Won National Championship in Extemporaneous Speech
DSR-TKA National Championship, Washington, D.C. I spoke on the second question in the final round. Picture from Speaker and Gavel, May 1968, showing all the finalists.
Anti-War Movement
I fully backed the movement against the Vietnam War. Taking part in demonstrations carried the threat of “names being taken,” so that no corporate job would be possible. The threat of the draft hung over me, until my draft board in Lodi put my name in the lottery at the last minute so I wasn’t … Read more
Favorite Songs from 1967
The World I Used to Know Wonderful, Wonderful Sounds of Silence Day Dreamer Along Comes Mary Cast Your Fate to the Wind Blowin’ in the Wind Cherish I Want to be Free Elusive Butterfly Melody to an Unknown Girl Surfer Stomp Land of the Free Home of the Brave Broomstick Cowboy Hungry Exodus Everyone’s Gone … Read more
Long Beach State Dorm
My first year of college I lived in the dorm with Byron Brooks as my roommate.
Long Beach State College
I attended Long Beach State for my freshman and sophomore years of college. I was not happy there; my scheme of having two years at an easy beach college before transferring to UC was a mistake. LBSC was an impersonal, mediocre, commuter college. The beach was far away, I had no car to get there, … Read more
Road Trip with Lyndon Bittle to New York and the Montreal World’s Fair
Lyndon and I drove across the country in his red Volkswagen Beetle. We stopped in West Texas to visit his family and in Dayton, Ohio, to visit my aunt and uncle, then continued to the Montreal World’s Fair (Expo 67) and New York City.
Won Debate Championship
Lyndon Bittle and I went undefeated through the 1967 debate season in the Yosemite Forensic League.
Chess
I played chess in High School. Junior year I was school champion, president of the chess club and on the chess team. Senior year I gave up chess to devote myself to speech.
Lyndon Bittle
Lyndon and I were best friends junior and senior years of high school. We were roommates sophomore and junior years of college. We bought a Fiat Spyder together with the financial help of his father. We took a road trip together to the Montreal World’s Fair (Expo 67) in 1967. Senior year of college we … Read more
Jackson Hole Road Trip 1965
I drove from Lodi to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with Greg Kennedy and a friend of his from Jackson Hole.
Atheism
When I was 16, lying on my back in bed, I realized that if I decided I was an atheist I would never go back. Atheism seemed natural and obvious to me. God was a willed belief. I never went back; I never doubted this conclusion.
High School Philosophy
Starting in about sixth grade I began a life-long project to figure it all out. The project went through many phases. I began with the question of god. When I was 16, I remember lying on my back in bed and realizing that if I became an atheist I would never look back. For me … Read more
Pocket Watches
Both my grandfathers used pocket watches. From about seventh grade through high school I too carried a pocket watch. I preferred Westclox Baby Ben watches that went for about three or four dollars and were sold at checkout counters. The Baby Bens kept poor time—off by three to five minutes a day. They also broke … Read more