September 22, 2011 - How 'Focus on Nature' unfoldedSEPTEMBER 22, 2011 1 SUFFOLKTIMES.COM
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PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Looking through some old files we
came across notes written in 1996
about the beginning of Focus on
Nature. These notes never saw the
light of day; they were written and
filed away. Interesting to us how,
over the years, things seem to fade
in our minds, but once on paper
they are there forever. It sharpened
our memories and we thought you
might be interested in going back to
the beginnings of Focus with us.
1996: In checking Focus on Nature
articles written 35 years ago when Herb
laiswas workingforThe SundayReview
.n Riverhead, then run by the Forbes
family in the old Studebaker building,
he paid me a visit one evening.
He was staying with Barbara's step-
brother Malcolm in Norwold on Mud
Creek, just a ways up Skunk Lane [in
Cutchogue] from where we live. He
n Nature'
un
column ror ine paper ana u i wouia,
he wondered what we would call it.
That night was the beginning of Fo-
cus on Nature as you know it today.
Dennis Puleston, the great natural-
ist /artist from Bellport and a longtime
friend of mine, offered to do sketches
for each week's article. I would call
him at the beginning of the week and
tell him what I was going to write
about and he would make a sketch to
go with it. In those days his sketches
were done in black and white and we
still have the originals.
This article [1996] is being typed
on a very small laptop computer and
sent by a modem to the paper, or
email or even a fax (as was done many
times when we were out of town), and
could be in print soon after it was
written. In 1961, when Focus was first
born, we used an old Royal portable
typewriter that had taken me through
college. We would carry it with us and
Standing beneath the Great Arches of Utah
ype on beaches, in campground,,
vherever we happened to be.
One time when we forgot it, Bar
Tara had to go into a hotel lobby of
'rince Edward Island and borro,,
heir typewriter in order to get Focu
z on time. The articles written fron
able Island; the graveyard of the At
rntic off the coast of Canada, when
was a naturalist on the Lindblac
ruise ship, were written in longhanc
nd probably not appreciated verl
ruch by those back at the paper.
We sometimes had guest writer;
ack in those days when we went foi
dended trips with the kids in the
zmmertime. After I went back tc
allege at the age of 35 to become a
!acher, it gave us summers to spend
aveling. Dennis Puleston wrote, as
.d his daughter Jen. Judd Bennett, a
-eat friend and naturalist from East
arion, wrote many times. Harold Ev-
is, a farmer, teacher and friend from
verhead, wrote a particular one I can
M recall on "birding from a tractor"
id Larry Penny wrote a guest column
st after he graduated from Cornell.
In those days, Larry and I often went
e me feel humble and proud of this
skin diving and birding together. Toda}
he heads up the -natural resource de-
partment for the Town of East Hampton
and has had his own column in The East
Hampton Star for manyyears.
Celebrating our first 35 years together,
Focus traveled around the world to Swit-
zerland, Austria, Germany and Lichten-
stein, where we saw many plants similar
to ones we have here at home, like the
daisy, dandelion and the blue- flowered
chicory. Then Focus traveled to Mexico,
Iceland, Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand
and Australia to see many of the things
we'd always heard about and finally got
to see first -hand. We tented through
many of these countries, with one back-
pack holding our clothes and another
our camping equipment.
In Australia we watched fairy pen-
guins come up out of the water at night
headed for their burrows and young
after feeding all day; at Homer,_Al_as-
ka, we saw great huge halibut caught
where bald eagles were as common as
ospreys on Long Island. In Australia we
enjoyed a lunch with our friends the
Finkles, who traveled with us when a
kangaroo decided to join the party.
BARBARA STOUTENBURGH
country of
When I had spent 100 days on m}
back after surgery I thought my trav-
eling days were over. What I decided ]
really wanted to see once I was up and
around again was more of this great
country of ours, particularly the great
plains of the West. So our next trip took
us in a popup camper (on top of our
pickup), along with our traveling cat,
14,000 miles around the U.S. visiting
family, friends and places we'd only read
of before: Big Bend in Texas, Yosem-
ite, the Redwoods, the Great Arches
of Utah, the rain forest in the Olympic
Peninsula and much, much more.
We finally got to visit with the Bill
Christopher family in the state of
Washington. He was once a science
teacher at Southold High School and
his wife, Judy, is my niece. We made
stops in Minneapolis and Chicago to
see Barbara's nieces JoAnne and Mary
Jane and their families. We also got to
see the beautiful campuses in Tft
Ariz., and Ogden, Utah. where our
sons had gone to college.
We'll continue follow more Focus on Na
rough the years in the next few columns.
joy having you along.