Brad Ryder:  

Recently I sold my Internet company, after running it for ten years. Didn't get much, because the dialup business is fading ... fading ... Now I'm back in radio, doing news and web videography at WKBK in Keene. In my free time I'm trying to finish up the books I'm writing. My first, "Organ of Pain," was released in September 2009. My second, a play called "Grad All Over," is now available. Both are on Amazon.com ... and a new book called "Cosmic Son" should be ready for the stands by November 2010. Also, on August 4, 2006, I decided to teach myself the piano. After two years I've practiced every day (with only a few exceptions) and I'm improving. (Why didn't somebody tell me 30 years ago that playing the piano was so much fun?) Joan and I are in "empty nest" mode. Nick has moved out on his own but is still living nearby. He comes over to watch football, which as I've often told him is the only reason I had a son, "So we could watch football together!" Natalie is away at college. I dream about her often. One of my earliest memories is walking into my parents' bedroom when I was about five and finding my mother crying. Some time after that my father moved out, leaving my mother and brother Gary and me in our Baldwin Park house. We could have gone on that way, but my mother married a neighbor, Paul, and we moved to a new house in El Monte. Suddenly I had an older step-sister and step-brother, Marie and Barry. We kids got along fairly well, just the usual sibling rivalry stuff, and today we are best of friends. Somehow, though, we wound up in various parts of the country. Marie is still in the Los Angeles area, Barry is in San Jose, and Gary is in Pensacola, Florida. We have gotten together in the past few years, mostly for unpleasant occasions. In 1997 it was for my step-father's funeral. In early 2004 it was for my mother's funeral. One happy event: we got together again later that year for Marie's wedding. How I came to be in Keene, NH could be a long story, but let me try to summarize: After high school I didn't flip burgers but I made a lot of pizzas. Eventually I got drafted into the U.S. Army. I got an honorable discharge then worked some dead-end jobs until it occurred to me I needed a degree, so I enrolled in junior college. Keep in mind that all the while I continued to play my guitar and write songs as an emotional outlet. After junior college I went to San Jose State, and I met Carol while working a part-time Christmas job. When I moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, she moved with me and we got married. At least I think we did; it was one of those $35 ministers who had set up an altar on his fireplace hearth. I loved Carol, but we were under a lot of stress with my schooling, our trying to pay bills, as well as taking care of her two children she'd had by a previous marriage -- and less than two years after getting married, we got a summary dissolution. Yes, a divorce. I would write many songs about Carol in the next few years. For years after our divorce, Carol and I kept in touch. I lived in San Jose, teaching and working at the radio station, and she was in Huntington Beach. But we traveled to see each other, until ... one day she called and said she'd met someone who lived closer. Next door, actually. She and Fred were getting "involved." This was the death blow of our relationship, the ending that we had avoided since our divorce two years earlier. About that time my friend Clay, who had moved to Boston in the 1970s, was getting married. He invited me to come back to be his best man, and I agreed. Fully intending to return to California, I packed up my Volkswagen, told roommate and brother Barry that I'd be back, and I left San Jose. First I drove to Los Angeles to see Carol and find out if there was any hope for us. There was not. So on the evening of August 12, 1983, I started driving. At the same time I started crying, and I cried until I reached Arizona. Six days later I was at Clay's. The events of Clay's wedding and the next few months could comprise a book, so I'll skip it for now. I moved to New Jersey to be near Janet, a woman I met at the wedding. We didn't last; both of us had recently been divorced so this was a transitional thing. But I did find a teaching job, and when the Christian leader on campus invited me to church, I met Joan. Slightly more than a year later we were married. Meanwhile my teaching job fizzled, and I got hired by Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH. So in 1987 Joan and I and our 4-month-old Nicholas moved to Keene. In 1989 Natalie was born in the local hospital ... and yadda yadda yadda ... she's got her driver's license now. School Most of my elementary schooling was done in El Monte, California. I attended Baker School, then Mt. View Junior High, then went to El Monte High for two years. Until high school I was considered a smart kid. I got A's in everything. I liked participating in sports but was not athletic, always the last chosen you know. My best friends at Baker School were Terry Burns and Mark Simpson. I don't recall having any girl friends although I may have tried but I was painfully shy. At Baker School I remember liking Sandy Burnett, but I guess every guy did. At Mt. View I sat next to Vicki Miller and I liked her but we never went out or even had lunch together. It was just not cool; all the guys had to hang out. In eighth grade Vicki and I were in different "clusters" and I don't believe I ever spoke to her again. In high school I had academic and social problems, and other difficulties mostly related to some bad stuff happening at home. I slept through Biology class, ignored my Geometry teacher, dropped out of Speech class, did okay in English even though I could have done better. I did join the "D" basketball team, which lost every game it played even though I never got to play, but I did keep score. I had crushes on Kathy Beck and Gail Welch but they didn't want anything to do with me. So far high school was a bad experience. After my sophomore year my family picked up and moved to Gilroy (near San Jose), which may have saved my life, as I was hanging out with some bad people in El Monte. At Gilroy High I was able to make a fairly fresh start but was still very shy. I liked Barbara Ferraro but she never knew because I was too afraid to even talk to her. I tried to date Martha Barton but I was not in her league. All the really hot girls were dating the football players. One of my best friends was Sheryl Tichenor; I don't think either of us thought about being romantic although she invited me to the backwards dance because neither of us had anyone else. It was a lonely time. I often went home right after school and sat at my desk and wrote and wrote and wrote. Graduation in 1969 was not a big deal for me. My brother Barry and our friend John went to some parties but mostly I was happy for the chance to move on. College My very first college experience came while I was still in high school, when I took a drama class at Gavilan College in Gilroy. My friends Sheryl Tichenor and Margene Bloom were also in the class. It was a workshop environment; we didn't produce any plays, just short scenes. I don't remember much more about it. After high school I did not rush into college. Instead I took some time off, during which I made pizzas and tried to sell some of my songs in Los Angeles. One guy at United Artist Studios listened to my songs but we couldn't find one that he thought he...Expand for more