I was in Panama for awhile, which was very oppressive militarywise, and I got into just a spot of trouble there for popping a 2nd Lt. on the nose. "Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays." (Emerson). I said goodby to Panama, and after a couple stops in Kansas, I shipped out to Ft. Devens, MA in June, 1973 where I finished my tour of duty. It was there that I found myself liking the army again, and I had a lot of good friends at Ft. Devens too like Young Hwang, Tom Pugh, JR Eldridge, Cas "Fuzzy" Mazur, Debbie and Gayle Williams, and Ella "Mom" and Martha Allen. My girlfriend there was Karen (Snyder) Burke. I also began to see that having an education might have some merit to it as well. I credit my friends Gale Toney from Ft. Benning, and especially Young Hwang from Ft. Devens for helping me to discover this little nugget of wisdom. Anyone who knew me from the classroom back in public school will undoubtedly see the irony here.
I was honorably discharged from the army in May, 1974 at 19. I had had NCO's and officers who were a lot of fun to work for, and I had chafed mightily under the dogmatic and overbearing types. I'm sure this is a familiar story to any veteran. And, that's how the military is then isn't it? Nevertheless, at 19, I was quite chagrined by the experience. "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist." (Emerson).
I can't write my story without mentioning Sue Moore. I knew her whole family and was friends with her brothers, Garry and Terry. I went to the wedding reception for her first marriage when I was 16, and it was quite memorable to say the least. Suzy and I began dating in the fall of the same year I got out of the service. She was the first love of my life and I really fell for her. We went out together off and on for about a year and then finally broke it off in November 1975. Some things just aren't meant to be, but I still have many fond memories of Sue. We remained on fairly friendly terms over the years and Sue and her sister, Sandy, even came to mine and Donna's wedding reception in 1989. I haven't seen Sue since about 1994 when we did a barbacue.
My father took his own life down in Tennessee the same month that I began college. Shortly after my father died, I was a passenger, asleep in the backseat, in a car that crashed in Detroit. We were on our way home from Ann Arbor where we had been visiting with Jenny Janke. The driver lost control and the car did a horseshoe around a street lamp. My old friend Steve Cloos, who was a passenger in his own car, died as a result of that accident. We didn't know it at the time, but his last words would be, "What a bummer!" I've missed Steve's friendship and sense of humor these many years now. 1975 was a very hard year.
I began classes at O.C.C. in January 1975. I soon discovered that wanting an education and having a plan to use it are two very different concepts and, therefore, lacked focus. I did well considering the events of that first year, and that I had been a high school drop out. I couldn't resist going to Florida with my friend Terry Moore and his girlfriend, Mary, in January, 1977 even though I was so close to finishing up at O.C.C.. It was great fun for awhile, and then it wasn't, so I came back to Michigan. I went to Corpus Christi, Texas for a month early in 1978. Met a girl named Kathy Henley there. She was a real sweetheart, and classy too. Padre Island was great!
In late August of that same year, I was back in Michigan and got into an Evel Knievel-like crash on my 750 Honda. Somehow, I was spared on that day too. (I ended up 165 feet away from the boulder I had hit). At last, from a hospital bed, I could see clearly in the faces of those who loved me the pain that I was causing them. I had six weeks in the hospital to reflect upon my heedless ways, and chose life over reckless madness. "Knowledge by suffering entereth, and life is perfected by death." (E.B. Browning).
I lost a few years after that accident. Finally, I graduated from O.C.C. in 1983 at the same time as my friend Bill Menefee from our old neighborhood Brookland Sub in Rochester, who had followed a path similar to mine in high school. He was also one of the four friends who had gone into the army on the buddy plan mentioned earlier. The following year "Donna Baby" and I met through my sister, Tina, and we began dating. In 1986, Bill Menefee, myself, and another partner, Marci Clark, started a commercial sign company.
In 1989, Donna and I were married in a lovely little ceremony in her father's and Monica's backyard, and also had the best wedding dinner I've ever sat down to, courtesy of her mom's and Randy's cooking talents. By 1990, New Horizons Signs had hit hard times during the recession of that period under Bush 41. I left, and the company later folded. I'll always remember those times at the sign studio very fondly though. Even with the many bumps in the road along the way, it was an extremely creative and exciting time for me.
Donna and I bought our first home in Lake Orion, MI in 1990, and lived there, except for our year plus stint managing Park Villa Apts, until 2004. Our daughter, Emily, was born in 1993. I had returned to college in 1992 to try to find something to do that was as rewarding as the sign company had been. In 1997, I graduated from U of M-Flint with a BA in History and a secondary teaching certificate. I worked at an alternative school in Avondale for at-risk kids much like I had been in my own youth. While there, I taught social studies, biology, earth science, and government. I'll remember the kids and staffers from Avondale Academy fondly too because at that point, I had come full-circle in my life. "I held in truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things." (Tennyson).
At 44, I became a certified lifeguard for the first time. Like the movie "Rocky" I just wanted to be able to "go the distance" during the swim test! Unlike Rocky though, I hadn't done a thing to prepare for it. That summer (1999) I worked at Camp Walden in Cheboygan, MI. I kayaked, canoed, tubed, and cycled all summer long with the kids at camp. Me and Elvis from "down under" tipped a few beers there! Great summer it was too!
Finally, we got the place in the country I had always wanted when we moved to Birch Run in 2004. After our son Mitchell's birth in 2000, I took a few years off work to be a Mr. Mom. It was a great time too, but Mitchell started 1st grade in 2006 and I was able to get back to work that summer with the Forest Service as an archaeological technician. I've competed in Labor Day weekend triathlons in Grand Marais, MI for the past two years! In the process, I managed to drop the 25 lbs. I had put on when I quit smoking in 2005 plus some. Being able to run again is my own little miracle and it's great to be in this kind of shape again too. Anyway, there's my life in a nutshell sans a few of the more outrageous parts. "It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." (William Ernest Henley).
