Category Archives: My Life in Pictures

My Life Story: 1996

My Life in Pictures, My Life Story,

Things to know up front:

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Click the back arrow key to return to the post.

Every chapter in My Life Story includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends. It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. You’ll also find that I’ve included films, musicians and recordings/videos, in addition to books that were released in a given year.

While I have included many personal photos, most of the graphic content included below is borrowed from the Internet. I do not claim to own this material. I am just adding it for educational purposes. If the owners of any of the content in the “My Life Story” series want their stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!

Introduction

At the beginning of the year, Ruben and I were settling in well and enjoying life in our newly acquired house on 10th Avenue. We were both very busy working, filling our home up with new household furnishings, and doing other things like planting trees and shrubs around the property.

I continued juggling many different responsibilities at work. As Assistant to the Dean for Staff Development, Recruitment and Diversity, I was involved in several groups and activities. I was a member of the Library Support Team, the Change Management Support Team, the Values and Vision Team, as well as Library Cabinet. I also worked with the Library Diversity Council, the Affirmative Action Committee and the Staff Development Advisory Board. I also staffed the Library Information Desk and was a member of the UA Diversity Action Council.

In addition to taking care of my regular job duties, I was actively involved in several professional organizations and committees, including serving as secretary of the U of A chapter of the Arizona Association of Chicanos in Higher Education (AACHE), serving as a member of the REFORMA national conference planning committee, in addition to being a member of the Library Administration and Management Association’s diversity committee. I also prepared articles for publication and gave a number of presentations at conferences this year, in addition to conducting workshops on resume writing for students in the UA Library school and new staff orientation sessions for newly hired staff. It was a busy, busy time.

It’s snowin’ in Brooklyn…

New York City and the east coast got hit with a huge blizzard between January 7 and January 8, 1996. Over three feet of snow fell and claimed about 100 lives, in addition to causing over 1.5 billion dollars of damage.

January 15, 1996: My 37th birthday.

I turned 37 this year. I was in good health and had lots of energy, which is a good thing, because this would turn out to be a year filled with lots with travel. I ended up visiting seven different cities this year–San Antonio, Boston, Detroit, New York City, Austin, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Most, with the exception of the vacation Ruben and I took to Detroit, were work related

A birthday card from Carla Stoffle. She was a very busy person, but always remembered her staff on their birthdays and on holidays. Her generosity to people was admirable.

The President and First Lady get into hot water over Whitewater

In early January, Hillary Clinton was implicated in what was known as the Whitewater scandal, a real estate debacle that took place when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, before he was President. Later in the month, Hillary would be called to testify before Congress, a first for a first lady. In the end, neither she or her husband were found guilty of any wrong doing.

When Clinton was elected four years earlier, liberals in this country had such high hopes, but lo and behold, when the midterm elections took place in 1994, the Republicans took over both houses of Congress and Clinton found himself with his hands tied. It was such a sad situation. Many of his policies, such as those dealing with gay rights and public assistance, took a turn to the right. As a result, we got Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and a much stricter welfare system.

Clinton won the election in November ’96, but it was later revealed that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. The republicans had him impeached, bit it didn’t stick. He served out his presidency until 2000, leaving the country with a budget surplus, unlike his predecessor, George Bush Sr.

January 20-24, 1996: ALA Midwinter, San Antonio, TX.

My second trip to San Antonio since I started attending ALA conferences in 1989 took place between January 19 and 25, and I had a great time. The weather was perfect, if I recall correctly!

I had a lot of committee meetings this time around and attended a number of interesting programs. I got to hear both Isabel Allende and Sandra Cisneros speak, and having the opportunity to a concert by the great Tejana troubadour, Tish Hinojosa, in the brand new downtown branch of the San Antonio Public Library was the absolute icing on the cake.

I heard both Sandra Cisneros (on the right) and Isabel Allende (on the left) speak, and Tish Hinojosa (in the middle) gave a concert for the opening of the new central library. I sat in the very front row in awe of her.

I also visited a couple of churches, including St. Joseph’s Church and the San Fernando Cathedral. I try to find Catholic churches with beautiful altars whenever I visit other cities.

I visited St. Joseph’s church again. I had been there back in 1992 with my friend, Mary Lynn. The new San Antonio Central Library was beautiful, and is where I got to see Tish Hinojosa perform.
The San Fernando cathedral was close to my hotel. It was beautiful inside.

In addition to attending ALA events and visiting churches, I was able to spend time with my friends Linda TerHaar and Karen Downing. Karen and I visited the Institute of Texas Cultures, a wonderful cultural museum walking distance from downtown.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn at the far end of downtown. My friend Karen and I visited the institute of Texas Cultures. It was a very nicely put together museum.

Linda and I went on a boat ride together on the San Antonio River in the middle of the day. It was fabulous!

I ate lots of good Mexican food at places like Ninfa’s and Mi Tierra, but also had Cajun food at Boudro’s with some ALA colleagues. I did a lot of shopping too. There were a lot of great little shops in Market Square and antique and record stores downtown.

On the left is the bakery inside the Mi Tierra restaurant, where I had several meals, and on the right is Market Square, which was filled with shops and restaurants. My hotel was very close to this place, so I went here several times.
I had dinner at Boudros with a bunch of library colleagues and got smashed at Ninfa’s the day I was to head back to Tucson. It was not a good idea, I must admit.

While most of the more popular gay bars like Pegasus were on a strip on N. Main, north of downtown, there were a few right in the downtown area. I had a great time visiting the Captain’s Crew and El Jardin. There were lots of great looking men all over the place!

This is a 1996 list of gay bars in San Antonio.

2-13-96: Jackson Browne released Looking East and embarks on a world tour

Looking East, by Jackson Browne, was released on 2-13-96. His eleventh album, it peaked at number 36 on the Billboard charts. The album includes some great tunes, such as I’m the Cat, Niño, and Alive in the World, in addition to the title cut. Over the course of the year, Browne embarked on a world tour to promote the album. He is one of my all-time favorite singers and is just as handsome as can be.

This is from Jackson’s album Looking East. What a great tune!

This song reminds me of his other Latin flavored tune, Lawless Avenues. He sings parts of each song in Spanish, and he does a pretty good job at enunciating the words properly. Good for him.

Transborder Library Forum: February 15-17, 1996

The Sixth Transborder Library Forum was organized by librarians from the University of Arizona, and it brought together librarians and library workers from throughout the Southwest and Mexico. While I didn’t give any presentations, I did attend several programs and made lots of new friends. The librarians and library workers from Mexico were a great bunch of people. I spent an entire evening with them partying and playing music. It was a memorable occasion.

Chinese New Year Celebration at the Library, The Year of the Rat.

The Library Diversity Council was a great group to work with. Each year, membership changed a bit, and this year’s group was exceptional and great to work with. In February, A Chinese New Year celebration, sponsored by the Diversity Council, took place on Tuesday February 20, 2:30-4 PM, in the Main Library in rooms A313/4. Diversity Council members Erika Williams, Cecilia Poon and Maureen Gray worked with other colleagues to coordinate the event, and were praised by Carla Stoffle, the Dean of the Library, for their efforts. There was lots of delicious food, games and other activities.

This little envelope was filled with candy at one point and was a giveaway at the event.

Richard Lucier visit: February 23, 1996

As staff development librarian, part of my job involved coordinating speakers’ series that introduced the Library staff to new concepts and ideas. For example, the previous year, I arranged visits by E.J. Josey, Barbara Ford and Kriza Jennings, all well respected leaders in the profession. This time around, I worked with a planning committee of library staff to coordinate a program and a day long series of meetings on February 23, 1996 with Richard Lucier, Head Librarian a the University of California at San Francisco, who spoke about “knowledge management” and the “digital library”. These were novel and innovative concepts at the time, and Mr. Lucier was leading the way in helping libraries adjust to the new technologies and possibilities that digitization had brought to the world. His visit was very well received. There was still much to learn, however, and we continued to bring experts to the Library to help us adjust to the ever changing information technology landscape.

MY FOURTH YEAR REVIEW

At the University of Arizona Library, librarians are usually hired as members of the general UA faculty, and they are eligible to receive continuing status, which is similar to tenure. This means, in practical terms, that once a librarian is granted continuing status, they are guaranteed a “job for life” at the University, unless they seriously violate University policy or the State declares a financial emergency. In order to attain continuing status, one has to do well at their primary job in addition to engaging in scholarship (writing for publication, giving presentations and regional and national conferences) and service (active involvement and leadership in regional or national library organizations and committees). A series of reviews takes place, one at two years, another at four years, and a final one at six years, at which point, continuing status is granted, or not. If a candidate is not granted continuing status, they are usually given a year to prepare their departure. The two and four year reviews are intended to let the candidate know how their supervisors and peers perceive how well they are doing in the three areas mentioned above, and whether or not they are on track for attaining continuing status. Feedback is given to the candidate that is intended to help them improve in areas of perceived “weakness”.

I prepared my four year review packet and updated my curriculum vitae in late 1995, and by February 1996, received a letter from the Dean of the Library letting me know that I had successfully passed my four year review. It was quite a relief. The Dean’s letter to me is linked below.

My fourth year review summary letter from the Dean of the Library: 2/26/96

March 7, 1996: Presentation–Diversity in the Workplace, Tucson Business and Professional Women’s Association.

