Dan Carroll:  

January 2008 Oh it's so hard to find the beginning when there are so many, but I'll try my best to cover 46 years of change, growth, happiness, heartache, education, marriage, family, career, and travel since high school. There were many friendships and memories from my formative years in Morgan Park beginning with Esmond and then MPHS that aren't as clear in my mind today as they once were, but to this day I look back at those tender, carefree years with fondness. I have to say it was very hard to sever those high school ties after graduation and they weren't intentional. Some of us left the neighborhoods that we grew up in to attend college or join the military and never returned to the old neighborhood, except for brief periods to try and reconnect. I stuck around Chicago for a few years after high school working at Midway Airport to be close to my love for flying anything that had wings and an engine. In 1963 I joined the Navy without any expectations other than I knew the Navy held the keys that opened the doors of the world that I couldn't open on my own. In 1968 I transfered from the Naval Air Station at Keflavik, Iceland to reserve duty at NAS Glenview, hoping to find a job flying. None were to be had. That was a tough year to be in Chicago as were all of the remaining war years. But other cities were dealing with the same issues, besides I still had a military obligation and Chicago was the only home I really knew and loved. 1968 was the year I returned to school and tried for the better part of the next five years to separate myself from a world that became in...Expand for more