I was born in Tillamook, Oregon July 28, 1949, I guess that makes me one of the "baby boomers". My parents moved our family to central California just before I turned eight. Simply put, my sisters (one 5 years older and one 5 years younger) thought we were going to die. Tillaqmook's average temp is about 70 degrees. Although I do remember one winter when it actually snowed it seldom gets even close to freezing (probably too close to the ocean). Whenever it gets close to 80 people start falling over from the heat. Our first day in California it hit 115 degrees, and in those days the car dealers in Tillamook did not carry cars with air conditioning! At first my parents rented a house in Madera, the next year they bought a house across the street. A year later they again moved us, this time they kept the house in town to rent out and bought a small ranch 7 miles out of town, which meant, we were then in a country school - first grade through eigth grade.
High School was Madera (Union) High, at the time there was only one in Madera and my freshman class was over a Thousand. But, by graduation, in part due to the attitude of local law enforcement that kids who had "made a few mistakes" could be straightened out in the military, the class was down to about four hundred.
Four days after graduation my best friend, Lynn Bundy, and I started classes at San Jose State. Just a couple of summer classes, I took typing and something else, don't even remember what, but it was the start of a new adventure for a couple of country boys.
I was "rushed" by Sigma Phi Epsilon, and pledged after the regular semester started. Lynn and I were in the dorms for the summer and for the start of the semester, but soon found a 2-bedroom apartment one block off campus with two friends, Alan Miramon and Bob Dunn. Bob and I were both in Army ROTC and he was another Frat Rat, so we wound up being roommates and Lynn and Al took the other room.
The second semester of college I was riding my motorcycle to class, wearing the typical student dress of the day- cut-off, sandals and a Tee-shirt; when a car stopped across my lane of traffic, because there was a truck coming the other direction. I got off the bike at 30 mph, and as I went over the car, the bike went under. Rearward subluxation was the official medical term- three weeks in a sling. the next day I was "dropped" from ROTC, and two days later received the "Notice to Report" in four days from my Draft Board.
I was still in the sling when I reported for my physical, and after the entire process was told "if you ever get that shoulder fixed come back and see us”
4F.
My own family doctor examined me and said there was a medical procedure that could be done to correct the injury; it involved going in under the shoulder blade and "tightening" all of the tendons and ligaments- BUT - it was a 50/50 operation - 50% chance it would fix my shoulder, and 50% chance that I would lose the use of my right arm completely! Forty years later after thirty years of arthritis I wound up having total shoulder replacement surgery, and now, three years later, it feels great. It did take a long time to gain back my strength in my right arm, but the increased mobility and the lack of pain have greatly improved the quality of life. In some ways I wish I had undergone the surgery twenty years earlier, however, I think with the advances that had been made in the technology of joint replacement I was better off waiting.