I am not sure how I ended up giving a presentation on diversity issues in the workplace to a group of local businesswomen, but I did, and it turned out to be a very interesting experience. I clearly recall discussing the notion of the ability to speak Spanish as something that was “value added” in the workplace, particularly when it came to working with Spanish speaking clients or customers. I argued that people who had this ability should be compensated for it. Not everyone in the room agreed with me, but we all remained civil. My presentation is linked here:

Diversity in the Workplace, presentation given at the Tucson Business and Professional Women’s Association meeting, March 7, 1996.

Diana leaves Prince Charles

I have never been that interested in the British royal family, but admired Princess Diana for her charitable work and her generally liberal outlook on life and politics. Unfortunately, I learned more about her after her death than I knew before she died.

Cover of Time Magazine, March 11, 1996.

March 28-April 1, 1996: Finding Common Ground Conference, Cambridge, Mass.

In late March, I traveled to Boston to attend a conference titled “Finding Common Ground: Creating a Library of the Future Without Diminishing the Library of the Past” Shelley Phipps and I were asked by the conference organizers to give a presentation on staff and team development. I stayed at a Best Western off the beaten path and had to take a shuttle to the Harvard campus each day. The conference was held in the Charles Hotel, adjacent to campus.

Our conference was held at the Charles hotel near the Harvard campus. The area had a lot of bookstores, restaurants and other places one could shop at or visit.

My colleague Chestalene Pintozzi was there and she also gave a presentation. As the big day unfolded, I was feeling quite uncomfortable, because I had on a brand new blue suit and tie and a new pair of shoes that I bought just for the occasion. (I never wear suits!) I was also very nervous, because after all, this was HARVARD! Shelley and I had prepared well, but unfortunately, the presenters who were scheduled before us went way over their allotted time. This left us very little time to do our presentation, and we bombed as a result. There just wasn’t enough time to do what we had planned. It felt awful. I have a couple of photos of me in my brand new blue suit.

A book of the conference proceedings was published two years later and it includes the presentation that we gave. It’s linked below.

“The Evolution of the Roles of Staff and Team Development in a Changing Organization: The University of Arizona Library Experience,” co-presented with Shelley Phipps on March 30, 1996 at Harvard University, and published in the book, Finding Common Ground: Creating the Library of the Future Without Diminishing the Library of the Past, edited by Cheryl LaGuardia and Barbara a Mitchell, Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1998.

While not attending the conference sessions, I took the train to Boston to explore the area, and managed to find a good bookstore, but I did not see the old part of the city where all the historical buildings like Faneuil Hall and the old churches were located. I didn’t even know about this area. I did, however, go to a gay bar and other places too, and had a lot of fun in Boston’s South End, which was home to the gay community.

A map showing the gay bars in the South End of Boston, and a glbt newspaper. There were ony a couple of gay bars in Cambridge, closer to the MIT campus than to Harvard.

Diversity Roundtable: Not So Straight II: April 12, 1996

This was a follow-up session to one held the previous year, on March 17, 1995. In that session, several GLBT staff spoke about their life experiences and how it felt to work at the UA Library as a member of the gay community. For this year’s session, I worked with two staff members to sponsor a visit by Amy Zuckerman, who had just co-authored the book, “Sexual Orientation in the Workplace” and who was doing training across the country on gay issues in the workplace. During her visit, she gave an open presentation to the staff, and also worked with staff who were GLBT to help them discuss issues in a safer setting.

The 25th Anniversary of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference, April 24-28, 1996.

I wish I could say that I have attended every annual mariachi conference held in Tucson over the years, but unfortunately, I’ve only attended a handful. This particular year, Linda Ronstadt performed, and it was great to see her and Mariachi Cobre together, as well as all the other performers. Mariachi Los Camperos were great, as usual, and a Japanese singer named Junko Seki, was absolutely amazing. It was a memorable show!

Linda Ronstadt performed at this year’s Tucson International Mariachi Conference on April 26.

Efren Urquides, April 28, 1961-April, 26, 1996

I didn’t know Efren all that well, but had met him a few times shortly after Ruben and I got together. He was a very handsome guy, and was one of Ruben’s good friends. Unfortunately, Ruben lost several of his buddies over the years, as did I. AIDS was the cause of death for a lot of young Latino men our age in the 80’s and 90’s. Ruben and I were quite lucky to have survived the era unharmed.

Leslie Feinberg published Transgender Warriors : April 1996

I’ve already written about Leslie Feinberg here. This book was Leslie’s attempt at pointing out that there have existed transgendered people throughout history. While it received mixed reviews, it was one of the first works to tackle topics such as cross dressing throughout history and other issues relevant to the transgendered community.

My dear friend Leslie Feinberg published this in April, 1996. It’s a popular history of transgender expression throughout history. The second edition had a less provocative cover.

May 1-May 4, 1996: Living the Future Conference, Tucson Az.

The UA Library began the restructuring process in late 1992, and late 1995, plans were in the works to host a national conference that would showcase the many accomplishments that the Library had achieved, as well as lessons learned along the way as it transformed itself from a traditional, hierarchical structure with fifteen departments to a team-based organization with nine teams. People from all over the country attended the conference, and it would be held again every two years for another decade, approximately. I contributed two programs at this conference, one on diversity, and the other on staff development. My presentation outlines are linked below.

“What a long strange trip it’s been: an overview of the evolution of the role and accomplishments of staff development and training at the UA Library, from the beginning of the restructuring process to the present”, presentation given at the Living the Future Conference May 1-4, 1996.

“Diversity at the UA Library: A Review”, presentation at the Living the Future Conference, May 1-4, 1996.

May 13, 1996: Sue Miller Hurst Program

I first heard Sue Miller Hurst speak about lifelong learning at a conference in San Francisco in 1995. I found her quite inspiring, and her talk affected me deeply. I returned to the UA Library very excited about having met and heard her, and I proposed to the Diversity Council that we bring her to campus. Members of the Diversity Council then embarked on planning an all day program where the entire staff were invited to attend her talk. Unfortunately, many of our colleagues did not take what she had to say seriously. In hindsight, we could have done a better job of working with Ms Hurst in preparing her program. I left it to other members of the Diversity Council to do that, and we missed the boat. Her philosophy is outlined below.

“Designing and implementing new structures will not fully transform an organization if the people do not release themselves from the old internal structures that say “I can’t,” or “I am not worthy.” Sue Miller Hurst spoke to the learner inside each of us, talking about challenging our assumptions about our limitations and then breaking through them. Creating a learning organization requires a community of learners — and if we do not believe in our capacity to learn, then we cannot help create the space in which learning thrives. One of my favorite poems is by St. Appollonaire: “‘Come to the edge,’ he said. They said, ‘We are afraid.’ ‘Come to the edge.’ They came, he pushed them, and they flew.”“

Going away party for Cecilia Poon: May 31, 1996

On May 31, members of the Library Diversity Council held a going away party at Libby Hilmar’s home for our colleague and friend Cecilia Poon. This is the second year that we held a get together at Libby’s house. Sadly, Shizuko would pass away in early 1997. This was a wonderful group. I really enjoyed working with them.

Shown above in the photo on the left are me, Erika Williams, Shizuko Radbill, Cecilia Poon, Diane Delp, and our host, Libby Hilmar. On the right are Diversity Council members Maureen Gray, Erika Williams and Cecilia Poon.

In the above photos, Libby Hilmar is playing her flute and I, Maureen Diane, and Erika are playing with sparklers in Libby’s yard.

June 4, 1996: Protesting stereotypes found in library literature

A colleague of mine had recently pointed out that the journal Reference Quarterly (RQ) had a very interesting article in it titled “Developing Collections for the Spanish-Speaking”. I decided to look it up, and to my horror I saw the following advertisement included in the publication. It made me very angry to see Latinos portrayed in this manner. At the time, we received very little media coverage, but then to see us portrayed as gang members in a national library publication really got to me. I raised the issue on a the REFORMANET listserv, and suggested that people write letters of protest to RQ and PAIS, the company that ran the ad. Many people did, and the topic was addressed at our conference later (I organized a discussion session about it) in the summer, as well as in the REFORMA newsletter. PAIS eventually apologized, as did ALA, but their reasoning for running the ad did not convince anyone they were sincere. Here’s the ad:

This ad ran in the Spring, 1996 issue of RQ magazine, a professional journal on reference services.

June 8-Jun 15, 1996: Vacation in Detroit Michigan.

Before we met, Ruben and I had both, at one point or another, lived within an hour’s drive of the Detroit area. I lived in Ann Arbor for almost six years, and knew the area well. Ruben lived in Toledo for a much shorter period of time, but had also been to Detroit when he lived there. We decided to visit the area this year, as we both had fond memories of having spent time there. I was also looking forward to seeing my Ann Arbor friends, but things didn’t turn out quite the way we had planned them.

We left Tucson for Detroit on a red eye late at night on June 7. Our flight went to Las Vegas first, and from there we made a connection to another flight that would take us to Detroit. Unfortunately, there was a lot of turbulence in the air in the Las Vegas area right before we landed. The bumpy ride didn’t bother me too much and I was able to doze off easily on the flight to Detroit, but Ruben freaked out, and did not sleep at all. After we landed seven or so hours later, we picked up a rental car and drove to our hotel, which was in Woodhaven, a suburb south of Detroit. Once we got settled, Ruben informed me that the turbulence really got to him and that he did not want to fly home, and that we needed to figure out another way back. This caused a big dilemma because it turned out it wasn’t that easy finding a car rental company that allowed one way trips. We did find one eventually, however. Driving back would take almost three days, so we had to cut our stay in Detroit short, giving us less time to spend in the area than we had originally planned.

