4 cities are getting a bump up in their minimum wage they range from an extra $0.05 an hour to an extra dollar and some areas in Seattle the largest employers are mandated to pay their workers at least $16.00 an hour more than twice the federal minimum wage u.s. Stocks higher this hour the Dow's up $39.00 points at $23364.00 The Nasdaq is up $38.00 points more than half percent as some piece up 6 points I'm Lakshmi saying n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the estate of Joan Kroc whose bequest serves as an enduring investments in the future of public radio and the John d. And Catherine t. MacArthur Foundation Ed Mack founded dot org. Welcome to Nancy's bookshelf a program of conversation and readings with local and regional writer now here's your host Nancy Whitman. Wayne Pease began his career as a forest fire lookout in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1962 he is a poet playwright and traveler who has lived in Greece Germany and England to write his book cloud watcher a fire lookouts book of days he combined the events of several fire seasons into one making it a diary in the tradition of the rose Walden. Alone most of the time with his cat he lives through storms fires and tourists probably struggles with the future course of his life and internal strife in the forest service when peace welcome Oh thank you very much I'm glad to be here thank you for having me and I might notice just in case people are hearing your last name is p.e.a.c.e. . Yeah I know it's always misspelled so yeah that does help but it's nice and then if your last name is like this unless you're a kid in their eyes saying one piece I mean it's like. Well. I think I don't know if I'm typical but I used to wonder how can somebody sit up in that tower all by themselves day after day it must be a special kind of person so when did you know you were you were the kind of person that could do that. Well I don't know that I knew I did but 1st went to look out when I was 11. And Pinnacles National Monument and we hiked up to look at that and the guy had a am radio as well as a sync level view and I thought I can talk to the whole world and see everything out here so that's stuck in my mind and then at 17 I fly in Montana did not get a job and then when I was 20 they say you were too young I mean it's. Probably at that time yeah they may have said that and then when I was 22 I was just about to get out of college and I went to visit my mother up in Placerville in a campground and the guy in the campground said oh somebody decided not to come to look at this is in June I mean you know so season starting and so I went to fly and I got that day so in one day you're suddenly Ok look out yeah yeah and. It was much harder in the early days when you're young you know you want to be out carousing and so. So. After 4 years I took 2 years off I lived in Europe but then I came back and started where I am now have done it ever since well were you born in California yes but my father was in the army and we moved around and lived in Utah Montana kinds of places so you had a chance to sample other places and consider what you want to do with your life and to think about fire lookout is it is seasonal So does that mean you have to miss college or missing things so you started at what age then did you actually have your 1st job $2222.00 So here you are 22 year old right and what kind of preparation did you have to grow up into a tower because your oh they just have me have to. Basically give you a you know the the job itself is pretty simple as far as reporting fires I mean you you have this fire fighting to do aim at like a conference you take a reading you figure out how far away it is and call it in and then they want to know what the smoke is doing you know is that what color is that is it getting bigger is it getting smaller those kinds of things so in terms of the actual job your main thing is staying awake. And observant I mean that's but I've always been a kid in class who looked out the window all the time and I got paid for looking out the window and I thought wow this is direct Also I want to read I want to be a writer and so I wanted time to myself and that was the other thing that kept me going for a long time. Now would you describe this. You know when reading your book that some of these names I got the guy's name is not examined you know no no I just I'm all you say get you caught game wardens on a do. You know they would change that Joe Smith or say any name your characters rather creatively. And you do you say. That names have been changed time revamped in places altered to protect the innocent and the guilty and to give this story the air of a theri tale. So in what regard did you consider your story a fairy tale well none of the things that happened I mean I just described I remember what was it. Oh some hang gliders just coming around the look out and then disappearing or. Other things like months they were searching for. Around my look up my 1st look and they were searching for some bank robbers and they were flying helicopters around and then these guys showed up in a car and said they were last going to like time but they sure look like back. So I call that in but you have all these little bits of things that are sort of out of space I mean people said told me they saw you know I was Bishop's over my lookout I never saw them but I was told down ones hovering over my lookout one night by another lookout. So it has that fragmentary I think when you one thing is that I read we day we our minds wander 30 percent of the time. And some of us more than that answer a lot of this is daydreaming and what happens is that you get so used to a landscape you know you're daydreaming you're not thinking about if it's not it just goes off like radar in other words you're so attuned to that the no matter what your thoughts are the time it breaks through the night and so I think that was a lot of I was they have one of the great pleasures in life is just daydreaming I mean if you have the time to daydream you lucky and you also include a lot of your night time dreams your actual dreams in the story yeah Will you include a historical note in the front of your book because I remember growing up seeing these fire towers as a kid and you said the use of lookouts and this term can denote either the person or the structure in the forest of Canada and the United States began in 1900 I don't know if most people realize it goes back they go back that far the 1st look out towers were platforms mounted in trays Yeah the trees even tall trees are