I am a high school dropout with a Master’s Degree. That I will explain later. I was a surprise breech birth to a sixteen year old high school dropout. I am the oldest of seven siblings. I was raised in several Catholic Charities institutions. Before I was seven years old I lived for about two years on my grandfather’s farm in Michigan. Here I started my formal education in a one room school house.

From July, 1940 until August 1945 I lived in St. Mary’s Training School, Des Plaines, Illinois. I was not a good student, nor was I a well behaved resident. And so, I was transferred to another institution for high school studies. That was the year, at age 15, I quit school and bummed around Chicago. The summer of 1947 my stepfather got my promise to behave and he got me a job with the Illinois Central Railroad. This wonderful man died six months later.

At age 21 the Draft call for the Korean War turned me down because of an ear problem. I got married and then decided an education would help me in life. I returned to school. Because I worked the four to midnight shift, evening classes were out. Permission was given and I attended day classes as a regular student. During this time my first child was born, a hydrocephalic, she died eighteen months later. After graduation I went to Chicago Teacher’s College. I taught for two years after leaving the railroad job.
    
I have always been interested in the natural world and found a job as a summer Naturalist with the Cook County Forest Preserve District, which became permanent. I also remarried. The desire to teach was very strong and I returned to the classroom for twenty more years. The onset of Parkinson’s forced me into early retirement in 1986m, and actually, into new careers. Some of the things I did years ago were rather foolish. I guess I’m living proof that you can outgrow stupidity.
    
I tried being a “Human Torch” back in 1949.  I burned out quickly doing this.
    
I did punch-needle embroidery with a needle I developed. The business went belly up when the needle didn’t sell. Doing embroidery with Parkinson’s didn’t work. I tried professional bowling. On tour I contributed to the prize money. A squirrel would have starved on my earnings. I met a lot of wonderful people on tour. I also did, still do, art shows in the malls and parks. More compliments than sales, but my ego enjoys the nice words.
    
Since I started high school, I have not missed taking a class or workshop in sign language, art, theater, film, and any subject I wanted to know about. That’s a lot of learning in fifty plus years, particularly if you consider how at one time I disliked school so much that I quit school. After attending a writing class at the College of Lake County, I began a collection of short stories. The culmination is my first book, Short, Shorter and Shorter Stories, for people who have to wait. Its success has already started me on a novel and a second collection of short stories.
    
Usually I awake around 6 a.m. I may write until 7:30 or I may paint, depending on my mood. I’ll nap for about an hour around 11 or 3 in the afternoon. Each week I bowl three days, play tennis on another or golf or attend a movie. The evening finds me back writing or painting for two, two and a half hours. Some nights I may watch some travel programs or nature shows on TV. I am up until midnight most nights.
    
Each year Rita and I try to travel somewhere. Or try something different, hot air ballooning, gliders, the fun stuff. We’ve walked the Great Wall of China, ridden gondolas on the canals of Venice, crossed the Tasman Sea in an unbelievable storm, gone up the Eiffel Tower, marveled at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, toured the Hermitage Art Museum of St. Petersburg, kissed the Blarney Stone and traveled to some fantastic places.
    
In my spare time I work as a volunteer for the park district golf course. I locate farm sites going into housing or commercial development and request permission of the owner to transplant the available perennials or shrubs to the golf course. It’s saving some of our local heritage. I also cultivate some of the plants already on the grounds in an effort to keep beautifying the area.