1940 ~ I was born in 1940 on a farm a mile from Brookville and my sister was born in a house near Pearl City in 1932.  The picture on the right was taken around 1938 and is the only known picture of the house where I was born.  My grandparents, Martin & Anna Peterson, parents of my mother, are standing in front of the house! 

A month after I was born we moved to a farm half a mile from the house I was born in and my parents then bought this farm.  We moved within a year to Pecatonica on a 500 acre farm we rented along with owning the farm near Brookville.  I went to a one room school house near the rented farm and my sister graduated from the Pecatonica High School and moved to Rockford.  

My parents and I moved back to the farm near Brookville around 1950 where I finished grade school in another one room school house and I graduated from High School at Polo in 1958.  I then worked at Freeport (my first computer job), Rockford, and was drafted and worked as a computer center supervisor at the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco in 1963 where I have lived every since!

When I was born on a farm near Brookville Illinois my sister said she was in the next room and heard my first cry.  They  had plowed the snow off the gravel road just in case the doctor was needed.  Our father went to the neighbors to call the doctor to come out. I weighed 'ten and one half' pounds and as my sister said, "I wasn't red like most babies, I was white and had rosy cheeks and curly hair!"  She said I tried to walk when I was only six months old and they were worried as I was so big and heavy, I might become bow-legged.  Well at least that didn't happen!  As you can see, I was an angel as a baby!

Our dog Scrappy would check the basket I was in to make sure I was all right!  Within three weeks we moved to the next farm which my parents had bought!  

The only thing I remember about the farm before we moved to Pecatonica where we rented another farm, was our Christmas tree decorated with candles just like the old German Christmas trees.  The candles were lit for only a few minutes, then blown out for safety!  It is strange how I can remember that so clearly and nothing else during those early years!

1942 ~ My sister told me when I was two years old I was already misbehaving.  When they did the threshing and piled the straw into a huge pile, a straw stack you know, one always went to the top and slid down it as it was so much fun!  I guess one wasn't suppose to do that when the straw was fresh and hadn't settled as one could sink in and suffocate!  So I decided at two years of age to get onto the straw stack and dance around on the top of it.  Well it was bad enough I managed to crawl on the top of the straw stack, the next thing I did was to take off all my clothes and dance around.  My sister said the hired man saw me dancing around and yelled for someone to take care of that boy and get him off of the straw stack!   

She said she did the same thing when she was two years old, took all her cloths off and stood on the concrete base of the windmill in the front yard as the neighbors drove by.  Our father came by and scooped her up.  So now I know where I got my exhibitionist qualities from, my sister.  One has to blame someone!

Since she was eight years older, she said she always thought of me as a real live doll and took care of me while our parents worked outside.  She used to dress me up and put me outside to take a photo with our Brownie box camera.   I would stand there and the neighbors would drive by, I told her that was why I was so screwed up in later years, she 'made' me dress up in those funny clothes.  She laughed about that! 

1943 ~ I told my sister about the first faux pas I remembered doing as a child.  I thought I was around six or seven by she said I was three years old!  She said I certainly have a good memory for something that happened 63 years ago!  Here we are when I was three riding on our pony!  I am the one hanging on for dear life!

As most children on farms or I guess, anywhere, matches and fires are something that is magical.  We had the big ‘farmers’ matches and I loved to play with them.  One day in the early fall the grass was about a foot tall and everything was dry as there hadn’t been any rain for a considerable amount of time.  I decided to take some matches and go into the backfield behind the buildings where there was an old orchard with dried tree trunks and grass.  I lit a match and watched the fire take hold.  Well it certainly did, suddenly the entire area was on fire.  It was bad and I was scared.  Suddenly I heard my father yelling and I was even more scared.  He came running back to the fire and screamed at me to help put it out.  I didn’t know what to do so I ran across the road and into the pasture and down to the neighbors house, Annie and Gusty, who were sitting on their porch rocking away.  I came screaming up to them and they just sat there thinking, “That boy must be in Big trouble!”  So I decided the safest place was under the porch where is was dark and I just sat there shaking. My father came down the road in the car at 80 miles an hour and flew up to the porch.  “Where is that boy?”  Annie and Gusty just sat there.  I think he looked under the porch and saw my beady little eyes reflecting back fear!  I knew he was going to catch me so out I flew and across the field to our house.  He got in the car and we met at the same spot at the same time in front of our house!  Everything after that is a blur for some reason!  Of course I was punished but they were more worried about the farm burning down. 

Well I did learn my lesson but as I told my sister, a few days later I took some matches to a plowed field and dug a hole and put in some dried leaves and lit them and said to myself, “To bad, I will have a fire if I want to!”  Bad boy!  But from then on I made sure if I made a fire, it was in a safe and protected place.  So I did learn something from the experience and my sister had to laugh as she said she also went into the fields an lit fires and danced around them.  Must run in the family!

So can you believe it, I remembered all this and I was only three years old.  I still have a good memory in 2006 so that is something to be thankful for!

1944 ~ The inserted newspaper clipping from 1944 brought back many memories since we had moved to Pecatonica, Illinois, a 500 acre farm we rented after buying the 160 acre farm by Brookville!  When I was four years old I was running around the yard and suddenly I was dreadfully ill.  My stomach ached and I lay on the couch and felt like I was dying.  We called our doctor in Pecatonica and his diagnosis was, stomach flu! Well after several days they thought I was going to die so off to the doctor.  Now he said I had a burst appendix!  Great!  

So off to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy operation.  My insides were full of peritonitis and I was unconscious and expected to die.  I was told they took a lot of my insides out and washed my insides but to no avail.  So they were going to write me off as I had been unconscious for a week.  I found out later, penicillin had just been sent to Chicago in 1944 after being used in the Pacific war zone with miraculous results!  The penicillin was rushed to the St. Francis hospital and given to me just in time.  I was so weak I was in a wheel chair for weeks, too weak to walk.  I remember coming home and having to stay in bed.  Yvonne of course, was in school and my parents told my I had to stay in bed as they had to go out and work the farm. I, of course, knew better so I tried to get out of bed to get something.  I fell on the floor and that was that.  I couldn't get up so laid there for a few hours.  My mother came back to check up and of course, there I was.  Well no sympathy for me!  She just got me up and back in bed.   She figured I probably had learned my lesson!  So here is the news item, seems awfully small for such a major operation and almost the death of me! 

1945 ~ I remember when I was around five or so, we used to get cleaned up on Saturday evening after the choirs and go to one of the small towns to shop and see a movie.  Yes, we all used the metal wash tub to take a bath and I was usually the last one to use it.  I remember one evening we were almost ready to go and I was still in the wash tub.  I decided there wasn't enough soup suds so I got out and took a box of I believe, Lux soap flakes and poured them into the tub and then proceeded to wave my arms about.  

Well the next thing my mother came in and the entire kitchen floor was covered with soap suds with me in the middle of it. I think words were spoken.  She was not amused but the floor was certainly clean after that episode!  Aren't kids fun!  

It is hard to believe we would go to Ridott or German Valley and watch a movie from a projector running in the outdoors.  In Ridott they would shut down the main drag and put a screen up.  Next to it was the General Store where the farmers bought their supplies while we kids ran around and then watched the movie while sitting in the street!  

