James Rankin:  

Life A friend of mine put me on classmates and it has been interesting checking out some of my old hs buds. I was sort of a nerd but did get car of the month and boy of the month in my senior year 1970. Car-souped up 1969 Chevy Panel Van with lightbar, stereo, etc. First in a long series of SUVs and 4-wheelers. Got boy of the month because I got good grades without studying too much and I was also the first 4 year Varsity letterman in FV history. Sport-Golf-Everybody laughed and picked on me for the nerd sport, but guess who's laughing now. Had dreams of being on the tour but I never made the next level upper-crust(college). There are several levels each one that much harder. The guys on the tour are incredible athletes. I met Tiger when he was 10. I shot 76 and he beat me! His Dad was very mean to him but I guess it worked. After High School I got accepted by UCLA but didn't go because I was caught up in the flower child, free love generation. I didn't even go to college the first semester after graduating. What a waste! I got drafted in the first lottery in Jan. of 1971, but I got a lawyer and got out and started college at Golden West. Since the War was going on I stayed in school, worked at Golden West College Bookstore, graduated AA in 1973, Long Beach St. BS in Accounting in 1975, and finally a JD from Western State University in Dec.1978. I took the Bar exam and passed it in February of 1979. It was really hard but for the first time in my life I put out a decent effort and I succeeded. That was pretty much the end of my lawyer career although I still have a license to practice law, never had, never will, I don't really like lawyers. My career-I went to work as an auditor in Las Vegas for a small realestate company and ended up catching the field superintendent embezzling money(las Vegas-go figure). They had no one to take his place so I got the opportunity to learn how to sell and build houses from the ground up. I worked for that company(Forecast Corporatio...Expand for more