A conversation with the Conway (Ark.) Rotary Club

David Montague and I had an early morning conversation with the Conway Rotary Club, which contacted David after he was featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last month. We’ve done a number of these Rotary events since the book’s release, all of them different and interesting in their own right. But today there was a woman in the group who actually recalled visiting the World War 2-era Japanese mini-sub that sparked seven-year-old Raye Montague’s imagination. As we wrote in the book, the sub was captured by the U.S. after the Pearl Harbor attack, and then taken across the country to raise money for war bonds. When the sub came through Little Rock, wee Raye Montague visited it, was transfixed by its dials and doo-dads, and inspired to become an engineer. But the woman in this morning’s group didn’t have the same fond memory. When she saw it, she was scared.

When I think about it, and about how an excited Raye once described the sub as looking like a little whale, I can see how another little girl could step down inside of the thing and feel gobbled up, kind of like how the mean old whale Monstro swallowed up Pinocchio once upon a time. It was interesting to hear this woman’s recollection and perspective, and to continue our ongoing conversation about the things that inspire and motivate us to pursue our dreams. Sometimes it’s a submarine. Sometimes it’s not. But the stories about that thing that sets you on a certain path are really interesting to me, and it’s always fun to hear people talk about that thing that made them become whatever it is they decided to become and changed their lives forever.