Like an opening shot in a movie, this story begins with my wandering into a large, open field of grain at age seven with hundreds of grain stalks rising up past my chin. I proceed into the field, knowing that I may get lost, but I don't care. It's my first real adventure into the creative unknown, and halfway into it, I lay down, and flatten a spot to look up at the puffy clouds on a spring afternoon, in my hometown of Dixon, California. I thought: "this would be a great spot to fly kites"...which I did many times.
Dixon, in the early 1960s was very much like "Mayberry', with only 3,200 people. A farmtown, rich in agriculture, is spotted by the "Milk Farm" sign on Highway 80 between the Bay Area and Sacramento. My family built their own custom home in the then on a street that was surrounded by a field--and lots of kids! It was a great place to grow up; to just be a kid, inspired by Disney, and to just make fun things like treehouses, digging "forts", playing with Tonka Toys, Erector sets, playing "army", and making wooden "go-karts'...that we'd wreck in "destruction derbys" the middle of our cul-de-sac!
I went to school in Dixon from first grade through graduating High School. My father was the school superintendent. I did well in school, although in my early years, the teachers comment on my report card said that I was not concentrating on my work by daydreaming too much (which actually ended up being a GOOD thing much later!).
High School anywhere in the 1970s was an experience that if you didn't live through it, you can't know what it was like. Bellbottoms, KFRC am radio, and dances and football games and farmer's kids, and lone souls and a mix of cultures. It was pretty calm, and yet, we somehow all respected each other in a good school spirit. I was in band (French Horn) and never liked it, and by my Junior year, became a yearbook photographer. With my 35mm "Nikkormat FTn and Vivitar zoom lens", I was ready to go!! High School for me was at times, frustrating, because I wanted to do bigger things, although I can say that for a very small high school class (just under 100 in my class), there were a few teachers that were very progressive and embraced my hopes and expectations yet to be.... I graduated with honors and voted the student with the most potential.
I was in Boy Scouts, and we did a lot of camping in the Vacaville hills. In 1971, I was able to attend the 13th World Jamboree in Japan (Troop 1244). At age 15, that was quite an worldly experience, including being hit by a Typhoon at the campground at the base of Mount Fuji. We also took a 300-mile Shinkansen Bullet Train ride to Kyoto, Nikko, Nara and Tokyo's Ginza district. By 1974, I had attained the rank of Eagle Scout.