This
website was created as an expression of my life, characterizing various interests and hobbies.
I have experienced many pleasures
and hardships, along with generations of beliefs, that have molded my personality. A "baby boomer" born to the
mid 1950's, my formative (or teenage) years were the 1960's through the early 1970's.
By the late 1960's, my childhood
days were quickly changing as I entered high school. Being exposed to the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement and a
passive society with corrupt politics, my ideals and principles were quickly being molded.
A
pivotal year was 1968. Viet Cong opened the bloody "Tet Offensive" in January by attacking major cities of South
Vietnam. I celebrated my birthday in 1968 with the assassination of Martin Luther King, leading to mass riots in Washington,
D.C. and other cities. Later that same year came Bobby's assassination while campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
During the medal ceremony at the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, two African-American sprinters raised
their fists while our national anthem was playing, protesting U.S. racism. In August, the Democratic National Convention
in Chicago was marred by Vietnam war protesters and police. To close the year, Richard Nixon was elected President.
Always
interested in baseball and railroading, I also developed a deep love for music, especially the "underground" movement
of the late 1960's. My love for music continues today, as an outlet from the daily adversities of life or simply to relax.
Life was basically uneventful through high school, until my
18th birthday
and the "mandatory" draft registration. For the first time, I was faced with the possibility of going to Vietnam, however,
I was never called as the war ended in 1975.
As
I entered the late 1970's, my life was relatively simple, finishing college, dating, getting a job and beginning to experience
my independence. Soon after, I was married, fathered three children and began a career working for corporate America. What
a change from my ideals of ten years earlier.
Nowadays, life
is balanced with music, baseball, railroads, American history, photography and travel. All these passions are shared with my children and
described throughout this website.
