How Were Your Times Growing Up?

[Gilbey]

Life started for me on July 19, 1964. Heyday of the Beatles while I'm still lying on my crib cryin' for milk. I remember and still feel it to this day the warm bath and shampoo my mother gave me in my small baby tub. Oh, how refreshing! Dad said, I always smelled fresh as he carried me in his arms. Then I remembered being in this play bed with net around it so I can see what's going on on the outside world of the living room. Life was sweet as a baby. I grew up in the farm where the air was fresh and trees surrounded the house. We had an electric generator we depended on for electricity (where it was a luxury). We had running water and indoor plumbing, so it was okay in that area although we depended on our windmill at first to fill up our main water tank before we upgraded to a generator water pump. There was also a manual pump option where you manually have to pump it if the water generator wouldn't start. It was a good upper body work out. We had the old vintage (non rotary dial) phone with lever you had to "stir" to get in touch with the operator to connect you to the city. Our refrigerator wasn't powered by electricity but by gas (for some reason, it worked!) I remember the big old black and white console TV with vacuum tubes that we had to wait till it heated up to show its picture. No satellite, cable, VCRs, DVDs, or computers but I got along well without them. Boy, have we gone a long way. My kids just don't know what they have now! Dad would play his records loudly as I danced to the beat of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass. Sunday's would always be spent in my grandparents' house and lunch would always be a plethora of home cooked meals only from grandma's recipes. I'm really missing that now. When we spent the night there, during breakfast time, grandpa would always ask us (me and my sister), Have you drank your Ovaltine yet? It's as if breakfast wasn't completed for him till you drank that Ovaltine. Now I always make that Nesquick chocolate milk for my kids. Life was sweet for me some 40 yrs. ago. How about you, have things changed much then for you?

 

[ohairas]

Good topic Gilbey!

Ahh.. the Beatles. I grew up listening to them, The Stones, Tull, Supertramp, Leon Redbone, Michael Martin Murphy, ect.....
I was an only child till 13, spoiled. Then my sister was born... a year later my brother~ who just turned 21.
I was instant baby sitter, but my parents also ran a pizzaria so I either had to bake pies or watch the kiddos.
Prior to the siblings I had my grandparents all to myself. I learned to crochet and grandpa would play chinese checkers with me. You know, I don't even think I remember how to play now!
My mom decorated cakes and we lived in a small town, so she always got orders. It was fun to watch and of course lick the bowl.
My dad is just funny. I loved when he would draw cartoons on a notebook and then flip the pages to annimate them.

Nikki

 

[LizzieMaine]

We're about the same age -- I was born in May 1963. My earliest memories are of living in a three-room apartment over a hardware store downtown, with a walkup staircase that slanted at an angle. There was no hot water, and I remember my mother heating up soup pots full of water on the stove for baths.

Lots of random toddler memories. My father drove a bakery route truck for a while, and I remember somehow getting into the back of the truck one day and having my way with a stack of chocolate cream pies -- probably contributing to his loss of that particular job. I remember that he smoked Chesterfields, and I hated the smell, so one day I took the pack out of his coat pocket and methodically dropped every cigarette into a bottle of bleach I found under the kitchen sink. I remember going to visit my grandfather at his gas station, and jumping on the rubber hose out front to make the bell ring, and I remember the smell of the Fels-Naptha soap as my grandmother did her washing in the kitchen. And I remember my parents fighting, always fighting, until one day my father wasn't there anymore.

We moved to a different neighborhood where I made friends with the girl across the street -- we'd sit and play in the dirt by the side of the road for hours, making up stories and doing what kids did then without playdates and preschool and organized activities. I remember going downtown to buy root beer popsicles at a little hole-in-the-wall grocery store run by a one-eyed old man named Sid, who kept his spare glass eye in a pocket of his apron and would sometimes bring it out to scare off the kids when we got too annoying. I remember joining the Brownies when I was in the second grade, and learning to sing the Beanie song, and wearing little white gloves with my uniform when we marched in the Memorial Day parade. I didn't like when they shot off the guns at the monument, but I didn't dare to cover my ears because I was afraid I'd be struck dead on the spot if I broke formation.

I remember playing games in the street after school -- rollerskates, kickball, kick-the-can, hop scotch, prisoners'-base, foursquare, Red Rover, Giant Steps, Mother May I, and jump rope while chanting rude rhymes like "Margeurite go wash your feet -- the board of health is across the street!"

