: About Me

When it comes to perspective, that's me. According to the Navy, I am an orphan (hate that term) because my father was killed in the Service before I was born. I was unplanned to be sure. My mother and father were married on May 15, 1952. My father was killed July 31, 1952. I was born on April 10, 1953. Damn that was close. I have no brothers and sisters by blood, so, I am anonly child as well.

After that, My mom and I moved in with my Grandmother and Grandfather who had two children - my Aunt (then 19) and my Uncle (then 16). So, then I became the youngest of three.

My mother had to work. I was brought up by my Grandmother (Sweet little Irish lady with a nasty right hook and a thumb and index finger that could tear the skin off an alligator. But she like me. She used to say to me mostly, Little Pictures should be seen and not heard." I was always a little on the mouthy side growing up. I never got the right hook but I got pinched a bit.

Later, my mother remarried. I was six. My Dad is a great guy, Although I am not sure why it took him 35 years to formally adopt me. Finally, my Aunt and my Uncle moved out and started lives of their own and families. By the time they were done, I became the oldest of eight cousins and we all lived in a town called Danbury in western Connecticut..

So, I grewup an orphan, an only child. a stepchild (and a red-headed one at that. (I was never ugly though). I was the youngest of three and the oldest of eight in a family where my Grandmother was like my mother, my mother was like my older sister (That changed the first time she heard that), my cousins were like my brothers and sisters.

Now, I have two children of my own who are my children always, my friends always and sometimes, when we hang out together and the stuff we do and talk about make all this perspective worth it. They have a similar relationship with their Mom. As for us we parted ways on friendly terms. I was always a much better Dad than a husband. I have been married twice and divorced twice. Have had a couple of semi-serious relationshipss since and now am in what, for all intent and purposes, appears to be a serious relationship. Who would have thought.

I have been writing now for forty years. I was , however, first and foremost a "watcher." It is a necessary step in becoming a writer. You have to be a watcher to feel the meaning of the words. We all have things to say that are needed and important for others to hear. That is more than why I write, It is how Iive.

Entertainment > Music (Other) Who has influenced music more: King of Pop or King of Rock?

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Elvis changed music and life as we knew it - without the technology. Think about the early days of Elvis. The guitars were good; Better than many today. But the electronics were horrible. The amps may have had a smoother sound but they overheated and the tubes blew. The pickups were fragile, temperamental things. They were meant for a different kind of music. Then along came Elvis; and look what happened. Here came someone with a voice that never failed him, with a body that moved in ways that would make a Baptist minister blush, with music that made you move - a bluesy rhythm with a back ...

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