Alan Freeman:  

School My first school experience was Flower Street elementary where I made some life long friends and developed my love for sports. I remember getting my knuckles rapped by my third grade teacher for doing something entirely innocent. It was raining and we collected the rainwater in a glass jar. The teacher asked me to measure how much rain was in the jar, so being the potential engineer I was, stuck the ruler inside the jar to get the precise amount of rainwater. Guess she felt I was being a smart alec and smacked my knuckles because she said the propper way to do it was measure it from the outside, my first experience with a liberal school teacher!!! From Flower Street (now Feaster) I went to Chula Vista Junior High where I was overwhelmed by the size of the school, cause I was just a little guy raised in a trailer park!! I remember getting to invited to a party at Howard Taylor's house and I thought that was the nicest thing that ever happened to me, thanks Howard!! Had many fun times, although I was too shy to talk to most of the girls there, enjoyed going to the dances at the community center, but would rely on Glen Froede to ask the girls to dance, then I would cut in on him!! I had the good fortune to develop a relationship with Tom Snow, my PE teacher, a relationship that latter on in life would help me marry my current wife Karen (18 years now). Tom was someone I admired and always felt was looking out for us. After graduating as a ninth grade I began my sophmore year at Lowell High School in Massachusetts. I had spent the summer with my brother in Lowell after graduating from Junion High and talked my parents into letting me go to school there to see what life on the east coast was like. After three months my brother who was in the Air Force was transferred back to the west coast so I transferred to Chula Vista. Have to admit the girls at CV where certainly alot prettier than those in Massachusetts, unfortunately was too shy to talk to them!! Played baseball my sophomore year for Bill Holland, who was more of a football coach but talk had many fun drills that helped develop our skills. Bill is now rich working as a financial guy, I hear him all the time on the radio. My senior year I left CV to go to Castle Park as my parents moved to the other end of Chula Vista. I was renunited with Tom Snow who was the basketball coach where I played and enjoyed our success, third in the county just behinc CV. Also played baseball for Joe Reinbolt, one of the best baseball coaches I had a chance to play for, he got alot out of his team and was gentle and full of support. Now on to how Tom Snow helped me with my wife Karen. While I was dating Karen she worked as a counselor at Castle Park High School and Tom was one of her co-workers. She would constantly ask him questions about me and my character, and luckily for me he put in many good words for me as she stuck it out and we were married in 1987. College It has been a long rocky road!! Started in 1965 at Southwestern College and after 1 1/2 years transferred to Humboldt State to join Terry Roeder where we had hopes of playing baseball. Unfortunately classes got in the way, however, I did get a chance to play football on the JV Team and ended up starting as running back for them, something I was never given the chance at CV. Do to a mix up at Southwestern and Humboldt I was reclassified from 2S to 1A and was drafted into the Army in Mady 1968. After...Expand for more