Doug Thornburg:  

Rambling Bio for Doug Thornburg I was born in Tegucigalpa Honduras and have two sisters, one younger and one older. We moved to Arizona when I was three and lived on a ranch at the corner of Sarival and Olive Ave. The ranch was owned by my great uncle and we grew mostly grapes for eating, but we also had cantaloupes, watermelons, lettuce, pomegranates and other fruits and vegetables. There is nothing like eating it fresh from the field. Who thought about pesticides and fertilizers when you have all those fields, irrigation ditches and sump ponds to play in. There were a lot more mature eucalyptus trees along the roads back then. Too bad they are gone now. I went to first grade at Dysart Elementary School and then we moved to the Maryvale area, where we opened up a Dairy Queen. Talk about a kids dream. No wonder I was chubby back then, wait a minute, I still am. Oh well. I went to Glenn L. Downs from 2nd through 8th grade. I got stung by a scorpion in my second grade classroom. It hurt like hell and freaked my teacher out. I forgot to sue the school so I ended up at Maryvale High School after 8th grade. I was more of a nerd than anything else through High School but when the school went to morning and afternoon sessions depending on where you lived, I decided to get into sports (track) because anyone in sports got to go to morning session, which means you could get out of school earlier instead of get up late and stay late. Vietnam and the lottery draft were going on but I ended up with a high enough number not to be drafted and even through I wanted to travel and see the world, I didn¿t want to do it in Vietnam. I admire and respect those who did and a few friends didn¿t come back. I also didn¿t go to my High School graduation ceremony. Instead I had saved up enough money to buy a plane ticket to Europe to hitch around for three months. I went to Glendale Community College for one year and then went to Northern Arizona University to study Forestry. I met a great girl in the hiking club at NAU, went together for 1 ½ year and got married in 1970. Graduated in 1972 with a B.S. in Forestry Land Management and got divorced in 1973. Forestry jobs were few and far between and I got the wanderlust again and had saved enough money so I headed to Europe, south across North Africa for 4 months, across to Italy, Greece and ended up in Israel. I stayed in Israel for two years, worked a little in forestry, lived on a Moshav and then a Kibbutz where I studied Hebrew. Interesting that while studying Hebrew, a lot of the Spanish I learned in Tegucigalpa came back and my instructors said that I started speaking Hebrew with a Spanish accent. After two years my visa ran out so I then came back to Arizona. Housing construction was booming so I got a job delivering doors, trim and sash for a year or so and then got into finishing concrete where I worked for the next 15 or so years. I lived in Topeka, Kansas for a couple of year¿s also finishing concrete but winters were slow for concrete work so I came back to Arizona. I started fishing after work compulsively and within a year I was hired as a Sport Fishing Education contractor with the Arizona Game and Fish Department teaching sport fishing to mostly young kids but beginning anglers of all ages. I did that for 4 ½ years until the guy who hired me moved to another job within the Department and I applied for his job and got it. I was the Sport Fishing Education Coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department from 1994 until I retired in October, 2013. While working as the sport fishing contractor, I met a beautiful lady who was taking one of her three kids fishing and 7 ½ years later (1998) we were married. Now the youngest daughter is living in North Carolina, the middle son is married with three kids and living in Arizona and the oldest daughter also has three kids and is living in California. Family and Grandkids are the best part about being retired. Also, too many hobbies and never enough time. For those of you who want story wizard: How do you hope old friends remember me? Fondly, at least I hope they don't cringe and say Oh My God! Here comes Doug. I always wanted to be a Law Enforcement or Forest Ranger when I grew up. My family and friends thought that was a good idea. As it turns out, they were right. How do you blow off steam? Describe your favorite way to relax. I don't know if I blow off steam, I just blow up all at once and then try and get over it. Actually I enjoy getting out of doors, Hiking, exploring, hunting, fishing and watching wildlife. What's the wildest thing you ever did in school? I don't know about the wildest but scatterbrained...I always walked to school, which was over two miles one way and during my senior year I was allowed to drive the family car. Well I guess driving the car wasn't that big of a deal because when school got out I walked home and when I sat down to dinner, my dad asked me where the car was. Well the look on my face told him everything, so I got up and walked back to school and drove the car back. He didn't let me use it the next day. If I'm going to work somewhere, I need to have some extra cash, a full tank of gas, and plan of excape to be able to deal with the day-to-day. (Is this Story Wizard like a Rorshach Test?) Do you have a hero? Talk about where your inspiration comes from. My heros are the people who have helped me and continue to help me understand what it means to live an honerable life, with integrety, to take responsibility for my actions, to make a...Expand for more