I Have A Great Memory

Here’s some biographical information about the blogger:

I have a great memory, but I think it peaked out when I was in the 6th grade in 1960 and it’s been all downhill from there. Still, even at an advanced age, I seem to remember more than about 70% of the people I know (if Jeopardy! is any indication). Maybe I’ve just been exposed to a lot more than most of them.

From childhood to senior citizen, I’ve been, more or less in this order, the son of a farmer and school teacher, brother (to Henry), cowboy, student, musician, hunter, race car driver, oil painting artist, windmill and fence repairer, cattle auction employee, auto mechanic, rodeo star, writer, sailor on an aircraft carrier in the US Navy, husband, college educated hippie (Texas State), carpenter, plumber, mason, home builder (our own geodesic dome), water district chairman, accountant, computer programmer, manufacturing company business manager, father, corporate software company technical manager, computer applications educator, divorcee, entrepreneur: President of five computer-related companies I started, husband again, speaker at major Data Processing and Information Technology conferences, divorcee again, folk festival regular, husband again, property developer, grandfather, and still going strong.

The people who influenced me include (in no particular order): Charles Darwin, Jesus Christ, Grandmothers (Minnie & Molly), parents (Earl and Grace), Henry Floyd, children (David and Callie), Stuart Brand, Buckminster Fuller, Sandra Kurtzig, Hank Williams, Jerry Whatley, Tom Terrific and Deputy Dawg, Mike Tuggle, Mark Ripma, Tom Lavey, Van Purdy, John Banks, Terry Moseley, Dr. Marvin Johnston, Peter Baen, Ronald Hugh Roberts, Champ Hood, Mrs. Derek (sixth grade) and Mrs. Doss (10th grade), Ruth and Dave Ingram, Chester Damron, three wives (Nanci Hudson, Laura Rowny, and Caren Canfield), John Malcosky, Macon Richmond, Kurt Vonnegut, William Shakespeare...

Like Darwin, I’ve been around the entire planet on a large ship, but, being 18 years old and pretty wild, I spent a lot of time in bars and brothels; still I saw a lot of the world and met a lot of interesting people. In the Navy and afterward, I’ve visited many foreign countries: Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Brazil, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Sydney (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand), Iceland, Luxembourg, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Bermuda, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Sicily, the Netherlands. I’ve been to all 50 states except Hawaii. I’ve been to Alaska and seen the sun at midnight and I’ve been near enough to Antarctica to see the sun rotate around the sky and not set for several days as we “slowly” cruised across the South Pacific on an aircraft carrier.

Later in life I’ve really gotten back into oil painting which I started in the 7th grade and didn’t touch for 45 years; it takes a lot of time. I decided in 1986 that I did not have time for golf and have not picked up a club since, but oil painting is a creative pastime that leaves a trail that can be called a body of work. Someday maybe I’ll even have time for golf again.