In German Valley the General Store was in a big white building and the one wall was about two stories high and perfectly flat.  It was a perfect movie screen and the area by that wall was a large grassy area so we could picnic and relax while the movies were playing.  Needless to say, I can't remember any of the movies but it sure was exciting at the time.  

Now I have a 60 inch TV, a surround sound system and a satellite connection and 200 channels.  Times certainly have changed!

1946 ~ My big year on the farm as a celebrity.  Life Magazine decided in 1945 to run a sequence of photos of a one room school house in the mid-west so the people over seas would remember what they had been fighting for!  Our one room school was picked in Pecatonica and the teacher was Miss Meyers.  It was the old story younger people have heard too many times.  I and my sister would walk to school in all kinds of weather.  And our teacher made us mind, or else.   

Life Magazine sent out a reporter for several weeks in 1946 and of course we were all excited as he had the latest cameras and flash bulbs!  But after a few days, we forgot about him and went on with our lives.  So he was able to get fabulous shots of us doing our daily schedules.  There are about four pages of pictures in the magazine and I am in almost all of them!  

We used to go to town on Saturday night, our big night out after taking our bath in the big tin basin in the kitchen, to shop and if lucky, go to the movies.  I remember that since I was on the cover of Life Magazine people like the check out ladies in the grocery store, would pat me on the head and say what a cute boy I was.  I, of course, disliked the head patting and tried to ignore it.  So much for fame and fortune!  By the way, my sister graduated the year before I was on the cover and told me if she was still in our one room school, she would have been on the cover, not me!  I always wondered what the meant, would she have pushed me aside?  No, she said, she was cuter so.....

One has to laugh as one looks through old pictures and newspaper clippings.  We lived on a farm and I always thought we were in the middle of  no-where!  Then I see the local newspaper clipping and had a good laugh!  We had birthday parties and of course, our uncles and aunts were invited and they came to Pecatonica from Polo, Freeport and Brookville.  And they attended dinner and brought presents for my sister and myself!  Well that sure makes me wonder about how things got into the newspaper.  Someone had written Feb. 3, 1946 on this clipping!

1947 ~ A second clipping I found is interesting also as it details a Sunday entertainment as a six PM dinner.  We were on the farm so a six PM dinner seems strange to me!  Our aunts and uncles were there, all Buntjers. Mr. & Mrs. Marvyn (Babe) Buntjer, Benny Buntjer and family, Faye, our father's sister and husband George Copoulus and another sister of our father's, Elizabeth and her husband Tony Agiou of Freeport!  

My sister and I were 'honorees' and received many gifts and wishes for many happy returns of the day!  Here is a picture of me at seven years old!

So I guess we weren't quite in the back waters of the farm land as I thought, especially since I was on the cover of Life Magazine in 1946, my 15 minutes of fame!

More in 1947 ~ Cowboy Chuck and Cowgirl Yvonne ~ Outfits and Horse Back Riding

And here I am in 1947, with my cowboy outfit with the hat and of course, the six shooter!  We used to ride our horses to Pecatonica and we rode in the opening rodeo's grand parade!  I only did that once but it was fun as maybe a thousand sat in the grand stand as we circled and weaved our way around the fair grounds!

My sister Yvonne, in her cowgirl outfit, was always riding and used to jump her horse and do the runs around the barrels and so on.  Now isn't she cute!

We had a trail ride on our farm once and a few days before I remember we did a ride around to select the best places to ride.  I believe my sister lead the trail ride.  

Many times people would come from miles with horses in trailers and there would be food and so on for sale.

Our farm was about 500 acres with a river running by it and an Indian mound on a high hill and 200 acres of forest.  We had a great time riding and hiking all over the land looking for Indian relics and swimming in the river and so on.  Huckleberry Finn I think!

Also in 1947 ~ Spring Floods and Fishing and Trains!

Almost every spring, the river in the low lands of our farm, flooded.  It covered all most of the farming area and then the land had fresh black soil, great for growing corn, oats, alfalfa and other things such as soybeans.   Our house and barn were on the top of a hill so we could look down on the waters.  I remember some nights with a full moon, the entire bottom of the farm was covered with a bright silvery glow from the moon.

I remember our neighbors and uncles and cousins would come to our farm after the river level had fallen back into it's banks.  There would be huge lakes all over the low lands and as they dried out, the fish would be so numerous one could just walk into the water and catch the fish by hand.  

In this photo I am holding a carp.  There were bullheads and other fish but as far as I was concerned, they were bottom feeders and not very tasty.  Ever since then I have liked shell fish such as crab, lobster and especially the huge prawns or a light fish poached with butter and white wine.

I remember standing in about two to three feet of water and fighting the fish as they were slippery and very wiggly!  We caught gunny sacks of the fish and now I wonder what people did with all these dead fish.  

I also remember in the spring when the rivers over flowed, sometimes the super express trains from Chicago to San Francisco and Los Angeles would come by.  The tracks were very old and not too stable for such big passenger trains and they would hardly move as they watched to make sure the tracks were still in one piece.  One night we saw lights and then the Pullman cars and some had the glass dome on the tops for viewing. I was impressed and wondered if I would ever be lucky enough to ever ride such a train, let alone every see some place like Los Angeles and Hollywood!  My sister said one train was called the City of San Francisco and the other the City of Los Angeles.  My sister said wasn't it funny that now I live in San Francisco and go to LA many times a year!  All this from 60 years ago!

Well look at me now, living in San Francisco for over 43 years as of February 2006, just back from Beverly Hills besides traveling all over the world, such as this trip in 2006, to  South Africa.  Farm boy makes good!

1948 ~ I remember all the great family reunions we always had each summer.  Everyone would come and sometimes the reunions would be at our grandparents houses or later in Freeport at the big park.   

Everyone brought food and all we did was eat and relax, except of course, the children.  We had too much energy just to sit around and I do know some aunts were grumpy and thought we should be seen and not heard!  Well of course that didn't last long.  

Also, we children had to sit at our own table so as to not disturb the grown ups!  Excuse us!  Well, we would have been bored sitting there listening to them talk!  So here I am with the Peterson boys at our own special table!  This was at our grandparents Petersons near Pearl City Illinois!  My uncle and aunt Johnny & Vera and their eventual seven children lived down the road from my Grandparents Petersons. 

1949 ~ My sister found the picture of me on the right that she never knew she had!  I of course, an out in the fields helping with what ever type of grain was being grown.  I certainly had a big nose then.  Thank goodness it has gotten smaller or my head has gotten bigger!

This picture reminded me how much had changed on the farm in a few years.  In 1944 I remember helping out in the field walking behind a combine pulled by horses and picking up and stacking the sheaths of oats into small pyramids.  This was done in case it rained, three or four sheaths were stacked together and a last one put on top, if it rained, this would protect most of the grain (we hoped!).  Within two years after the war was over, 1947, we had a new tractor and a combine that cut the oats, separated the grain from the shaft and put the grain in a container to be picked up later, and the straw went out the back.  Our big farm horses were suddenly out to pasture and  everything was mechanized.  (But our toilet was still out back of the house!)

