A month ago, I got Walter's email and visited the web site. I grinned and wrote back that I would contribute some content. It seemed easy enough. I kept putting it off. During morning jogs, I vowed I'd get to it. Time Passed. It's now early May 2005 - a week before the reunion.
Ok - this is more difficult than I first imagined. I thought that I could simply sit at the computer and bang out a chronology of events of interest (to you and to me) that have transpired since I parted company with most of you in 1965.
I made a list; several of them.
I edited the list(s).
I started over.
I made a list; several more of them.
I began to dwell on items in my list and quickly got lost in the process of prioritizing the events.
What was worth telling?
What was certainly not to be told?
Who would want to know anyway?
I left Westtown and headed off to college. I arrived at Cornell University and soon discovered that I was totally unprepared for life at a large university. I had no clue. I couldn't buy a clue. I stuck it out for about 3 years. The academic referees at the university were willing to call it a draw so I headed out to experience LIFE.
I worked at literally half-a-hundred jobs around the country - New York to California.
I came back East and took a construction job in NYC.
I studied photography.
I tended bar in a Hell's Kitchen saloon.
I worked part-time at the American Museum of Natural History in the book department.
I had to do something redeeming after all.
I waited to be drafted.
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| Joe at work |
It never happened.
And eventually, Things began to unfold for me.
In the preceding thirty years, I have worked in law enforcement and criminal justice positions with local, state and federal agencies.
I have usually worked in policy development for drug control strategies and alternatives to incarceration such as Drug Courts and Community Policing.
I retired in 1999.
That bad idea lasted one year.
I went back to work.
Today, I still live in the NYC metropolitan area and work in an adjoining county for the Office of the District Attorney.
I supervise state and local information technology projects and am allowed to do related research and development in such areas as Geographic Information Systems, Wireless Data Access and Telecommunications Privacy.
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Bill and Nicky Our oldest son and our first grand-child! |
Married Christine (finally) and it was a Good Move.
Three children have been raised and packed off to experience LIFE (see Paragraph 3).
One came back briefly - not a bad average.
I still enjoy and continue to: jog, cycle and enroll in college courses that interest me.
I am building a telescope (for the last several years - you probably won't live to see it finished).
Last book read: "Longitude" - Dava Sobel.
Last movie seen: <Blank Stare> No, I mean it. No idea. I guess that speaks volumes.
Anyway ....
If circumstances permit, I would like to attend the reunion.
Best Regards to all,
Joe Landers <jlanders
westnet.com>
530 Riverdale Avenue Apartment 3-J,
Yonkers, New York 10705 914-457-3338