10

Arco, Idaho 1963

When I was 10 my brother John had a darkroom in the corner of our windowless basement (where incidentally my sister Norma and I headquartered--straight out of Dickens, but we were happy there).  Save for what he processed there, we might have had no pictures at all.  This is my 10 year old world--bike, Schwartzie dog, pixie haircut, and a carefree grin.  What you can't see is the canal east of here where I spent 4 trillion hours playing Lewis and Clark with my best friend, Gail, who lives in the background.  I wrote about all of this in my autobiography a few years ago.  Something else you can't see are the hepatitis bacteria festering inside my liver (we had an outbreak in my school).  Shortly after this picture I became very very ill, landed in a hospital for a week, and spent the next 4 months in bed.

My family (geekiness is always optional, but I seemed to choose it over and over and over...)

 

At 10 my parents had this professional photo taken.  My uncle Orson painted my portrait in oils from this.  Don't worry about that daisy.  It's a sticker.

 

My brother John, seven years my elder.  He's exploring geezer territory and writing a travel guide for my trip there.  Currently he and his wife Marilyn have taken up residency in Beijing.  I hope my geezer path takes me there as well.