David Farmer:  

Hello old friends, My story thus far. I was born in Hollywood in 1961 to David and Annabelle Farmer. My immediate family consisted of my sister DeAnna (18 months my junior), cousin Jack (who was roughly my age) and his parents Edward and Marty, Dan (Jacks older brother whom I saw rarely), My fraternal grandparents David and Eddie, my maternal grandmother Ester (who eventually moved to Mexico where we would go to visit occasionally), and my mother's sister Midge and her husband William and their three boys, Nick, Hall, and Ben. We lived briefly with my father's parents David and Eddie in El Monte. My uncle Edward procured an aircraft job for my dad and we moved to Palmdale where I would spend the majority of my life. Palmdale was a very small town at the time, and my time was passed riding bikes and playing in my room where I would build models, draw, and play with model trains. I attended kindergarten at Yucca Elementary and Roy R. Marriott School for grades 1-3. My friends at the time were Pepi Martinez and Susan De Graffenreid who was my constant companion. Both Pepi and Susan moved away before my fourth grade year when I was sent to parochial school at St. Mary's. During my days at St. Mary's I had few friends outside of school, although I did occasionally spend lunch times with school chums Sam Stewart and Paul and Gerard Poteat. I often wiled away the summer days playing with my sister and Amy, the girl across the street; red rover, red light- green light, and Simon says were the usual favorites until we got an above-ground pool, then it became Marco-polo. Most of the kids at St Mary's were Irish hooligans who took great pleasure at their pernicious treatment of me, and I was glad to leave to Juniper Junior High in 1975. During these years I made some great friendships, most notably, Don Waits, who became like a brother. Unfortunately, Don and I had a falling out over issues that took us into different circles of friends during high school. It was one of the hardest decisions that I had ever made. I hope to reconnect some day. My time at Palmdale High School was one of the best of my life. The first two years were spent with my friend Wanda Baker and her friend Vicky Kepply, who became my girlfriend. Vicky was wild at heart and more than I could handle, so we split. It was also during this time that I would befriend two of the most important people in my life, Martin Scott and Leo Nichols. Tolstoy doesn't have enough ink in his pen to write about the mischief we used to get into. The second half of my PHS years was made richer by the addition of some wonderful people onto my circle of friends, most notably, John Rilling and his girlfriend Cindy Dimmetry, Leslie Curtain, Diane Pringle (who would become my girlfriend, and even later, Martin's wife), Carol Depauk, and Pat O'Brian. A sweet young lady, Kathy Johnson would become a summer girlfriend followed by Suzanne. Then I began dating Nancy VonBuskirk, who was an older woman (by one whole year). She would eventually break my heart when she moved briefly to Colorado. At the end of my senior year I met another girl, coincidentally named Nancy. We went to Campus Life Youth for Christ meetings (ironic) and stayed out late- good times! Then, through a series of odd circumstances, Nancy was brought into my family's home as my foster sister- awkward! I graduated PHS in '79 and played at going to college, but mostly I worked odd jobs after high school at places you may remember, ie. Colonel Sanders, uncle Jacks toys (where I eventually got fired for launching rockets off of the roof with Martin Scott), and Magic Mountain, all the while putzing around at AVCC. In 1980 I began dating the woman from a sandwich shop I used to frequent and we became serious. In fact Tawnie and I were engaged, but I realized that we were not the best match, and I left to live with my Aunt Midge and Uncle Bill in North Carolina for the summer. It was there that my aunt helped me to realize just how ignorant I was, and I returned to Palmdale and Antelope Valley Community College. It was there that I would meet a woman, who for better or worse would change my life. Toni Buendia and I were married in 1985 and had a son, Quinton, in 1988. Although our relationship was doomed, I raised my son who has turned out to be a fine young man. I had been working a series of jobs: retail sales, fast food, warehouseman, amusement park tram driver, deliveries, U.S. Postal Service, and taxi driver. Through a job training opportunity, I landed a real job at North American Rockwell, where I worked as a flight line electrician on B-1s and C130s. I met my first wife, Toni Cariker (a PHS alum) and settled down in a crappy trailor park in east Palmdale. Being old fashioned, we had a baby (my son Quinton) and the...Expand for more