About me

So, you want to get to know me? I'm sorry, you can turn back now before it's too late. You'll find that I have a dry sense of humor, kinda strange and a lot twisted, but, quoting Alice Cooper, "I'm a real nice guy" (No More Mr. Niceguy).

   Born in 1961 at Los Angeles County Hospital (now County/USC) I was placed in Children's Services for adoption for reasons I will get into later. In June I was adopted by the greatest couple I could have ever wished for. My folks were older than most "new" parents, both in their late and early 30's. Both grew up during the Depression, both from West Chicago area. My dad's father was a banker with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, my mom's father was a Postal Carrier. He had immigrated to America from Germany as a small child alone and grew up in the streets of Chicago fending for himself. He was a tough ol coot, raising 3 girls. My grandma was a sweet lady born in 1900, very religious and the perfect example of what a grandma should be. A "flapper" in the 20s, for a time dated a Chicago mobster. Mom was the middle child and along with her two sisters grew up in Maywood, a middle class suburb of Chicago. Dad had 3 sisters and grew up in Elmhurst, an upper middle class suburb of Chicago close to Maywood.

   In 1941, Dad graduated from York High School and had aspirations of becoming a car designer for General Motors. Unfortunately World War II changed that and Dad entered the US Army at the age of 19. After boot camp he was sent to Officer Candidate School at Purdue University graduating as a Sergeant assigned to the 1260th Combat Engineer Battalion, 8th Infantry, 3rd Army. Mom was attending Proviso High School during the war, joining the Air Civil Defense earning her Pilots License. After the war, Dad went to work at a Machine shop in Elgin close to where Mom was working as a Secretary at the torque converter division of Borg-Warner. 

   My folks were married in 1955 and like a lot of mid-westerners bought a trailer and moved to Southern California, beginning in National City, a San Diego suburb. Mom always compared that adventure to the Lucielle Ball/ Desi Arnez movie "The Long Long Trailer". In the 50's SoCal was booming with the influx of veterans escaping the mid-west snow and growing defense contractors. Mom went to work for Convair. Dad and his best friend from the Army, Ray, opened a cabinet shop. Ray and his wife Francis and my folks were best friends and a big part of my childhood. Dad would eventually retire as a machinist working in the SoCal Space & Defense industry. Mom would retire as a secretary in the insurance business.

   Growing up in the 60's & 70's in Southern California was magical.

SoCal was the Grand Central at that time. There was surfing of course and growing rapidly. Skateboarding had begun to grow too and with the advent of eurethane wheels was booming into a multi-billion dollar sport along with surfing. Motorcycles and Motocross were also booming. L.A. and Orange Counties were central to the Drag racing world, in fact the whole car culture stemmed from SoCal. Just about any outdoor sport seemed to have come from the land of gold. And the Rock & Roll brought it all together, Southern California was the place to be.