Ten Things About Me

This is similar to the 10 Random Things About Me that I posted on my first blog.  So I’ll start this new personal blog with 10 more things.

1. When I was about 10, I could ride my horse alone the three miles into Lakeside to the blacksmith’s shop.  Tom La Madrid would shoe Buck and I would ride home.  When I was 12 or 13, I often rode to a friend’s house about 7 miles away and we would ride in the hills there together.  And then I rode back home.
   
2. I’ve never had a car payment.  Always paid cash.
3. I played co-ed intermural soccer at the University of California at Riverside.
4.  I was a Sputnik student.  Entering high school in 1959, I was encouraged to, and therefore, signed up for Russian and Advanced Math.  Russian had never before been offered in our district.  All because the Soviet Union was ahead of us in the space race.  I stuck with both for a couple of years.  And I was fascinated by Russian, loved learning to read the Cyrillic alphabet and liked learning about the culture.  But my skill in foreign language has never been strong, so it’s one of my many languages where I know about 15 words and no conjugations.  I just use the present tense.
   

   Found these at a yard sale – the same text and flashcards that we used.

5. I saw the bright flash in the sky from one of the Nevada A-bomb tests in the 50s.  We were camping on the San Luis Rey river in San Diego county.
6. I saw Percy Sledge in concert in Swaziland.
7. When I was young, I watched boxing with Dad.  Gillette sponsored the Friday night fights.  Archie Moore.  Johansen.  Dad and Jim Humphries bet on a corner, not a fighter.  Betting – that’s another subject.
8. The only opera I’ve seen is Boris Gudenov with Boris Christoff in Covent Gardens in 1971.  And the only thing I remember is that Alfred Hitchcock was filming Frenzy across the street as we waited in line for tickets.
9. I have dual citizenship – U.S. and U.K.
10. In the summer of 1955 we went to Disneyland in Anaheim just after it opened.  The favorite ride was Autopia because you could drive the cars by yourself.  But I was too short to drive by myself, so I had to ride with Mom.
    

It’s fun to make these lists.  I extend the challenge to you – make a list and share it.  You might surprise folks.  You might surprise yourself.