some recollections from Kathy Hedges

I first got to know Dan Briggs shortly after he came to New Mexico Tech, about 1987 or 88. He began attending the campus folk dancing group, looking especially for the English Country Dancing we occasionally did. I was his girlfriend for a while in late 1988 and early 1989, but, as things happened, I met my Own True Love in 1989, and after that, I had the best of all possible worlds. Dan and I were best of friends for the rest of his life, and at the same time, I got to be married to my Own True Love.

Dan was interested in everything; that's what made him so interesting. A short list of his hobbies, skills, and interests would include juggling, origami, judo, Contra Dance, American Square Dance, English Country Dance, playing the hammer dulcimer, playing the flute, Morris Dance, cats, reading science fiction, watching anime, and dressing up for Renaissance Faire and SCA events. Oh, and skydiving. Did he ever mention that?

I remember one Halloween when Dan and I were jointly passing out candy to the goblins, and there was a lull in business at our door. To liven things up, Dan dug out a set of juggling torches, went out on the front lawn, lit them, and stood there juggling fire in the mild October night. Another time, he walked into my kitchen, picked up three raw eggs, and started juggling them. I watched him nervously. When he was finished, he said, "I didn't think I would miss with a simple cascade, and if I had, I would have cleaned up the mess."

The way he moved was grace itself. I don't know where he got it from -- the early judo lessons, maybe? I could recognize him loping across campus from blocks away. When he wanted to dance, he would simply hold out his hand with a fluid gesture that was a wordless invitation. I once took a picture of Dan leaning against a tree. He's casually braced with one arm out, the other akimbo, hips at a jaunty angle. He's standing on stilts. Not many guys can do that.

Dan's mother told me that, from the time he was self- propelled, she would always find him in the highest possible place he could get to. When he could only crawl, he crawled to the top of the couch. When he was a lad, he was always in the highest weight-bearing branch of the tallest tree in the yard. Dan had a thing for heights. One of the last times I saw him, I drove up in front of NRAO to pick him up for dinner, and he was standing on top of one of the four-foot high posts in front of the building (the kind that keeps cars from driving up to the building). He was balanced in a pose of Zen contemplation, his feet tight together on this narrow post.

He told me that the time he bungee-jumped off the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (oh, wait a minute! He didn't do that -- it's illegal!) he paused, standing on the railing, to get into the perfect pose. He didn't just jump off -- he swan dived. That was in the dark of night, but later, as the sky got bright, he did it again. Then the state police came by and gave his group a Stern Talking To.

Dan took up skydiving, to the best of my recollection, in about 1992. We were in the midst of a series of square dance lessons, and, oh yes, Dan was trying to write his Ph.D. dissertation. He had so much on his mind that I'd have to call him the day before to remind him about square dancing, and then call him again right before, to make sure he was awake and remembered. Funny thing was, he was the one who had asked me to take the dance lessons with him!

That's all for now. Send your recollections to Humphrey Drummond having taken over from Kathy (hum3 at drummond dot info).

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