My sister told me she had kept this photo of me in her billfold for over 50 years and I didn't know about it!  She said she really loves it!  Such a nice sister!  It was taken in 1949 at the Sauerkraut Festival in Forreston Illinois.  Every year the little town had a festival and all the German and other nationalities would come to the town for a weekend of Sauerkraut and sausages.  A carnival would also come to town with rides and side shows so we all had a great time.  

My sister thinks this photo was taken in one of those photo booths and I wonder where my mother every bought the outfit I was wearing!  Snazzy for a farm boy in Illinois. My mother was very smart and artistic even though she only went to school for a few years and then had to work at home.  If I remember correctly, sometime in the 1960s or so, the festival suddenly was smaller and finally disappeared from view.  That is too bad as almost all of these types of happenings have disappeared from the local landscape!

1949 ~ This picture taken around 1949 is the Buntjer family in front of our house on the farm that we owned near Brookville and before we did a major remodeling job on the house and build a new barn and machine shed.  

We had all the latest in house wares, beautiful kitchen and bathroom with all the latest fixtures.  

This was a lot different than when I was small and had to use the 'out' house!  Especially bad in the middle of the winter at night!    

1951 ~ This is how the house looked after we remodeled it in the early 1950s.  This picture was taken in 2004 on my sister and my mid-west tour of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.  

We drove to Polo and then to Brookville to see the farm.  

We were pleasantly surprised to see the entire farm almost the same as it was 50 years ago!  Even many of the large trees are still there!  

The house has been taken care of remarkable well considering how many farms around were left to fall apart or were torn down to build newer ranch house style homes.  

Check out this link for bigger photos that shows the house in 1949, 1951, and also a photo taken of my cousins and my sister and myself in May of 2004!

1952 ~ This was a big occasion as my sister was getting married to Kenneth Burt in November.  A beautiful wedding was held at the Brookville Church  with candle stands all along the windows of the church and by the alter.  

My cousin Randall Peterson and I were the candle lighters and were dressed in tuxedoes. (I was told in a Protestant Church, the person lighting the candles is commonly called the acolyte - how is that for trivia!)  My cousin Nancy Copoulos was the flower girl and my sister had the most beautiful wedding gown.  It was a fantastic time and we all seemed to enjoy the occasion.  After wards there was a grand set down dinner for guests! 

So here on the left is Randall, Nancy, and myself looking dashing for the wedding!

And of course, on the right, Ken, Yvonne, and our parents, Walter and Edna Buntjer!

1954 ~ I went to another one room school after my stint in a one room school house in Pecatonica and the cover of Life Magazine.  This was in a small village named Brookville.  I have been talking with Sharon, a student there with me and she is doing research on the one room school but there isn't much information for the village.  My sister was married in the beautiful small white church on the edge of town.  She and I took a car trip in 2004 from Chicago to St. Louis and drove through Polo and then into Brookville.  Well the school-house was gone and so was most of the little village.  A few run down houses and broken down cars were in the yards.  A school mate of mine, Sharon Smith, is doing research to see if anyone has photos of the school or the students. 

My sister found a letter I wrote to her and her husband dated 1954, a year after our mother's death.  I was going to a one room school house in Brookville Illinois, a short distance from our farm near Polo.   I stayed at a woman's house for part of the school year until things were straightened out after my mother's death.  My sister had married and moved to Rockford before our mother died so I was basically alone for a time.  Check out the letter and verbiage about my time in Brookville!  (Note: This is the only photo I was given of the Brookville One Room School House! Sharon K. Miller informed me it was demolished in 1958 in a letter I received from her on August of 2008 along with the photo!)

1954 ~ This is the only photo I have been able to find of my father, Walter, and myself. 

It was taken a year after my mother passed away with breast cancer, a horrible time for me as I felt alone and adrift.  

You can read about my staying at a woman's house in Brookville while I finished grade school there before going to Polo High School. 

It is interesting I still sign my signature as Charles W. Buntjer!

It seems very strange we didn't have many photos taken but then, I don't have any with my mother either - just the one when I was a baby.  

We are spoiled with our digital cameras today.  Instant gratification!   As you can see, we both were very trim from working on the farm.  

I tired to drink milkshakes and so on for years to bulk up.  Even in the army I was trim due to marching miles at a time.  Of course, when I turned 55, suddenly everything went to my waist.  So goes life!

Can you believe in 10.29.2009 I was looking in my jewelry box containing my cuff links, tie tacks, rings and so on.  I noticed behind the backing was a paper and I wondered what it was.  What a surprise!  Can you believe after 55 years I saw a certificate stating I was enrolled in the Polo Community High School.  Now I wonder how it got there! 

Front Row:  Nancy Cox Parke, Chuck Buntjer, Karl Dauphin, Larry Bott, Sandra Abels Hummel, Nina Andrews Wagner, Theda Butler Levy

Back Row:   Evelyn Davison Hewes, Bill Clayton, Bob Dempsey, Ken Deyo, Jack Dohse, Don Ditzler, Larry Bowen (Passed away in 2008)

Check out the picture taken of me five years later in the army uniform in 1963 looking much older and very professional if I do say so myself.  

My high school days were busy as I had a car and was able to go and do what ever I wanted to with a little help from my father's gas tank on the farm!  I wonder how many tanks of gas I went through dating and going roller skating at the White Pines National Park, the drive in movies, dancing, and just plain goofing around!  

1961 ~ I was dating a very nice woman while living in Rockford Illinois. I originally was dating her and then dropped her for another girl, Pat.   There were four of us and we all had a great time together double dating.  The other woman, Pat, was very beautiful and she wanted to become a model in Chicago or New York.  We used to go out dancing two or more nights a week at the local cocktail bars, very sophisticated for Rockford.  We went for years and we were underage. 

Interestingly, on my 21st birthday, the manager of the cocktail lounge had a good laugh, said he had never checked our I.D. and if the police ever came in he probably should have checked us out.  Well he had a good laugh, my birthday, number 21, was the next day so we had to leave until the next day! 

When I was dating Susan she was in college for a while in Wisconsin and I went a few times to her annual college dances and we had great times.  In this photo, we went to a Halloween party in Rockford. We were suppose to be Roman and my sister made up the outfits plus I had glitter on my eye lids, not too Roman, I think more Egyptian!

Years later I learned that Susan had gotten married and had a baby but then had cancer and passed away in her 30s.  So sad.  And my hot date, Pat, got mad at me for not wanting to get married and told  me off.   She got married to the hot motorcycle number in town and I was drafted in the Army during the Cuban Missile crisis!  I found out later she had a baby and her 'hot' husband used to beat her.  Well imagine my surprise when I got a letter delivered to me at the Army post in San Francisco at the computer center where I was the manager.  The guys of course, were interested.  I opened it up and read the following....  I miss you Chuck and my daughter and I would love to come and visit you in San Francisco.  I guess the other 'men' knew something was up and asked to read the letter.  They had a good laugh and I ripped up the letter and dumped it into the waste basket.  Sorry.... No Chuck here or a second-hand Daddy!

1961 ~ It is hard to believe that in 2006 my sister found this photo 45 years after I took this trip!  She called me up and said she had been unloading boxes of things she has been keeping for over 50 years or so and scanning photos and throwing out things no one would want or even know about any more.  

I told her I remembered very clearly I was excited about my first trip in 1961and went to a camera stop in Rockford Illinois where she lived and I was working.  So I found a camera I liked and bought it and took it on my trip to the Caribbean!  Check out the Bahamas link on my Home Page for a full blown description of my first big trip of my life!

