Rory Cubel:  

in a cappella choir, swing choir, and in the rock band. Singing was my destiny. I also remember double dates with friends and going to the State Drive -In movie at the East end of town. Who can forget the enjoyment of 'Catting the Drag' (Lincolnway)on a Saturday night after you spent the day washing and waxing your buddie's car and going to a dance spot in New Buffalo, Michigan or Portage (Hullabaloo Club), or South Bend (Top Deck). I went steady and to proms with a few girls I met at those dances. It was the perfect teenage dating life for me. I hope all of your memories are as good and fun filled. I attended 2 semesters of college in Duluth ,Minnesota at the College of St. Scholastica. It was a nice Catholic college (although I am not Catholic, I always say I'm a "Pedestrian walking down the sidewalk of life.").. LOL .. and had regular sized classes and a great curriculum for Majoring in Communication. Believe it or not..I was 36 when I attended there and most of the students were 19 - 25.I was the Prof's assistant in the Photo Dept. and assisted students with developing and printing film and prints. It was a very good gig. I left and moved to a warmer climate...Martinez ,Georgia. That is because the windchills in Duluth can reach minus 70 degrees. B-r-r-r. I photographed and sold landscape images to the Lake Superior Magazine there in 1990 -'91. If you every get a chance....go to Minnesota in late Summer/early Fall and drive North of Duluth along the Lake Superior Circle Tour Highway and see what real natural beauty is. Their State Parks are free to enter and you only pay to camp overnight.Waterfalls and rapid filled rivers abound, not to mention the wildlife of moose, wolves, and black bears.If you canoe and fish.you must go to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of nothern Minnesota along the Canadian border. It has the clearest freshwater you will ever see down into.I hope you all have a great life. College I attended "Film In The Cities" for a black & white photography workshop for 16 weeks.It is the same school that the Cohen Brothers ("Raising Arizona" w/Nicholas Cage) attended film school.It was my real first step back into learning. It did me well. I later attended College of St. Scholastica in Duluth,Minn. for 1 year -while I lived there for 3 years. I only lived 8 blocks away and would walk it in the fiercest of blizzards. That will wake you up for an early morning class, believe me. My entry exam was to write 2 paragraphs of why I wanted to attend college. I got in and did very well in english,literature,speech and was best at writing short stories.I was the Photog. Dept. Professors' Assistant.It was surreal in that I was 36 and the majority of students were 19 thru 24. Age made no difference...the students made me feel 25 and they wanted to hear my advice on life.It was also a Catholic college and I was as Catholic as a tree. : ) ( It was during this time that I often visited the wild bears in the local cemetery. They would come there to feed on the acorns of old oak trees.It was an amazing experience and the cubs were a thrill to behold.)I took many pictures.Northern Minnesota is a real adventurers paradise. Workplace I've done everything from Security guard work in Washington ,D.C (that's another story) to working with a store maintenance crew at night in Carson,California, to operating a 50 ton gantry crane in Kingsbury,Indiana.(My second wife and I hitchhiked to California back in 1975 and drove back in 1976 in a mint 1962 Chrysler Imperial.)I've pretty much been a blue collar worker all my life and am still a pretty laid back but liberal thinking dude.Right now I hope to continue repairing and reselling vintage electric guitars and basses and continue in my quest for a few musicians to form an original rock group. Military The military didn't do many of us good in the late 60's. Heck, the draft broke up our second band, Deep River Rock Band in 1968. As soon as I graduated from high school, I had to sign up for the draft (it was the law then) but before I let the Army get me and send me to Viet Nam (forget that..."I wasn't no millionaires son".)I enlisted in the Air Force and was sent to Lackland A.F.Base in Texas.I was there 2 weeks and had a medical condition crop up that allowed me to choose to stay or leave....I left. To me the military is a total brainwashing of all we hold dear to us before adulthood.I don't believe in killing anyone for any government ...war is and will never be the "answer".I also firmly believe that our government is the" bully of the world". Told you I was a liberal and I guess.... a bit radical.I am who I am today because I didn't get totally brainwashed. My heart bleeds for those who died, the families and those that came back brainwashed and shell shocked.Our country is beautiful and so are many of the people but our government always has its own secret agendas for oil and control and taxes. We're stuck.