Devon Shuman:  

Hello, everyone, and welcome. As some of you know I spent my formative years in the Sarasota, Florida public school system. As it turns out I received a decent education. In the summer of 1968 my family moved to Atlanta because my step father had acquired a position in management at Canteen, the vending company. In the fall of that year I attended North Fulton High School on the northeast side of Atlanta. North Fulton doesn't exist anymore. They turned it into an "international school" whatever the hell that means. I graduated in the summer of 1969 just in time to see Cream with the Terry Reid Group at the Chastain park amphitheater, the same place where our graduation had been held. I worked as a warehouse manager for Canteen in the summer and started at Dekalb College (now called Clarkston Junior College). I could not afford to support myself and moved with my family to Sanford, North Carolina where I vegetated until I put a fist through the wall of my parents pool room. I moved back to Sarasota in September of 1970 and moved in with Johnny and Jimmy Boyd on Desoto Road off Hwy 301. I went to work for First Federal Savings and Loan as an Addressograph/Graphotype Operator. I was drafted into the Army/Marines in February of 1971 but "dodged" into the Air Force where I figured my chances of dying were diminished. I guess that worked out OK. I went to Saigon in May of 1972 after spending a year between Denver, CO, San Antonio, Texas, and Sumter, South Carolina. I was a photo interpreter who planned and scored B52 missions. In Feb of 1973 when the peace treaty went into effect we moved to Udorn, Thailand. That was a blast. So was Saigon for that matter. From there I went back to South Carolina then back to Thailand. 7 months later I was in Hampton, Virginia for a year. Someone was watching over me because I spent the next three years in Hawaii. That was a highlight. I had a beautiful Japanese apartment near the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and worked on 2nd shift. I went surfing every day. Totally awesome. During a temporary duty assignment I met and courted my first wife and my oldest daughter Jennifer Rose, who was two at the time. We were married in 1979 and by the end of that year we were in Omaha, Nebraska with my wife 6 months pregnant. My 2nd daughter, Julia Suzanne, was born at the end of March, 1980. We ended our Air Force careers in January, 1981 and moved to San Mateo, California so my wife could be close to her mother. We both attended College of San Mateo and received Associate Degrees in Business. In 1985 my 3rd d...Expand for more