History of Doc - part one

     Politics is a nuance when played correctly.  The current corporate kleptocracy has stolen the political system to the point where doc no longer chooses to vote.  JHK takes up the matter this morning and has nothing good to say about the D's or the R's.  Let me endeavor to give you my spin.

     Doc grew up in front of a TV - one of the very first children to have the video box baby-sitter full time, while the parents were each buried in their own worlds.  Imagine a precocious 5 year old, watching Concentration and Jeopardy and competing with the contestants in their knowledge of trivia. This was when there were three networks, NBC, ABC and CBS and sometimes they didn't show any programming until prime time.  Reruns followed the series in the same season.

     So there is an interruption and they jet off to 1963 Dallas and put tragedy on full-time.  There is also that little thing about the war 2 decades earlier that had my parents feeling fortunate to be - all eight grandparents were in Europe in the 1930's.  Doc is a heinz 57 - German and Russian descent with lots of little slavs thrown in.  Parents were frugal, but gramps ran a candy store in NYC, so the little boy was happy.

     Shortly there after came life in the burbs - a move to a faux Levittown, with the cousins right up the street.  It was Jersey, but before Snooki was established.  Grade school was special education, because the teachers couldn't handle a kid with questions, who read the new york times and the wall street journal, when the other kids were learning how to manipulate a crayon.  Me and another little girl were in 'advanced reading' - so by 10, I had science fiction fever.

     Then, another job for dad and another move - to Billy Joel's favorite city - Allentown.  This Allentown was Mack Truck and Bethlehem Steel and a slow but steady conversion from industry to shopping malls.  Te little fat kid with freckles tried sports - but a birthdate rule made him play one year up from the rest of his class.  Learned early a very important lesson - the coaches choose who rides the bench - winning is everything and the only thing.  Thanks Vince - what a sucky theme.  So i rode the bench - had one at bat in three years and the one season i would have player - caught mono.  I know sports better than anybody - my sport became chess.

     I got good at chess.  My best friend was a hair better than i was and my other two friends were almost as good.  We represented William Allen High School in chess leagues and tournaments.  I played second board for two years, then more hotshots came in and i played even lower boards as a more skilled player.  In my first real USCF tourney - i beat a master in the first round and had an extremely high rating for a 16 year old.  If i had kept interest in chess, who knows.

     I didn't.  I got involved with the Bicentenial Celebration in 1976 and did several model United Nations.  I was a security council delegate from Indonesia my junior year - i met a girl and she was way into sex more than i was - we dated up to the point where my cold feet couldn't handle the feminine energy.  If i had any older kid giving me advice, i would have done better, but nobody in my life was ever an older kid than me. I worked at an amusement park - Dorney Park - and enjoyed simple summers and a circular insulated life.