I remember the smell of the oiled wooden floors at Woolworths, and the Pez machine in the lobby at Grant's, the taste of the barbecued chicken lunch at the Belfast Broiler Festival every summer, and the feeling of plunging my hand into a ice-filled cooler to bring up a cold bottle of Coke. I remember seeing the truckloads of chickens headed for the slaughterhouse and wondering what would happen if somebody let them go.

I remember sitting up till midnight with my mother to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, and then looking thru my grandfather's binoculars to see if maybe I could see him up there.

I remember huddling in a corner of the projection booth at the Colonial Theatre listening to the rattle of the projectors while my uncle puffed away at his pipe, ignoring the NO SMOKING sign on the wall.

I remember sitting on the porch shelling peas with my grandmother while listening to Ned Martin on the radio, talking about Carl Yastrzemski and Tony C and Naragansett beer and Atlantic Red Ball Service.

And I remember figuring out how old I'd be in the year 2000, and trying to imagine what it might be like, and realizing when it finally got here how wrong I was on practically every count...

 

[NicolettaRose]

I am a child of the 80's. The 1980's were a great time to grow up in. A lot of my memories are of the great cartoons of the day, there was really an explosion of great shows and cartoons for kids, especially on Saturday mornings. I suppose this was the real beginning of the computer age because I remember, even in Kintergarten, we learned the very basics of computers (the old black and green screens). The 1980's were great because it was a time in which women really took a hold of the work force and were going to work in record numbers. This was also a time when a lot of great movies came out, Back to The Future, Indiana Jones etc etc.

 

[Twitch]

I grew up in the Fabulous 50s and went to high school in the 60s. It was a time when the auto industry was innovating and going in new directions producing a legion of cars that were sought after. There was no danged foreign crap besides an occassional VW.

The country was naive and more folksy in its attitudes and people were far more open with strangers. No one was attempting to scam them in a daily gauntlet of assaults on their identities and personal account information.

We could go into any store that carried weapons and buy them legally and anonymously. Yet we had no mass murders or daily news of gang crime. There was no graffiti.

We drove on old Route 66 and lots of 2-lane roads on vacations and never realized how little traffic there was compared to what the future would bring.

They were simpler times just as the 30s-40s were to those before and just as the 70s-80s are relative to those who grew up in the 90s.

The era sure wasn't perfect but somehow we lived through it. I think there's a kinda "best of times, worst of times" associated with everyone's childhood/young adult era.

 

[LaMedicine]

I grew up in the Fabulous 50s and went to high school in the 60s.

Same time frame here.

There was no danged foreign crap besides an occassional VW.

lol lol lol My father was the first person to bring Nissan (then Datsun) Fairlady into the US. Before that, we had a Datsun Bluebird. We also had a Buick LeSabre, which was exchanged later to a Mercedez.

My first commercial air flight ride was in '55.
No airline security to speak of in those days. Once the plane was up and on a stable course, the captain would come out of the cockpit, walk down the aisle and greet all the passengers in person. The cockpit doors were left open when on ground, and the crew would invite the children in to have peek. If you crossed the International Date Line, they gave you a certificate noting the date and the flight.

Beatlemania hit Capitol Hill when I was in 9th grade, as a matter of fact, we talked our phys ed teachers into letting our class do the isometrice exercises routines(aerobics to most of you ) to the Beatles tunes, which got the class into the local evening TV news featuring "Beatlemania hits Capitol Hill."lol
Grew up with the Cuban missle crisis, the March on Washington DC, JFK assassination, LBJ's landslide victory, Viet Nam, Apollo landing on the moon.

There were good things and there were bad things, but personal interaction with others was more intense then, I think.

 

[Gilbey]

We're about the same age -- I was born in May 1963.

Hi there long lost cousin
I'm glad we grew up in the same era of the space age. Wasn't the 60's a blast? Now we are at the trend of the information age exposed to the world wide web and cellular phones. Makes the world even smaller and united than ever. I marvel looking at people today with their cell phones glued to their ears everytime, even in the wee hours of the morning! I said to myself, who could they be possibly talking to, and is it that all important? Why do they always have to talk to someone? It seems unnatural. Or is it just me because I don't have a cell phone. Well for me, I don't see a necessity for it. My stationary home phone is just fine enough. Sorry I'm getting out of the topic.
Regards!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I was born in '75 so I'm an 80s child all the way!

