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About Me
I was born many years ago
in
Altoona, Pennsylvania,
a small city in the mountains
east of Pittsburgh. I lived in Altoona until the summer before I began
the second grade. My parents had purchased a couple of acres on route
220 a few miles from Altoona, between Altoona and Duncansville, where
my father was
building a house for our family. We had been living in that unfinished
house for a month or so during a each summer a few years prior to our
move and living with my grandfather in Altoona during the remainder of
the year. After our move I attended elementary school in Allegheny
Township and later high school in Hollidaysburg.
Altoona was a Pennsylvania Railroad town and the economy of the
surrounding area was dominated by the Pennsy. During the 1950s and
1960s it seemed like my entire family worked for the PRR. Like many
working-class parents in the 1950s and 1960s my parents, i.e., Marie and James, adopted many
middle-class values and attitudes including the importance of a college
education for their children. My father did not want me to have to work
for a living the way he had. Of course he was referring to physical or
manual labor. Instead I was taught from a early age that a college
education was the key to a prosperous and happy life. After graduating
from Hollidaysburg Area High School I attended college at the
University of Pittsburgh during the late 1960s and early 1970s. My
parents' plan that I would become a dentist did not quite work out and
I graduated with a last minute major in psychology. Much to everyone's
surprise I landed a job as a caseworker for the state welfare system in
Philadelphia. While living in Philadelphia I married a beautiful young woman,
i.e., Pat, from the
south side of Pittsburgh, who I had met while finishing college. That
turned out to be the best decision I ever
made and we remain together today. I worked the welfare job for a few
years before I decided I was not tolerant enough of bureaucracy to
continue a
career in social services. Then we moved back to Pittsburgh were I
attended graduate school to earn a master's degree in library science.
After completing the MLS I accepted a job in the library at the
University of
Nebraska at Omaha. A few years later our daughter was born in Omaha
and,
like many new fathers, I panicked about needing to earn more money so I
accepted a job in the library at the University of Cincinnati. After a
few years in Cincinnati, the birth of our son precipitated another
move, this
time to a university in South Dakota where we still live. During my
tenure in South Dakota I earned a second master's degree, this time in
sociology. Although I am now retired, I realize that most of my adult life has been spent in the
somewhat artificial environment of university campuses. However, over
the years Pat and I have been able to support an acceptable (although certainly
not opulent) lifestyle for our family. I often think about moving again but I am
trying to accept the importance of living where I am. My father, who died in
1969, would be pleased that I have never had to work for a living (meaning I
never worked a job that required physical labor, except during my teenage years). However, I
often wonder what it would be like to work a real job, and I just might try that
sometime, at least on a part-time basis. I look forward to many wonderful
years in retirement.
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