Photo 2008
1947 WAS A VERY SIGNIFICANT YEAR IN HISTORY
- It was the year that the United Nations was founded.
- It was the year the state of Israel was created.
- It was the year the CIA was created.
- It was the year the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
- It was the year a UFO crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico, and . . .
- It was the year I was born. (As I said, a very significant year.) I’ll do the math for you and
say that as of 2023, I’m 76 years old. - I came of age in the Sixties, and graduated from Galileo High School in San Francisco in
1965 (same graduating class as O.J. Simpson).
LEFT COLLEGE AFTER ONE SEMESTER & JOINED THE NAVY DURING THE VIET NAM WAR
(to keep from being drafted in the Army)
- To my surprise, I was issued a Top Secret clearance after being trained for six months on
what was then the state-of-the-art of computing equipment . . . punch card machines. You
know, those mechanical devices that you see in old black and white documentaries that
punched holes in, sorted and collated rectangular paper cards for data storage and retrieval.
In fact I learned how to type on a keypunch machine, instead of a typewriter. - Stationed at the Pentagon for two years, where I didn’t use any of the machines I was trained
to program and operate. - Then stationed with NATO in Iceland (the land of the “Midnight Sun”), where we tracked
Soviet submarines coming down from the North Atlantic. - Honorably discharged, January 1970.
WENT BACK TO SCHOOL ON THE GI BILL
Got a degree in Cinematography, back when young filmmakers wanted to be the next Orson
Wells (before Steven Spielberg beat us to it). To work in the film industry at the time, I would
have had to move to NYC or Los Angeles. Decided I didn’t want to live in either city, so I had to
think of something else to do.
BECAME A FAN OF STAR TREK
in its re-runs.
When my unemployment ran out without any hope of finding a job, I went into business with my
girlfriend. We opened The Federation Trading Post on $5,000 borrowed from a friend. It was
devoted to the original Star Trek TV series, and was probably the first specialty store ever. It
was an instant success, and we were able to repay our loan after the first week. We started in
Berkeley, California, and opened a satellite store in New York City six months later. We also
developed a mail order business, with sales in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. It was
our “Fifteen Minutes of Fame,” which resulted in an article in People Magazine.
MARRIED AND LATER DIVORCED,
but was blessed with a wonderful daughter.
WOKE UP TO ALIEN ABDUCTION IN JANUARY OF 1994
I wrote two books about that part of my life, which are available at this website for free.