Barbara Bastiani:  

Life I think it would be best for me to start from the very early days of my life before most of you ever knew me. At the age of 4 I started taking dancing lessons including: tap, ballet, jazz and toe which I continued for 13 years. I especially loved ballet and had wanted to be in a dance troupe but things didn't exactly go as planned. Those who knew me would have effortlessly concluded by awareness of my demeanor, just where the natural flow of life would be taking me, because after all, I was so very feminine and graceful. Well yes and no. Even for me a lot went on behind the scenes. At approximately the age of 8, I stopped dead in my tracks and observed how engrossed my brother was while playing with his matchbox cars. Before long I also became absolutely mesmerized by those miniature cars and within a few years, transferred my love and admiration for them to the real muscle cars of the mid 60's to the late 70's. My first car was a used 1971 Firebird Esprit which I just LOVED! My next car I bought new, it was a 1976 Datsun 280z which I worked 2 jobs to help pay it off sooner, plus pay a high insurance rate. It had a manual tranmission which I taught myself how to drive AFTER I bought it. I adored that car we went through a lot together. One last thing regarding my childhood days, I also loved climbing trees and running fast and far. Well moving into the future: after RHS graduation I went to Triton Jr. College and earned my A.A. in Liberal Arts. In 1975 for 6 months I worked for Charles A. Stevens which was a high-end fashion department store in downtown Chicago. Then I became immersed into the banking world and learned a lot while at the same time discovering that I had a natural ability for detecting counterfeit bills. I was fortunate to have made some wonderful friendships there. Then I started going disco dancing at a place called "Bananas." I had the time of my life while dancing because my true soul just poured out. Moving on ahead to 1983, when I g...Expand for more