Welcome
Thanks for coming. I hope you enjoy your stay and come back often. The page is growing and changing all the time. We try to keep things interesting and up-to-date.
My other pages are listed to the left. You will find many links on those other pages pertaining to that subject.
Check out my life story below along with other fun stuff.
Born December 10th, 1939 in the little town of Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada. The town had a population of 1150. It was in farm country and I had many relatives living on farms so that was where I spent my vacations. It's a great way to grow up.
I received a "thorough" high school education. I borrowed that term from a friend a few years ago. I like it. It's true, though. Most of my teachers were old maids. They were dedicated to teaching kids the three Rs; and they were good at it.
At the ripe age of 17, I went to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway as an agent/telegrapher. At first I worked spare, which means that you travel all over the place. Sometimes you worked 3 days and sometimes 3 months. It was great for a young fellow who hadn't been far from home. Marriage changed all that and I finally bid on a permanent job -- permanent as it goes with the railroad. Seniority is king and, at that time, I didn't have very much of it. So it wasn't long before I got moved from Souris, Manitoba to Thunder Bay, Ontario. I worked there 2 1/2 years and then was about to get bumped out of there. The place I had to go was Dryden, Ontario. It was a town with a paper mill right upwind from the main part of town. I had worked there before. No thanks!
That was all I needed to convince me to pack up and leave for better places. It was a time of great migration to Southern California. My wife and I packed our two kids, and everything else that would fit into our 63 Ford, and headed for Los Angeles -- the land of plenty. We had $1200 to our name and another $1600 coming from my railroad retirement fund. They gave me back just what I had contributed. Within 6 months, the money was gone. Finding that job wasn't as easy as it looked. Also, there were a lot of other people doing the same thing.
Finally, I landed a job as an underwriter with an insurance company. They specialized in training. They were a really good company; but they didn't pay worth a darn. They would train people, then lose them to other companies, then train some more. I guess it worked for them. They are still one of the best companies in the market, so you can't knock 'em. Anyway, after a year and a half of that, I decided the only way you could make money in the insurance industry was to "sell" insurance. I went to work for a year for another company, and then I started my own agency. That worked quite well. I ran my agency for about 7 years. During this time, I began to get interested in sailing and barbershop quartet singing. Both are covered thoroughly in my other pages.
Divorce prompted me to change my lifestyle. No better time to go cruising and fulfill a long-time dream. So, I sold everything I had and bought a sailboat. That story is told on my Sailing Page.
|
Other Menu |
|
Today's Date
|
|
Actually changed every "few" days. |