I loved growing up in the 80s. I spent a great deal of time watching MTV and now I'm a total 80s video/music buff. When people want to know who sang what, they come to me.

I also liked to stay up late to watch the late, late movie, which, back then, was usually a gem from the 30s or 40s. I always noticed "golden era" things back in the 80s because of that. To this day, I still believe that the "golden era" was clinging onto it's very last breaths during the 80s. You had to know where to look, but it was there. Possibly because the people who were there were still alive.

Some technology I lived through:
Cable TV - I remember we had a HUGE box with knobs on it when we first got a cable box
Video Games - Atari, Nintendo, Sega, now Xbox
Microwave ovens - our first one was HUGE!
VCRs - first we had a Beta, then we went to VHS
CD players - got my first one in '91. I also remember when they phased out LPs in 1992.
Home Computers - we got one in 1989, but we couldn't do much but play Wheel Of Fortune!
Internet - Got it in '97
Telephone Tech - answering machines, caller IDs, call waiting
Cell Phones - I got my first cell phone in 1994 and it was very large. It even had a cord that connected the receiver with the base! Basically, it was a regular phone without a jack! And it cost $1.99 a minute to use!

 

[CharlieH.]

And so here I am, a quasi-millenial.

The manufacture date on my chassis indicates that I was born in the days of Rubik's Cube, Miami Vice, Michael Jackson, the Challenger, the Exxon Valdez and Chernobyl. Luckily I was blissfully unaware of the world around me until 1990, when bliss was tied up and gagged in the basement. Ergo, I'm a reluctant 90's lad.
During those none-too tempestuous years I witnessed the rise of wonders like The Simpsons, Disney's rennaissance (and its 1995 assasination by an angry hoarde of british pilgrims), the Internet and its many marvels (which to this day haunt my life to an alarming degree), as well as the tragic rise and fall of Nickelodeon, as it went from an outlet for fresh original programming, to a juvenile television recycling bin.
Music? Ask not, for I was waay too fixed on classical music to pay attention to the trends. Even so, I still got some truly dreadful tunes surreptitiously implanted in my mind (macarena, anyone?).
Fashion trends? Never fell for 'em, but it was sure fun to scoff at those kids in pointy hair-dos and ripped jeans (the ensuing beating wasn't exactly fun, though).
Fun and games? All I seemed to do was play with my toys, read and watch television (and taping cartoons over father's prized "classics" pinched from HBO) while the other kids played soccer out on the street... I hated that sport. (still do, actually)

I didn't witness the 90's in full, but from what little I recall, they were downright ghastly... from super nintendo to those damnable boy bands.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I grew up in the Fabulous 50s and went to high school in the 60s. It was a time when the auto industry was innovating and going in new directions producing a legion of cars that were sought after. There was no danged foreign crap besides an occassional VW.

The country was naive and more folksy in its attitudes and people were far more open with strangers. No one was attempting to scam them in a daily gauntlet of assaults on their identities and personal account information.

We could go into any store that carried weapons and buy them legally and anonymously. Yet we had no mass murders or daily news of gang crime. There was no graffiti.

We drove on old Route 66 and lots of 2-lane roads on vacations and never realized how little traffic there was compared to what the future would bring.

They were simpler times just as the 30s-40s were to those before and just as the 70s-80s are relative to those who grew up in the 90s.

The era sure wasn't perfect but somehow we lived through it. I think there's a kinda "best of times, worst of times" associated with everyone's childhood/young adult era.