I remember about half way through the trip, suddenly the camera wouldn't load the film and the shutter wasn't working correctly.  Well of course I was mad and I think I managed to rewind the film or I took it back to the camera shop.   So I figured there weren't any photos in existence from my first big trip in my life.  

Low and behold, my sister found in the bottom of a box, a negative of me on the Windjammer Cruise!  Not a photo but a negative all by it's self!  Strange!  She said she just put the negative on her scanner and low and behold, presto, a not too bad copy of me at 21, hanging onto the rope of the ship as we sailed from Bimini to the rest of the islands in the Bahamas and almost to Cuba!  Actually that is pretty funny, in 1961 I almost landed in Cuba and in 1963 I was drafted because of Castro and Cuba and ended up as the top sharp shooter (rifleman) of the battalion and a chance to go to Officer's Training to be a Second Lieutenant!  I didn't think so, not with computer training under my belt!

I was very lucky and ended up in San Francisco in a plum job at the Presidio managing the swing shift in the computer center under the Golden Gate Bridge for only two years and then off to the corporate world and eventually consulting at all the major companies in the Bay Area!  

1963 ~ I had several jobs in Rockford before being drafted in 1963 during the Cuban Missile crisis and ended up as the swing shift supervisor at the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco.  I was sitting in a bar after working an eight hour day at a company in Rockford Illinois called Amrock.  This was an up and coming business with the latest computer equipment.  I remember even then, they had the latest disk storage memory in the country.  It was the size of a large refrigerator and had about 12 huge magnetic disks.  There were 12 read/write arms, one for each disk.  So when a record was read, the entire system of arms slid back and forth to find the data to read or write!  

So with my training in computer systems, I was lucky enough to be the swing shift supervisor at the Presidio, over looking the Golden Gate Bridge and my barracks over looked down town San Francisco!  

Most of the other men in basic training. (Fort Knox Kentucky), ended up in places such as Fort Benning Georgia, not a very nice place for training.  I was the top shot in basic training and received a medal for being a sharp shooter!  

Due to my high IQ and computer ability, I was asked to go into officer's training but decided I was better off as a civilian and working in the open market rather than living a regimented life that I would find hard to follow.  

1965 ~ I was just about to get out of the Army at the Presidio of San Francisco and decided to visit my sister, brother-in-law and my nephew, Bill. 

As you can see, he was still very small and when he was older I told him I used to change his diaper. 

The went over big and my sister had a good laugh about that! 

I decided when I got out of the Army, I would never live any place else but California and San Francisco unless it was Paris or Venice.  Well so far after 45 years as of 2008, I am still living the good live in San Francisco and California. 

I have never missed the mid-west or wanted to move to another state.  It is a state of mind!

This photo was taken in 1965 in the yard of my sister's house in Rockford Illinois.

1966 ~ After the military, I worked for Fireman's Fund Insurance as a supervisor for 15 years 

(See the photo of me at Fireman's Fund Insurance - 1969) and at Blue Cross as an analyst for five years.  

I then became a consultant working for major companies around the bay area through the 90s during the dot-com era starting with some of the following companies:

Boole & Babbage Software, 

Schwab, Banc of America - Y2K Fix  

and finally Franklin Templeton in 2002.

1967 ~ My father became ill this year and I flew back to Rockford Illinois where my sister lived.  Rockford is about 85 miles northwest of Chicago.  I flew many times on United to and from San Francisco and Chicago while in the Army and afterwards.   After many years my sister lived in a suburb of Chicago but when she was in Rockford, I flew to Chicago and then flew to Rockford on a DC-3 airliner.  Talk about some ride!   During the 1960s I flew on Boeing 707s so were used to the big jets. 

Imagine my surprise when I went from the United 707 to board the local airliner to Rockford!  It was a DC-3 and had a small aisle and one seat on each side of the aisle.  The seats were very small and hard.   There were large windows by each seat but there wasn't a door to shut between the pilot and co-pilot and the cabin.

After we took off the stewardess asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee and if I wanted cream or black.  I said black and watched her go to get it.  She went to the front of the plane and dug around under the first seat.  There were two thermos bottles and she poured me a coffee and brought it back. 

I looked out the window and we were flying so low I thought I could see the leaves on the Oak trees!  Then I looked across the aisle and saw a man in a suit looking very pale and secretive.  The next thing he reached inside his coat and took out a bottle of whisky and took a big slug!  He continued this the entire time we flew to Rockford.  I can't remember but the trip probably only lasted a little over an hour in the air. 

So this was the only time I flew on a DC-3 but it was quite an experience.  Another one for the books!  Of course since then I have flown on aircraft around the world on my travels but this one remains one of the more interesting!

Check out this link on a history of the club scenes and life in San Francisco during the 1960s through the 1980s as lived by me!  It makes great reading if I do say so myself!  (Of course these stories are only the tip of the iceberg so to speak!)

1975 ~ During these years, every weekend was a party.  We drank, danced and did what ever we could from Friday night until Sunday night and everything was wide open.  Everyone partied.  We would open the bars at six AM and drink and play dice and gossip and then dance by the jute box.  We would do this all day and night but would stop to have a nice dinner in the evenings with before dinner drinks, martinis, wine with dinner, desert drinks such as Black or White Russians after, then back to dance and drink some more.  Then at two AM the after hours places would open and off we would go to watch entertainers do drag shows and listen to musicians and songsters.  We would meet actors from the Broadway Plays who would come after the performing in the shows to be entertained and to drink and relax and gossip.  

One day a bar on Polk Street had a Hawaiian party and the Hawaiian bartender at the Tender Trap in the Tenderloin, called his relatives in Hawaii and had them go out and pick special leaves to make me a lei and also one for a friend of mine with flowers.  He said only the chieftains could wear these special leaves so it was very special!  They had the leis flown over to the coast and we wore them all day, dancing around the streets and to the bar on Polk Street.  Ah, the good old days!

1981 ~ After my father passed away, I took the monies willed to me to buy a condominium on Twin Peaks with a view of the entire bay area.  I moved there in 1976 and lived there until 1992 when I moved to the 28th floor of the Fox Plaza downtown San Francisco with another spectacular view of the City.  

On Twin Peaks I needed a car to get around.  The view was tremendous but owning a car in the City is exorbitant and one gets parking tickets every time you go shopping.  The weather is another factor in moving as it is very foggy and windy on top of Twin Peaks.

At this time I was busy driving to Sunnyvale and Silicon Valley working on large projects for Boole & Babage and Sterling Software development.  I sometimes worked 12 or more hours, (getting paid for over time so made out like a bandit), and driving over two hours round trip a day.  This is why I look so thin in this picture!  I also was dancing five nights a week so I was not only trim but very healthy, if not tired!  Ah, to be young again!

1982 ~ My friend Betty and I worked at Fireman's Fund Insurance for years and we and other employees became close friends during the 1970s and 80s and are still friends after all these years.  We not only worked in the computer division but after hours did various fun things along the way.   This picture was taken during the Christmas Party of Fireman's Fund at the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in downtown San Francisco.  Betty picked me up in her Cadillac so I felt especially Special as we danced the night away!