Woodhaven was right near I-75, which made it very convenient for us as we explored the area.
Our hotel was a Best Western and the Denny’s we ate at was close by.

We started out with breakfast at Denny’s. A waitress named Barbara served us and left an indelible impression on us. She was such an amazing worker it was unbelievable. Never have we encountered such an amazing, attentive wait person. Later that day we ate a delicious meal in Greektown at the Laikon Cafe, and shopped at Trapper’s alley and another big big mall in Dearborn.

Greektown and Trapper’s Alley. You can see the sign that says Laikon Cafe on the postcard. We sure lucked out when we chose that place for Greek food. It was amazing. Sadly both places are no longer there, as the area has become home to a huge casino.
Two iconic symbols of Detroit. The Uniroyal TIres sign lets you know you’re getting close to the city on your way in from the airport, and the statue, located in the middle of the downtown area, can be easily seen from the Detroit People Mover.

One of our more interesting experiences was having menudo in a Mexican restaurant in the Mexicantown section of the city. The menudo had no hominy in it all. It was all broth and honeycomb tripe. We weren’t impressed, and the waiters who were watching us, giggled as they saw our shocked faces when the food was brought out to us. I’m not sure if we even finished it or not. Probably not.

That evening we drove to Toledo and went to Brett’s, a gay bar Ruben had been to when he lived there. On the 11th we went back to Toledo and ate at The Linck Inn, the restaurant that Ruben used to work at in Maumee.

When Ruben lived in Toledo he worked at the restaurant in the above building. At the time, it was called the Chadwick Inn, but it has had various names over the years. It’s a historic site, built in 1836.

We spent time shopping for antiques in the Irish Hills area, near Ann Arbor. We had a great experience exploring the small towns, but we ended up driving way too far, three quarters of the way across the state, and it took a while to get back to our hotel.

We rented another car and started on our way home on the 12th. Along the way, we stopped at some antique stores in western Michigan and Elkhart, Indiana, and avoided the Chicago area by driving south of it. We spent the first night in Des Moines. We checked into a Motel 6, but it was such a dump, we could not stay, so we found a Best Western and stayed there. We drove around the city for a while, and saw a bunch of kids coming out of a rock concert. We couldn’t believe it. They were all blonde!

The next day we made it all the way to Denver where we also stayed downtown at a Comfort Inn. Unfortunately, the fire alarm went off and we kind of freaked out because we were way up high, like on the 20th floor. Everything turned out fine, however.

From there, we started our drive to Tucson the following morning, but stopped in Albuquerque for dinner, then drove home.

It was quite an experience, that’s for sure. While I didn’t get to see my Michigan friends, it was still an enjoyable vacation. I love going across country in a car!

Ella Fitzgerald: April 25, 1917-June 15, 1996

My first partner, John, introduced me to female jazz singers back in 1979. Ella Fitzgerald was one of the greats. Man, could she sing! I’ve been an avid collector of her recordings since my early 20’s. I love most of her material, but her voice got a bit wobbly in the 70s, I must admit. She came to Tucson and performed a few times, but I never got to see her, unfortunately. I love her Duke Ellington Songbook and her Gershwin recordings, especially. On her live album, Ella in Hollywood, she scats for over 7 minutes. Her vocal creativity was astounding.

July 4-10, 1996: ALA Annual Conference, New York City NY.

I hadn’t been to New York City since 1977, when I was 18 and took a Greyhound bus from Tucson to Newark to visit my sister Becky and her husband. This time around, I stayed smack dab in the middle of town and was there to attend the ALA Annual conference. It’s the only one that’s been held there since I’ve been attending (my first ALA was in 1989). It’s a very expensive place to have a conference. It was an enjoyable trip for the most part, but the heat and humidity were sometimes unbearable.

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, shown on the left in the photo below, is commonly known as the Javits Center, and is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell’s Kitchen. It was designed by architect James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Across the street was a railroad car restaurant that I had breakfast at. I don’t remember the name of it, however.

I stayed at the Days Hotel, shown above on the right, at 790 N .8th Ave., near Times Square. It’s since changed names several times. There was a swimming pool on the roof, but the sky was gray and the air felt yucky.

I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to see, unfortunately, but I did visit some new places like the lower east side and Central Park.

I had dinner at Woody’s and later had drinks at Don’t Tell Mama. I can hardly remember being in these places, but I have receipts that prove I was there.

My hotel was close to Times Square and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which I visited on Sunday. What a gorgeous church!

On Saturday, my friend Doreen and I attended a to a fundraiser reception for REFORMA at the Mexican Cultural Institute. We didn’t stay for very long, and decided to leave. We then went to the lower east side to hang out with one of Doreen’s friends from library school.

We had dinner there and also went to a really great bookstore, where I bought some Noam Chomsky books.

I had wandered over the Greenwich Village earlier and found Gerde’s Folk City. The place where we had dinner in the east village was called the Yaffa Cafe.

On Sunday, I walked up to Central Park to see the Marley family perform. I especially wanted to see Rita Marley. It was a hot, muggy day. I was dehydrated and got sick after drinking just one beer, so I decided to go back to my room and left before Rita Marley made it on to the stage. I was royally bummed out. Central Park was beautiful.

On the left below is a recording of the concert in Central Park that I attended very briefly. It was hot and humid, and I made the mistake of drinking a beer, which got me very sick. I had to leave the venue early. i was very bummed out.

A bridge in Central Park.. It’s a big, big place, with lots of trees. It took forever to walk through it to the bandstand where the Marley family were performing.

Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante and Javier Solis were among Mexico’s most beloved ranchera singers. There existed at the time very few biographies of these perfomers , so finding these was a big thrill. I found them at the ALA exhibit hall at the conference. Each of these is a part of a 3 volume set. Man, what a find!

Unfortunately, my flight home from New York was delayed, and I had to stay overnight in a hotel near the airport Denver. It was a nerve wracking experience, I must say. I got home a day late as a result.

Antonio Aguilar y Su Familia: Pima County Rodeo Grounds, July 27, 1996.

I’m so glad I went to this show. The highlight of the entire thing was when the great Flor Silvestre sang Mi Destino Fue Quererte while strolling around on a horse, and of course Antonio Aguilar was wonderful, as were his sons. It was a fabulous event. I have been a fan since my teenage years. In the sixties, my mom absolutely loved Flor Silvestre and her signature tune, Mi Destino Fue Quererte, and when Pepe Aguilar started recording rancheras in the early 90’s with mariachi accompaniment, I went crazy and bought every recording he put out. I’ve seen him solo a few times. He and his children perform together now all the time and have recorded some great videos. Its been a few years now since both Don Antonio and his wife passed away. Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre left behind an amazing recorded legacy of classic rancheras as well as scores of movies. The Aguilar Family is from Zacatecas, the same state where my grandmother Zeferina Torres was from.

Deadly Bombing in Atlanta during the Olympics: July 27,1996.

The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, July 27, 1996, during the Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one person and injured 111 others; another person later died of a heart attack.

A new member of the family–Noah Andres Diaz-Colwell, born on August 9 1996.

My niece Valerie, daughter of my brother Charles and his wife Elaine, married Wade Colwell the previous year. Their first child Noah was born on August 9. He grew up to be a very tall and handsome young man. It’s hard to believe he’ll be 28 this year!

My Staff Development Work

Keeping up with change in the profession was quite challenging in the mid-90s. Technology was transforming how we did our work as librarians in every area, including cataloging, collection development, and reference. The World Wide Web and the internet were new to most people, and there was a lot to learn. In addition, the staff at the UA Library continued to grapple with the changes brought on by the Library restructuring process. My job was to provide funding for workshops and training in addition to setting up training programs within the Library. While this was just part of my job, it took up a lot of time and energy, and it seemed like the staff always had something to complain about. I struggled to keep up I wrote up this annual report for the Dean of the Library. It details my work in this area.

Staff Development Annual Report for FY 95/96, August 12, 1996.

Traffic Survival School: August 18, 1996

Over the years, I’ve had several car accidents and have received a fair number of speeding tickets etc. I think I’ve participated in these defensive driving courses at least three or four times altogether over the years. I do not have good depth perception and it causes a lot of problems. I’ve had a lot of close calls while driving, many more than I care to admit! The cars I’ve had have all gotten a real beating. I’m hell on wheels, as they say! The past few years have been better, thank goodness.

This wasn’t my best year, driving-wise. I got several tickets this year, and was also involved in a car accident. I had to go to defensive driving school and completed it on August 18, 1996. Lord knows how many times I’ve had to do this over the years.

August 22-August 25, 1996: First REFORMA National Conference, Austin, TX.

My second trip to Texas this year was to Austin, to attend the first REFORMA national conference. I had a great time. I also met a lot of really cool people and had some delicious food.

I participated in the following three different programs. I was a panelist on the first two, and the discussion convener and facilitator on the last one. Each program was well-received and we had good attendance.

“How to Start and Maintain an Successful REFORMA Chapter”

“Writing Effective Cover Letters and Resumes”

“What’s Up With the PAIS Ad?”

This was my first ever visit to Austin, and I was eager to see the sights, especially 6th Street, home to a variety of music clubs, and quite a “scene”, as they say. Austin has been known for a long time as the live music capital of the world, and home to Willie Nelson and Austin City Limits.

