Stephen Powell:  

I grew up in Orlando, Florida. This was before Disney. Cape Kennedy was still Cape Canaveral. I spent my summers with my father's parents on a small farm in Westminster, SC. There I met Sandra, my current and only wife. She was 12 and I was 13. As a child I loved reading (Science Fiction) and radio/electronics. An uncle was a self-taught (DeForrest Home Correspondence) radio-television repairman and mentored me in crystal radios, acorn tube receivers and finally (when they were available) a transistor set. Another uncle showed me machining, gun blueing and what you get when you mix iodine crystals with pure ammonia? A purple paste that explodes when it dries with a report and a whiff of purple smoke. An yes (I'm not making this up), I did a Show&Tell at school. My grandfather instilled a love of carpentry. I still have a wooden silverware chest with inlay that is as beautiful today as when he crafted it. Many occupational possibilities waited for me to grow up. My two favorite teachers in high school taught English and Chemistry. In retrospect, they were the two finest teachers in all my educational experiences. No one in my family had gone to college. My grandmother encouraged me to learn a good trade such as plumbing. Sage advice. But no, if I was to become an Electrical Engineer and work at Cape Canaveral, I needed to go to college. Another uncle lived in South Carolina and had graduated from Clemson College in Mechanical Engineering. I admired him and Clemson was much cheaper than schools in Florida. So I entered Clemson in Electrical Engineering. Two years later, I decided EE was too tough for me. I could maintain my GPR only if I took math courses in summer school and devoted a tremendous amount of effort in passing them. I decided I had no inborn talent for engineering. Later I discovered I didn't have any inborn talent for anything. So I went to see the school councilor. She gave me some tests that indicated I possessed some skill in visualizing one dimensional plans in three dimensional constructs. This, she said, indicated I should be a graphic artist. I replied that I couldn't draw. We were at a stalemate. More testing was called for. The University of Georgia ("Go Dawgs!") had Interest & Aptitude testing but you had to be enrolled to take the tests. I plunked down a $40 enrollment fee and entered the University for one day of testing. The results? I had a "need to serve." That was fine with me. I would serve as a teacher. English had always been easy for me and I was a bibliophile so I would become an English Lit Professor. "What about medicine," asked the tester. "What about it," I thought. "I don't know any doctors." "Sandra and I are both working just to get me through college." "Sure I might make more money but I wouldn't have my summers off." Tough choice. I'd let Fate decide. I applied to medical school while taking more English courses. I got accepted to the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston. So much for having my summers off. I also received a Draft deferment. The United States was still at war with North Viet Nam when I entered my junior year of medical school. The recruiters set up tables in the library. "Join the Army," the Army guy said, "and we'll send you to Viet Nam and make a man out of you." "Join the Navy and we'll send you to sea for a year," the Navy guy said. "Sign up for three years instead of two and we'll pay you as a second lieutenant your senior year," said the Air Force. I signed up with the Air Force, graduated from medical school, completed a rotating Internship in Roanoke and went to Kadena AFB, Okinawa. Since I would not have joined the military if I had a choice, I chose not to wear my uniform out of the office. I hung it on a hanger when I left and put it back on in the morning. What to do when I leave the service? How about a Pathology Residency? I'd tried on all the medical specialties in med school and internship and nothing seemed to fit. I was a General Medical Officer in the Air Force and that wasn't all that rewarding. Everybody was "tired, dizzy, felt bad and had back pain." Pathology seemed more intellectual. Well, Pathology may have been more intellectual but you spent your weekends doing autopsies on all the folks who had been killed, or killed themselves, between Friday night and Monday morning. Perhaps it was peculiar to Charleston? I spent a year at the Medical University before discontinuing my pathology training and Going West! California called. I joined a Health Maintena...Expand for more