A group of us used to meet for lunch at work and we all started playing dominoes. It was cut throat and we used to have a great time but I think the rest of the employees thought we had lost it!

We took up tap dancing lessons and after a year, our teacher who then was around 80 years old but could tap the feet off of us who were then, only in our 40s!  This stopped at Christmas as we heard through the grapevine we were going to put on a 'tap' fund raiser!  We didn't think so and the next week we did not showed up for the tap class! 

Then we proceeded to take cooking lessons and did Italian, Asian, and Greek.  We would take a lesson, then prepare the food and have a taste test afterwards.  This is a great way to learn how to cook and bake exotic dishes!  We also went dancing and out to dinner at different restaurants around the City.

This year I was going to Egypt but due to the volatility of the region, my travel agent in Oakland said I shouldn't go!   I was very unhappy but she said she had set me up with a new location, in the sand, in the sun and so on.  So imagine my surprise when the next week I was in the sand and sun but in Fiji!.  I had a wonderful time staying on the man island for a week and then on a very small island with only one resort.  It was heaven and the snorkeling was unbelievable.  I saw huge fruit bats flying over the full moon at midnight and got to fly back to the main airport on a single engine prop plane as you can see by the photo!

1983 ~ I decided, belatedly it would seem, to take a course in scuba diving.  The reason I decided this was the fact that I had first been diving in 1960 in the Bahamas, in Mexico, and Hawaii without any training.  Little did I know how little I knew and how much I needed the class.  It was held at the YMCA in San Francisco in the Olympic pool in the basement. 

Now I have to tell you a funny story about the class.  The first night we all got together, the instructor suggested we all chose a partner for the duration of the class.  There was a 'hunk' in the class.  Very handsome and all the women wanted him for a partner.  Suddenly he said, "I want this guy to be my partner!"  My, my, I thought to myself as the women were miffed to be sure.  Well I had to laugh as he was so tall and had such big muscles.  I thought, at least I have someone who will be able to handle himself in the pool.  One of our tests was to go under the water and have the one person lose his oxygen mask and the other one had to do a buddy air share and at the same time pull the person from one end of the pool to the other end - all under water!  Well we went first, down we went, my 'hunk' partner took off his mask and as I tried to share my ventilator and pull him through the water, he panicked and tried to drown me!  Excuse me,

I had to fight him and drag him from one end of the pool to the other!  When we got to the other end the instructor said I had done a great job.  I told the women, they could have this man as a partner anytime they wanted to trade!  They all laughed and said, "Too bad, but he is yours now!"  So I had to drag this hunk through our drills and everyone thought it was funny except me!  We dove off the coast near Russian River, north of the City and by the piers in Carmel where we spent a weekend diving and eating!  I did get my certificate as you can see and used it in Fiji and other locations around the world!

San Felipe - Baja.  This has been from 1970 through 1987.

I spent a week in Mexico City in 1984 visiting the museums, palaces and the famous Pyramid of the Sun and Moon outside the city.  I met a woman from England who was traveling around the world.  She said she had just been to Egypt and saw Kufu's pyramid and the Pyramid of the Sun probably would be small.  We decided to hire a cab and took a drive to the pyramids.  As we crested the hill and saw the large pyramid she said, "Crap, this is much bigger than I thought it would be!"  We had a good laugh.  At that stage I hadn't been to Egypt so I couldn't make a comparison.  We did climb to the top, I made it but she decided two thirds of the way up, to sit and enjoy the view!

My very favorite spot was Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1987.  The ruins are fantastic but are weathering very badly due to the acid rain.  I also spent time in M'erida, and actually celebrated Christmas services in the local cathedral!  On this trip I also drove to Tulum on the Atlantic coast just south of Cancun.  Beautiful water and views and beaches.

So suddenly I was a reporter with press credentials and started to go to private movie showings in the evenings.  It was interesting as most people never knew some of the office buildings in San Francisco had private screening rooms with huge individual cushioned seats to watch the movies along with a glass of wine!  I also reviewed the latest books and our biggest splash was the first time the "Gay Parade" had been presented on the radio.  We started at five AM and worked until after eight PM.  We ran all over interviewing people and our biggest catch was on the podium in front of city hall.  There was our Senator giving a speech and Tim and I grabbed him after his speech and he was kind enough to give us an interview.  His wife thought the entire parade and interview were good for a laugh and said they had a wonderful time watching the parade and meeting so many nice people.  This show was very popular in London and Australia!

Tim said he did get some comments from the affiliates as to who was that 'man' with the deep commanding voice!  We had a good laugh about that!   Tim decided after several years that the time and money needed to maintain a private radio commentary was too high to continue!   So my career as a radio personality was over!

When the Blue Cross offices were closed in Oakland and moved to Woodland Hills, I began to do consulting.  My first contract was at Boole and Babbage, a software company in Sunnyvale.   In the mean time, Tim had inherited some money after his mother had passed away and he bought a 65 foot yacht!  Oh, baby, was it nice!  The photo shows us having lunch at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.  Tim had sailed his yacht into the harbor and after lunch, we and several other friends that we had worked with at Blue Cross, cruised around the bay acting like we were millionaires.  We had a great time.  About a year later Tim contacted me as he was doing some work at a nearby company in Sunnyvale and said we should get together for lunch sometime to talk over old times.  We were around 45 years old then.  I was excited to see him again but thought it was strange as I never heard from him after that phone call.  Then one day I saw someone in San Francisco who had worked with us at Blue Cross and he said Tim had suddenly passed away! I was shocked needless to say as he was only in his late 40s!  

So I was glad he did get to buy his yacht as that was something he always wanted to have before he died but little did I realize he would be gone so soon.   At least I have a nice photo of him and some great memories to put down for posterity and my several years as a radio reporter and interviewer! 

This year I finally did get to Egypt on a great tour.  There were only about 24 of us and the country was still dangerous so there weren't many people visiting the country.  We also had trouble getting to Egypt via Athens and Olympic Airlines. You can read all about that horrible experience on my Egypt and Greece home pages. 

1985 ~ This year we had a lot of fun as each year Blue Cross let people dress up in costumes and come to work.  One year I dressed up like a cave man and one woman dressed up like a honey bee!  

We left at noon to go to lunch and two business men were behind us and one said to the other, there go those Blue Cross workers!   Excuse me!

The next year a bunch of us were talking about dressing up and one of the guys, Tim, said he had a 1930's car that looked just like a mafia car or one from the 1930's movies about evil gangsters and their molls! 

So the men dressed up in suits with cigarettes and cigars hanging off their lips and the gals dressed up like molls.  Tim drove the car to work and we met him down the street and arrived at work in the car and got out causing a stir.  I am in the center and Tim is on the right. 

After work we drove around and ended up at the wharf in Oakland and proceeded to have cocktails and we created quite a scene.  Ah, the good old days!

This happy group worked at Blue Cross in the 1980s until one of Reagan's henchmen came to take over as the president of our non-profit company. 

He lied and said jobs were safe and within six months, moved the computer operations to Southern California and dumped all most all of the staff, over a 1,000 people.  

