Greetings!
While I'm a firm believer that once you get to be my age, unless you're a member of The Rolling Stones, no one really gives a damn what you think or have to say; but since you were thoughtful enough to sign in my guest book, here's what I've been doing over the past couple of years:
In August of 1960, I found myself at Paris Island,(not to be confused with Parris Hilton island, wondering...Whhaaaa?!!
What I learned over the next 4 years,23 days, 2 hours and 17 minutes, was to never again sign up to join any patriotic, social, environmental, political, civic or religious group that I even vaguely suspect might eventually decide to go on some sort of crusade or foreign...adventure!
After being honorably discharged in '64, I returned to Logan for a week, then moved to Santa Rosa, CA, where I took my first 8-4:30 job at the local Walgreen's Drug Store, where I was their number one "go to" man- whenever the store manager announced: "Clean up on isle seventeen, please!" From that job, my meteoric climb to success included hospital jobs as hospital orderly, operating room orderly, respiratory therapy technician, and EKG technician. It was during this time, that I also managed to burn two semesters of my GI Bill by near-failing classes in Bonehead Chemistry, Anatomy and Respiratory Physiology. This convinced me that Resp. Thpy. might not be my true calling...
This was also the time, (1964-1970), when I met my present wife, Janet E. Bright, a farm girl turned R.N. from Marshalltown, Iowa. In addition to our having the same day/month/year birthdays, we also found that we were both entirely too selfish with our time to attempt raising any kids.
Married in Tulare, CA in 1969, we both enrolled at College of the Sequoias, taking classes we wanted to learn, rather than job-related classes. Janet majored in Philosophy, and I in Fine Art, which was/is the only thing I've ever really enjoyed doing, or shown any real talent in. (?)
From 1970 to 1979, we lived in both San Francisco and Reno, NV. While in S.F., Janet got a JD Degree, and had just started to climb up the 'ol corporate ladder, when she realized that she had put her ladder up against the wrong building, as the legal environment was definitely not her calling. It was also at this time, that I finished my Fine Arts education;getting both my BFA and MFA Degrees at the San Francisco Art Institute.
(About five years after graduation, I realized that the MFA degree prepares one for life...
in the 15th. Century, and the only real guarantee, was hardcore unemployment in one's chosen profession.)
Since income from art is somewhere between erratic at best, and non-existent, I held a number of jobs in the building/landscaping trades until 2004, when I began teaching Art Studio/Art History lecture classes at both community classes in Reno and Carson City, where we sold our fourth house from 1970 to 2008. Janet was Dir. of Case Management at Regional Hosp., and I was still teaching when we both retired and moved to Aptos Beach for 3 years before moving (for the 18th. time), 15 miles south, to Freedom, CA.
Our various jobs, travels and interests,(see photos), have introduced us to some very interesting people:
For two years, we were film "extras" for a Japanese TV production company in San Francisco, which re-enacted bizarre newspaper headlines/stories in America, then showed them on Tokyo tv as "World's Most Astonishing News" (Look up the Ted Williams court disposition about his remains!) In all, we were in a dozen or so episodes, playing various roles.
Today, I continue to produce and exhibit work in various media, but I no longer produce large (8' x 12') stretched canvases as I did prior to retiring. Today, I use this desktop iMac as my art/music recording/filmmaking/writing studio. Janet has always been an avid reader, so her iPad, Kindle and Kindle Fire allows her to read and collect zillions of book files.
We're also, (were), hardcore bocce' ball players, but don't miss S.F. enough to go back to the courts to play...even if we were fit enough to bend over without gravity taking over.(!)
Speaking of things that old age creates, neither of us no longer have the patience to deal with both a surly staff and that segment of the general public, who's antics and lunatic behavior on domestic airlines often make the six o' clock news, so we will not be attending the 2015 LHS Reunion in October.
Which brings me back to the reason for this post- I'd be very interested in hearing what you have been up to since 1960, so drop me an email at jameslweaver(at)charter(dot)net

I hope you are enjoying excellent health and retirement.

Stay well, James