Memoirs - Introduction

2006 - 2007
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I have no idea who may ever read this, but at this time I want to at least make a record of my life and my times. The document on this computer and also via the website: http://www.spaiser.net/Memories/Contents.htm. In its present form it is just a collection of memories about different aspects and times of my life.

In life I was dealt 1/2 a deck. But the 1/2 I lived was a very good one. I am somewhat sorry that I did not marry successfully and have children as at my age now (66) I miss having my own family. In fact that is one of the reasons I moved to California in 1998 - to be near my closest of relatives; my two nieces who are the daughters of my sister Annette.

While my youth was not to bad (especially - thanks to my parents' rental every year - of a summer cottage) my adult life was somewhat mixed-up. But I can say that for most of it I had interesting work some nice experiences and I knew several wonderful women. I can certainly say unequivocally that having had at least two wonderful women in my life made it worth while. However troubled, I consider having loved and been loved to be far more important than traveling the world or having lots of money, although - in addition to the love - those things wouldn't be bad!

You can, if you want learn about these things by clicking on the "Continue to ..." link above or the one at the bottom of this page links to or goes to (on paper) the Table of Contents ("Contents").

The rest of this document -

is formatted as rather large green text on a black background

(to make it easier on my eyes in the middle of the night). The whole document is at the time I am writing it, "preliminary," meaning it is mostly "train of thought" and not necessarily too well organized, much less formatted. The "Contents" section, on the web, is fully hyperlinked so you can use it to read each section with a click. (However some of the other links within the document, do not work.)

Hopefully I will also burn it onto a CD and also plan to make a printout, although it is still too preliminary for that. If I live long enough I just might actually edit and compose it into a real book. For now it is sort of a string of stories.

End Intro.

BACKGROUND

I was born on April 27^th1940, just before the dawn of the “nuclear age,” although much work had already been done to get there. Then, at 5:30 am, July 16, 1945 at a site near Alamogordo, New Mexico it began.

I was a little over 5 years old at the time.

Since then I've seen a few things . . .

I’ve been through the cold war (when the then Soviet Union and the United States were potential nuclear adversaries). I watched the emergence of the space age (on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first ever artificial earth satellite Sputnik I). By that time I had a short-wave radio and could clearly hear it as it passed overhead >listen< , something I will never forget.

I remember watching the first moon landing live on TV on July 20 at 4:18 p.m. EDT (I was at Betty’s place). We stared at the TV as The Lunar Module touched down on the Moon at Tranquility Base. Armstrong reported "The Eagle Has Landed." And at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong, descending from Eagle's ladder and touching one foot to the Moon's surface, announced:

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

I remember the break-up of the Soviet Union (I witnessed Mikhail Gorbachev – live on TV – dissolve the Soviet Union and I recorded it on VHS tape – also in a very rare live broadcast I found). This was one of the most momentous events of the 20^th century (politically speaking).

I remember when the USA was a great (not just the "strongest") country. I remember when Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us that one of our greatest threats was the possible emergence of a “military industrial complex.” Obviously those were the days America stood for principles, not military industrial - corporate enterprise and Empire was the name of a building in New York, not our national policy.

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