This is the story of success in my parents’ adopted country, which they entered by crossing the southern border at the end of the 19th century, when there were no border restrictions, and never acquired citizenship; it is the story of the son of a poor immigrant family, who started at the bottom and rose to a fair level of prosperity, with a string of adventures and achievements along the way, going from unimaginable poverty and hard times to success beyond what I ever thought possible.
During my lifetime, I have been involved in various activities and professions. I have been, at one time or another, a musician, engineer, investor, Assistant Coroner, and sailor. I reinvented myself a few times, restructuring my career and changing course to follow a path that led to adventure, excitement, and financial success.
It started in a tiny, 480 square foot house with no bathroom and only a cold-water faucet indoors, in which our family of eight subsisted for nine years. It was a bare wooden shack that today’s housing authorities would deem unfit for habitation, forcing us to vacate, which would have left us homeless. From there I went on to prosper, on a course freighted with more adventures that anyone could hope for in one lifetime.
You are just the sum total of your thoughts and recollections, and this narrative is a summary of the thoughts and memories that I can recollect. It is the telling of the story of my life as I would tell it to family and friends.