convinced the captain to allow him to do it, and suffered through it for 20 days, just to "toughen myself for the Antartic." When I finished the book, I remarked to the innkeeper how much I admired this hero, thinking he was long gone. She replied "Well, that's old Norm. He still lives around here. As a matter of fact he was just on the Leno show." Yep, he's 99 now, still living in Alaska, and promoting his latest book. I can't wait to read that one.