Who am I?

I am 62 years old, and counting. I was raised on B-movies, and TV. I love Abbott and Costello, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, William Powell, Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes, Milburn Stone in his prime (long before Gunsmoke), Mickie Rooney as Andy Hardy, Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Frank Capra movies. On local Philadelphia TV I watched Bertie the Bunyip, Wee Willie Weber and Sallie Starr, and I can't forget Howdy Doody and Red Skelton. I wrote to Ike in grade school, and liked Barry Goldwater. When JFK was shot, I was in High School, in the library. I love Diet Pepsi! I hate Coke! I'm an amateur organist, learning on a Hammond spinet, via the Pointer method. I have served a couple of small churches as organist, even playing for one wedding and one funeral.

By pedigree, I am a mongrel, being a mixture of German, English, Irish, Dutch, Scot, and, according to family tradition, part American Indian, a tradition I am presently trying to verify or debunk through searching my family tree.

I was also raised in Sunday School and Church. I grew up listening to Christian radio: Oliver B Greene's Gospel Hour, Dr Michaelson's Hebrew Christian Hour, Oswald J Hoffman on the Lutheran Hour, Billy Graham's Hour of Decision, Dr DeHaan's Radio Bible Class, H. M. S. Richards' Voice of Prophecy. I attended Christian camp, Pinebrook in the Poconos, run by Percy Crawford. In High School I first heard Herbert W Armstrong's World Tomorrow, and was a member of his Radio/Worldwide Church of God for 10 years. In the early 1970's I was introduced to the Concordant Publishing Concern and the writings of Adolph E Knoch, editor of Unsearchable Riches magazine and Concordant Literal New Testament. A major portion of God's truth For Today! archives are articles written by Mr. Knoch.

I've been a Christian since I was 16 years old. I've taken courses, both credit and non-credit, at Philadelphia College of Bible (when it was still in Philadelphia). Over the years I've been an active member of several different churches. I've been Sunday School teacher, as well as Superintendent, Church Clerk, Church Moderator, Youth Leader and church organist. Presently I am not a member of any church, sect or denomination.

I like (among many other things) Big Bands, Classic Rock & Roll, Broadway, Contemporary Christian Music, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Air Supply, Olivia Newton John, Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, Jerry Lewis, George Beverly Shea, Jerome Hines, Larry Norman, Scott Wesley Brown, Glad, songs in which you can understand the words.

My first computer was an AMSTRAD PCW8256, a CPM-based computer/word processor. Talk about obsolete - the 256 was the size of the memory 256K! It was referred to as "Joyce." Here's a picture of one. It was an English import. But, gone were my typewriters forever! Slowly I graduated to an XT, PC, 286, 386, 486-66, Pentium. Funny, as soon as I get one, it will already be obsolete!!!! [Wow, the cable modem sure is fast! How did I ever live without it?]

I'm now retired, disabled with a heart condition and a bad back. I've broken my back 3 times, and in addition has a traumatic fall on ice which hurt like a fracture but was not. What started as simple heart failure, which I presume was from a heart attack at age 46, has since included a quadruple heart by-pass operation. My past professions have been as a Title Searcher and an Insurance Inspector. My most recent profession was as a Taxi Driver. Not to be confused with Robert DeNiro (that's him in the picture, not me), but I also drove the night shift where I was exposed to the seemier side of life. But driving taxi only paid the bills, and enabled me to pursue my main pastimes: learning more about computing, surfing the Internet, researching my family tree, and searching the Scriptures (not necessarily in that order). Since retiring from driving taxi I've most recently been volunteering time at a local thrift store run by South Jersey Healthcare.

P.S. - I also grew up watching science fiction and monster movies. I still do watch sci-fi movies, including and Star Trek and Dr Who, all the while realizing they are only diversions from reality, and not for a moment to be taken seriously. As a Christian, a believer in the Scriptures, the future I look forward to is far different, and more sure, than anything pictured in the adventures of Mad Max or James Kirk or Sigorney Weaver. And I certainly don't believe the fiction of evolution!

P.S.S. - Oh, I'm also single, i.e. never-been-married, a bachelor, unencumbered, free-as-a-breeze, happy-as-a-lark, or do I protest too much. YOU be the judge.

"In loving memory!"