About Me

Seventy-four years ago, or thereabouts, I was born in a small town in the middle of New Mexico. Hot Springs, to be exact. I have some memories of my early life, but looking back; nothing jumps out as being extraordinary. My early life was probable about the same as other boys born at that time and in similar circumstances. When I was about two, my mother was single again and needed to work. She left me with my grandmother in New Mexico, while she found work in a larger city, somewhere. I Never did know where. She would come back periodically, but couldn't stay for long. So, my early life, although secure, was interspersed with periods of longing for my mother and brief intervals of happiness.   

I was fortunate in having an aunt, that decided I must learn to read, and by the time I started school, I was past the McGuffey primers. This put me ahead of my fellow students, and may have resulted in by erratic behavior. I was restless and unruly. In today's environment, I would have been a candidate for behavior altering drugs of some kind. I persevered, along with my teachers, and managed to make it through grade school.

During the war my mother, like so many other young women, joined the war effort and became a factory worker. Her specialty was brazing. She worked the entire war at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. After the war, she remarried, and I went to San Francisco to live. My stepfather didn't get what he had envisioned in a son. Almost everything about me seemed to be wrong in some respect, and he set about to make necessary changes. By the time I was fourteen, we were sick of each other. He realized I wasn't about to change; I couldn't or wouldn't become the son he wanted. The tension was hard on my mother; wedged between my stepfather, and me was not fair to her. So, I returned to live with my grandmother in New Mexico.

I guess that's when my real life started. Anyway, it's been a long interesting trip from there.