Personal History: Choose a topic:

Education, playwriting, songwriting, newsletters, computers, photography, music, stamp collecting, engineering, summer jobs, Type A personality, Camping and Outdoors, Reading.

Education

Now that I've got a web page, what am I going to do with it? How about some personal history? Born in the 50s in Louisiana, attended Cathedral (later Cathedral-Carmel) for 12 years, the same school my father attended. Educated at University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), earned (with eight other industrious students) a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, 3.1 GPA. Went to work for Chevron USA and I'm still there after 28 years. Lived in New Orleans, Houston, Midland and back to Lafayette.

Playwriting

When I was young (ages 6 to 10, I guess) I would draw these cartoons, the Adventures of Fred and Ted, using adding machine paper. They were awful, but they were a great creative outlet. When I got older I would sit for my sister's children, and we would make up puppet plays. The first play I wrote down was The Moog. It has been lost to the world, but it got me into writing dialog. I actually read it aloud to a writing critique group in New Orleans. The comments were something like, "Playwrighting is the most difficult form of writing." I guess they meant quit now, but instead I took up the challenge, writing more plays. My first production was for the Eavesdrop Theater in the Red Dog Saloon in Lafayette, about 1978. It was My Fair Weenie, a one-act play. I was the weenie. According to Richard Comeaux, it was a hit--people were laughing at all the right places. Then I did one called Society Ladies, with Phyllis in the production. It was termed "Soap Opera." Hmmmm. Then I did a two-act dinner theater called Mirror, Mirror. Lots of fun. I am eternally grateful to the cast for their four performances, sometimes in the sweltering heat, and lastly in freezing weather. Then I did nothing for ten years. Then I wrote a funny Star Trek Original Series parody, then a 75-page teleplay for the Next Generation, Faith . It was so good I found an agent and Paramount actually read it. This spurred me on, so I wrote a full-length movie script called The Troll Movie (with lots of editing help from Phyllis). I found an agent for it, also, and she pitched it to all the big studios (Turner, Ron Howard, HBO, Disney, etc). No takers. I even wrote the sequel with Phyllis, The Trouble With Trolls, but without the original sale, the sequel floundered. I began a new movie script called the Circus Family, and wrote to a producer for possibilities. He wrote back that he just began filming a circus movie, too bad. That script will never see daylight. So now I'm a veteran non-published writer. The end. P.S. In my enthusiasm, I also joined Midland's West Texas Writers, even serving as newsletter editor and president for three terms. Alas, other things called my attention.

Songwriting

Concerning songwriting, I have written over 50 songs. One was recorded in the studio for Mirror, Mirror, which I am quite proud of. The rest are just funny or dreary. When my best friend Jerry Barousse wrote a short story about a trip to the woods, I wrote four or five songs to accompany it.

Heaven holds a place

For those who love

Heaven knows the ways

Of the white wing dove

Now I've found you

Love surrounds you

Heaven here on earth

With you, my love.

Newsletters

Concerning other writing, I was newsletter editor for the Houston Epson User's Group for some years in the 80s. I began my own family newsletter when I was inspired by the Pauls' Christmas Camel Newsletter from Saudi Arabia. It was the Houston Mirror, then the Midland Memoir,. and now the Lafayette Lagniappe. I also wrote the PELIB newsletter for Chevron for nine years. Now I've got this web site to build upon. Thanks, David

Computers

Computers are fascinating tools, endlessly malleable. In college, peers always looked to me to 'run the computer.' At Chevron, I would learn the mainframe, or even the programmable calculator, and then teach my fellow engineers, sometimes documenting the procedures. Ask me about our first attempt at getting into "personal computers" in 1980. What a disaster! Anyway, any success I have had at Chevron has been thanks to my work with computers as well as my engineering background. My business on the side is My Computer Man, providing diagnosis and repair of mostly Macintosh computers. Starting in June of 1999, it has been a tremendous success. The web site was created by my son David, 14 at the time, who is designing web sites for others at his own site, Banana Design.

Photography

At one time, I actually considered changing careers to be a professional portrait photographer. (This is a little-known fact that may come in handy sometime on the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? )

Music

No, I never considered becoming a performer, but I met my wife Phyllis through music. I volunteered to perform at a USO-type show for R.O.T.C. on campus, because someone said I could play piano by ear. Boy, when you're 21, nothing seems impossible, not even playing for 500 people with no training whatsoever in piano. But Phyllis was in the show, and we met, fell instantly and permanently in love, and that's how I got / a mother-in-law / and three great kids / to call me paw.

Stamp Collecting

I started when I was seven, sending in a quarter from a comic book advertisement. My most patient father would provide any little request for approvals from Garcelon Stamp Company or Mystic. I would even play "stamp store". Then I dropped it as all teens do. Then, in my late 20's, I picked it up again, and now I create my own stamp pages for the US collection. Richard helps me by sending me his "duck" stamps. In fact, lots of people save stamps for me -- thank you all!

Engineering

I didn't know what engineers did when I decided to major in chemical engineering at USL. I just knew it had chemistry (I had chemistry sets growing up, and enjoyed doing the experiments), math (no problem for me), and science, especially physics (I placed 1st in my district and 5th in State in my Senior year at Cathedral-Carmel High). So I took engineering, and loved it. My career at Chevron has been most interesting: gas engineering for five years (but with too much environmental and regulatory nonsense), software support for nine years (the Petroleum Engineering Library), reservoir engineering for three years including simulation and reserves calculations, PC support / data support / engineering support for four years, production engineering at Goldsmith for four years, and now, once again, engineering software support and web coordination in Lafayette.

Summer jobs

I worked as a reference librarian at the Public Library in Lafayette, and at the USL library. After my sophomore year I worked as a student engineer at Ashland Oil's Carbon Black plant in Louisa, Louisiana. That was pure charity. And after my junior year I worked at Texaco's Henry Gas Plant doing gas processing.

Type A personality

I don't know if it's true or not. I have indexed my video tapes in a database so I can find one of the over 500 titles I own. Does that make me type A? I research my major purchases (like the vacuum cleaner) on the internet and in Consumer Reports before I commit. Does that make me a-retentive?

Camping and Outdoors

Phyllis and I love to go camping. She likes the tent, I like the Marriott Suites, so we compromise on a pop-up camper trailer. She does the cooking and I clean up. Big Bend National Park was one of the more memorable trips, but we've also visited many little state parks such as Ft. Griffin, Hords Creek Lake, Lake Colorado City, and Lake Nasworthy. Palo Duro Canyon was another memorable trip, especially for the musical Texas.

Reading

Did you know you can listen to entire unabridged books on tape in little seven-minutes segments to and from work? The public library has hundreds of books, old classics and new bestsellers, all for free. I had never even read one of the Sherlock Holmes' mysteries until I got the books on tape. Same with Agatha Christie novels. There is a wonderful BBC production of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities on tape that I think is superb.
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