It may not be common to provide a justification for the publication of one’s memoirs, but perhaps it should be1. This is especially true in my case, as my life has been fairly unremarkable: I am not publicly known, my contributions to the betterment of human kind have not been anything except modest2, and I do not profess to offer any great insights or truths about the human condition. I enjoyed a comfortable, placid childhood, suffering neither from poverty, racism nor any great existential crises. But I have been associated with a number of odd and/or humorous situations that could prove amusing to my target audience, which I believe justifies what some people may (admittedly) call a self-indulgent exercise.
And who is my target audience? Well, my life (like Caesar’s consideration of Gaul3) readily breaks down into three broad sections:
1) Childhood, covering my halcyon days growing up in Los Gatos, culminating with high school (Chapters 1, 2 and 3).
2) My professional career in Entomology, encompassing my collegiate days (Chapters 4 and 6).
3) My adult social life, largely shaped by Scottish Country Dancing (Chapter 5).
Of course, life is not quite that cut and dried, and there are overlaps between these times, while I also touch on other topics that are more or less independent of these three periods. These event are covered in Chapter 7 and the Appendices (so if you don’t see your name in my recounting of these “major phases”, it may be in one of these sections). But basically, I suspect that if you know me from one of these chapters in my life, the other sections are less likely to appeal to you, so you have my blessing to skip them if you so choose (remember, you always have the option of consulting the Index, to see if you are mentioned by name or not). And for anyone completely unfamiliar with me and who must have stumbled upon this work accidentally: you are admonished to proceed further only at your own risk of utter boredom. Especially in regard to Appendix I, which includes a number of miscellaneous anecdotes that are likely to appeal only to a few of my Scottish dancing friends. And if you are that cute young gal who I ran into at the grocery store the other day, I expect this whole thing will be a waste of your time (um, by the way, mum’s the word should you happen to run into my wife, comprende?). On the other hand, I like to think there are several humorous or interesting moments and anecdotes throughout this work that could be of general appeal4. AT THE VERY LEAST, you should get a kick out of Appendix J.
As an aside, in 2021, while trying to spur interest in our Los Gatos High School’s class of 1971 50th reunion, I posted some of these reminiscences (dealing with high school and growing up in Los Gatos) on Facebook. So, some of these stories may be familiar to a few of you.
Another caveat: in a court of law, witnesses are given three admonishments: to speak 1) the truth, 2) the whole truth, and 3) nothing but the truth. For these memoirs, I will attest to the first of these (well, as far as my memory allows, anyway; but I also consulted a journal I kept from February 1980 to June 1985, my collection of photographs, high school yearbooks, old Reel & Strathspeyers, as well as contacting old friends to confirm my memories). But not the second admonishment: for example, I will be omitting any discussion of sex. Although I may admit to occasionally engaging in certain activities, I have always shied away from discussing this topic in public – both due to a natural shyness, as well as a respect for the privacy of others (especially Diana Rigg, Jan Smithers and the entire varsity cheerleading squad of the Washington State Cougars from 1985-86: don’t worry girls – your secrets are safe with me), so you’ll need to get any prurient interests satisfied elsewhere. Nor will I mention certain personal data, such as the city I was born in, the name of my first pet, my Social Security number, and any other data that might be used to guess the p*******s for any of my electronic devices. After all, one cannot be too careful these days. Like even using the word “p******d”, since that could conceivably be a trigger for various nefarious actors who want to try me to sign up for health insurance, cellular phone plans, or time shares – I’m on to you folks. And as to the third admonishment, well, I’ll leave it up to you to determine what parts of these memoirs may be, shall we say, poetic license.
As for name changes. In the text, I used the surname that I knew the person by AT THE TIME I referred to them in the text (so for example, a woman may appear under two different surnames if she married and subsequently took her husband’s name), but in the Index, I cross-index both names. There is only one exception to this: I consistently refer to my wife under her maiden name 5.
And after considering this tome, at the very least you can decide for yourself whether the Los Gatos High School’s school newspaper, El Gato, was indeed justified when, under “Senior Superlatives” for the class of 1971, I, along with Kakie Hanson, were selected as the most “Unique”.
1 Brian Crane’s Pickles cartoon is one of my favorites, and to my surprise, this strip (from December 1, 2025) just happened to coincide with the REAL reason I’m writing these memoirs.
2 Although I did discover that using reading glasses helps immeasurably when one is trying to clip one’s toenails. If you have not yet heard if this discovery, that is because I’m still trying to figure out a way to monetize this revolutionary lifestyle breakthrough, all for the low, low price of $19.95. If interested in purchasing your own franchise, contact my associate Mr. Fercotti6.
3 As per Ronald Barrans’ High School Latin class, ca 1970.
4 And as an added benefit to those of you who DO read the whole dam’ thing, you’ll find out who did it.
5 Well, there’s ALWAYS an exception, isn’t there? For song 18 (in Appendix C), for artistic reasons I credit Carolynn’s contribution as an author under her married name.
6 Address provided in last sentence of the Introduction.