10 Things

10 Things I Have Done, That You Might Not Have

 

1. I skied down the "International" slope at Vail, my first time out. It goes down fast, 

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I made it down, even though I thought I was going to die...a horrible, spectacular, PUBLIC death!   (For the rest of the story see  I skied like a pro in my Journal Jar Journal)

2. I lived in Paris when I was 17, for 3 months, then in Stuttgart, Germany, for 7 more months, courtesy of the US Army, but nearly civilian-status. I had free rein to go where I wanted, so long as I showed up for work, when I was scheduled. We interpreted that rule very liberally!

3. I was double-promoted in the 2nd grade, into the 3rd grade, in the middle of the year, because I was in a combination class and got bored with the 2nd grade work and wanted to do the 3rd grade work. I was 16 when I graduated from high school.

4. I had to have rabies shots when I was 3. I was bit by a stray dog we had adopted. They caught him and he had rabies...my mom says after the 3rd day, it took her, my dad AND the doctor to hold me down, while the nurse quickly gave me the shot! It's a 14 day series. She says, for years after, whenever she turned down the street the doctor's office was on, I would go ballistic.

5. We spent one entire summer camped alongside the Roaring Fork River, near Glenwood Springs CO. I was 11, turned 12 while we were there. Lived the Huck Finn lifestyle, along the frigid river's banks. We moved back into a house, in Grand Junction CO in time for school. There were no houses available in Glenwood at the time.

6. On the way back from VietNam, the "freedom bird" I was on stopped off at Guam and Wake Island, which is basically a tiny speck, surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean. How the pilot found it is a mystery to me.

7. I was the youngest person elected to the College of Fellows of a professional organization I belong to, at age 35. I was president of the state chapter at the time, and national 1st vice-president.

8. I got up close and personal to the Beatles, when I was 15, about 6-8 ft away, when they came to Denver, in 1964. It only lasted for a matter of seconds and I am sure they didn't take notice of me.

9. I worked, for almost 3 years, with the architect who designed the MacDonalds Golden Arches. He designed the first half-dozen stands the MacDonald brothers opened in the late 40's and early 50's, before Ray Kroc bought them out and made a household name out of MacDonald's.

10. I twice traveled by train all the way across the US, first from Augusta, Georgia, to Los Angeles, California, and then from Los Angeles to Trenton, New Jersey. The southern route was a local from Augusta to Atlanta to Birmingham to Mobile to New Orleans, stopping frequently in small towns to take on or let off passengers. From New Orleans on to LA, the train only stopped in major cities.