The Peripatetic Perambulations of a FIDDLEFOOT

The nameless drifters and aimless riders who traveled the back roads and trails of the American West have been described as “fiddlefooted.” In this illustrated autobiography, I characterize myself as a modern day Fiddlefoot, applying the term to my own wanderings as I searched for meaning, satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment in life. My search takes me to a series of locales, from my boyhood home in Wisconsin westward through several stops in California, Oregon, British Columbia, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona; and occupations ranging from student to farmer, logger, surveyor, factory worker, ranch hand, college and university instructor, social worker, and State and National Park Ranger. My search includes living and working in cities, towns, on farms, in cooperative communities, and my experiences and explorations involving religion, politics, marriages, parenthood and travels in the U.S., Canada, Guatemala, the British Isles and continental Western Europe. I wrote it as a way in which my wives, children, grandchildren, friends, acquaintances, and perhaps total strangers, could know and understand ‘who is that man, and why is he like he is?’ -- Bryce Babcock, January 2013.