The conference was held at the Austin Convention Center (below, left) and my hotel was the Omni Austin hotel, (below right).

Our opening reception was held at the LBJ Presidential Library, (below left), on the UT Austin campus, on the north side of downtown. 6th St., shown below on the right, was not far away from where we stayed.

Book People and Waterloo Records were great places for shopping. I went there a couple of times. My good friend Karen Downing was also at this conference, and we shopped together.

The State Capitol building was a in the vicinity, and close to it was a gay bar called Charlie’s. There were other gay bars in the area also. I went to a few of them with some people I had met at the conference.

Overall, it was a great conference. I had a wonderful time, and would return to Austin two more times over the years. It’s a great city to visit and is much more liberal than most other cities in Texas.

My quest to keep learning…

I’ve been very fortunate to have many learning opportunities come my way, particularly in the early years of my career. I’ve attended a variety of training programs, including ones on time management, project management, developing management and training skills as well as facilitation skills. This particular year, I attended a workshop on MS Access, a database management program. Unfortunately, I did not practice enough to use it continuously. Excel was more widely promoted within the Library, and I learned that program too.

Long live the queen….

Joan Baez stopped recording for Vanguard Records in the early 70’s, but the record company continually re-packaged and re-issued her recordings over the years. I have all of the re-issues in my collection, including the Joan Baez Ballad Book, The Joan Baez Contemporary Ballad Book, The Joan Baez Love Song Album, and the Joan Baez Country Music album. Joan Baez Live at Newport, appeared in 1996, and was different in that most of the songs on this album had not appeared before on any of Joan’s previous lps, although some had been included in various Live at Newport anthologies. Joan got her big break at Newport back in 1959, so it’s a big part of her history. These songs are all from her appearances between 1963 and 1965, and include two duets with Bob Dylan.

Released on 9-17-96, this is a compilation of Ms. Baez’s live performances at the Newport Folk Festival throughout the 1960s.

Shortly after the release of Live at Newport, Ms. Baez appeared on the cover of the folk music magazine, Dirty Linen. By this time in her career, she had become a much-adored living legend, and many singers, including Emmylou Harris, were starting to publicly point to her as their insipiration and their reason for wanting to become a singer themselves. Joan’s guitar playing, especially on her early live recordings, was also starting to be acknowledged as brilliant. She is a fabulous guitarist.

Tucson High School 40th Reunion, September 21, 1996

My Aunt Mary Rascon graduated from Tucson High in 1956. This is the photo she and my uncle Donato took at her 40th high school reunion gathering. Uncle Nato never finished high school, unfortunately. He joined the marines when he was 15. He has since passed, but Aunt Mary is still with us. She’s one of only three aunts that I have left. The other two are my brothers sisters, Helen and Carmen.

Ocober 12-October 15, 1996: LAMA/LITA National Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

On my second trip to Pittsburgh in as many years, I attended a conference co-sponsored by two ALA Groups– the Library Administration and Management Association and the Library Information Technology Association. It was their first joint conference, and as a member of the LAMA Diversity Committee, I was asked by the chair, Joan Howland to put together a program on information technology and its impact on diverse groups.

As coordinator of this program, I decided to write a paper on how the internet further divides the haves from the have-nots. I also asked my colleagues Patricia Tarin and Carla Stoffle to co-present with me. I was very excited about the program, but I didn’t do a great job with my part of the presentation. I was very nervous and towards the end, dropped my papers on the floor. I was very embarrassed. Pat Tarin didn’t give a very good presentation either, but Carla saved the day and hit it out of the ballpark for us.

In hindsight, I was out of my league writing about information technology. I really didn’t have a good grasp on things at this stage in my career, and was a over my head. I chalked it up as an important learning experience. My paper is linked here: “Social Equity and Empowerment in the Age of Technology”

This was a very short trip and I didn’t get to see much of Pittsburgh. I did, however, explore parts of downtown that I hadn’t seen the year before. I really like the city, and will hopefully return again and spend more time here.

Downtown Pittsburgh. What a gorgeous skyline!

October 30-November 3, 1996:Ford Foundation Diversity Conference, Seattle WA.

I first visited Seattle in 1981. At the time, my sister Becky lived in a small town close by called Lacey. I spent about a week with her and her husband Paco, and we went all over the place, including Victoria, Canada and Mt. Rainier. We also visited Pike’s Market and the Seattle Space Needle. This time around, I was there to attend a Ford Foundation-sponsored diversity conference. The UA Diversity Action Council sent me and paid for this trip.

I attended several programs and events at the conference, but don’t remember anything specific about it that stood out. My memories at this point are sharper regarding what I did on my own while in the city.

After getting settled in at my hotel, which was a Westin, I decided to head over to the Pikes Market area, where my sister Becky and her husband took me when I was last there. It’s an interesting place, with three stories of shops and lots of food vendors. There was seafood available for sale everywhere.

I also found some shops in the vicinity including one calle La Sirena Rosa. The owner there specializes in selling clothing, music and other stuff from Latin America. I really liked this store, and bought myself a Che Guevara t-shirt and some Latin music while here.

Another store I round was The Spanish Table. It specialized in Spanish imported goods, including food and household items. I bought a beautiful cookbook here.

I bought the Joni Mitchell recording, shown below on the left, on cassette at a Sam Goody record store in Seattle two days after its official release date, which was October 29, 1996. There’s a companion recording called “Misses” as well that was released on the same day. A day later, I bought the Lola Beltran recording on cassette at the same store. My first experience at the store was fine, but my second visit turned into a nightmare. The clerk was a real uptight jerk. He watched my every move, thinking I was there to steal something. I was so angry. I would’ve just walked out, but I wanted the recording badly. I had never seen it before, and I was in the midst of building my Mexican music collection. I love Lola Beltran, and Mexican ranchera music was my passion at the time.

Later, I got the royal treatment at a restaurant/bar, where I ordered a burger and fries. My waitress completely forgot about me, and my hamburger sat on the counter for quite a while. It was yet another bad experience and it left a bad impression.

On my last day in Seattle, I visited the Space Needle. I had been there before, but wanted to go up to the top again. It was fun. I bought some souvenirs there, but don’t remember what exactly.

Sometime in between doing all the things I have already mentioned, I found time to explore the gay bars in Seattle. There were quite a few close to my hotel. I had a lot of fun and met some interesting people.

Unfortunately, my overall impression of the city was that it was not a very friendly place. I’ve since been back twice, and I still don’t care for it much. It’s a hilly city and hard on one’s legs. It’s also spread out all over the place and hard to get around. There are lots of other places I got to see this year, and they were a lot friendlier. Even New York City was friendlier than Seattle. Oh well. You can’t win ’em all!

1996 Presidential Elections

Bill Clinton had a difficult time with Republican-controlled Congress once they gained control in 1994, but he still managed to beat Bob Dole in the 1996 election, winning 379 electors to Dole’s 159 and taking 49.2% of the national popular vote to Dole’s 40.7%. The following four years would be even more challenging for him for a number of reasons, but he left the country better off when his second term was over than President Bush had. As a result of the Clinton economic policies, the US attained a budget surplus of $237 billion, shrunk unemployment, created 22 million new jobs, and reduced inflation. Too bad George Jr. got installed by the Supreme Court in 2000. Things got a lot worse after that.

Clinton wins another election, November 18, 1996.

November 26, 1996: Not So White Roundtable: A Dialogue with Our Colleagues of Color

The success of the first two Not So Straight Roundtables inspired the Diversity Council to sponsor a similar program that featured staff who were members of the Native American, African American and Latino communities. Staff spoke openly about their experiences with institutional racism. The attendees listened and came away with new insights, sensitivity and awareness, which is what we had hoped would happen.

The Dean of the Library attended the event, and was very impressed with our work, as her note below indicates. Receiving this kind of feedback at the end of such a crazy, up and down year really helped boost my morale.

Alejandro Fernandez releases Muy Dentro de Mi Corazon: 12-10-96

During this period of his recording career, Alejandro Fernandez just kept getting better and better. This album has mariachis all over it, and several songs, such as “Es La Mujer” became big hits. The following Spring, the album received a Grammy award nomination in the category of Best Mexican/Mexican American album.

Released on 12-10-96, this album achieved double platinum status in the US.

Merry Christmas!

Wow! What a year it was!. I received a bunch of Christmas cards from friends and family, including my good friends Pernela and Scott Teresa, Doreen and Jose’, among others. Below is a small sample of the cards we were sent.

My Life Story: 1959-1965

Family, My Life in Pictures, My Life Story,

Things to know up front:

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Click the back arrow key to return to the post.

Every chapter in My Life Story includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends. It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. You’ll also find that I’ve included films, musicians and recordings/videos, in addition to books that were released in a given year.

While I have included many personal photos, most of the graphic content included below is borrowed from the Internet. I do not claim to own this material. I am just adding it for educational purposes. If the owners of any of the content in the “My Life Story” series want their stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!

My mom and dad, sometime in the 1950s.

At the time I was born, my parents and five siblings all lived together in Tucson on 22nd St. in a small three bedroom house, a red brick tract home just east of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks in a subdivision called Country Club Manor, the boundaries of which were 22nd  St. to 17th Street and Plumer Ave to Country Club. We lived next to a big empty lot, and had a lot of outside space in which to play. Randolph Park was nearby too. Our church was St. Ambrose Catholic Church on Tucson Blvd, just south of Broadway and our local elementary school was Robison Elementary. There were a lot of families with kids in the neighborhood. Most were either Mexican American or Anglo. It was a mixed neighborhood, and wasn’t considered a “barrio” necessarily, until later in the 1970s and 80s.