I grew up in the same era,Twitch. Graduated highschool in '65. I'll go along with practically everything you said. I remember when air conditioning was installed at our small town drug store. That summer,my friends and I would sit at the soda fountain drinking flavored Phosphates soaking up the coool cold AC untill they run us off. Never saw AC in anyones home..or car!! I do miss alot about that time in my life. Bakery goods cooling on the enclosed front porch. Could get a good greasy Hamburger and fries...and real icecream shake...anywhere! A (glass)"bottle"of coke to dump a bag of salty peanuts in! We've "advanced" alot since then with new technology...but made a trade off. Seems we have lost alot of what may have been seriously good for us as well. I agree that most probably feel the same way about their era of growing up. Make's one question,from time to time,tho...just where things are heading...and if we are truely making life better.....
HD

 

[Viola]

I was born in '84. I remember Reagan was president and then he wasn't, but the first political thing I remember vividly was the Gulf War and seeing all the yellow ribbons and being convinced Saddam Hussein was gonna bomb my house. (A fear I HADN'T had until some kindly adult helpfully explained he wouldn't, which gave me the idea)

At six I knew all the words to Ice, Ice Baby and I assumed I would understand what "flow like a harpoon daily and nightly" would mean when I was older.... I'm still waiting.

Even at six I knew he wasn't that cool, though...it was no TLC's Let's Talk About Sex which I firmly believed to be the very apex of sophistication.

I cried when Kurt Cobain died.

Fun and games? Well I didn't have a Nintendo or a Game Boy, though I desperately wanted one, so I mostly ran around and played in the park and got dragged around walking my dog who outweighed me significantly. I went to ballet class and karate, and was much much better at karate than dance. I was in Girl Scouts from Brownie to Cadette but my troops camped so rarely I was annoyed; I didn't like crafts projects and didn't want to play with glitter.

My mom gardened and I fell in love with plants because of her. So that and the lack of electronic toys (excluding the Tamagotchi I bought myself when I was 12) and the fact my mom didn't drive so if we wanted to go anywhere while my dad was at work we walked, ensured I actually got a fair amount of exercise. Dance class was two miles away; a lot easier walk before class than after.

-Viola

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I was four months old the day John F. Kennedy was shot. I have no alibi.

My older brother was born December 30, 1955. Three sisters were born in even years and then I was born in '63. (Another of each followed, also on even years.) I remember the family car, a 1959 Ford station wagon. I remember the day I was left in "Dennis the Menace" park in Whittier. It was a company picnic, and that was the day my family started the roll call. When they got to my name . . . Well, they even looked under the seats before turning back. I was the only child with both names chosen by my father. Mom and dad shared the task when naming my sibs.

We didn't have much, but my parents gave us many interests. Mother with the arts; painting, ceramics, sewing, and etc., dad with auto repair, electronics, model trains, astronomy, microscopy and photography. From both of them, my sibs and I also caught the packrat bug.

My father built our first color television, a Heathkit. He tuned the color every couple of months. I often held the mirror so he could see the screen from behind the set. I'm now a stickler for color.

In '72, we bought a travel trailer. We'd go camping almost every weekend during the summer. Eventually, it turned into an add-on to the house (not physically).

We got ON tv and SelecTv when subscription television was in its infancy.

My younger brother still has our "Pong" game and breaks it out at parties. It's always a hit.

I graduated high school in '81.

That's all I have for now.


Lee

 

[The Captain]

"T-REX" memories

Gulp! You “kids” are making me feel like a dinosaur. As some of you know I was born in the spring of ’35. The depression era was in full swing and it sure wasn’t “Golden!” In fact, just a few days before my birth, the Emergency Appropriations Relief Act passed, creating the Works Progress Administration. The WPA gave a lot of people, not only a paycheck, but hope and a feeling of better days to come. They had heard promises of a turn-around in the economy since the crash of ’29.
I remember Pearl Harbor; I was six years old. I remember the stony silence and worried looks on the faces of my folks, as FDR’s disembodied voice related the cowardly attack on our troops. We had three family members on Pearl (USMC) and their fate wasn’t known for a few days. Luckily, they all made it home. For some it wasn’t a happy ending. The neighborhood had its’ share of casualties.
I remember coming home from school one day in ’45 and seeing my mother crying; She had just heard of FDR’s passing.
I remember that those hard and lean times really didn’t affect me. Of course, our expectations were not as high as today. We didn’t need the latest sports-icon branded shoes and clothing. My shoes (when I wasn’t wearing boots) were marked with the Buster Brown emblem. High-tops and loafers (I always had dimes in mine!) were de rigueur.
Fat tired Schwinn’s were “The” bike, and yes, we all used a clothespin and a playing card to make our bikes sound motorized.
My musical preferences were “Big Band” sounds and country music, early on, and then the ‘50’s arrived. I still know all of the words of songs from that era. In ’57 I joined THE CORPS and the open-air theater across the road from my barracks always played music before the show. I think I must have heard “Over the Mountain” a hundred times. No wonder I remember the words!
One more thing: The so-called Golden Era has a better image when it is viewed from the distance of 60-70 years. To someone of my age, those days weren’t that spectacular. They were just history.

