Surfer Rod Bio and Introduction

Surfer Rod Bio & Introduction Rod's Home Edited: 03-19-13 15:33

Bio. Grandfather of 4, Christian Conservative & Retired. Previous Job-related Skills: Computer Scientist, Cyber Security Manager, Contract Officer, Software Engineer, DBA, Mathematician, Teacher, U.S. Navy Veteran & Professional Pool Player (1964-1983). I toured our country for 20 years going from town to town & bar to bar as a professional pool player. I specialized in 8-ball on the bar table with the original bar table cue ball (2 3/8") & took on all comers. I couldn't wait for the action to come to me so I would plan routes back & forth from my home base & it would take about 4 years to get back to the same town. Except for Boston, MA, I have been to almost every major city in the Continental United States about 5 times. Some towns changed & some didn't. I challenged them all & won most of them against the top players in the world.

Introduction. In memory of Larry, the brother we lost in Viet Nam on 15 July 1968, my Grandmother, who introduced me to Jesus via tent revivals in the late 50’s & my mom, who took the brunt of it while raising six little rascals. Well, it all started for me, back in 1943. I was born April 2^nd in Front Royal, VA. I grew up near & have been told that I have been playing in the Shenandoah River since I was one year old. The second of 7 children, we were a handful. Due to physical abuse by my father, my mother left us when I was 15. My older sister got married & I became the chief cook & bottle washer for our family. Luckily all the kids were out of diapers by then.

1943. I was born approximately 70 miles from and exactly 200 years after that of our third President, Thomas Jefferson on 2 April 1943 in Front Royal, Virginia.

1944. When I was one year old, we lived in the Riverside Motel next to the Shenandoah River in Front Royal, VA. I assume while mom was distracted or tending my older sister, I had crawled down to and was playing in the river. I heard my mom was frantic for fear I had drowned. I probably could have but when she found me, I was just having fun. An Angel has been watching over me. I always loved swimming anywhere.

1946. When I was three years old, I was chased by a bear. We lived in the foothills of Browntown, VA & one day, I mixed my favorite drink (maple syrup & water) in one of my baby brother's bottles & took a stroll outside. I wondered a little too far & saw what I thought was a dog coming toward me. I was approaching it in hopes of petting it but the closer it came, the bigger it looked. It then stood up on its hind feet and growled. That scared me so I ran away but getting further from the house as it ran after me. I stumbled and fell over a steep hill and rolled to the bottom. I took a different route around the base of the hill back to our house and told mom, "There is a big hairy man outside." Telling the story years later, my mom jumped in saying, "Not only that son, when I opened the front door, there was a huge black bear standing on his hind legs with its paws above the doorway." Needless to say, I barely missed being lunch for that bear and we moved shortly thereafter closer to town. Folks told me later that I was lucky rolling down the hill because bears have short front legs and do not run as fast downhill.

1947. I was always fascinated with creatures and animals so one day when I was 4, my mom, older sister and I were walking in a path in the pasture. I think my mom was going to milk a cow. I remember my sister had my red jacket on and a Braymer bull was charging toward her. My mom went to thwart it off while I was walking down the path. While doing so, I came across this black thing in the middle of the path. I wasn't about to side-step the path and step on the stickers (briar patches) because I was bare-footed. I gazed down at the thing and told it to move. I do not remember this part but my mom told me that when it did not obey and move, I stomped it to death with my bare feet.

1948. When I was five yrs old, I saw this squiggly thing crawling along the base of the house under the steps to the front door. I went to my knees & crawled along side on all fours. After turning one corner about ½ way down that side of the house, it stopped & slowly curled up in a cobra-like position and stuck its tongue out at me. I was not smart enough to be intimidated so I squatted on two feet & stuck my tongue back at it. I didn't know it at the time but I was face to face and almost tongue to tongue with a copperhead snake. It would bob its head back and forth striking and hissing as I dodged its strikes & hisses of poison toward my face. After several minutes, my mom saw us & killed the snake with a hoe. Later on I became ill & my mother took me to the hospital where they pumped my stomach. I must have swallowed some poison but luckily it is only deadly in the bloodstream.

