Biography
Please note that I have left off people’s names here, because I have not
asked anyone’s permission to use them. They are not forgotten, however.
- Born in San Diego, California, the year after the
end of World War Two—a date which, supposedly, half of US high
school students would not know. The first of three kids.
- Parents were both from central Ohio, and moved to San Diego just
before the war. My Dad was in the Navy, served in the Pacific, and
retired as a CPO in 1959. My Mom was the mythical
‘housewife’ of Times Past.
- Grew up through fourth grade in the Paradise Hills
neighbourhood of San Diego (corner of Flintridge and Alleghany),
which has had a huge increase in population since then—all of my
wandering places in the canyons behind what was a single row of houses
on Alleghany Street are gone, covered over with homes.
Judging from Google, our old duplex seems to still be there. Curiously,
the large hill leading up to our elementary school seems to have sagged
and flattened with the passage of time, and is now a hardly-noticeable rise.
- Moved to Japan for fifth and sixth grades (Yokohama
and Atsugi NAS); then to the Bay Area
(San Leandro) for seventh and eighth grades; back
to the San Diego house for the last year of junior high
(O’Farrell). Then we moved south to Chula
Vista for high school (Hilltop—then a three-year, but now apparently
the more typical four-year) and the first two years at
San Diego State College (as it was then).
- Unable to decide on a major, and thus required to leave SDSC,
enlisted (had a very bad draft number) for three years in the Army (Sept. 1966–69);
served in bands at Fort MacArthur and Fort Ord (both in California). Could have
been a lot worse. And I met some very interesting people.
- Back to another San Diego suburb, La Mesa,
continuing at San Diego State University (as it became in time for
graduation). B.A. in Geography, with a minor in Library Science.
- Director of an early-music ensemble, the Guidonian
Hand, from 1974 to 1985.
Member of the Alfonso X Memorial Medieval String Band, Santiago
de California, 1973 to 1985.
- Married Pat in the bicentennial year.
(‘Doctor Pat’ as she is known to her students.) Wishing to be wed
by a JP, the nearest one we could find was in a tiny town east of San Diego, Boulevard – the
only reason why I know where Boulevard is.
- Worked in the Central Library, University of California at San Diego
in La Jolla, 1980–1985, after several years as a phototypesetter
(Varityper, CompuGraphic), including a stint at the world not-famous
Del Mar News Press, a weekly newspaper.
- Although we left San Diego in 1985, I’m pretty much still a
Southern California person. Although a more typical Californian would
not have left, would they?! (That’s also the year we
gave up cars, which is definitely not Californian.)
- Lived in England (Cambridge) for sixteen years;
worked as typesetter and illustrator (Macintosh-based, of
course—got our first Mac in 1987), mostly for educational
publishers. This has left me permanently unable to spell properly, and
you may notice this site bouncing between U.S. and British usage, as well
as some of my own.
- Moved to Toronto early 2002. Toronto is
cold in January. Some other things we very quickly noticed:
Toronto drivers are terrible; city government has been in the back
pocket of developers for a long time;
Toronto has no respect for its built heritage. And, later: Toronto is
hot in the summer.
- Went back to school for a year to earn a Certificate in GIS and
Remote Sensing, from York University. It was rather
unnerving that most of the students in my classes had not yet been born
when I last attended school.
- Worked 18 months for a small research institute at York University,
followed by a handful of typesetting projects. Currently suffering the fate
of many immigrants lacking the mythical ‘Canadian
experience’: unemployed. Or is it better to say retired?
- Diagnosed in December 2011 with SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus),
a fascinating auto-immune disease. Since lupus patients are 90% young women,
it hardly seems fair that an old man should get it,
but I was already aware that life is not fair. Lots on
wikipedia, as usual (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupus); good links on
www.dmoz.org/Health/Conditions_and_Diseases/Musculoskeletal_Disorders/Connective_Tissue/Lupus.
The Lupus Foundation of America is at www.lupus.org, with a Canadian equivalent at
www.lupuscanada.org. I may also have Sjögren’s Syndrome. Are we having fun yet?
- Have lived in California, Japan, England and Toronto, with around
55% of my life spent away from my birthplace (and, of course, rising). I
have travelled extensively in the American southwest (favorite: Mesa Verde) and Europe, and am
a firm believer in visiting fewer places for longer periods of time.
Icicles
Looking out our front window. Maybe no big deal for you, but this much white stuff
on the ground was a bit of a shock for me.
Note that this was reconstructed from memory, rather
than consulting documents. Since I remember less of my childhood than anyone else
I’ve ever met, there is a good chance that there are mistakes in this roundup.
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