Memoirs 1

When I started school at Gilbert Grade School in Portland, Oregon, in 1949, I was moved immediately to second grade. That put me a year behind my classmates. A year later, upon entering third grade, I exuberantly announced to classmate Allen Neighorn that I had already read the reading textbook. This provoked a reprimand from my new teacher, Mrs. Greenwald, who saw in me the signs of excessive self-esteem or just plain narcissism.

After seven years, I entered David Douglas High School at 13 years of age, still small, short on physical and social development. I was put on an academic track toward college. Physical education was required, but due to a knee disorder (Osgood Schlatter's Disease) I was exempted. My mother wanted me to take typing. I insisted on taking wood shop, where I started a couple of weeks behind the class but quickly caught up and ended with time to spare for an optional extra project. My little step stool (later left to son Jacob and family) was among the best, maybe the very best. At least I remember it with pride, and I remember the finished products of some classmates were pretty lame.

These young experiences have left marks on my entire life. Always a little backward, but also stubborn, independent, inquisitive, creative, curious. However, my attention wandered. I did not invest deeply in any particular pursuit. During my 76 years of life, my choices gave me experience that was wide but perhaps also somewhat shallow.

A mile wide and an inch deep.

In grade school I took no interest in sports, and developed no skills. Playing marbles was popular in the schoolyard. We were not supposed to "play for keeps." When playing for keeps, I would invariably lose.

I liked music. I took piano lessons, but not for long. I did not read the music, but quickly learned to pick out the notes with an assist from a teacher who would point to a key when I hesitated. My mother "fired" that teacher when she discovered I could not read music.

I played baritone horn in the band, but I never got very good at reading the score. Baritone had interesting parts (countermelody). The trombone is similar in range but much less showy. In high school, I attempted to make a switch, perhaps to gain popularity. The trombone would appear at the front of the marching band. However, I soon found it to be musically more boring. (I tried briefly to play Dixieland jazz on trombone, but it just wasn't right.)

I loved Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and other orchestral events to which my parents took me as a child. (Much later, in the 1970's, I actually sang the role of the Major General in an amateur production of "Pirates of Penzance".)

Later in high school I took up guitar, first with folk music and early rock and roll, in the styles of the (for example) Kingston Trio and/or Chuck Berry. Later I tried to switch to classical guitar, in the tradition of Andres Segovia. That lasted a couple of years, but didn't really take.