Seven Things You Don't Know About Me

Whenever I've asked for help or participation, my social media friends have always been there, so since I got tagged by Terry Morawski to participate in the Seven Things You Don't Know About Me series of blog posts, what was I to do? I'll keep it short:

1. In elementary school, I had a pen pal for five years. His name was Toshio Tsuchiya, and he lived in Yamanashi Japan. He would send me some amazing pictures, including dozens of shots of Mount Fuji. I've always wanted to climb it, and one of these summers soon, I plan to do so.

2. As a child I was a fanatic about astronomy and space travel. I never wanted to be an astronaut per se, but I did think about becoming an astronomer. My lack of talent in the sciences steered me in another direction.

3. The only thing I was more obssesed with as a kid than space exploration and Red Sox baseball was politics - and it remains a passion today. As a kid, I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1968. I memorized delegate data the same way most kids remembered batting averages, and I had a Humphrey for President sign on my bike. (Apparently, as a 9 year old, I was wise beyond my years). My role models were the politcal leaders of the day.

4. In my sophomore year, I played the lead role (Paul Berthalet) in our high school musical Carnival! The role was played on Broadway by Jerry Orbach. Not comparing the performance mind you, just the role.

5. I had the distinct honor of knowing and working for Senator Paul Tsongas. His intellect, humility, sense of humor, and quiet strength were simply extraordinary. I wish the country got to know him better.

6. In 1984, I drove Claude Pepper to the airport - just he and I in the car. We drove from New Bedford to Boston, which with traffic that day took about two hours. At the time, he was the oldest member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Chair of the powerful House Rules Committee. Mr. Pepper was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1936, lost his senate seat during the McCarthy era, and was later elected to Congress. You can only imagine the amazing stories. What a thrill!

7. I never left the U.S. until the age of 40. I've since been to about a dozen countries and look forward to visiting dozens more. There's no greater education than to travel both here and abroad to meet the people, walk the streets, and experience the wonder of our world's cultural fabric.

There you have it!

Now for a recap of the rules and a list of the seven people I plan to recruit for this task:

The rules (courtesy of TM):
Link your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. Share seven facts about yourself in the post. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my seven names:

David Mullen

Todd Andrlik

Steve Cody

Boyd Neil

Lara Kretler

Katie Paine

Sherrilynne Starkie

Enjoy!