Miscellany
• New York Taxi Driver- I drove a Manhatten Taxi in the summer
of 1970. I drove days in midtown. I made a pretty good living at it. I was
robbed once at gunpoint.One day I drifted into the back of a police towtruck
at a traffic light. He was unaware of the collision and drove away as my punctured
radiator drained all over the street.
• Pilot- I am a licensed glider pilot. I am an inactive member
of MASA- Middle Atlantic Soaring Association. I flew a Schweizer 2-33, a Schleicher
K-13 and a Schleicher Ka-8. I have soloed power planes also. My shirtails
are on the wall at MASA's field in Fairfield PA and at Bermudian Valley airport.
I also fly radio controlled sailplanes and electrics.
• Musician- I have taught myself to play many musical instruments
including piano, guitar, synthesizer, recorders, crumhorns, banjo, harmonica,
gut bucket and noseflute. I am an equipment junkie, owning a synth stack and
PA system. I have played at hootenannies, in Rock bands, doing worship music
am a church organist. Currently I play in a Celtic electric/acoustic band
called UnaRose.
• Musical Instrument Collector-I collect keyboard instruments including an 1898 Knabe semiconcert grand piano (7'6" long- dominates the living room), an Italian style harpsichord, replaca of a 1540 Baffo original in the Smithsonian (which I built myself), a rare Estey pump organ with sub-bass stop, and two excellent synthesizers, a Korg M1and a Kurzweil PC-88.
• Gifted Student- I was in the gifted program at Abington High School, taking college level chemistry and getting an advanced placement credit in Spanish. I scored 1460 on my SAT exams: 1410 in verbal and 1450 in math.
• Sailor- I love sailboats. I love travelling with my wits and the wind. This is definitely related to my love of unpowered aircraft. I own a Jet 14, a fourteen foot fiberglass dinghy with wooden spars, built in the 1960''s.
• Reader- I read at least one book a week. Currently I am reading three simultaneously. I also read many magazines. I have read nearly every issue of Scientific American published since 1957.
• Macy*s, the world's largest store- In 1968, taking a break from college, living in Manhatten, I got a job selling womens' shoes. The department was on the first floor, just off Herald Square, one block from the Empire State Building. I worked there a year before returning to Dickinson.
• Boy Scout- For five years I was a member of Overlook Hills Troop 72. I loved the hiking and camping especially and all the survival skills we learned. I was a patrol leader and Junior Assistant Scoutmaster. Our troop had a specialties in fingerprinting and model rockets. One scout, trying to launch a three-engined rocket (only matches and fuses in those days) got two out of three lit, accidentally set fire to Valley Forge National Park.