In 1959, most of my brothers and sisters were all in school, and their ages ranged from 2 to 15, with some in grade school at Robison, others at Mansfeld Jr. High and the oldest at Tucson High. The boys in the family all played sports, and were usually busy doing things outside the house. The girls were both very attractive and popular, and always had lots of friends. Boys became their focus as they moved into their teens.

My dad worked as a miner in San Manuel and mom stayed home and took care of all of us, cooking and cleaning and making sure that everything at home was in working order. Dad and mom had been together since 1943, and, after 15 years of marriage, had developed a volatile relationship and some ‘unhealthy’ habits, unfortunately, so our home life was not always peaceful, especially in the Sixties.

I was the last of the kids, and my mom kept me at her side all the time. I was a chubby child, was  considered  a momma’s boy and a crybaby, and everyone called me Bobby Joe, or BJ, nicknames that I have always disliked, but have learned to accept over time. While I wasn’t athletic at all, I was a smart kid. In fact, when my mom went to see my first grade teacher, Mrs. Goldbaum for her parent-teacher meeting, Mrs. Goldbaum said to her, “where did you get this one? He’s so bright!”, or something to that effect. She had also been Charles’s, Becky’s and Rudy’s first grade teachers when they attended Robison in the 50s.

Early on, I developed a love for popular music. My parents even bought me my own record player when I was 3 years old. I impressed everyone with my ability to correctly pick out a record from a stack of 45’s after being told just once what the title was. Again, I was just 3 at the time.

As the Sixties progressed, my sisters and brothers started to leave home either to get married or on to other things such as the Navy, and our family began to grow. My three nieces Belisa, Michelle and Anadine were all born in the Sixties, and I spent a lot of time with them. They were more like my sisters than my nieces because we were so close in age.

I had several close friends as a child, including Billy “Bubba” Fass, and his brother Ricky, Ernie Carrillo, and three sisters who lived next door to our family whose names were Becky, “Tiny” and Debbie Romo. There were other kids too who we played with, of course, but these were my closest friends. We spent a lot of time playing in the alley or on 21st St, where we would play flag football a lot of the time. We also spent a lot of time at St. Ambrose’s swimming pool, and at Randolph Park where we played sports. One time I planted a little rose garden with roses that my mom bought me at the local grocery store. I also had an aquarium and parakeets at one point, but over time my interest in these hobbies dwindled.

These photos and documents provide a pictorial glimpse of my life as a child in Tucson up through the middle of 1965, or the beginning of the first grade. Most of the photos are pictures taken before I was a student at Robison Elementary School. Others were taken in such places as the local park or at family gatherings. I feel fortunate that I still have them after all these years, and humbly share these treasures here with my friends and family. These photos and documents bring back many wonderful memories, as one can imagine, and I share some of them in the captions that follow.

I was born on January 15, 1959 to Alfred and Josephine Diaz. I was their sixth and last child, and the only one born at Tucson Medical Center. Most of my other siblings were born at St. Mary’s Hospital. My oldest sister was born at my grandmother’s house in South Tucson.
A clipping from the January 16, 1959 edition of the Tucson Citizen . I was one of six babies born the day before at TMC.
I don’t remember Dr. Lacock, but I do remember Dr. Thompson. He was a very tall man and a well-respected local pediatrician. My mom would take me to see him when he was at the Tucson Clinic on Tucson Blvd., just north of Broadway, back in the early 60s.
I was a big, healthy newborn, but the doctor also told my mother that I had a larger than average sized head, which caused him some concern. According to my mother, it meant that I would either be very intelligent or “differently abled”, as they say nowadays. Thank heavens I turned out fine.
Irene, my oldest sibling, was 15 when I was born.

One of my very first memories was of my sister Irene’s sweet sixteen party in November, 1959. I remember being taken to the back bedroom for a nap that afternoon, just as the party got started. I didn’t fall asleep right away. I was busy listening to the music, oldies but goodies like What’s Your Name by Don and Juan and We Belong Together by Robert and Johnny. The following song was also played.

Having five older brothers and sisters exposed me to many different genres of popular music, from oldies to the Beatles to the Temptations. I’ve always loved this song. It takes me right back, believe it or not, to that party in late 1959 when I was just 10 months old.
I grew up listening to popular music on the radio. It was a constant in our home and I was attracted to it from the very beginning.

Here’s another song I’ve been listening to my whole life. The Chubby Checker version was released in 1960.

The Twist, by Chubby Checker, was released in June 1960.
Joan Baez’s first recording for Vanguard Records was released in October, 1960. It was on the charts for a long time. The following song, All My Trials, is an old favorite.
My dad, seated on the far left, with all of his brothers and sisters, Superior, Az, 1961.
At my cousin Olivia’s wedding in Superior, 1961. My cousin Sylvia is third from the left, my sister Irene is to her right, and my cousin Carmelita is second from the right.
It would be many years before I really began to appreciate Sarah Vaughan’s artistry. This gem was released in 1961. Our family acquired this album in the late 60s when my dad bought us a new console television at Flash TV. It had a record player and radio, and came with 50 free albums, including this one. I think the only person that ever played the album at the time was my sister Becky. I didn’t start listening to is until around 1979 at the age of 20. It’s one of Sarah’s best albums and it features the great Count Basie and his orchestra. The following song is gorgeous. Her voice is unmistakably unique.

This is another song my mother loved to sing when I was a little boy. She loved music, and especially Ray Charles.

I just had to include this. We had a vacuum cleaner just like it. When my mom wasn’t cooking, she was cleaning–doing laundry, making beds, dusting or vacuuming. She worked night and day.
This album was released in 1961 and was very popular in the Mexican American community. My parents owned a copy, as did my aunts and uncles. I grew up listening to it. My favorite song was “El Caballo Blanco”, which included at the very beginning of the song, the sound of a horse neighing. I got the biggest kick out of that! There was also a holiday-themed song on it called “Se Va Diciembre” that I clearly remember hearing at Christmas time every year it seemed.
Jose Alfredo Jimenez’s “El Caballo Blanco” was first recorded on the Columbia label in the 1950s.
Leonel Bravo was my sister Irene’s boyfriend for several years. He graduated from Tucson High School in 1961 and joined the marines. He and my sister planned to get married, but things didn’t work out that way. He was like an older brother to me.

My mom would sing this song to me all the time at bedtime. When she sang the words, “I couldn’t find my baby,” I would stick my head out from under the covers and say, “Here I am, mommy!” I remember it like it was yesterday. My mom sang me lots of songs when I was little.

These photos were taken some time in 1962. My sister’s boyfriend Sonny Bravo had just taken me to get a haircut, one of my very first. That’s him on the ground with the monkey. I’m shown here sitting on his car with the monkey he had just bought for my sister.

Doggie in the Window, by Patti Page

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This great song was released in January, 1953, but it was very popular through the next decade.

This song was another one of the earliest I remember hearing. It was recorded way back in 1953, and unlike this version, the original features Patti singing in harmony with herself. My friend Billy Fass had the record. I just adore Patti Page. She has one of the loveliest voices I’ve ever heard. People who remember her for just this one little tune and equate her music with 50s slick pop hit parade garbage are missing the mark completely. She could swing as well as anyone, and her tone was clear as a bell.

This song was a number one hit on the R & B charts in April and May, 1962. I just loved it.

Here’s another song my mom would sing to me at bedtime. She had a beautiful voice.

This is a close-up of a photo that was also taken in 1962, but later in the year in Nogales, Sonora . I’m sitting on my mom’s lap.
This is what’s left of the original photo. Included in it are my sister Irene, my brother Fred and our neighbor Mary Ruiz and her daughter.
This was Little Eva’s only top hit. It was number one on the charts for a few weeks, beginning in late August, 1962. I used to love this song.

I just had to include this song. Girls used to sing this to me. I don’t even remember who they were, but it made me embarrassed and happy at the same time. The song was released in late August, 1962.

This was Marcie Blane’s only big hit. It was released on September 28, 1962.
Bobby’s Girl was released on September 28, 1962. My sister and her friends used to tease me and sing this to me when I was a kid. I was embarrassed, but loved the attention at the same time.
Released January 16, 1963. My brother Charles probably took Fred and me to see this. He did that a lot.
I just loved this song, much to my brother Fred’s consternation. He realized that I was “different” when I told him I liked this song. Released in January, 1963.
My bother Freddie in 1963.
April 7, 1963, Arizona Daily Star. My brother Charles was a star athlete at Tucson High School.
My brother Charles is 2nd from the right in the top row. He was known as “Fingertips Charlie”. This was his junior year, 1963.
For as long as I can remember, this movie would come out on t.v. every Easter Sunday. The witch and her gargoyles really scared the heck out of me.
What a beautiful song.
The recorded single came out in 1939, although the song was recorded for the movie in 1938.
My sister Becky in 1963.
I started watching cartoons at a very young age. These are a few of the ones I used to like.
Bob Dylan’s second album was released on May 27, 1963. His song Blowin’ In The Wind became one of the anthems of the civil rights era.
Nuff said…
My record player looked exactly like this. My parents took me to a second hand store one day and bought it for me. They used to trip out because I was be able to “read” the titles of the records when I was just 3. I think what really happened was that I had a photographic memory and only needed to have someone tell me the name of the record once, and I would remember it.

