Next time I write one of these, I’m going to tell you that I’m singing lead in an R&B band and riding an old Harley. I did drive a 1959 356A Porsche roadster for several years until the kids outgrew the rumble seat. We’d roar up the driveway to Montessori school with the gang hanging out of the sunroof. Then, I got stuck in the station wagon years, and I can’t seem to get myself back into a cool car. Where is that Porsche?

Let’s see . . . My parents moved to North Carolina the day after we graduated, so I very quickly lost contact with high school friends, since I rarely came back to the area during holidays and vacations. I spent that first summer waiting tables at Hot Shoppes with Merrill Larson, then headed to Middlebury where I studied chemistry, learned to ski and sprained my ankle badly. After two winters, I realized that I truly was a southern belle with a desperate need for cherry blossoms and daffodils during those months that the rest of the world calls spring. No more mud season! I transferred to GW with a major in art history and minor in studio art, which landed me a job as a graphic designer for ABC News in Washington, where I stayed for 11 years - the last 4 on the staff of Good Morning America. Yes, I did go to work at 4 a.m., but the hours allowed me to be home in the afternoon for soccer practice (I was the mom who was sound asleep under the tree.)

The 70’s were our Mother-Earth-Back-to-the-Land-Self-Sufficiency years. We lived on a farm in Loudoun County, chopped wood, raised chickens and children, ate chickpeas and lentils, wore Earth Shoes, etc., etc. (And commuted to Washington for our jobs.)

In the early 80’s, I made a career shift, went back to school and received a graduate degree in landscape architecture. Over the last 25 years, I’ve worked for private sector firms doing projects from large-scale land planning to historic park restoration and private residences; for the public sector with local planning design and implementation of Smart Growth policies; and for the nonprofit sector doing heritage area planning for the Potomac basin and city parks advocacy. While doing my Potomac work, we partnered with the Maryland Environmental Trust, and I found myself working with John Hutson (I’d always thought it was “Hudson” until he sent me some correspondence) who turned out to be Susan’s little brother. Right now, I’m working with the Baltimore Conservatory and Botanic Garden (for fun) and managing our personal real estate investments (for profit.)

On a parallel family track . . . my older daughter Adrienne is 36, works as a food editor, and just moved to Bristol, UK with her British husband, Nick, and 7-1/2 year old daughter, Isobel. My younger daughter Melissa is 33, manages product development for Tiffany’s, and just bought her first apartment in Brooklyn, NY, with her Italian husband, Riccardo, and 3 year old daughter Flavia. Their apartment is the size of my living room.

I won’t tell you about all of the dogs and cats in my life over the last 40 years, but there have been 2 husbands (some of you have me beat on that item) -- the last one a real keeper. Peter has just wrapped up a 25-year career in the wine business, mostly in importing and distribution (we drink well) and has started a new business in green building. He cooks; he cleans the pots and pans; he takes me hiking in Italy; he does qigong with me. In short, he’s in charge of making me laugh and making sure I don’t take myself too seriously. We live in midtown Baltimore in a neighborhood of 3-story Victorian rowhouses that looks a lot like Dupont Circle, but without the heavy traffic. We love Baltimore.

It’s wonderful to hear from so many people. Many of us go back to Miss Scanlan’s 7-15 homeroom at NB. Scary!

 

 

I hated school!


I suppose that was because I have a father that always felt the more school the better! From the 8^th grade summer through the 12^th grade summer I attended summer school!


I hated summer school!


Normal school grades were ok but, English, English, typing and English consumed my summers!


Three days after we all graduated from WJ, I found myself at Bullis Prep, again in Summer School! They asked me not to return for a post high school year!


I hated Bullis Prep too!


But life continued and I enrolled at a small liberal arts college in Rochester, NY and at the end of the first year they asked me not to return!


I hated Roberts Wesleyan!


Well, as the draft was ongoing, hot and heavy, a non-student could rely on receiving a "Congratulations" letter from Uncle Sam. So I submitted an apology and was granted a reprieve of one trimester to organize my life in their college world.


At the end of the second year, they told me never to return!


I really, really hated Roberts Wesleyan!


With a draft number of 14 it took Uncle Sam until February to catch up to me. I was drafted into the Army and elected to join the Navy on a delayed enlistment. On a Thursday in Rochester the recruiter told me he could "delay" my enlistment until the following Tuesday!


Yup..I hate the Navy too!


The recruiter in Washington allowed me a month! Life became more humorous!


At the recruitment center in Baltimore, and because so many enlistees were applying for the Navy versus the Army and the Marines, they had us count of by 4's. They announced that all number 3's were now Marines! I was a 1.


Hated to be a Marine more!


Aptitude tests in Boot Camp uncovered the fact that I could still read the color-coded values of a resistor due to my 8^th grade Science Fair project at North Bethesda Jr. High. So, the Navy told me I was to be in the aviation branch and I was to pick 3 vocational choices! Meteorology, photographic intelligence, and air traffic controller were my choices. Fire control technician (aviation electronics) was theirs, and I had to pick among 4 choices in that category. They selected my 4^th and most unwanted selection. Starting to see a pattern here?


Now that the Navy had me in a vocational field where I didn't want to be, they gave me 3 duty station choices along with an overseas choice. So, being a Maryland boy, Pax River, Oceania, VA and Delaware were my east coast selections and any where in the Caribbean was my outside the US choice. Somebody had a real sense of humor when they saw my Dream Sheet choices.....China Lake, CA, in the middle of the Mojave Desert, in the NAVY (!) was the place I was going to run my toes through the sand for the next 3.5 years!


Well, as I hated school, did I mention that, they sent me to electronic school in Memphis, TN for 16 weeks. Barely finishing this course, I volunteered, as one is never supposed to do in the service, for an advanced electronics course. This action eventually qualified me to remain at China Lake versus joining the 5,000 person floating steel hotel known as an aircraft carrier.


Things changed in California! I met and married my wife Catherine, now of 35 years. We left California for Florida where I had been accepted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I completed a 4-year degree in Management in 2 years and 8 months, worked 6 hours a day in a hospital operating room, purchased our first home and we started our family.


I loved college!


Presently I am a Regional Sales Manager living in the Richmond, VA area. Our family has lived in Atlanta, GA, Western Illinois, and finally in Richmond. The majority of my career has been in sales and sales management, through manufacturers and distributors to end-users. Most products are things normal people don't know exist, i.e., pneumatic tools and hoists, bridge crane systems, robotics and manipulators, and engineered material handling systems!


Our family now consists of 3 children, all living in the Richmond area, and 2 wonderful, soon to be 3 wonderful, grandchildren!


I love humor and life, wine and good food, friends and family.


Love to see you in Bethesda!