Walk a mile in her shoes ... if you can keep up

“You're the one I see walking with your dog through the neighborhood.”

Colleen Gulling hears that a lot, and it does not surprise the 60-year-old resident of St. Charles and nurse at the Brighton Gardens senior assisted living facility on Dunham Road.

“I walk a lot, probably about 30 miles a week, and walk the dog through the neighborhoods,” Gulling said.

Last December, Gulling took a hike in which virtually no one was likely to see her. It made for an exhilarating, but somewhat frightening challenge.

Gulling went on a 28-mile hike, with her 24-year-old son Logan, deep into a remote area of the Andes Mountains in Peru to a place called Machu Picchu.

“It is an ancient Incan civilization that was discovered 100 years ago and it has been a trekker destination ever since,” Gulling noted.

“We went with an outfitter because going into this site is really hard without one.”

Gulling found it also to be “really hard” to simply hike the rough terrain at an elevation of more than 14,000 feet.

“I have never done that vigorous of a hike,” said Gulling, who has hiked through half of the national parks in the U.S. and through parts of Costa Rica. “I was literally just going one step at a time, and I was glad I had my son along, because he ended up carrying my pack.”

Gulling noticed there were no heliports or emergency first-aid sites in the area.

“I asked the outfitter what would happen if someone got hurt, and they said, ‘We just carry you out,' and I was thinking to myself, I don't think so,” Gulling said.

She made it through her hike where ancient Incans once roamed, and now she's got her sights on meeting some cousins in Scotland next year and taking a hike across parts of that country.

Letters full of love

It makes sense that letters written by servicemen overseas to loved ones at home could be put to music.

That's what the Fox Valley Repertory and the Fox Valley Concert Band have in mind during two Memorial Day performances called “Letters Home: A Memorial Day Remembrance.”

Local veterans' groups, historical societies and others with letters from past or present servicemen are invited to submit them for consideration in the program. Letters can be scanned and e-mailed to jgawlik@foxvalleyrep.org, or copies can be mailed to Fox Valley Repertory, 4052 E. Main St., St. Charles, Ill., 60174, attention: Letters to Home.

The shows are scheduled for May 28 and 29 at the Pheasant Run Theater.

Displaying war gear

World War II Historical Re-enactment Society volunteers did a great job of displaying soldier uniforms and gear during last Sunday's unveiling of the National World War II Memorial scale model at the Batavia VFW.

Kyle Burson of St. Charles was showing gear used mostly in Italy by the Tenth Mountain Climbing unit, which is the Army's only mountain climbing division and is currently deployed in Afghanistan.

I asked how heavy a soldier's backpack could get, and Burson's answer made my back hurt.

“A pack could easily be up to 120 pounds, so for some men, they were carrying their own body weight,” Burson said. “But it depended on the mission. If a soldier was going into combat, for example, he might only take what was needed at that time.”

Spell-check zoodoo

How does the name of Szechwan restaurant in St. Charles become Sichuan, as it appeared in my column last Sunday? I am guessing it was the power and magic of a spell-check gone wild. In any case, I was referring to the buffet at Szechwan in the item about the St. Charles Restaurant Week promotion that takes place Wednesday through Sunday.

Even more heart

It was a happy ending for the lady I mentioned last week who walked through subzero temperatures to take part in the “Dentists with a Heart” program for free teeth cleaning for those in need, only to find it so crowded they couldn't take any walk-ins.

The office of Drs. Elizabeth Sacrey and Scott Capper in Geneva have offered to provide that service for this woman, who has no means of transportation and this is the closest office to her.

Give this office, and event organizer Sue Rahn who helped set up the extra appointment, awards for even bigger hearts.

Those bumps and grinds

My first reaction to Geneva High School banning “grinding” dances at school dances: Show me statistics that prove it leads to more promiscuity than dances from other eras.

But all you have to do is view a video of grind dances to know it has no place in a school building.

Having said that, I sympathize with kids who enjoy popular dance styles and have someone else tell you not to do it.

In a far tamer example, I recall learning how to ballroom dance as a young kid, but when I tried to hold a girl close to me at a grade school dance, the nuns at our school just about knocked over everyone on the dance floor in rushing to pull us apart. So policing a dance floor is nothing new.

A few years before that, kids trying Chubby Checker's “twist” at a school dance likely had school officials about to faint.

At Geneva, some students came forward and said they didn't like what they were seeing, so you know there was something uncomfortable going on. It's true that most of the worry and concern about dance styles in the past proved to be silly. But if “American Bandstand” or “Soul Train” was still televised and we were watching grinding on TV, there's a good chance some eyebrows would be raised among us older folks.

If kids really want to grind, they should present an acceptable choreographed form of it with boundaries and see if a second opinion can emerge. And I can tell you an undeniable fact: Boys should keep their hands off certain areas of female partners; and the females should know when some of their own movements are far too suggestive.

dheun@sbcglobal.net