not that high well they'd cut down all the rest of the trees leave one tall and that's be basically it and you say these were followed by simple structures used primarily by patrolmen as observation points on their route gradually they were converted into permanent lookout stations tall steel towers or 2 story buildings with telephone connections to the dispatcher's headquarters. The number of Lookout towers used in the state forestry departments and the National Forest increased steadily until 953 when they reached a peak of 5060 towers since that time there's been a steady decrease and conversely the number of aircraft used for fire detection has rapidly increased so it is surprising that they're even in existence at all still because we have other technology now oh yeah well if I 1st got the job everybody said oh this is not going to last year. It's almost finished now as you know over 50 years ago because you say that they had already the time you were hired to these had already peaked pretty much and I mean our tower Yeah the force I'm on now used to have 26 now I 6. And so they have a lead in other words the idea was if 2 people can see it and they give 2 different readings where they cross is where the fire is then. They started using helicopters to chase them and the main thing is that look at a really cheap to run Ok I guess after 55 years I get v.c. 5 years in case people missed that yeah I have years and yeah I get whatever you call it is your basic $15.00 now but it's surprised me too that they pay you for 8 hours well you don't just go off if you see a fire after an 8 hour shift you're not you're going to still report it right so that is kind of odd they say Ok we're paying for 8 hour day yeah well only assume that the temps will go down the humidity will go up I think of a lot of fires after hours and as I says I get paid overtime for that so I can even out well I just always have to have it no matter how long I'm up there so every night when I get up look around so I pick up a lot of fires at night that way it's. Yeah I just wish they were a lot more lookouts and there are right now the state used to have a whole mess of them and they closed them all about 2003 all of them I was like 80 look out something and. The rationale is that you know people on the ground are going to report them and so forth but where I am people on the ground can't see more than you know the side of the highway so I'm very very much prolife out. There is the national fire lookout Association which revamps a lookouts and promotes. I read recently that p.g. And e. Wants to install a fire camera that cost $700000.00. That would probably build. System and run it for a 100 years so. It's the whole thing is that technology is going to take care of this Well technology is going to be probably our problem. And that it doesn't technology is not going to take care of airplanes cost a lot more than think about it you've got an airplane up there maybe flying this part of the worst it takes an hour to get over the other part of the force and so forth so anyway I have lots of arguments. To keep a look as well here's the way the job is described in a handbook Lookouts are the eyes of the forest service their response will for the early detection accurate reporting of all fours far out breaks in an assigned area and some say the lookout slot is a long mean one the forestry radio and telephone are his only link to the outside world and visitors appear rarely depending on his own resourcefulness and his ability to organize his own life the person who can appreciate the advantages will find his work as a rewarding experience as documented by the lookouts who have come back for many seasons and for whom the tower has become a 2nd home this is certainly proof this certainly proved true for me because if it didn't have these rewards you would've come back you know 55 years. Well I think. You really have to have a way of preoccupying itself you know and and so I wanted to read and that was started when I was like 3rd grade and so you know once I read like 71 books about all kinds of things and I was them I read 44 books by a young you know when I was and I'm still here. And so if your research is great and then what's really changed and improve things is of course cell phones you're much more connected now with the Internet I have a. 100 feet away I now have. A rise in Tower and so I'm actually where I started in that the guy had a ham radio I could talk to the whole world well now I can be up there and be related to the whole world so that part of it. As changed and I tend to get more visitors now and so forth but I notice that it says because you seem to have a good many visitors young this book in your book it is a lookout a lot is a lonely one and visitors rarely appear but from reading your book as visitors fairly often well the 1st year was impressed you know you do say that these are several seasons that the row compressed his day at Walden into one year yes one season and so that's what you did but still it seemed like you had visitors very well the 1st years I didn't very much I don't know if I read about that the 1st years are very different because. One thing I was a long way from I was 50 miles from highway was a dirt road. People didn't get up there that my Sometimes during honey season it's over where they get after I hid away from him so I didn't have to talk. Because I get really withdrawn those 1st year we're going to take a break and when we come back more of my conversation with Wayne Pease poet playwright and traveler you're listening to Nancy's book shelf on North State Public Radio and Nancy Reagan. What's it like to be job hunting at 50 where. You're really retirement. We're talking about ages I'm in the workplace that's next time on the take away from. This morning following Nancy's bookshelf at 11. Support from the public radio comes from the bookstore. Nor state since 1976 open 7 days a week. In Chico the bookstore buys and sells books and carries selections including literature fiction books kids' books and more special orders are welcome the bookstores on Facebook and books. I mean see Wiegman And you're listening to Nancy's bookshelf on North State Public Radio My guest is forest fire lookout Wayne Pease author of cloud watcher a fire lookouts book of days on day 11 of your book you say I think my days as a lookout her number. Numerate my positive feelings about the job there you list what you like about the job you say I like being in nature it gives me peace I like the drama of the sky and clouds the sun in the moon coming up