Eyes on the Stars God created the heavens and the earth Everything in it, on it, over it, under it And humans to wonder at all God gave humans the ability to Make things to enjoy and to help us See and understand the heavens Since God created the universe Surely he can have another planet Ready to receive humans

Beginnings
   War Baby (WWII)
      Too late to be part of The Silent Generation
      Too soon to be part of The Baby Boomers
   Reached adulthood before the Civil Rights movement

Events that shaped me
            I started school the same month the USSR exploded their first atomic bomb
            Lost all our dishes in the 7.5 earthquake on the White Wolf fault
            The Korean War ended the year I started sixth grade
            The French left Vietnam and US forces stayed while I was in middle school
            My freshman year the USSR successfully sent Sputnik into orbit.
            Family’s discussed bomb shelter plans
            My senior year I passed the test on effects and protection from an A-bomb
            The Vietnam war continued through my college and early nursing years

            The US has been intimately involved in one war, if not multiple simultaneous conflicts, for my entire life. Most of them have not been publicized. It will probably be that way after I’m long gone.

            I come from working class families with a “Work for it or do without” attitude and have never aspired to be anything more than what I am.

            My hometown is Bakersfield, California, same as my parents. But the town became a city. City folk took over the neighborhood ten miles out, so I left.
            Now I live near Raymond, California, a place so small we drive twenty miles to find the nearest gas station. It’s another ten minutes to a supermarket and an hour to the nearest indoor shopping mall.
            If I move again, I hope it’s further uphill, into the pine tree forest. Maybe the next war won’t reach that far out.

Goals not met
            Be an Indian Scout, like Tonto on The Lone Ranger radio show (1940s)
            Fly bush planes in Alaska (1950s)
            Become a truck driver like my Dad (1950s)
            Learn to program computers using punch cards (1961)

            If I had been born three years later, I could have done the last one, but not the others.

Books That Influenced Me