Meanwhile, across the country, the civil rights movement witnessed another casualty.

I didn’t discover this until I was in high school. It was recorded at the height of the civil rights movement, just a couple of months before the March on Washington. Listen to Seeger sing Tom Paxton’s Ramblin’ Boy.
Civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
Photo of my grandmother, Josefa Rascon, on our front lawn on 22nd St, Summer, 1963. I’m on the left.
June, 1963. My brother Rudy had just graduated from Mansfeld Jr. High School and we had a little family gathering on this day. This is a close up of me from the photo above. I’m standing in the front doorway of our house, holding a bunch of 45 records. My parents had bought me my very own record player the year before.
Belisa, my sister Irene’s daughter, around 6 months old.
Rudy’s 8th grade graduation. That’s my mom, with Rudy and Fred. In the background you can see my dad’s jaguar in the driveway. It was usually parked in the back yard, along with several other cars that didn’t work.
My mom, my grandmother, and my Aunt Mary.

Another senseless tragedy in the South…

Posed pitching shot of Sandy Koufax as Los Angeles Dodger c1963. My brother Rudy had this photo of Koufax in his bedroom. He was a huge fan.
Rudy, Becky and Charles in 1963.

Three civil rights workers were reported missing on 6/21/64. Their bodies were recovered seven weeks later in a swamp outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The local KKK, Sheriff, and members of the local police department were involved in the murder.

When I was a small child, we would go to Ben Lee’s Market on the southwest corner of 22nd and Tucson Blvd all the time to buy saladitos and other stuff like comic books and candy. On July 7, 1964, a fire broke out inside the store and did a lot of damage. The store ended up closing. I can still remember going in there. It was our neighborhood Chinese market.

From the Arizona Daily Star, July 8, 1964.
This was another film we saw as kids at the drive-in. Released on August 14, 1963. There was a tv series by the same name that followed later that I would watch all the time.
Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. An estimated 250,000 people showed up to support the fight for civil rights.

Here’s an excerpt of the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the March on Washington.

Sherry, by the 4 Seasons, was one of my very first 45’s. It was my favorite too. My brother’s friend Bob Stelburg gave it to me. It had been a number one hit in October, 1962.
Bewitched premiered on September 17, 1964. I clearly remember watching the very first episode.
Released on October 1, 1963, this film was shot in Tucson. I didn’t see it until later, when it came out on tv, but I loved it. I try to catch it every time it was on tv, just as I would the Singing Nun a few years later.
I was almost 5 years old when this happened. I was in one of the bedrooms at home listening to the radio when the announcer broke in and informed the world that Kennedy had been shot. I ran into the kitchen to tell my mom and others. Nobody believed me…
This premiered on 12/11/63. My brother Charles took me and Freddie to see it at the 22nd St. Drive In.
My dad broke his leg in a mining accident sometime around Christmas in 1963. He stayed in the hospital for nearly a year.

One day, I went shopping with my mom to Southgate, and she bought a 45 by Lucha Villa that had the following song on one side, and on the other was a song called “Asi Perdi Tu Amor”. Both tunes were written by the great Mexican composer Cuco Sanchez. I still have the 45.

Who doesn’t remember this? These guys changed the pop world. Released in the U.S. on 12-26-63
Released on January 20, 1964.
I remember this like it was yesterday. A memorable occasion for sure!
My friend Bubba’s mom would drop us off at the Fox on Saturday mornings, and we’d cross the street and wait in front of the Plaza Theater to take the 22nd street bus home. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Summer, 1964. My brother Fred, my mom and me, standing in front of the orange tree in our front yard. This was the day of my brother Fred’s first holy communion.
That’s me standing in back of my cousin David. Summer, 1964. His sister Gloria also had her first holy communion that day.
My cousins John and David and me, Summer 1964. The 22nd Street overpass is under construction in the background. We were all born the same year, but I was the oldest. Our siblings, Fred, Turi and Gloria were also the same age, and had all just had their first holy communions on this day.
Sometime in early 1964, my two front teeth got knocked out when I ran in back of my friend Bubba in the back yard, just as he was about to take a swing at a golf ball with a big wooden golf club. The golf club hit me right in the mouth and my teeth fell out. My mother thought I looked very cute without my two front teeth, so she had my sister Irene take me to have my portrait taken at the Olan Mills studio on Broadway. My sister bought me the jacket just for the occasion.
We always had a tv at home, and I started watching it from the time I was a toddler. This is but a sampling of the shows I watched. I spent hours in front of the television after school every day and on the weekends. Saturday mornings were my favorite time of the week, because that’s when cartoons were shown. I continued to watch tv up until my junior year of high school. Once I started working at Fry’s, I stopped.
We had this 45 record at home in the mid-60s. It was recorded by Shirlely Bassey on August 20, 1964 for the movie Goldfinger. It was a top 10 hit in the U.S. I’ve never really liked anything else by Shirley Bassey. She has a big, brassy voice, not something I care for too much, but I really liked this song for some reason.
My mom and dad in the mid-60s.
This was one of my mom’s very favorite songs. She had the 45 and would play it all the time.
As long as I can remember, my parents shopped at this grocery store, and I tagged along. At one point or another, we went to every one of them, except the one on N. Grande, every other Friday on payday. Mom would get a cart, and Dad would get a cart, and they each went their separate ways in the store, but converged about an hour later, each with a basket full of food and other household stuff.
Wow.
My mom did her daytime shopping either at Food Giant on 22nd and Country Club or at Lucky’s which was on the corner of 22nd and Cherry in the Pueblo Plaza shopping center. It’s former name was Goodman’s. Next door to it was a drugstore called Jones Drug. There was also a liquor store and a laundromat, as well as a few other businesses in the shopping center. We were fortunate to have so many places to shop near our house.

Mr. Lonely was released in October, 1964. I loved this song.

This was originally released in 1962, but was big hit in Fall, 1964.
I started Kindergarten at St. Ambrose School in September, 1964 and this photo was taken while I was there.
My kindergarten class photo. Fall, 1964. Included in this photo are my cousin David and my friends Linda Gray and Hugo Ruthling, among others. I didn’t complete kindergarten, unfortunately, because I got sick in early 1965. I stayed home with my mom from January 1965 until September, when I started the first grade at Robison Elementary School.

Here’s another very sad ranchera, again, one of my mom’s favorites. I still have the 45. This song is titled, “Cancion de un Preso”, or “Song of a Prisoner”, and it’s by the great Irma Serrano, one of Mexico’s most flamboyant and expressive singers.

I used to love this song. It was released in late 1964, and by early ’65 it was a top Billboard hit. I still have the 45.
This premiered on television on 12/6/64. I was there…
This is an amazing movie. Lucha Villa and Ignacio Lopez Tarso are both fantastic. The song, La Culebra Pollera, from the movie, follows.
It was a great year for music! The following year would be just as good, if not better!
My Girl, by the Temptations, was released on December 21, 1964. By March of the following year, it was at the top of the charts. This was my brother Charles’s favorite song.
This was another big Motown hit and was released on February 8, 1965, less than two months from the release of My Girl. Everybody loved the Supremes.

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965. He was a radical Muslim activist who told the truth about race relations in this country. I had no idea who he was or what he stood for, as I was just a child. It wasn’t until college that I read his autobiography.

This was another tv movie that captured everyone’s attention. It premiered on February 22, 1965.
My brother Charles left home in early 1965. He joined the Navy and was gone for four years.
While in the Navy from 65-69, the ship my brother Charles was assigned to initially was the USS Ashtabula. He also served on the USS Romulus and the USS Mattaponi. While he didn’t see battle, his ship was docked off the coast of Vietnam more than once and he and his shipmates were all exposed to Agent Orange.
Here are some photos our brother sent to us from boot camp. He was promoted to chief petty officer.
This concert by Joan Baez was recorded on June 5, 1965 in London, England at the BBC studios in front of a live studio audience. Ms. Baez is at her vocal peak here, in my opinion. Wish I had been there! I didn’t even know about her at this point in my life. I started listening to her in earnest my freshman year at Salpointe in 1974. I love her music. She’s one of my heroes. What a brave, passionate woman.
One of my favorite Beatles albums. Released on June 14, 1965, right before I was to start the first grade.

This tune was on Beatles VI.

Bad Boy was first released on the album “Beatles VI”. It rocks!

Bob Dylan released “Like a Rollings Stone on July 20, 1965. Suddenly, things got more serious.

My brother Rudy had this album. So did a lot of other people. Dylan rocked the whole world with Highway 61 Revisited.

One of the longest singles ever to get radio airplay.
My brother Charles’ US Naval Training Center Yearbook.
This film, starring Lucha Villa and Cuco Sanchez, was released in Mexico on August 5, 1965. It includes performances by Ms. Villa that never made it on to an album. I love these rare instances where one can here her sing with such passion and emotion. The following tune, Arrieros Somos, is a case in point.
My mom loved Lucha Villa. This song is a heartbreaker.

School and sports group photos from the 50s and 60s

Family, My Life in Pictures, , , , , , , , ,

My four eldest brothers and sisters attended Robison Elementary School from 1952 to 1960. They then went on to attend Mansfeld Jr. High and Tucson High. I also attended kindergarten at St. Ambrose for one semester. Here are some of our class photos, most of them from Robison. I’ve also included some sports team and other group photos in which my siblings and I appear. My two older brothers were heavily involved in high school sports, and later became little league coaches, and my brother Fred and I played on different teams in the late 60s. These are mostly photos of kids who grew up between Plumer and Country Club from Broadway south to the railroad tracks. If you click on the picture, you’ll see a larger version of it. Click the back arrow to return to the post.

