I was born in Healdsburg, California, on May 25, 1950. Happily, I have passed my first 50 years, and am looking forward to the next 50.
My childhood was spent in Santa Rosa, California. We are a Roman Catholic family, so my schooling was at Catholic schools: St. Eugene's School, St. Rose School, and Cardinal Newman High School. When I went to college, it was Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.
After two years at the university, I quit school to begin a career in engineering. I took on a position in the Electric Utility Department of the City of Glendale, in Southern California. In 1974 I left to pursue my greatest adventure in Sweden.
My grandfather, Kelley Kirksey, had suffered a stroke a few years earlier, so I moved in with my grandparents back in Santa Rosa, to help manage their day-to-day life. My musical development continued, particularly through the continuation of the Monday night music sessions which had been going on since about 1965. The next few years brought two more trips to Sweden, and my decision to go into folkmusic full-time as a career.
Changing financial opportunities, family situations, and advancements in my post office work led to our moving to Manteca, in California's Central Valley. We were farther from my family, closer to Margie's family. The thing we missed most about the move was the weekly music session. Now we have one once a month, instead, but it isn't the same.
Return to TopMy immediate family, a great joy to me, consists of a number of unique characters:
- Margie, my wife.
- Sylvia, daughter number 1.
- Lena, daughter number 2.
- Emma, daughter number 3.
She was born Marjorie Ruth Page on October 6, 19--, in Escalon, California. She grew up in the Stockton area of the Central Valley, leaving for Sonoma County to go to college. We met in 1978 after her best friend started taking fiddle lessons from me. After a number of months, Margie was also taking lessons. Eventually we started dating, and got engaged in 1981.
We were married at St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa, California on March 6, 1982. What she was in for, she never could guess, but she was prepared for it all.
Margie, like me, loves old things, books, etc. She still has the first car she ever owned: a 1948 Dodge sedan, christened "Heffalump". Together we have a collection of books, knick-knacks, furniture, and other items that would make a second-hand shop owner turn green with envy. Besides my music, she likes listening to early jazz and rock-and-roll "oldies".
She also has a great talent for drawing and painting.
She was born on May 31, 1983, at Community Hospital in Santa Rosa, California. Margie had always wanted a daughter, and all the relatives cheered when I announced, "Sylvia is here!" Not our biggest baby, she was big enough at 10 pounds, 7 ounces.
Now Sylvia is grown, and attending Delta College in Stockton. She also has part-time work to earn her own money, with which she bought a red convertible for herself. She plays fiddle (has a marvelous talent) with me occasionally.
On January 13, 1987, she arrived at Community Hosipital in Santa Rosa, California. She was almost as big as her sister at birth: 10 pounds, 6 ounces.
Lena is the flamboyant one. She loves singing and theater, and joins every school and community play that she can. She played trumpet in grammar school, though she is not in the high school band. She started to learn the harp, but had to quit when our instrument broke.
Emma was born at the newly opened Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, on April 29, 1990. With a birth weight of 12 pounds, 8 ounces, she was easily the biggest newborn ever seen by most of the personnel at the hospital. Emma is unique in many ways. She is autistic, which caused us much concern when she was smaller. However, she is as smart as they come, and her autism has let her become an unusual character who is fun to interact with, and who is full of surprises at every turn.
This is a funny title for this spot, but I didn't know what else to call it. I have had a number of vacation and business trips over the course of years, but my first trip to Sweden can be called nothing less than an adventure.
After having a life-altering experience in the form of a brush with big-time show business, I decided that I could control my own destiny. Knowing next to nothing about Sweden or the Swedish people, I took my fiddle, a tape recorder, and 9 weeks of Swedish language instruction with me on a walking tour of Sweden. I had no friends there, no idea of how things might turn out - and had the most fantastic experiences one could imagine.
Check this site often, and you will have a chance to see my journal of 1974, day by day, as I gradually put it all down here, with commentary and pictures.
I could talk here about the post office, but that is just my job. My work is more connected with my music. But I have done other things that merit some mention, since they are a part of who I am.
- Engineer:
- Fiddler:
- Woodworker:
- Postal clerk:
My college major was Civil Engineering. During the summers when I attended Seattle University, I worked for the California Division of Highways (now CalTrans). Besides the academic engineering courses, I got practical experience in planning highways, surveying, and monitoring construction.
In 1971, having passed the California State Engineer-in-Training Test, I was able to get work with the City of Glendale, California, as an Associate Engineer, in charge of underground electrical transmission. As new housing developments were built and overhead lines were converted, I designed the underground structures that held the cables that distributed electricity.