Kit O'Deay:  

Life I had the idyllic, summer-weighted 1950's mid-western childhood of a Ray Bradbury novel (tho' it was Suzy B who was prescient enough to fall asleep with her head on my shoulder in Junior English, and I too rube and uncoached to see what she saw. I warmly love her still, but more I remain in awe). Graduating from high school with a perfect 4.0 (that was the most one could get in those days) and a series of killer scores in major competitions (1st in state in chemistry; 2nd in state in algebra II; 3 SAT's above 1500 {best was a 1599 in May 61 as part of LouisianaTech's entrance exam})( The Dean of Men accused me of cheating on that one....he and I never did get along... )( I'm sure the incident added heavily to my anti-authority attitude.)( And, come to think of it, the Dean of Women found reason to dislike me also....)(Her husband was the Chief Librarian, and I ran the book bindery under his direction, as one of my work-scholarships....he and I were great friends. And the bindery ran the smoothest and most efficiently of any time he had been Chief)( HER dislike was rooted in the things I was able to convince my co-ed classmates to do....sometimes involving fireworks deemed too dangerous, and usuallly publically......things proper young Southern ladies were NEVER involved in....you'd have had to have been there.....OH, lol, you WERE !)( Not so much ANTI-authority, on reflection;...more like dismissive of authority. ); I remember college as a blizzard of money, blowing at me. Sputnik was less than 4 years old. Cuban Missle Crisis in my sophomore year. I learned: 1.Real estate is usually the best investment; 2.Power corrupts; 3.Girls didn't find me nearly as funny-looking as I'd feared they might; 4.Be very cautious if you attempt a long-term relationship above your class or below your intellect; 5.No matter what I did or didn't do, this arm of the Galaxy would continue it's slow-dancing wheel through the void. In November of my Junior year I was visited by a suit and a star as a result of a paper I'd written on neutrinos. Interviews went pretty well 'till we got to the part about the "secure" dorm at MIT. The bottom line was that I had envisioned an unblockable communications device, (See radio-free Europe), but the army envisioned beam weapons. I was enough full of myself to demur, colorfully. LOL>I was inducted the following March.... Louisiana? they said. Swamphunter of course? they said. Boy, have we got a spot and a job for you ! And Boy Howdy did they ever ! When free of all that I ended up incognito in Los Angeles (via Saigon, Bankok, Manila, and Mexico City) just as the first head shops were opening. For less than $500 I built a candle factory and became a Prince of Hippie Commerce; utilizing my knowledge of Chemical Engineering, and selling candles as far west as Maui and as far east as Budapest. Eventually, (7 years later), I decided there might be more to life than girls, money,and drugs, ( tho' if not it was still OK with me ). I downsized the candle operation and moved it to southern Colorado, to a 480 acre ranch with a fence on one side and Southern Ute reservation on the other three. Then began my Cowboy period, apexing at 412 cow/calf pairs, 23 horsies, and a hippie western-rock band somewher...Expand for more