About Me

I was born in Wichita Falls, TX on May 21, 1963. We weren’t there very long as we moved to Germany shortly after that, about 3 weeks. Lucky for that too because as I heard it the hospital I was born in was blown away by a tornado right after we left.

Dad was in the Air Force and he was transferred to Germany at that time. So off we went to Europe in a C-130 with a stop in Greenland. Not that I remember as I was only 3 weeks old LOL.

So we spent the next 4 years in Wiesbaden Germany, which i remember little or none of.

We moved from there to Omaha, NE briefly and then on to Colorado Springs, CO. The two things I remember from Omaha are Marc (my Brother) getting bit by a dog. And us (Marc, me and my Mom) hiding in the basement during a tornado warning.

On to Colorado where I start to remember more. We lived on a Cul-De-Sac with a big grassy hill behind our house (this will be important later). Across the street lived a family with a German Shepard and three boys. The youngest was nicknamed 7-Up because he was always wet. The two older boys were friends of ours. These guys were wild LOL! One day we heard some fire engines and we went outside to look. One of the brothers had been on the hill playing with matches or a lighter and had set the entire hill on fire! No one and no property was hurt but what excitement.

The one other major thing that happened there was the 1st time (yes the 1st of 2 times LOL) that I was run over by our own car. 7-Up and I had been taking turns, one would sit out on the grass and watch while the other was in the car turning the wheels back and forth. This was a large Station Wagon. So I had my turn turning the wheels, I got out and sat on the grass, he got in the car and started turning the steering wheel, and the car started rolling! Turned onto the grass and it rolled right over both of my legs that were splayed out in front of me. of course I started screaming and all the mom’s ran out to see what happened. Mom threw me in the car and we raced to the emergency room and got checked out and i was fine! The Doctor told Mom to take me home and fill me with Hawaiian Punch (my favorite drink at the time). He said that the combination of my lying on the soft grassy ground and being young with bones that were still spongy are what saved me.

After Colorado we moved back to Germany and now I remember more 🙂 We lived in Air Base housing on the third floor of 49 Texas Strasse (Steet) ar least I think that was the address. Now here I can relate of items but no exact date or times. This was the 60’s after all lol. In this base housing wer dorms for High School or College kids, I never knew for sure.

There were fireworks and firecrackers for Fourth of July and New Years Eve, and those teens came up with these contraptions to blow up. They took an empty coffee can filled it with these big firecrackes (one was called a 1/4 stick of dynomite), wrap it up tightly with tape and cloth and set it off. That thing would blow higher than our three story building lol.

One of these teens was our babysitter named Greg, Mom and Dad owned this Balalaika (triangular 3 stringed Russian guitar). And he would play us Black Sabbath songs on it. Not that we had any idea who that was then.

Living in Germany in the 60’s was great, at least for us little kids. We went to the American school right across the street from where we lived. We would get out of school because of ocassional bomb  threats (at least that’s what they told us) which we of course enjoyed. The area that we lived in got VERY foggy at times and we would play “Fog Tag” because the fog was so thick you could stand two feet in front of someone and they couldn’t see you.

Our vacations were amazing, every year we went to Garmisch or Berchtesgaden where we learned to ski. in Berchtesgaden we stayed at The General Walker Hotel which was a playground for us. They had a movie theater, a 2 lane bowling alley, and tons of snow to jump off the building into. It was down the mountain a bit from Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest which we hiked up to and ate at the restaurant that was there.

My Mom’s Mother and Father visited us and we went to Scandanavia (her Father was Swedish and her Mother was Norwegian), so we went to Sweden were my Grandfather talked about the Swedish women LOL, and in Norway we went to “The End of the World” which certainly looked like it. We also went to the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark. A ot of this we were camping, tons of fun.

At some point we wen’t to Swizerland, stayed in a lodge of some sort on a snow covered mountain. Grandpa bought my brother and I real Swiss Army knives which horrified my Mother. She was sure we would cut our limbs off. So of course I immediately cut my thumb LOL.

Dad had business in Berlin one time so we all went there. Saw the Berlin Wall in 1968 which was a scary thing. Went to the Berlin Zoo which was great. and Marc threw up on the Berlin subway.