1948. My dad made his own beer in a large clay jar (bigger than I) and would bottle and cap it with a bottle-capper in used clean Budweiser beer bottles. When we had company, my dad would have me carry beer (one in each hand) about 75 feet to a natural spring (our only source of water (drinking and otherwise; no indoor plumbing)). One day, I remember smelling the honeysuckle as I hurried down the man-made walkway. About 1/2 way down same, I stubbed my toe, tripped and fell on top of both beer bottles as glass went everywhere. Luckily, I came away with only two 1-inch scars on my right forearm. My mom called my aunt to come get me and take me to the hospital. One of my most exciting times as a child was after an emergency like this such that my aunt would take me to town and shower me with goodies. Also, after the doctor had bandaged me up, I had the opportunity to see my first full-feature movie. I've liked going to movies ever since.

1949. In the first grade at my elementary school I was introduced to baseball. I was next at bat & standing too close to the batter such that I was struck in the face by the bat. Number 13 baby tooth was chipped & loosened but it was the last baby tooth pulled. I pulled it out myself,

with a pair of pliers when I was a teenager. My dad was blind & my mom worked all the time so there was quite of bit time to get into mischief. I liked hunting frogs & snakes with my BB gun. I climbed trees & jumped off houses since Tarzan & Superman were two of my main heroes. Mickey Mantle was my first human hero, then Rocky Marciano. My dad made his own beer. When we had company, my dad would have me carry beer about 100 ft to cool in a natural spring (our only source of water (no indoor plumbing or electricity)). We had a man-made rock walk way & while sprinting toward the spring, I stubbed my toe & fell with a beer in each hand. Both bottles were broken & I ended up with 2 one-inch scars on my right forearm. We had no vehicle & lived so far in the boonies, I was lucky not to have bled to death before we arrived at the hospital. Afterwards, my aunt took me to the movies & I have been a movie fan ever since.

1950. When I was 7 years old, an older neighbor friend got a BB-gun for Christmas (or birthday) and he told me to hide behind a tree and see if he could hit me. I did but when I stuck my head out, he shot me right between my eyes.

1951. When I was 8 years old, a band of Bumblebees were attacking my older sister near our outhouse. I went to save her punching the bees with my fists. I did knock a few of them out but during the fight, I was stung near my eye, on my lip, shoulder and a couple other places.

1952. When I was 9 years old, I wore an "I like Ike" pin & watched his presidential inauguration on TV with our entire class. I was at the age where I conscientiously utilized my rote memory skills for the first time. I could name all the presidents in chronological order in 18 seconds. Later on in college one of the test questions was to give an example of imagery. I answered, "page 51 of our text book & spit out correctly all 50 random numbers on that page by memory/over-learning. The teacher was not impressed. My dad had a better memory than I & was the best checker player I have ever seen. He use to beat me by memory from the next room. My little brother would move for him & I only beat him one time when I had a King & jumped his checker backwards. He played so good, I rarely made it to the King Row, much less, win. That was the year I read about the Little Choo Choo who said, "I think I can, I think I can and I adopted that attitude for the rest of my life. We did have a TV and even though we did not have Sesame Street, We had Ranger Hal who taught us, "Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today."

1953. After all the trials I've had, I remember the good. The scariest thing for me was giving formal briefings to upper management like to the Commissioner of the IRS while working in D.C. It stems back to when I was 10 years old in the 5th grade. During recess, I directed a cuss word (sob) to my best friend at the time, Norman Derflinger. It was not even mean-spirited (just something I heard my father say) but the teacher heard it and made me stand before the class and recite the 10 Commandments. I never said a cuss word in public again and I never liked to do formal presentations. Now, I have a hard time just getting my youngest daughter to read the 10 Commandments. I was more nervous giving formal presentations than risking all my money in one game of pool, one stock market investment or any other risk I've taken.

