MUMBLINGS March 9, 2006

Please pardon the personal reference: In 1984 Sandra Baxley Taylor wrote a biography about me, "Faulkner, Jimmy That Is". She said I often quoted the great poet Robert Frost as follows,

"the woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep.

and miles to go before I sleep.

and miles to go before I sleep"

Now that I have reached the age of 90 I like to quote this and feel that this is a great poem.

Having always been an optimist, I still think that the poem is great and I can still quote it. However, I must admit it is sometimes harder to be the optimist I have been in past years. But there is a great future. How long I will be able to enjoy it, no one knows. But for your information my plans are to be around longer, and hopefully retain my optimism.

People who have lived a long time have a lot of stories to tell. Hopefully, I can keep telling them.

My great-uncle Burrel Faulkner lived to be 103. Hopefully I can copy his genes and stick around at least to 104.

Thousands of people have been kind to me and I want every one of you to know that I sincerely appreciate all the help given me to accomplish things over the years.

---------------------

Having traveled to 101 countries in the world, I want to get back to the subject of "My Seven Wonders," all of which I have seen.

Several months ago, I mentioned ten possibilities and it now becomes evident that they have to be narrowed to seven. It isn't an easy job.

The ten I named were: The Great Wall of China, Glacier National Park, The Grand Canyon, Pyramids of Egypt, Amazon River, Empire State Building and New York City, Eiffel Tower, The Great Barrier Reefs of Australia and the Panama Canal.

Click here to continue

Continued

Since naming these, I have visited the Glacier National Park and the Taj Mahal of India. You will note I did not mention the latter, but it is certainly one of the Wonders of the World, being the most beautiful building I ever viewed. In fact most every writer agrees that the Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. So I will add it to my list.

It has been my privilege to visit all of the above 11 great wonders of the world. Now to pick out seven of the best. No doubt you will have your own choices and even though you may not have visited except by hearsay and literature. Over the years, I have discussed all of the above in this column and would like to say the following are definitely in the top seven: The Grand Canyon of Arizona, The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal of India, and the Amazon River.

Now, to select the other two to go with the above.

Last August we visited Glacier National Park and found it to be one of the most beautiful, natural sights we had ever seen. The park, located in Northwestern Montana at the Canadian border, covers 1.4 million acres and has 82 glaciers. The glaciers are really large ice clusters around the mountains and unlike the huge glaciers that are found a little farther north in solid rivers.

Edward R. Murrow, along with others named this as one of his Seven Wonders of the World. He was a world traveler and very famous. We arrived there at night in the rain and had to travel 95 miles over treacherous mountain roads after we landed to get to our hotel. Perhaps this was the bad beginning that causes me to eliminate it as one of the Seven Wonders. However, it could easily be added as several other sights viewed over the years. For now, we will not count it as one of the Seven.

Next week we will give you some information about another one we are thinking about eliminating.

See you again soon, I hope.