Eagle Landing adventurer shares life in new book
Roger Geiger of Eagle Landing has accomplished a task that is rare, especially for a first-time author. He’s written a book about his own life that is hard to put down.
For example, here is the first line of the opening chapter from his autobiography, “Face the Bear”:
“For as long as I live, you could blindfold me, toss me on a plane, throw me out in that town, and I’d know I’m in Dakar.”
That’s the capital and largest city of Senegal, the westernmost city of Africa. How did this Northeast Texan get there?
And that’s the secret of this book. Geiger takes you with him on his autobiographical journey.
At the recent Avinger Wine Festival, Geiger had a vendor’s table, displaying his book. There he said of his life, “I’ve had a very event-filled life. Lot of travel around the world. Lot of tragedies. My book is about my transitioning to something like wisdom. How I survived. How I faced the bear.”
And with that intriguing title, he tells of his adventures full of love and life. As examples, he has tells of the following:
■ Making and exploding gunpowder as a young boy.
■ While with an oceanography college in Florida, seeing a missile come from under the water and break the surface into the sky. Probably from a Port Canaveral submarine, he theorizes.
■ Battling the North Sea off the Shetland Islands on board a research vessel in foul weather when water sweeps him into the sea for a moment.
■ As a 24-year-old and with alcohol involved, out-running a Saudi Arabian army checkpoint across the desert late at night.
■ Guiding the lost leader and a mentally-challenged youth group across five lakes and rugged portages in woods of Northern Ontario.
■ Finding a girl from Hughes Springs, Texas, he called “Parker” because, being a Yankee, he was unfamiliar with “Jerre.” as a girl’s name. He accompanied her to the marriage altar, however, 38 years ago.
■ And, at the book’s conclusion, an event, which won’t be revealed here because of its impact, that is every father’s dread.
It should be evident that this is not a typical autobiography. It’s written with an open style that offers opportunities for the reader to put himself alongside the author.
“Yes, I’ve been there, done that,” the reader says.
And it’s not a bit pretentious. Whoever edited this writer allowed Geiger to write as if he were thinking out loud.
Geiger came to Eagle Lake in retirement by following his Hughes Springs bride, Jerre Lynn Parker Geiger. He had worked in the Texas public school system for 20 years in Forney, Texas.
He’d been raised in Toronto, Canada, and had such a varied life that continues today at the Geiger home in Eagle Landing. He volunteers with the Texas Ramp Project, which builds wheelchair ramps for those who can’t afford them. He also is a member of the Caddo Basin chapter of Texas Master Naturalistsand is president of the International Organic Trout Anglers Association.
“That last is a pretty much a tongue-in-cheek organization for a handful of guys who like to fish for trout with bait. It’s not very big or serious,” he said. says.
More locally, he is a leader with the Eagle Landing Homeowners Association, the governing body that takes care of the lake and airfield runway.
“I’m actually chair of the Simpson Lake committee. We have to test and try to make sure the lake environment stays healthy,” he said.
And now he also is a published author. Of the book’s tile, “Face the Bear,” one needs an explanation.
It means, when one is in dilemma, turn and face that difficulty. The bear’s role in this actually occurred to Geiger’s father. As a child fishing with his father in northern Ontario, the two had come upon a brown bear. His father faced it and chased it off.
The same happened to Geiger himself another time. He had a bear to face. He learned in instances of life, love, health, danger and tests of character, a person must face one’s fear and, whenever possible, turn the threatening situation into an opportunity.
Yet, there was one time he could not. Geiger fully tells of a darkest moment and writes, “I grasped the futility of looking back to face the bear dancing behind me.”
Still, he comes to know that the bear was always going to be present.
“And I didn’t want him to leave,” Roger finally says. “Clearly my only goal should be that of living the rest of my life. Let the bear find fun on his own. I’ve got a future to open.”
In a lighter moments of the book, Geiger tells of the best definition of why he fishes. In all of his world travels, its heights of spectacle and despair, he returns home to woods, wilderness and water. It’s likely all fishing enthusiasts would concur.
The book itself, Geiger said, is another example of how he “faced the bear.”
“I never set out to be an adventurer. But those I’ve told some of my adventures to have said, ‘Write a book.’ So this opportunity presented itself. I haven’t had an adventure in a while, and I suspect I’m overdue. Time to face the bear.”