My father is a mix of English and Dutch ancestry, my mother of Choctaw Indian and Irish ancestry. My Choctaw ancestry was, and still is a big part of my life. As a child, I grew up around my maternal grandmother's Choctaw relatives and Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Arapaho, and Apache Indians in Anadarko, Oklahoma. My grandmother spoke Choctaw and English in Southeastern Oklahoma where she grew up, and my mother spoke Choctaw as a child, switching to English before I was born. (My maternal grandfather was an Irish doctor, married to a mixed-blood Choctaw woman in then, Indian territory and early Oklahoma statehood.) My mother still uses the "Indian Hospital" in Oklahoma, and all my family on my mother's side, including myself, are "Card carrying" (I.D. cards from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) Choctaw tribal members and proud of our heritage. I'm in the process now of learning the Choctaw language, to "get back to those roots." I neither identify as "white" or "American Indian" (I'm the first of my family to have blue eyes (thanks Dad). I identify as multicultural with Caucasian and American Indian ancestry. [Author's Note: Some, myself included, do not consider "white" as a race but as an identity. As for the term "Native American," think about it; everyone born in America is a native American, just as one born in California is a native Californian as opposed to a transplant or immigrant. Some American Indians are sensitive to that term.] As for "race," here is one odd note: In Memphis, Tennessee I had to check one of only three designations when I registered to vote: "White," "Black," or "Other." You guessed it; my card said "Other." Too bad it doesn't simply have a category box marked [_] Human. I would have checked that one. When I registered to vote in Oklahoma, there was no "race" box to check.

I attended grade, intermediate, and junior highschool on the fly, moving 2 to 3 times during a school year. My father was a driller in the oil fields. In the 1940's, l950's and 1960's, it was common to follow the big rigs as they moved from drilling site to drilling site. He started in Oklahoma, and wound up in Texas, where I was born. I grew up in numerous small towns and cities in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. We eventually moved to Oklahoma (for them, it was moving 'back home'), where my father retired from drilling, took up cattle ranching, and in my eyes, my family finally planted some roots. I finished highschool in Oklahoma, graduating as Senior Class President and Salutatorian, Class of 1968. Impressive, until you learn there were only 10 in my graduating class and we had co-Valedictorians. The school - a small country school - consisted of 125 students in 10 classrooms. Those ten rooms housed all 12 grades and a headstart class.

I married my highschool sweetheart in the summer of 1968 and we moved to Dallas where I attended an electronics trade school. Two years of school and one child (a daughter) later, I graduated. I had started working at Texas Instruments, one year prior to graduation, and continued there afterwards. Two years after graduation, we had a son. I suppose it was a good life; I was 22 years old, married with two children, had some education and job security, and yet... I was bored as hell. All I could see was living my whole life in the same town, working at the same job for the next 40 years of my life (although Dallas is a great place to live, and Texas Instruments a great place to work). It just seemed my life was too hemmed in; too depressing, perhaps because of the moving in my younger years. At 22, I wanted to go... to see... to do... I wanted to explore!

In May of 1972, when my son was 2 months old, I gave a two-week notice and quit the job at Texas Instruments. I saw an Air Force recruiter, told him I wanted to see the world; and see the world, I did. I haven't see all of it (yet), but I saw as much as I could in a 20 year Air Force career. During the next two years, "we" went from Dallas to San Antonio, to Denver, CO, to Bossier City, LA; then I alone went to Guam. (Low ranking GI families aren't moved overseas on duty assignments.) The marriage ended while I was in Guam. "She" blamed it on all our moving. "I" blamed it on her sexual escapades while I was in Guam. Bottom line: I was "single again" early in my Air Force career, and traveled the world that way for 17 years. (By the way, I remained single, but that is another story.)

I won't bore you with details of all the assignments and moves. You can read about those in the Travel Pages. Suffice it to say, I've made the most of the opportunities I've had to see the world. I've handfed the bears in Yellowstone, mined for gold at the foot of Mt. Rushmore, scuba dived the deepest "hole" in world (the Marianas Trench), skied the alps, and gone shopping in the flea markets of London and the bazaars of Istanbul. I've watched the sun rise while sitting atop the great pyramid of Giza, and the sun set from the Island of Delos (birthplace of Apollo). I've traveled the coast of Turkey, traveling from Tarsus (birthplace of St. Paul: I drank from the water well at his birth home) to Ephesus (where he preached). I've purified myself in the springs of Delphi, ran a race in the stadium at Olympia (came in 2nd), ran part of the "original" Marathon in the Vale of Tempe, and performed in the theatre of Epidarius (where I received a standing ovation). I've been to the bullfight plazas in Madrid, the top of the Eiffel Tower, the attic where Anna Frank wrote her diary, and spent a cozy night on a farm in Holland. (Note: there were 3 well worn and muddy pair of wooden shoes in the hall closet: mine are still new on the top shelf in my bedroom closet). I've sat in the stadiums in Rome, the temples of the Acropolis, and the room believed to be where Jesus held the Last Supper in Jerusalem. I've traveled and done so much more... on four continents.

One thing I also did - in the U.S. and abroad - was take evening college classes every chance I got. My last assignment was in North Dakota, where I finally completed enough credits at the same university to establish a residency and contract for a degree. When the all transcripts were tallied (from eight different colleges and universities), I had more than enough hours, but not all the right classes for the degree I wanted. After retiring, I attended that university for a full year to complete the degree requirements. (It took that long because some classes were only offered once a year). I graduated cum laude with 183 hours for a 124 hour Bachelor of Arts degree with dual majors: Psychology and Addiction Studies (and a Concentration in English).

Immediately upon graduation, I moved to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue my master's degree in counseling. Counseling at the University of Memphis is a 48 hour program, but I completed 2 additional classes and graduated in 1995 with 54 graduate hours and a 4.0 average. Afterwards, I took additional classes at the doctoral level to complete the hours required for licensure in Tennessee as a Licensed Professional Counselor (I also maintained that 4.0 average.) It came to the point of "commit to 5 more years of full-time graduate classes for a doctorate, or get off the pot." I quit before completing my doctorate. I've applied that degree for profit, but mostly I've used it to perform lots of volunteer community service, and have since been basically "goofing off." I'm supported by my Air Force retirement and taking the time off I promised myself so many years ago. I'd like to consider my self as well traveled, well educated, somewhat worldly and sophisticated, and perhaps even a little intelligent, but it seems the Oklahoma "farm days" were my formative years. I'm still a country boy at heart, and I just like to think I'm a "good ol' boy." I'm currently back in Oklahoma, playing the dutiful son as old-fashioned morals tell me I should be doing -- helping my parents in their mature age and declining health, and I'll be here for awhile. Once affairs here are settled, I'll be free to travel again, go back to my home in Memphis, or sell the house and head to ... whoever or whatever attracts me at the time.

New Postscript 1: As I update this, it's hard to believe I've been here in Oklahoma 3 years now. I lost my mom last May, a week after Mother's Day. My Dad is feeling the aloneness: with Mom gone, he's afraid I'll move away again and abandon him. That's not likely to happen. Had I not moved back when I did, I'd have missed the last two years with Mom. Those are memories I wouldn't take anything for. The same with my Dad; I don't know how much longer he'll be around in this old world, but I cherish the time we spend together. That's what family is all about, isn't it... having someone to love, laugh, share with, and belong to? Of course it'd be nice if there were another to be be intimate with -- share the whole romantic love bit -- maybe in time.

Old Postscript 1: Lest you think this is "all" the story about me, there is more... LOTS more. IF you're really a glutton for punishment and want to read on, simply click on: More About Bull47.