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Hittin’ 50 this year and decided to blog about that and whatever else moves me.

Here’s a conversation I’ve had many times. It goes like this:

“So what’s new?”

“Not much. Hey, I’m starting a blog.”

“A what?”
(Typical reply by those my age….the younger generation usually asked about what?)

“A BLOG. It’s going to be a combo of insight and bs!”

“You may have found your calling.”

more to come …..

My Biography: 50 Years of Success, Falling Short, and Getting Back Up

This is more for me than you. It does illustrate how time is so relatively short and moves at a lightening pace. This will obviously be a work in progress. I will add or modify its contents as I can. Right now I am adding things that were or are significant to me. In a real sense, this is what it is all ABOUT:

  • 1958: Born September 12, Lima, Ohio.
  • 1959:
  • 1960:
  • 1961: My Mom’s dad dies unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm. My earliest childhood memory. He had just returned from a business trip from New York. He had a local clothing store in the Square, downtown Lima. These were the days way before shopping malls. The heart of business was a town’s downtown. He had brought me Candy Cigarettes!!! I loved ‘em. (how politically incorrect that would be today! BTW, I have never nor any of my three younger brothers ever smoked.) He had gotten up to go take a nap. The next I remember is being told to go to the kitchen. My Mom was called at home. We lived in a house just a few blocks away and she had to run with Steve, who was an infant, down to the house. He had bought his daughter and my Dad this house shortly after I was born as he could not have his one and only grandson living in an apartment. I remember my Mom crying and the ambulance arriving. To this day, I have a fear of ambulances.
  • 1962
  • 1963: Kindergarten. Mrs. Bowlenbocker is my teacher. I am one of the youngest in my class. Lowell Elementary, Lima, Ohio.
  • 1964: First grade Mrs. Sharman, one of the nicest teachers I ever had.
  • 1965: Second grade, Mrs. Smith
  • 1966: Third Grade, Mrs. Hienrich. (stern and no nonsense) She would had out the math papers in the order of scores. I started having trouble here. Mine were often kind of low and my paper would be toward the last. Then she would call out our names and we would have to say our score aloud. A, B, C, D or F! I kind of laugh about it now but it was humiliating then. I know that this had an impact as to my sensitivity to my future students and their grades.
  • 1967: Fourth Grade, Mrs Nelson. Definitely one of the strictest teachers in the school.
  • 1968: Fifth grade. Mrs. Wedlock. She was my Mom’s teacher in elementary school. My hair had gotten longer and they were telling families that they would not allow long hair and would cut it. My Mom told me to tell them I would be getting a haircut that weekend it anyone asked! No one did, and I got a haicut that weekend.
  • 1969: We visit cousins living in Colorado Springs that summer and move from Ohio. Colorado Springs is a booming, clean, beautiful town. Sixth Grade: Mrs. Teller.
  • 1970: 7th Grade at Emerson Junior High. The first year I ever had a male teacher. Mr. Judy, an English teacher.
  • 1971 8th Grade.
  • 1972 9th Grade. Still in the junior high. Favorite teacher Mr. Bushey, another English teacher. Made a difficult subject successful for most students and a great sense of humor. He was a self-proclaimed S.O.B. (Sweet old Bushey)
  • 1973
  • 1974
  • 1975
  • 1976: 12th Grade. Graduate from Mitchell High School and plan to attend the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
  • 1977
  • 1978
  • 1979
  • 1980 College Graduation from the University of Northern Colorado, BA English
  • 1981
  • 1982 Married in May.
  • 1983: Birth of our first son, John, February 15th. Born with what they called hypo-plastic left heart. There is nothing that can be done. (Today’s medical advances do give hope now with heart defects in infants, although this condition is still most often still results in death.) John lives through a number of procedures to help him, including three open heart surgeries, but passes on February 19th.
  • 1984: My daughter Beth is born, July 1oth and there is a huge relief. Actually, ultra-sounds were done to check the development of the heart. She will be graduating this May 2008 from the University of Louisville.
  • 1985: Greg is born 12 / 9 / 85, I was born 9 / 12 / 58. There is a meaning here but as to what it is, I have no idea. He is now 22 now and just finished a meaningful internship working with inner city youth. I begin my first full time teaching contract at Air Academy Junior High.
  • 1986: I get the chicken pox in March from school. My kids are probably one of very few that can say they had the chicken pox compliments of their Dad!
  • 1987
  • 1988
  • 1989
  • 1990
  • 1991
  • 1992
  • 1993
  • 1994
  • 1995
  • 1996
  • 1997
  • 1998
  • 1999:
  • 2000: The new millennium begins and everyone thinks the world will come to an end.
  • 2001:
  • 2002:
  • 2003:
  • 2002: Finish a teaching career at Emerson-Edison Middle School with plans to go back and get a Master’s degree. This is the junior high I attended from 1970 to 1973. A couple of teachers were retiring that very year that were there when I was FIRST there! My classroom I was now teaching 8th grade language arts had been my 9th grade algebra classroom.
  • 2003: Cindy and I get married after a long term relationship.
  • 2004: Cindy’s goal was to have a restaurant. My goal was to have a business. After about a two year search/research, we sell the house, move and open the Homestead Restaurant in Florence, Colorado. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, it becomes a very popular community restaurant much in part to Cindy’s cooking and the commitment of a staff that places the customer first. e open July 12, to a packed house. We were not prepared for that day. We had done no advertising nor even made an official announcement. It was a Monday. Word travels fast in a small town. We had one cook, one inexperienced waitress, a teenage daughter and me. By 1 pm we were out of almost everything. In the first 7 days, we put in 133 hours. Our first day off was Christmas. Whew. My son Greg graduates from Mitchell High School, 28 years after I had graduated — from Mitchell High School! (1976)
  • 2005: Business is building. It consumes our lives as we continue to work it 7 days a week. We have a staff in place now though. We continue to drive each day back and forth from Colorado Springs, staying on the weekends in Florence as closing was often after midnight. Ten months into it Cindy has had enough. She leaves and we end in divorce by the first of the year.
  • 2006: A year of surviving. Taught 8th grade LA at Penrose Middle School and ran the restaurant the best I could 7 days a week. Days began at 6 am, open the business, report to school by 7:45 and teach 4 classes till 12:30 pm. Back to restaurant for lunch and stay till close, anywhere from 9 pm to 1 pm depending on the day. If I had not had some of the best, trustworthy, and loyal employees this would have never been possible. The year came to a close making a decision not to re-new the lease as owner would not negotiate terms.
  • 2007: The closing of the restaurant in January with the owner finding new people to lease the building. (Note: they only made it about 4 months.) It was by far the most challenging and rewarding thing I have done thus far. It came with a high price that of a ending of my marriage (that’s two), stress that took its toll on me, and some tax problems that will take time to work out. Made some great friends that I think will be life-long. Made the move to Phoenix after living in Colorado for 38 years.
  • 2008: In the making. Begin the blog which is a compilation of a couple of years figuring out a purpose. The 1st year anniversary of living in Phoenix, AZ. It is a beautiful city.