| The 1970s began with my father's
death in January. Thankfully, my Aunt Adele and Uncle Bill moved
into our house to finish raising my sisters and brother. Without
them I don't know what would have happened to our family.
That spring I graduated from Darrow School and
spent the summer working as a toll collector on the New Jersey
Turnpike.
That fall I attended Elmira College (Elmira,
NY), an all girls college that had just gone co-educational
(which was quite different from the all boys boarding school
environment that I had just left). I finished my first year of
college by doing an independent study: A Photographic Essay
on European Country Life, by spending a few months traveling
throughout Europe.
Traveling throughout Europe, alone with my
backpack and camera, was simply a remarkable experience. Half
the nights were spent sleeping in youth hostels, meeting many from foreign countries and having the opportunities to
learn about their cultures. Other nights were spent in the woods
near small towns, selecting a secluded spot in the dark and
often waking up to a pleasant surprise, like a deer grazing
between me and a nearby castle, or a bull on the streets of Pamplona,
Spain (which I later ran with -- probably not one of my more
rational decisions).
After returning from Europe I decided that I
wanted to be a photojournalist. I took a class at Middlesex
Junior College that fall and then left for Ohio University
(Athens, Ohio).
Ohio University cancelled their
photojournalism program in 1973 and I decided to try landing a
photojournalism job on my own, without a degree. I moved to
Boston (MA) and tried to get a job at the Boston Globe, which
was known at the time as excelling in photojournalism. They
never hired me.
So I soon found myself working as an Emergency
Medical Technician in Massachusetts. I also gained my
firefighter certification. I moved to Florida in 1975 so I could obtain my
paramedic training in Miami, and was a volunteer firefighter
until 1985.
In Florida, I worked in Fort Lauderdale and (after being
shot) moved over to quieter Bradenton. Florida is a very nice
place to visit, but it lacks the personality brought by seasons,
and by 1979 I had moved to Louisville, KY., to be a
paramedic at the City of Louisville Emergency Medical Services.
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