1989 ~ I was consulting at Boole & Baggage Software Corporation near San Jose and had just setup my trip to Thailand.  Imagine my surprise when I was working late finishing a major project before leaving, when the big earthquake hit.   There wasn't anyone there and I thought, great, we haven't had a good quake in a long time.  Ha.... The building shook and swayed and I thought this is not fun!  I stood against the wall while the building shook and then the lights went out for about ten minutes.  They came back on and I figured I might as well keep working on the project.  I decided to leave around 11 P.M. and was stopped by the police.   Imagine my surprise when told the roads were down from collapsed bridges!  So I went back to work, finished the project and drove home the next day. 

My condo on Twin Peaks was fine but I was worried as the airport had been closed down.   I went to a local store for some traveling clothes and there was a T-Shirt salesman with a shirt that had printed on it, "I Survived the 6.8 Earthquake of San Francisco!"  I had to laugh, the second day and a shirt out all ready.  I bought it and fly to Thailand the next day.  I came down for breakfast in Bangkok and wore the shirt.  People were reading the London Times and so on, the papers said San Francisco was in ruins and here I am with this shirt and the message.  People couldn't believe it and I said the City had not burned down and most of it was just fine.

I didn't have anything planned but was picked up by a woman travel guide and she happened not to have a tour group so I hired her and her driver for a week for about $200.00.  Such a deal.  We drove all over the area around Bangkok and then took a boat ride to the Summer Palace.  I then flew to Pucket, located off of the Andaman Sea.  I had a great time boating all over the islands.  A great vacation as usual!

1990s ~ Here is a picture of me looking very professional consulting at William-Sonoma at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco in 1997.  This company also owns Pottery Barn and other businesses involved in selling household goods in stores and by catalogue.  Here is a partial listing of corporations I consulted with during the 1990s:

• Boole & Babbage Software
• Sterling Software
• IBM
• William-Sonoma
• Deltanet
• Wells Fargo
• Visa
• Schwab 
• Banc of America - Y2K Fix 
• Franklin Templeton
• and many other corporations in the Bay Area 

1992 ~ I decided in 1992 to start traveling the world as much as possible before I was too old to get around with out any help!  Time flies!  By this time I was consulting for many of the major corporations in the bay area.  This year I was working at Sterling Software near Sunnyvale helping to design a backup and recovery service for mainframe computer systems. 

Well this year I saw an advertisement about a special to Hong Kong!  Airfare and hotel room and a day tour of Victoria Island for $999.00.  Such a deal.  Of course I went for a week and it was during the time the British were negotiating with China over the turnover of Hong Kong to China.

Every morning I had breakfast on the top floor overlooking Hong Kong, a fantastic buffet that was included in the trip.  We were given the London Times to read and keep up with the local news and the negotiations.

Hong Kong was easy to get around in, walking on the main boulevard or taking the ferry over to Victoria Island was easy and inexpensive.  I met some people who were in the know and they took me to the in place in Hong Kong, a fabulous dance hall with lots of action.

The weather was superb, only about 80 degrees.  I also did a tour of Macau before it was returned to China.  Macau is famous for gambling casinos that see a lot of action from the women during the day who live in Hong Kong.  The day we visited and were having lunch, a huge rain storm hit the island and a man from India said it was just like a monsoon!  Clouds were very strange and yellowish and greenish!  The ride back on a hover craft was very rough and the waves shot over the bow but we arrived safe and sound.  A great trip for a great price!

1994 ~ This year I was consulting at IBM on an outpatient booking system for Kaiser Permanente.  Of course I always wanted to go to see Machu Pijchu in Peru and finally realized my dream.  First I flew to Los Angeles and then to Lima.  There I spent five days touring and walking around the city and the coast.  Then I flew to Cusco and toured the city and then took the train to the ruins. 

At this time the hotel that overlooked the ruins only had about 18 rooms in it and only four rooms had people in them for an overnight stay.  There were six of us and three of the people had altitude sickness and never came out.  A couple from back east were there and we had a great time together. 

Hard to believe but the next day the train had a problem and didn't make it back so we had an entire day to tour the ruins, just three of us.  I actually climbed the other peak next to Machu Pijchu (this is the spelling on the brochures at the ruins!).  This is very dangerous but worth while if you have the nerve.

After this excursion, I flew back to Lima and on to Iquitos Peru for a few days and then into Brazil for an Amazon Cruise!

1994 ~ After visiting the ruins I flew back to Lima and then into Iquitos on the Amazon River and near Brazil.  We flew on a small jet into Tabatinga Brazil and there we were taken by taxi to Leticia Colombia and then by dugout canoes to the boat that looked like something out of an old movie! 

There were about 80 people an the ship and all were very friendly.  The guides were nice and helpful.  The captain said this was the first time in 30 years there weren't any bugs or mosquitoes bothering people when the ship docked in the evening.  We were able to have cocktails on the outdoor deck and also our evening dinner.  All very nice.

Late at night we would take the launches and go into the foliage and look for the local crocodiles.  We also so the huge lily pads that are about 12 feet across and were told we were lucky to see them as they get big during the flood stage. 

The river was 2,500 miles from the Atlantic but it looked like a huge lake as sometimes we couldn't see the shore.  We stopped at local villages and saw them making canoes out of huge logs by chipping out the centers.  We also saw bark cloth and other means of living off the jungle. 

All in all, a great trip and great weather!

1996 ~ This year I was consulting at Deltanet in the San Francisco Financial Center. 

I decided to go to Russia and take a river tour from St. Petersburg to Moscow through around 18 locks.  The river is only open for the summer months and the rest of the time it is frozen over and the towns are basically cut off from the rest of the country.   Good thing there is television and hopefully internet by now.

We toured St. Petersburg and were lucky as the weather was about 80 degrees, the best weather they said they had had in years!  We went to Petrodvorets - Peter the Greats Summer Palace on the Gulf of Finland. Next the palace of Catherine the Great, here I am in front of the palace.

We toured the Hermitage and even went to a dress up ballet exhibition at the private theatre that seated perhaps 250 or so. 

The river tour was great and we saw lots of interesting old wooden buildings and summer dachas that the town people vacationed in during the warm season.  We also saw the Kizhi Island - a completely wooden Transfiguration Church built in 1714.

We finally made Moscow and the Moscow Circus, the Ballet, the Armory Museum, Red Square and so on.  Four of us left the ship and went to the subway system and toured the city and ended up taking an afternoon tour on the river.  Everyone else was jealous that we took things into our own hands and toured the city on our own!

I always wanted to go to China and see the Three Gorges, the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall and I finally made it!  I flew into Shanghai and we toured the city and then flew to Wuhan and our boat the "Beidou" at the junction of the Yangtze and the Han River. 

We saw the beginning of the super dam being built on the Yangtze Ricer and then took small boats into the side gorges for great views of things that will disappear under the rising waters behind the dam.

We ended up after hundreds of miles of visiting beautiful temples and villages and then to Chongqing, the next big city to rival perhaps Shanghai as the terminus of the huge lake behind the dam.  We toured this city and then flew to Xian and the Terracotta Warriors.  This was a great experience but it was very hot and smoggy.

Then to Beijing and a tour of the Forbidden City, a trip north to the Summer Palace and finally a tour of the Great Wall of China.

The last few days in Beijing were exciting but the air pollution was terrible and probably will get worse with them burning soft coal for energy.  Still, the people were friendly and helpful and there was plenty of food and great tasting.

