Introduction

Ok, so what makes my life so interesting you want to read about it? Boy, that's a relative question? I've always tried to learn something from everyone I meet. It may not always good, and often it's something bad, like how not to do something or be someone less than nice, or worse, like, an asshole. So, what can you take away from my life? Maybe a smile or something really stupid or useless.

And so, what's the goal with my life in stories? I don't really know, kinda' a rambling series of essays connecting the dots in a mosaic of my life, weaving the fabric that makes the coat of who I am and where I've been. Clues, you ask. Well, I've lived in 8 states and 2 European countries, attended 14 schools in 12 years of K-12 school, and had a lot of interesting experiences worth a few words so it's not forgotten.

You see my Dad was a very private person, even with his three kids, especially with me being the youngest and second son. We had a tumultuous relationship over the years before I left, as will be noted in the first chapter, which defined the rest of my life. During his life he rarely spoke of his life, and especially his youth, which we wanted to hear, because he grew up in rural Kansas in the 1920 and 1930's before joining the Army in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. He spent a career in the Army and Air Force.

As I wrote in a column my life has three different layers which I am and see the world, the time before leaving home, the six months thereafter, and the rest of my life. Being 19 years old in 1968-69 was an interesting time for many of my generation. It's was a time of innocence and realization, reality meets our dreams, clashes of life in our minds and the world. We woke up and grew up at the same time, to see the past crashing into the future, standing in between, canon fodder of previous generations, wanting to be our own and make our generation.

And we survived if we weren't physically or mentally killed in Vietnam. We were scarred with the loss of friends, family and loved ones to war and drugs. We were the product of history and we made history, not unlike almost every generation, but ours was unique to our nation. Dylan sang it correctly, the times did change and we changed, while many older people didn't.

And so I begin the story of my life.