1949 1953 1953 1953 1953

1953 1960 1966 1966 1956

1956. At 5'1" & 83 lbs, I was the smallest kid in high school; I was under fed & over active. I was the school mascot for the Warren County Wildcats in that I would go to most of their games & our best football player would carry me around in the air with one hand. Our team went defeated & won the championship two years in a row. I guess I was too small for consideration to be mentored by older athletes or coaches so most of my learning was via trial & error--the school of hard knocks. I have a high IQ but not very smart. I bet it all—put all my eggs in one basket every time challenged. Some call it, “Heart” & some call it, “Stupid.” Only the Good Lord knows. I’m still working on transforming my ego into humility.

1957. When I was about 14, I played with electricity. Some of dad's band members use to visit and practice at our house sometimes. Once, one them pulled a trick on another in that he gave him a book. Upon opening the book, the guy grunted and threw the book down because it was electrically wired and gave him a shock. Anyway, I played with the book and pretended the electrical force had no bearing on me. They were surprised. One day after that, I was visiting one of my aunts who lived close by. She was asleep so I was playing in another room and while standing on a bed, I decided to unscrew one of the light bulbs in the ceiling. And then I stuck my fore finger in the light socket for a couple of seconds to see how strong it was. Upon doing so, it felt like a big tickle all the way to my right shoulder. Then, I stuck a screw driver in the socket and the electrical current ate all the metal off the screw driver. I was amazed how much more durable a human body is than a screw driver regarding absorbing electrical current. Good thing I knew how to change the blown fuse. No one was the wiser. Later on, someone told me it was a good thing I wasn't grounded. After all my ailments over the years, I still have a powerful right arm.

1959. When I was 16, my brother was riding with me on my bicycle. We were going downhill very fast and approaching a major highway (340). I had no brakes but did not want to wreck so I took the chance and crossed the highway and stopped on a grass incline on the other side. Lucky again!

1959. When I was 16, my brother & I were playing in a tropical storm (tail end of Hurricane Cindy). The wind gusted up to about 60 miles per hour. A rising stream flowing into the Shenandoah River was getting too deep & rapid to cross so I attempted to pole vault across it with a 15 foot boat pole. At the apex (top of the arc), the pole slipped on a rock at the base & I came down such that I dislocated my right knee & was washed into the raging river. I yelled to my brother for help but he thought I was kidding & just laughed (because he knew I was good swimmer). I was able to grab hold to an uprooted tree trunk & dog-paddle to shore. I was on a handmade crutch for months. My dad couldn't see so I didn't tell him or get medical treatment for fear of receiving a beating from him if I charged him any doctor fees.

1960. At 5'3" & 110 lbs, I joined the U.S. Navy & took boot camp training at Great Lakes, IL. I may have not made it because the Navy instructor arranged us in a circle & commanded we fall to our knees repeatedly without using our hands. It had been almost a year since my knee injury but I couldn't do it & put my hands down first every time. Luckily, his back was to me each time & I was accepted into the Navy. Upon completion of boot camp, I was transferred the Naval Yard in Orange, TX but not before the big duffle bag I lugged around would bump the outside of my right knee & cause many dislocations via an injured collateral ligament. Tiger Woods had a million dollar knee. I've dislocated my knees over 100 times but never had surgery. I'm OK as long as I stay on my toes. Ever seen alligator gar fish? They swim in the Sabine River. They look like fish with teeth like an alligator & get up to 4 feet long. You bait them on a wire loop or guitar string & when they go to eat the bait, you lower the implement, the gar swims through the loop and then you lasso it.

Military. 4 years in the U.S. Navy (27 Jun 1960 - 20 Mar 1964); 5-point Veteran & Honorable Discharge