and down the view I'm doing a job it connects me with other people I like picking up fires I like the drama and I'm recognized for my skills this is my home a place to call my. Paycheck supports my writing and travel habits while I'm here I can't spend money it's a creative space I have time to read and think I like myself better by the end of the summer it's a meditation retreat renewing my sense of I did to. Still work that way I mean there are things like Amazon I spend a lot more money now. Very nice I mean heard I delivered No but I think I have when I come to town so I always buy too many books other things as well then for about 15 years I got in for Target fee and I spent a fortune on cameras as and finally I don't follows now use my phone and I'm perfectly happy thank you make movies now yes and I used a mag from my to Mexico City and took hundreds of pictures and I'm perfectly satisfied with them so spending $40000.00 on equipment did not do me any good. And I guess you have me. My guest is Wayne p.z. And he has written a book cloud watch or a fire lookout book of days and you just listed all the things that you like about your job and they must have overcome any disadvantages because of the fact that you continue to do this your. 3 years and I think a lot of what you list as the advantages would appeal to a lot of us being out in nature and you say you like the peace there was there that the sky and the clouds and and that. You say this is my home a place to call my own because you said your dad was in there with Terry he moved a lot as soon in that right and then you spent a season in the lookout tower and then you travel you have traveled over 40 countries and then you've lived in some of them so because you like to travel as soon that you don't actually have you ever bought a house oh no I had I had several decisions I made when I was like probably 17 when I was never violent Ok the other one is the most important is not have children children having children is the biggest. Decision anybody can make and once they have children life is out of control more so if you don't have to also I knew that was one of my decisions it was because partly my thought was that you're not even out of your teens are you saying 2 things I'm not going to have a house I'm not going to have kids right and the other thing was not watch television. So it's 17 I stopped watching television I marched with her you know I look at things on the web and this book I had actually had a t.v. For a while so there's t.v. On it but I figured you'd watch t.v. Or do something else with your life and I was 17 so. I'd say to everybody if you met there's certain decisions you can make when you're young that are going to really either healthy or Hendrie as you go along but those have been really good I never would have been a good father I'm not I can't pin that much attention to another person obviously I'm sensitive about myself and in terms of what the other one house everybody I know buys a house is you don't buy a house house by you and from then on you're fixing the rush you're fixing it so it's a big trend so I called the plumber this morning thank you. So so many of those decisions have really helped me a lot over time and so so even though you were to drop that doesn't pay very much you don't need very much because you don't have these huge expenses that you just mentioned right children sometimes totals what a child costs right and a house there are huge expense so if you can get by without those 2 things then you do have the wherewithal to travel Yeah it seems to me Well I think you're just a lot more independent in general you know you don't have to rely on other people for it to make decisions as I've traveled with people and I enjoyed it certain people and so you are making mutual decisions and so forth but I think my part of it is just being in life being out of your control really spends. With those things well one thing that I noticed too is that you travel to say Pastor next grade Oh yeah that some of these Russian writers that you go visit. Or that was. I mean some of the quince that incident been amazing to me and that was when a friend and I went to Petersburg and Moscow I stopped at this there was a corner where some guys were selling books and so I started talking and they were Russian They're both poets they and they spoke English guy so you know he's right and it turns out one of them worked as a guide to pass next house Ok so he invited me out there the next day. To go out to pass the next house when it wasn't open to anybody else and of course he had to convince the people caretakers there and so I had this whole day pass next house and I think I'd always that novel had always had a big effect on the story of a poet you know it's you might make that novel you know yeah. Dr survived go yes so and I took along a glass of I mean a little bottle Vikings and cups I didn't tell them but we went out so fast and I scraped so I pull out the cuffs and they all had Vika and I mention to this one of my favorite poem and so he was I did it from memory it's about a candle burned on the table and it's the end of Dr Chicago so I've had all kinds of coincidences like that that somehow. You don't know if they're fated or just you're sending things out of your polling thanks to you but lots of things happen that you just don't expect when you're on your own but writers do play a row in your choices when you travel Oh yeah you know I go to some others that you wouldn't go past next house oh I've been to stranger exhaust in Stockholm one time I got a book on where people lived in Paris and so I just met with a book and I went to all these of a place where where Hemingway lived and Joyce lived in search of Stein and so forth . Yeah in fact that was my reason for doing a lot of things was I thought Ok well poets really do this they go places they honor other poets they see what the world is like and they have things happen to them so in a way it turned to be out to be an excuse just a moment around. I felt that next city I went there's the museums but probably after a month there the biggest effect was just wandering around the streets especially during the day of the dead and thousands of people around you. And you just sort of absorb the atmosphere and so I think that's part of traveling for me the writers are an excuse and when you mention that the last line in Dr Zhivago and he quoted it I don't know about you but I just I found it thrilling that sometimes I can perish there's a bridge Tell me a hobble and there's a poem and read a poem you kn