 

[Gilbey]

The so-called Golden Era has a better image when it is viewed from the distance of 60-70 years. To someone of my age, those days weren’t that spectacular. They were just history.

Now here we have a real golden era kid coming out of the swinging 30's! Though you may see yourself as ancient compared to us "kids", you have endured the times and proved yourself experienced than most of us here. The golden era for most of us has been romanticized for its appeal in mannerisms, fashion, and class that no longer exist in this era. The passing of any era makes it more sentimental to us present and future generations. Thanks for sharing Captain. Now, do we have anybody else as old or older than the Captain who wish to share?

 

[Dr Doran]

Great thread. Lizzie, your post approaches poetry. I was born in 1970. My mother had deliberately sought a man to marry who had a good education and a white collar job because, having grown up poor in Quebec, she wanted that for her children. She passed up on someone who did not fit that bill. I was youngest of five. My earliest memory is my mother holding me in her arms (I must have been very small) and I told her that I was going to marry her when I grew up and my father said I couldn't because she was his!

I remember a black and white checkerboard floor when we lived on 11th street in Santa Monica and playing with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cares with my brother Charles. In that house also, the tv was on once, and Outer Limits was on, and there was a guy whose eyes kept getting bigger and bigger and he kept saying "I hate little girls." I was so scared that I could not leave the room. No one else was there. My grandmother came in, saw that I was scared, and turned the tv off. Rescue.

All my home life I heard the sound of the piano, flute, and clarinet, because my father taught those instruments at home in private lessons to pupils. He did this in addition to being a professor at Mount St Mary's college because the pay was not good there. My mother took in children for day care. I never realized how little money they actually had. Our best house was poorly built but big and in Brentwood Glen and it had two storeys. There were nine of us living there: two parents, five children and two grandparents. I had to share a room with Charles, but we didn't get along at all so an area was cleared out for me to sleep in and some screens were put up. That way I had a private space.

One of my other earliest memories was watching tv with my parents. There was a man on tv. I asked my dad who he was. My dad said "That's Gerald Ford." I said, who is he? My dad said, "He's our president." I said, "what's a president?" and he explained not only what a president was, but what a nation-state was, although he used the word "country."

Another basic lesson I learned was about time. I did not know how time worked and had to ask my mother what tomorrow meant and what yesterday meant. I remember asking whether the years repeated. She said no, when something happened it was fixed, it already happened, and time did not repeat. I said "so yesterday is what already happened and tomorrow didn't happen yet?" and she said yes.

 

[Flivver]

I was born in 1951 and grew up in the 50s and 60s.

Some of my childhood memories are:

Attending kindergarten in a one room school house while the last of the B&M steam locomotives thundered by 500 feet away.

My dad buying gas for 18.9 cents per gallon during a gas war.

Going to the Boston Auto Show in the Fall of 1956 and meeting Pat Boone on the Chevy stand.

Hearing Nikita Khruschev say "We will bury you" and being afraid it might happen.

Watching the early Mercury space flights...we got the day off from school to watch them.

Watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in Febuary 1964, and wondering what all the excitement was about.

I could go on forever. I had a happy childhood and would go back there in a minute, if given the opportunity.

 

[Spitfire]

Born 1945 - december.

I had a great childhood - being the firstborn child in the family. The war should be over first - or allmost, that is. ;-) Spoiled by grandparents and uncles and aunts (untill they got their own kids)
No thats not even true - my mothers sister, who is still living - spoils me even today.
I remember the trams - riding them when we should visit somebody or - even better - go to the Zoo!!!

I remmebr my first ride in a car - A fieldgrey Opel.
Left behind by the german wehrmacht and bought from the governement by my grandfather.

I remember running away from home one morning (dont know why) and getting a lift with the milkman and his horsedrawn waggon. He was wise enough to put me off outside my own doorstep two hours later.

I remember the smell of my beloved grandfathers cigars - and the smell in his ropewalk.
Both of my parents worked so I stayed all day with my grandparents.
And my grandfather - who had a glasseye - spoiled me with icecreams and great storytelling every day. All lies ofcourse. But what stories...like the one where he lost his eye in a fight with pirates.