1965+. My older sister became a Jehovah's Witness Minister (and still is) and challenged me to read the Watchtower publications and the Greek Interlinear to help me understand the Bible. Instead, I agreed to read just the Bible and did so through its entirety. I'm glad I did because one of the things I learned from the Bible is that we should not add to or take away from the Holy Bible. But when it comes to the Trinity, they are outside the norm in that they do not believe Jesus is equal with God. She pointed to John 1:1 which says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The first "God" in Greek was spelled Theos and where, "... the Word was God," the Watchtower Bible version says, "... the Word was a god." Yes, with a small "g" spelled "theon." Interpreting Jesus as a god but not The God. Even though we disagree on that point, I say any religion or culture promoting positive values and morals is better than no religion at all. Not convinced of the Watchtower's and her opinion, I went to the local Warren County Library in about 1967 to learn for myself. From the resources, I taught myself enough Greek to re-affirm the validity of the Trinity Doctrine norm. I discovered that the two god's were spelled differently merely because of its place in the sentence structure but meant the same. In my prime, I played about 10 hours per day 6 days a week and fast on Sunday. Now, I'm living the "Life of Riley" (with central air), just relaxing. While on road trips, I would read the Bible practically every day. Sometimes while waiting for pool action. Anyway, I'm a believer and try to apply the Golden Rule to my life. In the pool world, I play hard but fair. Also, while on the road playing pool and just before getting into the Bible, I asked myself, if I could sum up my life into one word, what would that word be? I concluded that, "truth" was that word and the philosophy of my life. Thinking I new what "truth" meant, I still looked it up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. I found that it was equated to fact, spiritual reality, Christian Science : God. Then I looked up Christian Science and found it was a Church discovered by Mary Baker Eddy. That is when I started going to Church again and attended just about every kind of Christian Church in America while on the road hustling pool all over the USA. I ended up just as I started, back to my roots and finally joined, was Baptized with my oldest daughter Shannon and taught Sunday School at a Southern Baptist Church, namely, the Riverside Baptist Church in Denver in 1971. I loved and identified with the Invitation song, "Just as I am." Regarding the Bible, I identified with the Webster or Scofield Bible because the verbiage of the Lord's Prayer was the same as that my mother taught me when I was a child. Now, the most important things in my life are my children, grandchildren and of course Jesus who shed his blood for my sins. Although I no longer attend Church, I like to listen to Jack Van Impe and Franklin Graham on Satellite TV.

Education. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. Even though I took almost a double load each quarter, all year round (including summers) the first 3 years (1971-1974), I was on the President's and Vice President's Honor Roll and graduated with the highest honors (Summa Cum Laude) with an "A" average (GPA=3.83) from Metropolitan State College, Denver, CO in 1975. I also won the Colorado Scholars Award for Academic Achievement. I was shooting for a 4.0 but the curriculum I needed to graduate was only offered once per year and I was taken 2 years worth of classes in the same year. Therefore, the course overlaps and schedule conflicts were beyond my control. I couldn't be in two places at once and although I achieved an A+ on the final exam, my final grade from one particular instructor (he looked like Clark Gable with a flat top) was a B+ and back then a B+ had the same score as a regular B (3.0). I was taking 9 classes (21 qtr hours) with all A's except from that teacher who messed up my perfect 4.0. In appearance, we were both stereotypes from the opposite side of the tracks (he, your typical jock (flat top and all) and I, a long-haired hippie-freak). I wasn't really a hippie though but felt he exhibited a little prejudice. I had no sports background merely because I was always too small in High School. He used me as a Ginny pig in wrestling but was surprised when he could not reverse the "down position" against me which was the purpose of the exercise. Also, with no experience, I quarterbacked the winning team against him and his team in football at the end of the quarter. He said the down grade was because I could not attend the playtime hour due to a scheduling conflict (his fault since he was the PE Director). I believe it was because an unknown like me beat a National Champion like him (twice) in front of his students. Obama reminds me of a colleague of mine who had been attending Metropolitan State College for nine years and yet to graduate. I call them professional students. The colleague was a good guy though and we were teammates and champions on the college's volleyball team. Within 4 years (1971-1975), I had accrued an Associate of Arts Degree, Bachelor of Arts Degrees in 3 disciplines, namely, Health, Physical Education and Recreation and a Colorado Teacher Certificate in Secondary Education (GPA=4.0). Two more State Teacher Certificates came later in Nevada and Utah. Lastly, I received a BA in Mathematics at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah in 1988 to support promotion requirements at work (desk job). When asked about these accomplishments, I usually jokingly add, "and a PhD in 8-ball, honorary of course."

Family is contiguous and history is chronological, jogs my memory.

1969 1971-11-08 1972 1974 1974