A logbook in a truck drivers life is a record of what that driver did on any given day. It should be available and up to date if anyone needs to see how much progress was made that day and the days past. In the first page of this logbook I gave a brief overview of my life. In the time to come I will be updating it with events throughout my life with a concentration on the past few years. What a logbook is to the truckers out there this section of my blog is to me. Sharing details of my trip with those who want to know. With all of the twists of drawing lines on a graph in a logbook I will be as honest as tearing pages from a looseleaf. Very little changes in the facts.
When I read others blogs I always hope there is a little something about who the writers are. In that vein I will share things from my life that probably led to my views on politics and society. Unlike the main part of my blog this is personal stuff that helped form my opinion but shouldn’t be considered opinion, just my life. This is the fun part.

The first 10 years of my life were spent in beautiful Colorado. Born in Denver my family moved to Colorado springs when I was six. My dad worked construction and he moved to where the good work was. When I started the third grade we were living in Vail.

Vail was just a tiny place in 1966. A couple of hotels and shops with the ski slopes that are now so popular looming above. We lived in a trailer court provided for the workers who were building the town. My mother continued her strict Christian practices while my hard drinking father worked hard to provide us with the good things in life. This time of my life brought the earliest memories of noticing differences in my home life and the lives of others. The first time I realized that the world must be made of other cultures, races and lifestyles. The first time I realized these differences in people brought judgement and seperation. That there were other ways of thoughts.

Still believing my parents were the right ones I followed the path they led me down. When my dad became religious in ‘67 my life changed more than I thought could happen. He decided to become a preacher and we moved to Nebraska new year day 1969. It was beyond my 10 year old understanding the changes necessary to live under his parishoners close scrutiny.

Scottsbluff, NE is a tiny town to this day but then being the preachers kid was even more obvious than it would be today. Folks were very judgemental and the way of life I had become accustomed to was unacceptable behavior for a farm towns ministers son. My interest in other ways of thought kept getting me in trouble and by November the church leaders felt it would be best if they transferred my dad to the west coast. We moved to a Sacramento, CA area suburb called Orangevale. Then to Santa Cruz.

California was more to my liking. The west coast was a hotbed of new thinking and increasing diversity. I found out early that people had a wider scope of understanding and acceptance. The Nixon, Reagan way of thought was questioned and a more liberal political and social thought was common. Even the church folks were more open and accepting. The schools were more open and free thought was encouraged. I was as happy as I had ever been. Thats when I realized my parents were on the wrong path and I needed to find the road differently traveled.

Even at 11 and 12 I started hanging out with the older kids who smoked weed and talked politics. Their social mores were defining themselves with the evolution of thought that was blossoming in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. Less blind patriotism andmore questioning of tradition. I didn’t smoke weed during these years but did accidently ingest a huge dose of LSD at 12 and thats when my strange rebellion officially took off. It has definitely been a strange trip since then.

With my new way of looking at life I dug into books by or about the social revolutionaries of the ’60’s. The Dharma Bums was my first Kerouac book and my desire to stray from tradition was kindled. It soon became a roaring fire to the point that I sought out the strange and twisted path I have followed since.

Seeing the changes in me my parents thought Washington or Idaho wouldn’t have the influence on me that the new California did. We moved, then again but the new places had kids that were interested in the liberal lifestyle that their older brothers and sisters were involved in. The stoners and open minded kids were easy to find. I first smoked pot at 13 and saw the propaganda handed out by the cops and teachers, who lectured on the evils of weed, was lies.

I went home and slept. No freaking out, hurting myself or others, losing my mind. Just sleep. That was a huge lesson about doubting the authorities. It led to more questioning.

With Idaho not living up to my parents expectations they dragged me off to Mississippi where the same kids were soon found. By this time I had gotten my High School out of the way with a GED and was working during the day. Gave me a chance to have the freedom to explore that other kids didn’t have what with that pesky school schedule. The library was my favorite haunt. The librarians assistant was a 20 year old woman who took me under her wing and helped me get books that weren’t at the library yet. She also smoked weed. talked politics and shared new ideas with me. A very interesting education for a 16 year old whose parents tried to shelter from outside thought. Outside of their tight religious thought.

I left their home at 17 to go my way. I have not returned to the narrowness of mind I was raised to believe. I love my parents and know that all of their strict religious teachings were what they believed to be best for me. I speak to them by phone at least 4 times a week and we get along well. I just can’t follow the path they mapped out for me.

When I left home I traveled back to Idaho to start life on my own. My late teens and early twenties were spent there and thats when life for me really began. I’ll tell you more about that later. For now I have to close the logbook and move into the on duty/not driving mode.