My father's predecessors are principally English, Scottish, and German. It is believed that all of his ancestors arrived in the United States in the mid-18th century. They settled on the eastern coast and were farmers, stockmen and smiths. Some migrated west at the time of the Civil War. Others stayed in Pennsylvania until the turn of the 20 ^th century. Notable people of the line are Sir Francis Drake and American Presidents Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan .

My mother's forebears are predominantly Welsh , Scottish , Irish and German . Some of her ancestors arrived in the North America in the late 17th century. Others came at the end of the 19th century. The early settlers of the family were ministers and established chapels along the eastern coast. The emigrants who arrived later were a butcher and a farmer / lay preacher. Several of my mothers ancestors served in the Civil War.

I was born in January 5, 1957 (yes, a Capricorn, but don't read too much into that) in Berkeley, CA. Shortly there after our family moved to Richmond, CA. I lived there until I was 10, when we moved to the fair hamlet of Pinole, CA, about six miles up the road. This is where we lived until I graduated from that sterling educational institution, Pinole Valley High School. Home of the PVHS Spartans. Hooray! for the blue and gold. Go class of '75. And go they did, like myself, by the time they had reached the age of consent, they found that they had outgrown the little town by the bay (That's the San Pablo Bay not "The Bay" of San Francisco). I doubt that many could afford to live there now.

Other than having graduated from high school during my life in Pinole, the other notable achievement was the rank of " Eagle Scout " in the Boy Scouts of America . Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. I was also a "Brothehood" member of the Order of the Arrow . This was the foundation upon which I have built my skills as an outdoorsman, where I learned to appreciate the wonders of nature and gained the confidence to survive in unfamiliar environments, be they urban or rustic. It was an experience that I will value for the rest of my life and hope to provide for others as my own children reach the age of participation.

Three weeks after graduation from PVHS it was off to the US Army . Basic Infantry Training, US Army Military Police School , 13 months in Korea , 17 months 1 ^st Infantry Division , Ft. Riley, KS (four of which were spent participating in an exorcise known as REFORGER '77 -REturn FORces to GERmany - 1977), Honorable Discharge, a Good Conduct Medal and a 1600 mile motorcycle ride from Kansas to California and I was back in Pinole ... for a minute.

After a few jobs, I found myself working as a correctional officer at San Quentin Prison . At 22 years of age, I was the youngest on the staff of 750 officers supervising 2700 inmates. My first assignment was as a tier officer, on the day shift, in a maximum "B" custody housing unit, supervising approximately 35 inmates. Next, I was the unit gunman, providing gun coverage for the 350 man unit. Shortly after completing the probationary period of nine months, I was transferred to a job as a relief officer on the graveyard shift on Condemned Row. I worked two nights as the tier officer, two nights as the gunman and one night in a tower outside the walls.

While on this shift I worked a lot of overtime. Most of my assignments were on condemned row, in the adjustment center (a behavior modification unit, otherwise known as "the hole") and other maximum "A" custody housing units. After I had worked on the grave on "death row" for ten months, I was reassigned to my old job as a max B gunman in the unit where I had started, but not for long. With in a matter of weeks I was back on the ground serving as the property officer, the senior staff position in the unit. I did another year and called it quits. After a little over two years the nightmare was over and it was time for me to start relearning how civilized people live.

With the money from my retirement fund and a backlog of unused vacation, I spent the next year cruising on my motorcycle and bumming around. Half the time I didn't choose to have a place to call home. I had to find that kernel of myself that had been buried since I left home at 18. I would occasionally take a job as a mechanic or bar tender or work for a private investigator but nothing panned out and I was determined to stay out of law enforcement and any kind of uniform.

I've done a lot of things to make a living over the ensuing 15 years. I worked for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) for two and a half years as an investigator. When a reduction in force all but eliminated my chances for advancement, I struck out on the next leg of my employment journey.

Against my best intentions I, once again, dawned a uniform and picked up a gun for money. I spent about six years working in the Protection Services of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRB/SF) . During my final two and a half years at the bank I provided security and transportation for the bank's president. I honed my skills as a pistolero and enjoyed a certain measure of success in competitive shooting.

Most of the time I worked at the bank I also had a second job. I worked for a couple of private investigators and did some security side jobs and worked as a dispatcher for a burglar and fire alarm company . Eventually I left the bank and took a management job in the alarm company where I had been a dispatcher.

This ways a major cultural shock for me. All of my employment up to this point had been in a predominantly male environment, usually working in some capacity for a government agency. Now I was employed full time in the private sector and my immediate supervisor was a woman, as well as most of my coworkers. What an enlightening experience that was. It was a growth experience as well. I learned to express myself in ways that I previously considered socially unacceptable. I also became far more intimately familiar with the way that women interact with one another than I had ever wanted to be.

Aside from the social impact of my stay at the alarm company, I learned many valuable management lessons and developed administrative skills that one can only learn on the job. I also learned that one can never rely on one's source of income. One Monday morning, after I had been working full time at the alarm company for over four years, I received the professional equivalent of a "Dear John..." letter. "Bob, this is a very difficult thing for me to say, but as you know, that last acquisition that we made isn't generating the kind of numbers that we had hoped and this quarter's financial statements are indicating a bottom line that is way off from our projections and I'm afraid we can't afford you anymore ...

After a couple of months of job hunting I decided to try my hand at working as a contract courier. You know, the motorized version of a bike messenger . I spent my 16 hour days flying around The City (SF) and the Bay Area in my Toyota 4x4, delivering everything to legal briefs between law offices to "Depends" to homebound seniors. It was a freeing experience but I was spending too much time making not enough money.

One day I had a few minutes to kill and I stopped by an employment office. While I was there I saw a job with the Treasury Department as a US Mint Police Officer. I thought to myself that I might give it a try. I called the Mint's personnel office and they said that the job vacancy announcement had opened that day and closed that day. "No longer accepting applications" was how she put it.

That experience was not without value. It made realize that the best way for me to make a living at that time was to go back to what I know. I was successful in securing employment that has provided me with a respectable income and a comfortable level of job security. I am reluctant to provide details about my current employment for the reasons identified above. If you are interested in what have been doing for the last couple of years and you are not associated with the aforemensioned ner-do-wells & scoundrels I would be happy to tell you all about it. Send me an email and maybe we can get to know one another a little better.