I remember I played with two boys across the street - and nobody else wanted to play with them. Because their mother was german. But my father - who had been in the resistance - said I should. That was how it was, the most anti-german people when it was all over, were often the people, who did not stand up during the war.

I remember my first Coca Cola. Got it in sweden. They were not even in Denmark in 1953.
Just like I remember going to Sweden for bananas.
I my mind Sweden was a country with palmtrees and red timberhuts, untill I went there. Well - I was right about the red timbered huts. But do not know where I got it from.

I also remember some of my schooltime. Not much though. I think I was bored. But I remeber that we were in seperated classes. Boys together and girls together. Even the schoolyard was seperated. - by stinking toiletbuildings in the middel and a painted line on the cement for the rest.
And petty him (it was allways boys), who crossed the line! They were told to stand up against a certain wall - in the GIRLS YARD!!!! And all the girls walked by and giggled. When everybody left for class, the sinner either had to stay an extra hour in school or got a box on the ears! Your own choice...

I remember....my, my who started this. I guesse I can go on and on.
A great time!!!
The sun was shining in the summer - which was endless.
And we allways had snow in the winter. Lots.

Would I go back?
Both yes and no. Thanks.

 

[killertomata]

I was born in 1970. Which means I grew up surrounded by a lot of very bad music, bad movies, and bad clothes. Really really bad clothes. Of course there were exceptions in the music and culture, but very few.

I thank gods everyday that my mom is a classic film buff and raised us on good old b/w movies, and that she had a taste for vintage clothes, music and film in general. And I'm glad that my grandma left to my father a bunch of 78s from the 30s and 40s, which me and my sisters used to listen to growing up, especially Stone Cold Dead in the Market. And grateful that my father had been a greaser and so we had the benefit of his 50s music and the classic cars he was always refurbishing.

To this day I can barely stand most of what came out of the 70s. Unless it was from the punk and early death rock cultures of the late 70s, chances are I can't stand it.

 

[Lincsong]

Let's see; I was born in 1969 just one month before man walked on the moon.:eusa_clap Nixon was President and Reagan was in Sacramento. I grew up in the ethnic suburb next to Oakland. All the neighbors were either Spanish, Portuguese or Italian and I didn't know there were other religions besides Roman Catholic until the first grade. (The family doctor was Jewish and I didn't understand what that meantlol )

There were three boys and two girls. We boys had three twin beds pushed up next to each other and a nine drawer dresser with one level for each boy. I saw Porky Pig sleeping in a dresser drawer and tried it, then my brother pull me out of it. I was the youngest so all the older kids in the neighborhood knew me as Lil Lincsong. We'd go camping on vacations, water skiing with my uncles and cousins because my uncle had a boat (aka a very expensive yard decorationlol ) Mom had a Ford Country Squire Wagon and I used to ride in the third row seats. Dad had a 1962 Chevrolet Chevy II with three on the tree and a four banger that needed the starter replaced every couple months. (somethings never change for Chevrolet::rage: ) Grandpa and Grandma lived in this town so a weekend with the grandparents consisted of a 3 mile drive across town.lol I remember Fremont, CA as being a rural place and wondered why anyone would want to live so far away in cornfields, same with Livermore, CA. Silicon Valley was still refered to as Santa Clara Valley and was another far and distant place of farms and agriculture. I've got a photgraphic memory so I'll stop for now.

 

[VegasMike]

Wow, I guess I'm younger than I thought around here, most other forums make me feel really old, danged whipper snappers get offa my lawn..

I was born in 79, so I was barely a child of the 80's, but I vividly remember growing up in them. Transformers, GI Joe, actual saturday morning cartoons, some of which I'm still looking for on DVD, especially the ones from the early 80's that I seem to have this vague recollection of.

Those were some of the best times of my life, as it was before I learned what divorce meant, and bouncing between parents and all that fun stuff. Darn reality.
Always had computers around for as long as I can remember though, as my dad was a computer tech going back into the 60's and 70's, when he worked for the Navy, and eventually in the 80's he was co-owner of a computer store. I still remember the smoke filled family room where he had taken over half of it with a giant desk, full of old Kaypro's with 8" floppy drives and the old green screens.