Tom Buie:
CLASS OF 1966
Hoover High SchoolClass of 1966
San diego, CA
Tom's Story
My story?
Hummmm. My story. What's my story?
Almost sounds like a challenge. "Hey, man! What's your story?"
My story sounds like a series of fragments from a bunch of dissimilar Humpty Dumptys all put together.
Like, here is an event in my life, and here is another one, but they don't seem to have anything to do with each other.
Pardon me, I seem to be waxing philosophical. "What's your story" does that to me.
Chapter 1, My Professional life.
I went into the army after high school, but not right away you understand, I made them come to me. And come they did. I got an invitation to take a bus ride to Los Angeles, then another ride to San Francisco. Yes, they wanted me, and being disinclined to relocating to Canada or taking up weight lifting at a federal facility, I answered the call and went off to serve my country.
I spent my first eight weeks learning my left from my right, how to sing some really snappy tunes like "I wanna be an airborne Ranger," how to dismantle and re-mantle a M14 rifle - the M16 came later - in the dark, with a DI (drill instructor) screaming profanities in my face, then finally and most profoundly, how not to volunteer. Then another eight weeks learning how to not fall off of a telephone pole when stringing up telephone wire, and then how to sleep standing up.
I then spent a few months in Kansas practicing the daily ritual of "going to the motor pool" (a place where the military keeps vehicles not in use,) more invisible practice, honing my skills at sleeping standing up, and perfecting the art of not volunteering.
Then it seems the US Army needed me in Viet Nam. And, as I still didn't want to go to Canada or take up weight lifting in a federal facility, off I went. And I could see why they needed me and about half a million other red-blooded Americans, ''cause that place was messed up. I employed my not volunteering, sleeping standing up, and not-falling-off-a-telephone-pole skills to perfection, and by the time I left Viet Nam I had been promoted to sergeant.
So, being the opportunist that I was, and since the re-enlistment NCO convinced me that they REALLY needed me now, I elected to stay in the Army for several more years to "see the world" - which turned out to be Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But only for the first year. The last three years of my world tour were spent with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Nuremberg, Germany.
Finally, I got to ride instead of walking everywhere!
For the record, I really loved the Cav. We didn't just go to the motor pool every day, we went to the motor pool and drove around in tanks!
Tanks! How does it get any better than this!?
But, all good things and so on, so in 1974 I came back home. I wound up working for a Savings and Loan and cut my teeth on Information Technology. I stayed with the S&L for 24 years, then moved on to a utility, where I spent another 15 years, and then retired.
So my professional career has been all about IT. Comparing technology of the mid 70's to technology to today, my laptop has more power than the 4 ton mainframes of that era.
And technology appears in nearly every corner of the life of a 21st centurion. But that is not a complaint. Tech has been very good to me, and I am grateful for the friends that I made, the breaks that I got now and then, and the things I learned over the years.
But, I am disappointed that there has yet to be a real cure for baldness, and that cars are still ground vehicles.
Perhaps the 22nd centurions will see this dream come true.
Chapter 2, My Personal Life
My education was truncated in the 2nd grade.
I was reading (something) when I ran across a word I did not understand. I asked the teacher for permissi...Expand for more
on to look up the word in a dictionary. She said âno, just try to figure out what the word means by the context of the sentence.â
So I asked and she explained what the word âcontextâ meant. (I'm glad she didn't she tell me to figure out what âcontextâ meant in the context of the word context?)
That ruined my education.
I was in my late twenties before I figured out what had happened. Now I love words and love looking up words. But from the 2nd grade on I had no regard for education. Not because I was upset with the teacher, but because I took to heart what she said, did not look up words, and thus rarely did anything I read make a lot of any sense to me.
On the other hand, in that same class, there were three reading group: the Blue Jays â the advanced readers, the Red Birds â the average readers, and the something-or-other Birds, composed of those readers who were behind the rest of the class in reading skills.
I started out as a Blue Jay, but one day the teacher told me she was moving me into the Red Birds because my skills were not enough for the Blue Jays. I asked her what I could do to stay in the Blue Jays, and she said READ, READ, READ.
So I did.
She got me to read, but not to understand what I read.
I checked out books form the school library and began reading and reading and reading. (I recall, one could only check out books that were age appropriate for oneself. i.e., as a 2nd grader, I could not check out 5th grade books, and so on.)
Within a week I was back in the Blue Jays.
I did not know most of what I read meant, but I could recite back what I saw/read, though my actual comprehension was only about 20%. (What's 20% of âSee Spot run. Run Spot, run.â)
However, that 20% - along with what I could memorize - was enough to get me through high school.
And reading is one of my greatest pleasures.
That and golf.
And reading about golf.
Because the world is such a massive ball of confusion - thanks to the 7 billion independent, thought producing/projecting, random event generators (people) running around it - and with no real dictionary of the world on hand, or map of the human psyche, of itinerary of the human race, I have always been interested in ânew ageâ concepts, and in the quantum universe.
When my education was undermined (thank you Miss 2nd grade teacher - may your dog every fail house training), so was my trust in the education establishment, thus I looked outside of it for illumination and understanding.
Consequently, I encountered many subjects, philosophy's, and modalities, looking for that one that would bring sense to them all; like looking for the unified field theory of the human being.
Looking for that human race itinerary.
And I found many things that make a lot of sense, but only on the same level of effectiveness as the placebo effect. Almost anything will be true for someone, but almost nothing that I have seen is true for everyone.
I say âalmostâ because I only know what has been useful for me, and I cannot say what would be useful for anyone else. (If you want to know some of the subjects that I consider to be useful in life, drop me a note â a very short note.)
Obviously, since I have made it this far, there are other chapter in my life.
And yours too.
But, do I know you?
So, I'd like to finish this write-up by saying that three of the most important things I have learned in life are:
1. there are no secrets to the universe,
2. your belief in yourself and knowledge of yourself is your most valuable possession, and
3. gratitude, truth, love, and knowledge are the corner stones of a good life.
That's some pretty heavy stuff.
Now go have a beverage.
Tom
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