Daniel Kavulich:
CLASS OF 1979
Andrew Warde High SchoolClass of 1979
Fairfield, CT
Daniel's Story
Life
Married 20 (count em!) years with two great kids. My oldest Caitlin, (such a popular name at the time) is 16 and a hell of a guitar player. When she was ten I pulled out my electric, blew the dust off of it, and showed her some base lines from some old Cure songs (best band on the planet, bar none). She took it and has really mastered the instrument, something I never did. She has a band in Connecticut and here in North Carolina and is writing and composing way beyond what I ever did, good for her. She has the talent. Danny is fourteen and a wrestler. He has won all of his matches for the season and is realizing what I never did, try everything, try hard and succeed. It's amazing that at fourteen he is almost my height, and can almost wrestle me to the ground (I said almost, years of Kung Fu in my twenties finally pays off). What is gratifying is his love of reading (influence of his father no doubt) and his comprehension of concepts and critical stylings so rare in the youth of today. He will approach me with questions and theories so advanced from what I would expect. My kids are so much smarter than me but hey, that's OK!
School
Anyone who knew me in high school knew about me as well, better living through chemistry. Lesson I drill into my kids is to depend upon themselves, try and achieve, try and achieve. Our class was one of the last of the "stoner generation" and I have paid the price. What I believed would happen, success through writing has transmuted into a few pieces each year, some years more fruitful than others, but not what I set out to accomplish. It still amazes me that I sold copy through early years at AW and blew it all away.
College
SCSU, BA English. Some wonderful professors, especially the chair of the English department, Mike Shea. Meagan Macomber was also very influential, although she didn't think much of my writing, but I was selling at the time and she wasn't. Like many academics she couldn't write worth a damn. The other bright spot was I learned Japanese. I needed a language for the degree and could not face French, German, or Spanish. Surprise surprise, I picked it up fairly rapidly, (easier to speak than wr...Expand for more
ite, we started with four alphabets) and kept up throughout the years.
Workplace
I work for a small grocery chain in North Carolina. I became fed up with the North East and decided to chuck it. Evidently I was able to con them into thinking I knew what I was talking about (sounds like Bush). I have been here for about 4 months and enjoy it, even though the house we are renting is in the town of Cary (Carolina Area for Relocated Yankees) and it seems to be inhabited by more Northerners than natives. When my house sells in Shelton I will make a good dollar from it and buy something nice with a teeny, tiny mortgage. If anyone from my class reads this and is thinking of a move drop me a line, it is a nice change, if only for the weather alone. :) I am still writing but mostly non-fiction (because my fiction sucks). Editors like me because I am a sucker for research and they don't have to pay my insurance (freelance is a double edged sword).
Military
Four years in the Army (SIP). Before I knew it I was parachuting into Panama with 85 pounds of crap strapped to my back. I was an MP attached to a Ranger company. Which meant months of kick-ass training at four separate bases, two in South America. Operation "Just Cause" took just a few days in the media but actually stretched months with snipers, night raids, machettes, (sic) and general living in the jungle. I can thank George's father for that. Still, through the rose-tints I would not trade it for anything. I made some great friends, lost some great friends (3 SEALS [one of whom the week before, saved my life with his quick reflexes]) who died at the airport outside Fort Davis because command micro-managed us and zigged when they should have zagged. I will never forgive the military for that.
One of the few good memories I have from that period is a respite of a week at Fort Clayton (at the northern tip of the country) and we had entertainment at the officers club, some local singers and a play was acted out, after which soldiers were invited to come up on stage and try to imitate an officer and win some prize. The guy who imitated me came up on stage with his pockets stuffed with books...
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