My Dear Cousin - Parents

                                      29th April 2021

My dear cousin,

It comes to me that I now having little in the way of family and we being separated by not only the expanse of time but by the thickness of the American nation that I must be a mystery to you. Our short text conversations can only serve to add questions to the pile about me so a short recap of my life feels in order.

Take into account that I will focus on family, as that is your interest, and that I have forty one years to cover. Add to this my competing priorities of detailed report and brief notation. It has been said of me by the people of my work, and my legal counsel, that I write in grate vivid detail, but the account of the time would still drag on as one document.

Let us start with my mother, your aunt, who was born in Philadelphia, as far as I know, and left there to seek her education in New York. It was from there that she moved to California. It is unclear if her first husband was from the golden state or if he was from back east. My mother never spoke of the man. If this fellow was even real or just a figment of (Yule), her second husband’s, imagination I couldn’t say. 

My old man was born in Canada but grew up in Las Angeles. When he met my mother he was an army veteran with a solid government job. Mom, wanting children, asked for his hand in marriage and he said yes. My siblings were born two years apart, as this is what science told mother was best, and in another two years mom was pregnant with me. Needing a home to fit the family they moved to the home I now live in.

I should note here that (Yule) promised to become a Jew and keep my mother’s religion. He was taking the classes but stopped when my mother did not attend them with him. This is the old man’s account of the situation, mom never spoke of it, and he was very bitter.

Well, here we are I’m not born yet and the story feels a little long. Much more writing and I figure that it would just be dragging on. In any case, we have the rest of our lives to chat on, but I’ll continue with the story soon.

Best wishes,

 

Richard Leland Neal

As a Life Continues

 

This is an essay from a summer school class I took when I was seventeen. To the best of my understanding it lasted a total of twenty eight days. Each day we would write an essay and it be graded. On the last day we would submit an essay to be evaluated by and independent body.  If the Essay was not good enough we would not graduate high school. I had to take this because I suffered from a learning disorder that I was in therapy for when my mother passed. The old man was unwilling to keep taking me to this therapy.                                                                  

‎June ‎23, ‎1997

As a Life Continues

 

 

I was born in nineteen seventy nine. I am told that my (Yule) cut the umbilical cord but could not remember it later. My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer within months of my birth. Due to this I have never been shocked by the progression of the disease. At three years of age I encountered one of the most complicated and common parts of modern life, divorce. My (Yule) has often reflected on my misunderstanding of the situation, "you asked why I did not come home anymore," and he would chuckle about it as if it were funny. I spent the majority of my young life in a pool, it was a small pool but adequate. My (Pony Girl) and (Pickle) were often there with me. (Pony Girl) was always the thinner of the two. (Pickle)  was a pudgy white fat child with a real attitude problem. He was spiteful and hated honor students. It will be my belief for all time that my mother’s death was the end of my childhood. When you stare in to your mother’s cold dead face, you grow up. The truth is you have no choice in that matter; you just can’t go on without a change.

         

One thing that has always been part of my life even when I was very young was school.  You see my mother was a science teacher as well as a pharmacist. She had graduated from a four year university with two diplomas in mildly related fields. As a three year old I was teaching mother's class with her and, of course, listening to many teachers’ discussions. The early exposure probably gave me some kind of an advantage over other children. In North Whittier elementary school I had problems being understood by other children. This may have had something to do with my vocabulary, as it tested to be three years advanced. I was miserable at Catherine Edward's Jr. High, this was due to the activities of PE. For example Stones were hurled at me during athletics and racial slurs were a common part of life. I will never forget the time some fool called me a Nazi. Being a Jew, I easily explained his folly to him but he failed to understand, "you’re a dirty Jew and a Nazi," he said to me. For this reason, I have ever since tried not to explain things to the grotesquely stupid. Finally I went to Pioneer where I had experience in drama, music, and photography. The overall experience of Pioneer has been very wearying physically and mentally.

 

For the future I would like to put forth the skills I have learned in the Theatre. I worked on lighting sets for some time and found it intriguing. It was this that sparked my interest in technical support and organizational tech. Moreover, I have gained skills in the field and even now I would make an excellent grip. What is a grip? Well he is the man that carries heavy equipment for theater and film production. In other words, a grip is a human pack animal that is renowned for his strength and endurance. However if the field for any reason does not fit my lifestyle I plan on adding engineering to my abilities. Electrical workings are already an important part of my life and taking the next step from repairing is designing. Most of electrical engineering is color coated and ultimately very simple to work on. The knowledge I have obtained should make mastering this field no more difficult than any other of my interests. If even that proves poorly matched there will always be related fields or other areas of interest for me to follow. I'm not concerned about finding a suitable occupation.