Summer,
1967 - Mount Rushmore.My Dad was an aerospace engineer (now retired) involved in the space program. He had way too many kids (to my siblings - nothing personal, but it must have been a lot of work!). He met my mom while he was in engineering school and she was in nursing school. They emigrated from Ohio to California, which benefited all of us greatly, I think.
I have a brother Paul who worked in the hotel business as a comptroller until the job market went down the toilet, and is now studying carpentry (his passion) with an eye to being a shop teacher. He also plays a mean bass; a sister Dawn who is a speech therapist and has a wicked eye for design; a sister JC who is in management in Colorado; a sister Gail who is a teacher married to a teacher (can you say folie a deux?), and several stepbrothers and stepsisters, including Marcie, Wesley and Tammy. Among those, I am somewhat fortunate to have only 2 nieces or nephews (by blood at least) - Shaun, who is JC's son, who is now 20 years old, 6'2", slender, a skater, and in college; and Aiyana, who is Tammy's daughter, who is around 7 or 8.
I grew up on a farm in what is now suburban sprawl - I didn't really appreciate until it was gone how valuable the wide-open spaces can be to both our physical and mental well-being. While that has by no means made me fodder for the Green Party or other well-meaning eccentrics, it has made me more aware of how much population pressure can make us all cranky, suspicious and pressured.
I was in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in the late 60's and early 70's, and a couple of Explorer posts, including Sea Scouts. These organizations taught me the value of skills, not the least of which are personal skills - it doesn't matter how many merit badges you had or how many knots you can tie if you can't get along with the vast majority of your fellow men (and women) who are not raving lunatics. That said, when the BSA became a front for the ultra-stupid-wing whackos of the Far Right in the 1980's I burned all of my merit badges and other scout insignia. Lesson: You can't be a good person if you treat others as less than people.
I went to high school first in Poway, which had a very 'progressive' system, and learned very little that was useful. Progressive ideas are very good, but structure is something that comes naturally to very few teenagers.
I then transferred
to San Diego High (the Old Grey Castle), where the structure
was more amenable to learning, even if many of the teachers were
not as individually advanced as some at Poway High had been.
I learned a lot more being forced to go to classes than I had
when I was allowed to learn at my own pace. That said, had the
counselors been better, I might have filled in gaps that have
since become completely blocked. Lesson: Education
is not an option, and if you're not rounded out at least somewhat
by the end of high school, odds are you never will be.
At some point in there I decided I wated to be an Actor. Heh. Did all of the usual high school plays, 3 years in the local repertory, and a season at the Old Globe theatre, which taught me that acting is Hard Work, and requires total concentration and dedication. But I did get to meet and work with some great actors, and to dance with Anette Bening, who was just as pretty in 1975 as she is now. Lesson: Shit happens, and you can't always do what you want - sometimes it's harder than it seemed, or you're not as good as you thought. Since then I've been on stage perhaps once a decade, including doing a production of Hamlet at the Old Globe (a very minor role). Maybe when I get old I'll be a character actor - except that by then I'll be forgotten. Just as well.
In
college in 1976
After High School I went to City College, as SDSU was too bloody expensive for somene whose highest goal was just to play in the band. I majored in music for 2 years, got on the Dean's List once (the only semester in which I cared enough about classes to go) and then joined the Navy after passing an audition for the Navy Band. Lesson: When you or your kids are in college, get them into General Ed classes first and foremost, and make sure their counselors are aware that no one has any idea what they'll want to do when they graduate except for that strange kid in the front row with the bright expression and $1500 stack of books. The rest of us pick it up as we go
Some of my friends
in the navy band school - 1978
In the navy band I found myself to a great extent, and had a lot of fun and met new people and learned a lot... until 2 bands were closed down, and I was made excess. Transfers in the military are not usually made for the benefit of the transferee, but for the benefit of the service. I spent the remainder of my 10 years in administrative posts. Yep - 10 years - I found I was very good at (most of) the navy life. It played hob with my chops, as there's little space to practice the trumpet on a crowded ship, especially where almost no one respects music other than hard rock, but it was a good experience. Lesson: The military isn't for everyone, but it will take you and refine you to your essence. What you have to offer will become much more focused and practiced, for better or worse.
In the navy I got my first taste of computers,
and the Dungeons and Dragons game. Heh. I also got to
do a few other things, including traveling extensively through
much of Asia and bits of Africa, and all of the connecting bodies
of water.
In the Philippines - 1980.
When I got out, I had decisions to make: I could stay in the same line of work, or start fresh. I started fresh.
I found an apartment with my sister JC until I could establish myself. I found work with the Superior Court, clerking, re-built my chops, built connections in the music field and went back to school to study History and Anthropology (by this time I'd learned how to study, and maintained a 3.9 GPA). It was during this period that I ended up playing leads for the (then brand new) Jazz Department at SDSU under Bill Yeager, as well as playing in his L.A. Jazz Workshop Band. Got to play with some of the greats at SDSU and in LA, including Louis Bellson, Don Menza, Bill Watrous (whom I'd met in the navy), Ray Charles, and John Madrid. While in LA for rehearsals I also met Bob Florence, Toshiko Akiyoshi and several others. I also began to donate blood on a regular basis, and have donated over 12 gallons to date. Blood donation is simple, not very painful, and something that benefits everyone.
Julie and Mic Gillette
and me, just before he left the Tower of Power - 1984 or so.
Playing at Mysterious
Galaxy Books, 2004