University of Minnesota grad school; field work in Mexico,
married Kitty in 1969.
After graduating high school in 1960, I went to Stanford University on a generous scholarship, and graduate in cultural anthropology in 1964. I then went to graduate school at University of Minnesota, again on a generous fellowship and again in Cultural Anthropology.
Musically, I did not develop much at Stanford. I flunked an audition to play trombone in the orchestra. From classmates I acquired an appreciation for folk music, which was popular at that time. I was a musical consumer, not a musician. Attempts at classical guitar were not productive. In Minneapolis, from 1965, I ushered for the New York Metropolitan Opera during their annual week-long series. To qualify to volunteer as usher, I bought a tuxedo, second-hand, from a rental outfit.
From 1965 to 1969 I worked to complete a Ph. D. in Cultural Anthropology. This took me to Mexico on two separate occasions, first to Puebla in 1965 and then to Hidalgo in 1967. These experiences led me to pursue dissertation research in La Mesa, a village in the municipio of Acaxochitlan, in the state of Hidalgo.
In 1968, my wife Kitty came to stay with me in Mexico, then we married in early 1969. We moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, in late 1969, where I became Assistant Professor at West Virginia Univerasity.
In the early 70’s, soon after moving to West Virginia, I took up the old-time fiddle.
I taught at West Virginia University for ten years. I developed a special interest in gerontology, the study of aging. In 1977, Kitty and I took a leave for field research in southern West Virginia, on the subject of aging in the Black community. At that pointm we had three young children. The decision to study in the Black community was motivated in large part by a desire do accommodate our Black adopted daughter, Amy.
My father died suddenly in 1978. His death, in combination with my growing dissatisfaction with the academic world, mark a personal crisis that led directly to my decision to resign from the faculty at West Virginia University just as I was granted tenure. I never wrote a report of my study in the Black community in southern West Virginia.
Thus ended my "first" career.