1952-1953 school year. My sister Irene’s 3rd grade class, Robison Elementary School.
1953-1954 school year. My sister Becky’s first grade class. The teacher was Mrs. Goldbaum.
1955-1956 school year. My brother Rudy’s first grade class. He had Mrs. Goldbaum too.
1955-1956 school year. Robison Elementary. I am not sure who was in this class.
1955-1956 school year at Robison Elementary. My sister Irene’s sixth grade class.
1957-1958 Mansfeld Jr. High Student Council photo. My sister Irene was Student Council secretary.
My brother Rudy’s 4th grade class. Mrs. Miller was later Mrs. Mow.
My sister Becky’s fifth grade class.
My brother Rudy’s fifth grade class.
1960-1961 Freshman Basketball team. Tucson High School. My brother Charles is in this photo.
1960-61 Tucson High School Freshman Baseball Team. My brother Charles Diaz, is in the top row second from left.
1961-62 Junior Varsity Basketball team, Tucson High School. My brother Charles is in this photo.
1962-1963 Tucson High School Varsity Baseball team. Eddie Leon is included here as are my brother Charles and his good friend Jesus “Chuy” Pesqueira.
1963. My brother Charles is right in the middle of the top row.
1963-1964 Tucson High School Freshman Baseball Team. My brother Rudy is in the middle row, second from last.
1963-1964. Members of the Tucson High Choraleers. My brother Rudy is the second from the left in the bottom row.
1963-1964 Tucson High School Varsity Baseball Team. My brother Charles is in the top row, third from the left.
1964-1965 Junior Varsity Football team. Tucson High School. My brother Rudy is in this photo.
1964-1965 Choraleers, Tucson High School. My brother Rudy is in this photo. It was his sophomore year.
My kindergarten class. I was there for just one semester, Fall ’64.
1965-1966 Varsity Baseball team, Tucson High School. Rudy in in the top row third from the last.
1965-1966 Choraleers, Tucson High School. Rudy is in the top row, third from the left.
Summer, 1966.My brother Fred’s little league team.
1966-67 Varsity Baseball Team. Tucson High School. My brother Rudy is in this photo.
1968-1969. My 4th grade class.
1968, Summer. My brothers Rudy and Freddie are in this photo from the late 60s. I think the team was “Tucson Merchants Association”. Not sure.
1969, Summer. Rudy’s little league team. Freddie my other brother is also in this photo as are my buddies Ernie Carrillo, Roman Jaurigue and Rick Fass.
1969-1970. My fifth grade class. My teacher was Mrs. Wagner, but she isn’t in the photo. A substitute teacher is.
1970-1971. My sixth grade class.
1970-1971 Freshman Baseball team, Tucson High School. My brother Freddie is in this photo.
1970 El Rancho Center little league team. I was on this team, but not in the photo.
1971 El Rancho Center little league team. My brother Charles and I are in this photo.

My Life Story: 1986

My Life in Pictures, , , ,

Things to know up front:

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Click the back arrow key to return to the post.

Every chapter in My Life Story includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends. It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. You’ll also find that I’ve included films, musicians and recordings/videos, in addition to books that were released in a given year.

While I have included many personal photos, most of the graphic content included below is borrowed from the Internet. I do not claim to own this material. I am just adding it for educational purposes. If the owners of any of the content in the “My Life Story” series want their stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!

1986 was a year of ups and downs. It started off badly. My cousin Charlie Mendoza had just died in a tragic car accident in late December and my friend Dennis Krenek died on January 2. Charlie was only 19. He was my Aunt Helen’s son and was named after my brother Charles, who was in the Navy at the time he was born. He was a nice kid, very quiet and polite. My friend Dennis was only 33 when he succumbed to the AIDS virus. I had met him when I was with my first partner John back in 1978, and then later worked with him when I volunteered at the Southern Arizona Mental Health Center. He was an occupational therapist and a very good friend and mentor.  

In addition, at the beginning of the year, I was halfway through library school, still working at Fry’s and doing my radio show, and still with Brent, even though he continued to live and work up in Chandler. I kept very busy and juggled a lot of responsibilities. I missed Brent, but I made new friends early in the year. Thaddeus and Sandahbeth Spae showed up in my life in early January, and they hung out with me for about a month or so. They were musicians and gypsies, shady characters to some people, I’m sure, but nice people to me. Sandahbeth hailed from Virginia, had a gorgeous voice and could sing just about anything, from swinging jazz to blues to country music. Thaddeus was a hyper-active, multi-talented instrumentalist from the Northwest. Together they made an odd, but happy couple, and they called themselves “Amber Tide”. One day, on my birthday, I invited them to my parents house to hang out with me and my family, as my mom had made food and bought me a birthday cake. They graciously performed a few numbers, and we all had a blast. My mother was especially thrilled when Sandahbeth sang the Hank Williams tune, “Your Cheatin’ Heart” just for her. I can’t remember how long they stayed at my house. It might have been a month or more. I had to get them to move on eventually. My friend and landlord Ted thought they had stolen his son’s stereo equipment, as it went missing one day. Who knows? It’s possible they did it. I didn’t think so, but I was so naïve at the time, the possibility that these two roving gypsies would do something like that never crossed my mind.

I got increasingly jaded working at Fry’s. I took my job for granted and didn’t realize how good it was. I felt tied to the money as I was acquiring debt in the mid-80s, and I needed the job to pay my bills and keep a roof over my head. The company knew I was about to reach my 10-year anniversary, and thus close to getting vested with the Union’s pension plan, so I believe they were looking to get me fired. I was also active as a union steward and was busy recruiting new members, which didn’t help my cause at all. In mid-May, the unimaginable happened. I got fired for ringing out my own order during a break. One of the assistant managers, who didn’t like me, caught me doing this and informed me that it was against company policy and that he would see to it that I was terminated for it. I was devastated, because I didn’t have any savings. I was unemployed for a month and a half, I believe, until I finally found a job at Sears in the auto parts department in early July. It was humiliating. I hated that job, but it kept me alive until the end of the year.

While Brent and I were still a couple, it was hard maintaining a long distance relationship. We did our best to keep it together, especially when his parents came to town in April for a visit. We both spent a lot of time coming and going from Chandler to Tucson and back. After a while, he started having trouble at work, and he eventually was let go, so he moved back home from Phoenix sometime in May, if I’m not mistaken, and for a while we relied on his income as a tile setting assistant. Things were tight, but we managed.

During the first semester of 1986, I took two classes and had an internship at the UA Main library. The internship consisted of doing data entry for a project a librarian named Maria Hoopes, who happened to be my friend Peter Segura’s aunt, supervised. She was very nice and supportive, and one of the only librarians of color on the staff. The internship also consisted of spending time at the reference desk, helping students and others find materials for their research, and answering basic reference questions.  I learned a lot working at the reference desk, even though I didn’t feel the same level of support from some of the librarians with whom I worked while working there that I got from working with Maria.

My other classes were titled Reference Sources in the Humanities and An Introduction to Bibliography, in which I did quite well. For my class project, I compiled a comprehensive annotated bibliography on the works of Margaret Randall, a writer and poet who had lived in Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua for many years, and who had recently returned to the U.S. She was currently under the threat of deportation because when she became a Mexican citizen, she gave up her American citizenship. The US government did not like her writings, either, which were all about life in socialist society. They thought her too dangerous and sought to keep her out of the country. I attended a reading she gave one night in late January at the U of A Social Sciences Auditorium, and decided that I wanted to find out more about her, so I took on the task of compiling all of her works and reviews about her works into one very long, annotated bibliography. I received an A on the project, and even got to correspond with Ms. Randall during the course of completing it. She was also able to use my bibliography in court as a record of her work. I was thrilled about that.

My classes in the Fall weren’t nearly as interesting as my Spring courses, but I got through them, and graduated in December with a 3.76 grade point average. My parents were ecstatic that I had completed yet another degree, and I was happy and relieved that I had finally finished the program. I was so lucky to have my parent’s support. They were always there for me. Even though I couldn’t handle living at home, I knew I could always pop over for a bite to eat, and my mom helped me with my laundry and ironing. She would always jokingly say to me, “mijito, I’m going to live another year, so I can see you graduate”. I wondered to myself, oh, oh, now what? She was ill at the time, and would only be with us just a short while longer, unfortunately.

Throughout the year, I continued to host the Chicano Connection Revisited on KXCI. I saved many of my playlists and have posted them all in the Chicano Connection Archive. I also have several cassette tapes of programs that I did this particular year, and will eventually get around to posting them in the archive too. Some of these shows include my buddy Richard Elias. He co-hosted several of them with me in the Fall. One of the highlights of the year was getting the opportunity to guest host for Ted Warmbrand’s show, “Music from the Living Loom”. Jamie Anderson, a local women’s music performer, and I collaborated on producing a gay pride Father’s Day show. Links to the show are included below. While the sound quality isn’t great, I’m glad I was able get this transferred from tape to digital format. I consider doing this show one of the highlights of my career in radio.

June 15, 1986: Music from the Living Loom, KXCI 91.7 FM, Tucson, “Gay Pride Show” featuring guest hosts Bob Diaz and Jamie Anderson. Part 1, Part 2.

