I was born a poor black child...
Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
I was born in Boston, MA at Beth Israel Hospital (no, I'm not Jewish. Not that there's anything wrong with that) in the late summer of 1969 when my parents were living in Arlington, MA (just outside of Cambridge). My Mother was and is, a Psych Nurse. My Dad was a recent Harvard grad (more about that later) who had and has worked a variety of jobs from Ice Cream Scooper at Brighams, to college professor to book reviewer for the Globe to a variety of management/HR jobs mainly in the technology industry. I have an older brother, Ian, who is working for IBM in Colorado. He and I could not be more different. I am a flaming liberal, he is a goosestepping facist conservative. I am an athiest (or at best a backsliding Unitarian) he is a born again, Anglican Catholic (I don't really know what that is either othert than it menas they get to hate the Pope).
My parents moved from MA when I was about 1 to Warner, NH. Warner is a small town at the base of Mt. Kearsarge and, as far as I know, it has know legitmate claim to fame. Warner was a nice town to grow up in and we lived there until I was about 7. I remember being allowed to wonder far and wide at a very young age. I was able to go to the local ponds, streams, etc and wander through the woods to my hearts content. Either my parents were trying to get rid of me, or it was a different era.
I got as far as the 1st grade in Warner and then we moved all the way across the state to Durham when my Dad got a teaching job in the business school at UNH. Durham was ok, the best part about it was that it was the place I got introduced to soccer. I'd never even heard of it until then. It ended up being the sport I competed in the longest (besides golf, but that comes later). We were only in Durham a couple of years when my Dad moved onto a position at Boston University. Rather than move to Boston, we moved to Bow, NH which is right next to Concord (or at the intersection of Rt. 89 & 93). My mother had been working at the state hospital since we had moved to NH and the commute from Durham to Concord was beginning to get to her so we settled in Bow and my Dad commuted.
I lived in Bow from the time I was 10 until I left home for college so this is what I thik of when I think of my childhood. Bow was an ok town, but there's nothing in it for kids. Lots of trees and not a down town in site. From my house it was about 7 or 8 miles to Concord so all there was available for an adolescent to do was get into adolescent trouble. Both my parents smoked, so I started the habit by the time I was 13 (and continued for about 18yrs before I quit). Of course there were other things I did along the way (I had my first drink by the time I was 12 and if you ask nice I'll tell you the story of going to a Jr. high dance drunk).
I also achieved the honor of being, ppossibly the worst student to ever manage t graduate from Concord HS. In 1988 I graduated with the stellar avg. of 69.7. Obviously colleges weren't beating down my door so I took a couple of years off. Eventually I "found myself" and took a couple night classes, got some decent grades and applied to college. I got accepted to both state colleges in NH (Plymouth and Keene), as I had a couple friends going to KSC I opted to become an Owl.
That's all for now. I just looked at the clock and realized I need to go pick up my Son Cooper at daycare. I'll finish this up later.
I was born in Boston, MA at Beth Israel Hospital (no, I'm not Jewish. Not that there's anything wrong with that) in the late summer of 1969 when my parents were living in Arlington, MA (just outside of Cambridge). My Mother was and is, a Psych Nurse. My Dad was a recent Harvard grad (more about that later) who had and has worked a variety of jobs from Ice Cream Scooper at Brighams, to college professor to book reviewer for the Globe to a variety of management/HR jobs mainly in the technology industry. I have an older brother, Ian, who is working for IBM in Colorado. He and I could not be more different. I am a flaming liberal, he is a goosestepping facist conservative. I am an athiest (or at best a backsliding Unitarian) he is a born again, Anglican Catholic (I don't really know what that is either othert than it menas they get to hate the Pope).
My parents moved from MA when I was about 1 to Warner, NH. Warner is a small town at the base of Mt. Kearsarge and, as far as I know, it has know legitmate claim to fame. Warner was a nice town to grow up in and we lived there until I was about 7. I remember being allowed to wonder far and wide at a very young age. I was able to go to the local ponds, streams, etc and wander through the woods to my hearts content. Either my parents were trying to get rid of me, or it was a different era.
I got as far as the 1st grade in Warner and then we moved all the way across the state to Durham when my Dad got a teaching job in the business school at UNH. Durham was ok, the best part about it was that it was the place I got introduced to soccer. I'd never even heard of it until then. It ended up being the sport I competed in the longest (besides golf, but that comes later). We were only in Durham a couple of years when my Dad moved onto a position at Boston University. Rather than move to Boston, we moved to Bow, NH which is right next to Concord (or at the intersection of Rt. 89 & 93). My mother had been working at the state hospital since we had moved to NH and the commute from Durham to Concord was beginning to get to her so we settled in Bow and my Dad commuted.
I lived in Bow from the time I was 10 until I left home for college so this is what I thik of when I think of my childhood. Bow was an ok town, but there's nothing in it for kids. Lots of trees and not a down town in site. From my house it was about 7 or 8 miles to Concord so all there was available for an adolescent to do was get into adolescent trouble. Both my parents smoked, so I started the habit by the time I was 13 (and continued for about 18yrs before I quit). Of course there were other things I did along the way (I had my first drink by the time I was 12 and if you ask nice I'll tell you the story of going to a Jr. high dance drunk).
I also achieved the honor of being, ppossibly the worst student to ever manage t graduate from Concord HS. In 1988 I graduated with the stellar avg. of 69.7. Obviously colleges weren't beating down my door so I took a couple of years off. Eventually I "found myself" and took a couple night classes, got some decent grades and applied to college. I got accepted to both state colleges in NH (Plymouth and Keene), as I had a couple friends going to KSC I opted to become an Owl.
That's all for now. I just looked at the clock and realized I need to go pick up my Son Cooper at daycare. I'll finish this up later.
posted by jwebb at 1:27 PM
1 Comments:
Please, please tell me about going to the Jr. High dance drunk... I asked nice!
Post a Comment
<< Home