While living in Germany we visited holland and we bought a Dutch Barge Watchdog (Breed is Keeshond) Youri Von Benthoist was his name, of course he was just called Youri, except in dog shows. He was a Champion but most importantly to us he was Family 🙂

We moved back to the States in 1973 and went to Hampton, Virginia. Dad was stationed on Langley Air Base which was very nice. We lived in a nice house off base but went on base often. Marc and I were in the Boy Scouts and our Troop met on base. Went the movies there, bowling, swimming at the pool and so on. I had loved air Shows since we went to them in Germany a lot and the one at Langly was no different (great) especially since they showcased the brand new F-15 that langley was Headquarters to.

We lived in Hampton for around 4 years, the most exciting things at that time were: I ran away from home (very briefly, just went into the woods behind the school) over my report card. And I continued my streak of breaking bones. The 1st broken bone I had at around 5, we had bunk beds and i slept on the top. This was before they came out with those little fences for top bunks. I had a nightmare and rolled off and fell against a stool and broke my collar bone. in Hampton I broke an ankle playing basketball, broke a foot on a field trip, a friend jumped out from behind a tree to spook us and I tripped over a root. And the worst one was riding my bike to school the front bumper slipped against the wheel and threw me over the handlebars. First trip to the ER revealed no issues but it continued to hurt so we went back and apparently the cartiledge moved a bit and they could see the wrist was shattered. It healed of course but I still have trouble with that wrist to this day. It seemed every Summer I spent it in a cast LOL.

We also obtained our 1st cat, Aphrodite. I think she was a Tuxedo.

We next moved to Northern Virginia. Dad got stationed at The Pentagon.When we took Aphrodite to be “fixed” we found that she was a he and became Afro thereafter. We went on a trip somewhere and when we came back Afro decided he had enough and left us never to return.

We then adopted a new cat, Phineas Tobius Spindleshanks (according to TS Eliot all cats have 3 names). We had Phineas for quite a bit.

Meanwhile, Youri was mostly outside, and his nature was to bark (barge watchdog remember). The people that lived behind us and had mostly cats complained and eventually called the police. We had to give Youri away 🙁 We were all upset of course.

We shortly adopted Maggie May, a cute little grey cat we named Maggie May, one eye lower than the other, loved to ride on people’s shoulders. She would hop up on the counter, wait for someone to walk by, and then launch herself onto their shoulder. We loved her but Phineas was not amused, how dare we bring another cat into HIS house. He promptly moved out and went to live with the same people that made us get rid of Youri. Every once in awhile he would come back to our yard and glare at us and then go back to them.

Of course we needed a new cat so we adopted Bashi Bazouk, also very loving and lovable. Bashi and Maggie got along well together.

So these were the High School years.I was in the band, both Marching and Symphonic, played the Tuba, was actually pretty good at it. But this is where I started drinking as well. Mom and Dad would leave for work before we went to school so I would go raid the liquore cabinet, fill a 20oz plastic tumbler with various liquors and chug it down and set off for school. Playing a brass instrument we had these little bottles of valve oil. I took one and cleaned out really well and filled it with whiskey. After school we had band practice so I would get a coke and make a mixed drink. I grew a beard and looked a lot older than I was so was usually able to buy beer for Friday nights. The drinking age at the time was 18 so it wasn’t that hard.

I had a girlfriend who eventually became my wife, Valerie. We met sort of strangely, I used to hang out at the Mall with a bunch of other kids, we were “Mall Rats” long before the movie. I became friends with a girl named Leslie, she had a friend Valerie that went by the name Bobby. One day we were hanging out by the phones (yes, pay phones) and Bobby called looking for Leslie. She wasn’t there so she and i began talking and talked for hours. Did that many times and we became girlfriend/boyfriend.

I ended up skipping school a lot and by the time I was a Senior I wasn’t going to graduate. So, late in my Senior year I dropped out and joined the Marines.

I passed all of the tests and was enlisted to become one of “The Presidents Own” (band). Went to Parris Island which of course was not fun, but it’s not supposed to be LOL.I was there about a month and a half. Passed the musical audition, got into much better shape. But, I fell on a troop run and enjured my knee. Their suggestion was to rest up the knee and the start Basic all over. i said no thank you so I was eventually discharged. It was a “Failure to Adapt to Military Life” which was laughable to me since I was a military brat my whole life. But, on the good side, it was an Honarable Discharge. When I left in that month and a half, i lost 75 pounds and was in the best shape of my life. that wouldn’t last though.

More coming soon...