Introduction

I was born in the middle of the 20th century in the middle of the night in the middle of a town the middle of nowhere, the middle son of a lower middle class family. An inauspicious beginning to what go on to be what to the casual observer would seem a rather pedestrian life. I was an average child, though judged a bit odd by my peers. In truth, even I found myself a bit strange. I was a frail child and obsessively shy, I found the outside world cold and menacing…which it often was…and tended to withdraw into my own world. An uninspired student and a mediocre athlete, I drifted through my school years without much promise. I mostly coasted along, drawing as little notice as possible. Girls, in particular, paid me little attention in my early dating years. Whether it was my less than dynamic personality or my J.C. Penny wardrobe I was never really sure. In my 20’s I drifted a bit…town to town, job to job…eventually settling down to raise a family while shuffling through a series of jobs before settling into a rather sedate retirement. No great accomplishments or heroic acts of valor to relate. Never achieved fame or fortune…though the latter I continue to blame on the lottery. All in all it would seem a very ordinary life.

Yet woven into the fabric of that life are a pattern of places, events, and most especially people that have led to an extraordinary journey through this humble lifetime. It is those elements that have shaped who I am today. They have given me the strength and the confidence to take on a world that I once feared, to trust in others and to trust in myself. It is said that a life well lived is good friends, great stories, and grand adventures and in those respects I feel fortunate indeed. With that I embark on this admittedly narcissistic chronicle of a life lived under the radar. I hope you will join me.

Disclaimer: While the places and events in the story are real, some of the names have been changed in order to respect the privacy of the persons involved.