Hey, I just wanted to get this off my chest regarding The Long Walk. The reason I'm writing this here is because Riv sells the book and I feel like this is my peer group and we share the same interests. For those of you that don't know The Long Walk is a book written by a guy that escaped a Soviet concentration camp and made an epic trek to India. I read the book in 2001 and kind of freaked out about it. I got the number for a Richard Rawicz in England from the internet and I called him. I asked him if he was related to Slavomir Rawicz and he said that it was his dad. I told him I read the book and was amazed by the story and how moving it was to me. He asked if I wanted his dad's phone number. I couldn't believe he was still alive. I called up Slavomir and I asked him if I could chat with him about the book. He said that he didn't like talking on the phone so I asked him if I could come and visit him. He said yes and to pop over. I told him I was calling from Colorado and that I was a school teacher and I could come over during Christmas. He said that Christmas would be fine. This was in September. Anyway, I booked my ticket for England.
I flew to London, rented a car, figured out how to drive on the wrong side of the road on the way to Nottingham. I drove to Slavomir's house and I brought him a white Stetson hat and I brought his wife a nice Pendleton blanket. After I saw how cold it was in their house I realized the blanket was an appropriate gift. The cowboy hat was a suggestion of his son, Richard. They love Wild West stuff in England. I spent two days in Nottingham with Mr. Rawicz. I was doing research for a history project and an adventure piece I was working on. I was working to recreate the Long Walk on a bicycle. I wanted to ride the route he sketched in the book and somehow connect with a generation of people that I greatly admire. In my research I contacted the Royal Air Force to get documentation about Rawicz' flight school he outlines in the book. They said they had no records. I contacted the Polish Army and looked into their records for him. No records. I contacted the Gulag Survivor's Society and they said they indeed were aware of the claims regarding a "Camp 303" but that it didn't exist. It became clear to me that the story was fishy. I felt terrible about having a relationship with this cool guy but not believing his story. I cut off communication with the family and I dropped the project. I didn't want to have to question the story's legitimacy. When he described the story to me he was in tears. He obviously experienced something very real. I just recently read the wikipedia info on the book and the BBC apparently did a expose in 2006. Anyway, it's a bummer that the story isn't true. I felt bad the same way I felt when I found out the 3 Cups of Tea story was also fabricated. Not to be a downer, but I never spilled the beans about The Long Walk because I liked the Rawicz family so much. So there it is. Off the chest. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/-RyxrMNLLXYJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