All in all, a very nice trip to an interesting country.

1998 ~ I met Betty in the 1970s at Fireman's Fund Insurance and we became good friends then.  We did a lot of things together with other employees at the company.  Patti, Betty and I took cooking classes one year.  Every week we would go to a person's house and the woman would teach us a specific type of cooking such as Italian, Japanese, and so on.  After we listened to a lecture and then helped prep and prepare the meals, we all sat down and had an enjoyable meal!

We also took tap dancing classes with two sisters who were around 80 years old.  The one couldn't do much tapping but the other one was thin and wiry and could tap anyone under the table.  Well we did an entire summer of tap lessons and one evening we came in the the tap teacher told us Christmas was coming up and they always had a tap dancing extravaganza at a local school or for a benefit.  We informed the teacher that we had never been asked about this and..... we never showed up for another tap lesson.  Our big chance for a tap dancing career went out the window!

For a long time we played dominoes at our lunch hour at Fireman's Fund Insurance and there we met another person who would become a friend, Jim Fera.  He and his partner Ben now live in Southern California and I visited them in 2004 with my sister.

The photo on the left was taken at Betty's 70th birthday and I was a surprise visitor.  

The photo on the right has Ben, Betty, Jim and myself looking very spiffy!

This trip was composed of Chile and Argentina and the Patagonian Park plus an island of penguins.  I flew to Los Angeles, then to Lima Peru, then to Santiago, then to Punta Mont and then on to Punta Arenas.  

The adventure started on the M/V Terra Autralis  cruise ship that only carries 114 passengers and we started our seven day journey with a welcome dinner and introduction to the crew, then castoff to cruise through the Tierra del Fuego islands which included the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel around the island of Tierra del Fuego.

We visited the Agostini Fjord where we could take pictures of the Serrano glacier that dislodges from the Darwin Mountain Range.

We docked in Argentina at the remote city of Ushuaia where there again were several alternatives in visiting the area. We decided to take the train and visit the Tierra del Fuego Park in Argentina.  

The entire trip was a great experience but then I flew back to Santiago for a few days and then flew to Easter Island for a week!

1999 ~ I figured as long as I was in Santiago and so close, 2,000 miles, I might as well go to Easter Island! I didn't realize that Patricia and Bill who are from Glasgow, were on the same flight from Santiago, they had been on the Tierra del Fuego cruise also.  They had heard I was going to Easter Island and also that I was staying at the Hotel Okai and wanted to surprise me there. As fate would have it, their Lan Chile airline seats were right behind me, we all were surprised! 

Our hotel is situated in Hanga Roa which is the only town on Easter Island. Most of the 2,000 Rapanui people that live on the island reside here. The only port on  the island is situated here, as is Cook's Bay, where Captain Cook anchored his boat just offshore in 1722.

Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth.

Easter Island today, remains one of the most unique places you will ever encounter; an open air museum showcasing a fascinating, but unfortunately lost, culture. The Rapanui are among the friendliest people you will ever meet, and the landscape is truly amazing - with its volcanic craters, lava formations, beaches, brilliant blue water, and archaeological sites. We visited two of the craters on the island that contain fresh water and native plants, about the only place there are any left!

I had a great time and one week is enough time to see everything and just relax at the local restaurants and cocktail lounges!

1999/2000 ~ Millennium New Year!  Viviane, whom I met on the trip in the spring of 1999 to Chile and Argentina and she had planned a millennium trip to Vienna Austria with a side trip perhaps, to Budapest Hungary!  She hadn't found anyone to go with so she called me by chance.  "Would you like to go to Vienna for the Millennium New Year?" she asked.  "Yes!" was my instant answer as I was consulting on the Y2K fix for Banc of America Securities and wanted to get away for a few weeks.  I think she was surprised at my quick response! So we currently have our airline tickets on Air France to fly to Paris where we will change planes and fly on to Vienna where we also have made hotel reservations in the heart of the city, five minutes away from all the sights at the Pension Shermin!  

We saw the famous Freyung Passage (covered gallery kind of like in Milan) and then lunch at cafe in Herrengasse (more goulash soup).  We walked through the Ring Street gallery, Vienna’s version of the shopping mall and dinner at the Schwarzenberg Cafe with a no smoking area, hurray!  Checked out arts and crafts fair at Karlskirche (Charles Church) and time to get dressed for New Year’s Eve, all dressed up and a lot of places to go and be seen!  Started at City Hall (Rathaus) where the stage is set with orchestra and waltz performers and saw many dancing and pushing towards Burgtheater and streets leading to cathedral and then a stop for champagne at the American Bar and another stop for champagne at another bar With 15 minutes to spare, dashed to Karlskirche, grabbed a champagne and toasted the new millennium where we met people around one of the many fire barrels. 

After the New Year we took a train to Budapest to sight see the town and go to the famous Gellert Hotel and a long needed soak in thermal baths.  We accidentally got on the wrong train coming back to Vienna, it was the Orient Express!  But the military guard saw us sitting in one of the private rooms and he smiled and said not to worry, just stay put like we belonged!  So we had dinner and champagne on the Orient Express and arrived back in Vienna feeling just fine!

So we had a fabulous time in Vienna and Budapest, what a Millennium New Year!

2000 ~ This picture was taken at the Banc of America Securities when I was working on the Y2K fix with other consultants and employees. 

The group I worked with were very nice and when they heard I was having my big 60th birthday on February 4th, they decided to throw me a big party at a local bar and restaurant not far from the office. 

We visited the coasts, the volcano, had lunch overlooking the craters, then a walk in the rain forest, a hike through a lava tube and finally a tour through the orchid farms. 

Back on the plane and arrived in Honolulu and the hotel by ten PM.  A long but fulfilling day for my birthday! 

Check out my Hawaiian trip on the home page menu!

And this was the year of my last contract working in the computer industry after over 40 years!  Time flies. The last company was Franklin-Templeton Insurance and I worked on security procedures!

2003 ~ I decided to retired from the computer industry and travel around the world as can be seen on the Home Page of my web site! 

I also am  a business partner in a  senior residence in Woodland Hills, California with my friend Viviane. 

We met on a trip in 1999 on a cruise through the Magellan Straits in Tierra del Fuego, South America.  In this picture I am wearing a shirt and cup with the Astoria Senior Residence name printed in gold on a blue background.  Our advertising budget for the year - see the Astoria link on my Home Page!

I had to take a California State test to have a license as a care giver manager for a facility and I work part time in running the business which means frequent flights to LAX or the Burbank Airport.

I am also active at the local YMCA and serve on various committees and I am associated with several of the local museums.  This year I traveled to Guatemala as you can see in this photo taken in Antiqua!

I took up oil painting of landscapes and still life in 2003 and these are for sale and may be seen on the link on my Home Page.

2004 ~ Well I have been living in San Francisco for over 42 years and decided to take two trips this year!    

My first trip was to the Netherlands! in the spring with my friend Gail from Van Nuys Los Angeles.  

We took a Uniworld Cruise and had dinner at the Captains table on the last night of the trip.  Everyone was very jealous!  As you can see, we enjoyed a lot of champagne at our favorite table on the Cruise!  Our waiter made sure we always got the best spot!

Gail and I also traveled to Zambia and South Africa!

