The strange truth

I was born on August 19th, 1954, in the Walter Reed Army Hospital, in Maryland. My mom and dad
were married for about a year and I am the first born of a large family. My dad was in the Army, and
as the story goes, I was a cheap kid, costing only about five dollars to be born there, which was for
the cost of food. I lived in Maryland shortly until my dad was transferred to New York, working for
Sears. We lived in a small house near the Kensico Dam in Valhalla New York, in Westchester
County. Just before I turned five, we moved to West Islip on Long Island where I spent the next 15
years. I attended West Islip schools and graduated High school, a little late, but did. I went on to
College in Upstate New York for a couple of semesters but flunked out as I spent too much time in
the college radio station. Through High School and college years, I worked part, then full time on
Party fishing boats out of Captree, New York. It was a great education in how to relate to people as
we had to tend to the needs of up to sixty fisherman at a time during the day. My next job was
carpentry with my girlfriends brother for a while. From there I was offered a job to work in a factory
in Hauppauge NY, on the night shift operating a computer programmed lathe making parts. I then
worked during the day on another machine, and soon after was transferred into the research and
development department as a jack of all trades technician with a little light drafting. From there I
had to find a better paying job to pay the rent, so I went to work in Rockville Center as a production
foreman in a small electronics assembly department. I lost that job after I got upset with the boss.
After two weeks of flooding the job market with resumes, I obtained a job through an agency,
drafting in a medical equipment company, also in Hauppauge. I did a series of drawings of
laryngoscope blades used by anesthesiologists to intubate patients. Upon completion, the
company hired me on from the agency as temporary quality control manager. When someone else
was found, they then gave me a job as technical writer which included writing operators and service
manuals, instruction sheets, copy for advertising, labeling design, and sales photography. This kept
me busy for several years. In that time, I met a young Italian woman who moved in with me and we
were lovey dovey for a couple of years. In that time, I created an automotive record keeping
handbook, I called it, "Autologer". I named the "DBA" "Hawkin Publications. Hawkin was the name
of my pet parakeet, I had for many years. I tried to convince my girlfriend to work on it to stay busy
and to help us make money but she refused, so I worked on it in my spare time. I distributed them
in display boxes, on consignment in several stores from West Babylon to Bayshore and they sold
very quickly. Suddenly, a competitor arose called "Car log" with offices in Brooklyn and they had
the gall to have them printed at the same printer I brought my regular job work to. My girlfriends
father quit his job and was suddenly available, but I had no desire to include him in any business
venture. Before I met the woman, I used to partake in drink in a local bar where I made some
friends. One was a rather debonair man who worked for ATT long lines and another was a man
who drove an old Bronco and loved to tease the women,. Then there was an Italian woman I knew
by name, who I later read about in the paper, as she had colluded with a junk yard on an insurance
scam when she gave up her car and claimed it was stolen. I don’t think I ever went back to that bar
after that. While at the Bar, I happened to meet a woman who claimed to work for ABC TV in New
York. I played matchmaker, and hooked her up with my friend who worked for ATT. I recall
attending a barbecue in Queens with their friends about the time they became engaged to be
married. They eventually married and we all