KXCI sponsored lots of great concerts in 1986, many of which I attended, and my friend and landlord Ted Warmbrand also brought in several wonderful musical performers, so all in all I had a great time attending lots of concerts while continuing to build my ever growing home library of books and records. Some of the more memorable concerts I attended were the Bob Dylan/Tom Petty show up in Phoenix, Queen Ida and Her Zydeco Band at the El Casino Ballroom, and Stevie Wonder at McKale Memorial Center on the UA campus.

In December, I was able to find another temporary job, working as a cashier at the Food Conspiracy Co-Op. I liked this job much better than the one at Sears, but I kept them both until the end of the year. In mid-December, I started job hunting, and I found a job in Nogales as a public services and children’s librarian. I hadn’t really prepared myself to be a public librarian and was hoping to become an academic librarian, but this job was available and I needed one fast. I was hired before the year ended, so Brent and I packed everything up and were ready to move to Nogales by the beginning of January. A new chapter in our lives was about to begin.

I loved this calendar. It was locally produced.
My good friend Dennis died on January 2. He was 33 years old. This photo was taken back in 1978 when we were visiting Nogales with my then partner John.

Sandahbeth and Thaddeus Spae performed 3 songs for my friends and family at my birthday party. They sure were talented. To hear them sing, my previous blog post.
I ended up dropping two classes. The three that I kept were enough to keep me quite busy.
Information Sources in Humanities and Social Sciences was one of my favorite courses. It was taught by Dr. Don Dickinson. He was my favorite teacher.
The reference desk at the UA Main Library. Part of my internship consisted of spending time answering reference questions at “the desk”.
The card catalog was impressive. Staff spent hours each day updating it.
Margaret Randall
I attended this reading, and afterwards decided to do my Bibliography project on the works of Margaret Randall for my Bibliography Seminar class.
This performance was really fun. It was held in the Social Sciences Auditorium on the UA campus.
This event was wonderful theater. The comedy was spot on.
This was a sad day for the country. The whole world watched this tragedy live on television. The explosion occurred right after take off, and all of the crew members were killed instantly.
Bette Midler did several comedies in the mid-80s. This film was released on January 31, 1986
He’s baaacckk. He performed on 02/01/86.
This is one of my first attempts at putting together a research guide. 02/11/86. I think I got an “A” on it.
This album dealt with the current political situation. It was a scathing critique of the Reagan presidency. Released 02/18/86. The next song is one of my favorites.
Anita Baker had several hits with this album. It’s gorgeous.
Ted decided to feature himself in concert this year. He’s a wonderful storyteller and performer.
Brent’s parents visited in early April. They took this photo of us in front of our house.
This album was a big hit. It included the duet, “On My Own”, that Patti sang with Michael McDonald. Released on April 28, 1986
Released in the U.S. in April 1986. A wonderful gay love story.

Here are some of my exams, papers and projects I completed during the Spring, 1986 school semester:

02/11/86: Guide to Reference Materials in Jazz, LI S 571, Information Sources in the Humanities, Dr. Dickinson.

02/20/86: Exam in LI S 526, Introduction to Bibliography, Dr. Dickinson.

05/05/86: Margaret Randall: An Annotated Bibliography, in LI S 526, Introduction to Bibliography, Dr. Dickinson

Here is a letter I received from Margaret Randall after I sent her my completed bibliography project. Receiving this was the thrill of a lifetime. After all these years, she still remembers me too, as I was recently in touch with her on Facebook. She’s since written much more and continues her writing to this day.

I did well this semester. A few more classes, and I’d be done!
After working for Fry’s for 10 years, I was fired for ringing out my own order when on a break. The Union was able to ensure that I was vested so that I could receive a pension in later life, but even after having put in 10 years of time with the company, they couldn’t get me my job back. Another employee was later caught doing the same thing, and she was not fired.
This movie had some beautiful scenery. Released on May 23, 1986.
This grainy photo is the only one that exists that includes all of my brothers and sisters and me with our parents. I’m not sure exactly when it was taken. We had a great time, however.
I had just one semester left of Library School. I couldn’t wait to start my new career.
The great Benny Goodman passed away on June 13, 1986. These photos are from the Village Voice.
Jamie Anderson and I co-hosted a gay pride show (see links below) on KXCI together. She went on to become quite well known in the lesbian community and beyond, and over the years has released quite a few recordings.

Music From The Living Loom Show, Gay Pride/Father’s Day Program with guest hosts Bob Diaz and Jamie Anderson July 4, 1986. Part 1. (Audio only).

Music From The Living Loom Show, Gay Pride/Father’s Day Program with guest hosts Bob Diaz and Jamie Anderson, July 4, 1986. Part 2. (Audio only).

Every year during Gay Pride Month, a button was produced and distributed/sold to members of the gay community.
This was a great show. I remember hanging out with a guy named “Black Man Clay” afterwards and jamming with him. I sang all kinds of jazzy stuff and he harmonized and did rhythm. He was a great guy.
It took a while, but I finally found another job. I was hired at Sears and worked in the Auto Parts Dept. from July 1 until the end of the year. I was not a happy camper, but at least I was working.
My Sears name tag. We had to wear white shirts and blue pants on the job.
It took a while to warm up to this album. It wasn’t one of Bob’s best. Released on July 14, 1986.
This song is 11 minutes long. it’s a great tune, more like a long poem.
This was one of several letters I received from people who were incarcerated. My radio show was apparently a big hit with the inmates at the Wilmot prison facility.

This film was completed in 1984 and directed by John Jeremy, but it didn’t reach American audiences until early August, 1986, when it premiered on the PBS program, American Masters. That’s when I saw it. I managed to record the audio portion of the film and still have it on cassette. The entire film is now readily available on youtube and linked below.

Spike Lee’s first major directorial effort premiered on August 8, 1986, and was interesting, to say the least. I looked forward to what he would do next.
I started listening to Dwight Yoakam about a year or so after this was released on 08/19/86. I love his authentic, twangy voice.
Seems like everyone loved this album. My brother Charles would do some strange kind of meditation while it played. He tried to get my sister Becky and I to do it with him, and we just couldn’t. We kept laughing too much.
My last three classes…
This letter documents all the graduate courses I took while in the Library Science program. I was all set, and would soon have my Masters of Library Science in hand.
What a creepy movie. One you can’t stop watching…released on 09/19/86.

During the Fall semester, my last one as a student, I continued to host the Chicano Connection on KXCI. It was around this time that I got my good friend Richard to join me as co-host. We hosted several shows together, including the one noted below. One time we had our friends Mike and Denise join us, and they danced in the studio as we played Dylan’s Romance in Durango. Another time, Richard and I read the little “Know Your Rights” pamphlet on the air. We thought it was really cool to provide that kind of public service. We were both likely pretty lit most of the time, but had a blast and managed to get through each show without messing up too badly. Hanging out with Richard at this point in my life helped me get through the last couple of months of graduate school and working at Sears. By December, I had finished and moved on to other things. I sure miss those days when Richard and I had fun together on the radio. I have a recording or two of us on the air. I’m going to transfer them from tape to digital audio one of these days…

Aretha scores another big one. “Jimmy Lee” is one of my favorites. Released on October 1, 1986.
Released on October 10, 1986. I just love her Diana Ross impression.

Another Itzaboutime Production. My friend Ted stayed quite busy this year producing these wonderful local concerts.
Stamp Out AIDS was a national campaign established in 1986 to help people with AIDS. It raised money through the sale of stamps similar to Christmas and Easter seals. The money raised went to AIDS service providers across the country to fund buddy programs, food programs, hospice care, and other vital services.
I’m not a huge fan, but appreciate Holly Near’s work and music.
I loved this concert.
This concert was held on a revolving stage in McKale Memorial Center. It included African Dancers, and was quite a show!
Released on November 11, 1986.
Instead of having to write a Master’s thesis, we had comprehensive exams. I did just fine.
This is one of my very favorite albums. Released in November, 1986. Beautiful through and through.
I worked here for about a month at the end of the year as a temporary employee.

Here are some of my papers and exams from the Fall semester:

09/24/86: Exam #1, Research Methods, LI S 506, Dr. Hurt.

10/07/86: Exam, Academic Librarianship LI S 540, Dr. Dickinson.

10/10/86: Historical Analysis Paper, Research Method, LI S 506, Dr. Hurt.

10/22/86: Exam #2, Research Methods, LI S 506, Dr. Hurt.

12/08/86: Hispanics In Librarianship paper, Academic Librarianship, LI S 540, Dr. Dickinson.

12/10/86: Quantitative Analysis Paper, Research Methods, LI S 506, Dr. Hurt.

My last report card. I was so relieved and happy I made it to the end. Finally!
My unofficial college transcripts. It includes every course I ever took at the UofA.
Once I graduated, I was done with formal education for good. While I have attempted to go back to school to take a class here and there, I’ve never been able to stick it out.
I only recognize a few names on these lists, but these were my classmates in Library School.
Little did I know when I dropped out of high school ten years earlier that I would get this far. I was now ready to get to work doing something I really wanted to do…
My Dad and I in the McKale parking lot on the day I graduated.
My parents and I in our front yard the day I graduated. My dad was the only family member who attended both my UA graduations.
A graduation card from my big brother Charles.
A Christmas card from my buddy Richard Elias. I’ve saved every one he’s ever sent me.