And on the right, a photo of me in Turkey in November of 2004.  This was a great trip as I made two new friends.  Jeff works only two blocks from me and we go to many Broadway Plays in the City.  I also met Barbara and since this trip, we have taken several others including Vietnam and Cambodia.

As you can see, semi-retirement is certainly a good life as far as I am concerned!

2005 ~ And here I am in front of a fantastic falls near Arenal in Costa Rica. 

My friend Barbara, whom I met in 2004 on my Turkey trip, and she suggested we fly there and drive over 600 miles around the country.  

We were caught in Hurricane Stan and had to land in El Salvador and then couldn't take off due to a volcanic eruption!  Finally we arrived in Costa Rica and drove to Arenal where that volcano erupted making a fantastic spectacle at night.  

We drove to the cloud forest in Monteverde and then onto Manuel Antonio to hike through the jungle, swim in the Pacific and finally, do the zip-line through the jungle canopy.  

All in all, a great trip and another great year in and out of San Francisco!

2006 ~ And this year of March 2006, I went to Zambia and South Africa with my friend Gail.  

We left February 27th from LAX and on to Paris and then Johannesburg and all around South Africa and Victoria Falls in Zambia.

Here we are enjoying cocktails and canapés before continuing on our evening safari at Leopard Hills, a five star resort in the jungle of South Africa!

On the right is a photo of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls in Zambia.

I also have gone to Beverly Hills and will continue to travel to Los Angeles to visit friends and hopefully, get to travel to another exciting country in the near future! 

In January we flew to  my friend in Seattle, Barbara and I, spent two weeks touring Vietnam where we spent two weeks touring the country from Ha Long Bay in Hanoi to Hoian and Hui in the center of the country and finally on to Saigon and a boat trip on the Mekong Delta! 

We then flew to Cambodia for four days to tour the ruins of Angkor Wat.

I celebrated my 67th Birthday in Siem Reap - Cambodia!

Lots more to do in the year, theatre, such as teaching yoga and so on.  I just saw Jersey Boys at the Curran Theatre and have at least four or five more plays to go to this year!  

I also saw Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf and finished my 40 hours of classes that are needed to fulfill the requirements to renew my Administrative License every two years to run the Astoria Senior Residence in Woodland Hills when necessary.  I also have seen Mama Mia, Sweeney Todd and Annie Get Your Gun among the many Broadway Plays running in the Bay Area.

I also just took an eight day trip in August along the West Coast of California, Oregon, and into Washington State to see Mt. St. Helens.  My friend Barbara and I also saw Crater Lake and drove the Columbian Gorge and climbed Mt. Hood!

I also traveled to Tucson Arizona to visit my favorite sister Yvonne and also traveled to Beverly Hills and the L.A. area about six time this year.   Time to plan my trips next year in 2008!Space.

LAX and on to Liberia Costa Rica.  Then to Reno and a glider ride over Lake Tahoe, then a tour of Yosemite and finally perhaps, a trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls! 

We returned from Managua Nicaragua to San Salvador, then to Atlanta and on to San Francisco.  This trip was to celebrate my 68th birthday!

Here I am on the left getting ready to go on the San Juan River to Nicaragua from Los Chiles Costa Rica.

And on the right is a photo of the very active Masaya Volcano about 30 minutes out of Granada, Nicaragua.  Also, here I am on the ferry to the island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. 

Barbara and I had a great time and spent a lot of time going on boats and busses all over the country.  Check out my web pages and photos of our trip.  

2009 ~ So far this year, not too much to tell.  For the last four months I have been treated for Ocular Myasthenia, double vision in the eyes so I missed going on a special trip for my 69th birthday.

I woke up one morning and suddenly noticed double vision on the left and right side of my vision!  I have had a spinal tap, three MRIs, an EKG, a treadmill exercise for blood pressure, at least 12 neurologists, a professor of optometry and so on.  So far the only thing they found was a chemical covering on the ends of the muscles controlling the placement of the eyes - so double vision.  Otherwise, they said, everything else looks fine.  So far after four months of medication, nothing has improved but will be meeting with more neurologists and general practitioners and optometry specialists until, hopefully, the problem can be solved either with drugs or new glasses!  I am lucky to have the V. A. Hospital for care as they are the best!  In the mean time I have been going to Museum openings and Broadway plays, the YMCA and entertaining friends over dinner.  Several trips are in the planning stage and time will tell when I feel up to going on a long trip.  The last time I saw the neurologist he said, "Just go on a vacation and live with the problem!".  My optometrist had a good laugh and said he guessed my neurologist was also my psychologist!

So as far as vacations go, as of April, I have looking at vacations such as Alaska for about $500.00 but with the single supplement, $1,000.00!  I don't think so!   Since my doctor's and dentist appointments should be coming to an end by April, hopefully I can schedule a trip to some place exotic!

And can you believe it, another two years and I just completed another 40 hours to receive my Administrator Certificate to manage our Astoria Senior Residence in the L.A. Valley!

Well suddenly my trips to exotic places and local places has picked up finally!

So far since my many appointments at the Veterans Hospital, I haven't taken a vacation.  So my friend Gail from Van Nuys drove up and we went for a week to Napa and Sonoma and also did the wine train.  A great experience as you can read about it on my Home Page!   She and I also went on a cruise to the Netherlands and then to Zambia and to South Africa!

We tasted champagnes at all the major wineries and found our favorite was Gloria Ferrer champagne!  We also went to dinner in the City the first night Gail visited me and the weather was perfect. 

I meet my sister in San Diego on September 27th for three days touring the city and the world famous zoo.  We also toured the Midway Aircraft Carrier and another day we did a South and North Harbor cruise.

Then I treated my sister to a four day cruise to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja on the Elation ship owned by the Celebrity Cruise Line.  We had a great time eating, drinking, gambling and watching the numerous floor shows on the ship. 

In another three weeks on October 29th my friend Barbara and I will fly to Rio de Janeiro, next to Iguaçu Falls, then to Buenos Aries and on to Colonia, a World Heritage City in Uruguay if time permits!

We had a great time with a great group on our tour and ended up seeing the 'gay' parade on the last day in Rio!

Then we flew to Iguazu Falls and on the second day hiked over five miles in 110 degree temperatures and also did the river rafting into the falls, such a treat!

Then to Buenos Aries and lots of walking and shopping.

Finally to Colonia del Sacramento, a World Heritage city that was clean and relaxing after such a busy schedule.  There were lots of great sidewalk cafes and we certainly did relax!  So for a year that started out very slowly due to doctor's and dentist appointments, it suddenly was very busy with travels from the wine country in Napa to going all over the eastern side of South America!

2010 ~ I started out this year by deciding how  to celebrate my 70th birthday!   I talked to my friend Gail in Van Nuys and we decided to go to Los Vegas for my birthday.  She made reservations at the Bellagio and also reservations to see the Cirque du Soliel 'O'. 

We also got tickets to see Ballys great Ziegfeld Follies show Jubilee and toured the new Eight and a half billion dollar City Center and the Crystals Retail & Entertainment Center.  We also walked the Vegas strip and had cocktails at the Paris Casino/Hotel and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower late at night to view the city and the Bellagio fountains from the 55 floor.  Weather was great and we had a fantastic time.   We are thinking about going to Yellowstone in June if time and money permits!