Jim's Bio

Jim's Bio
The Story of Me!

There was a lot of thanksgiving on that Friday when I was born, first because my mom and dad were happy the wait was over and a healthy boy had been born, but also because it was the day after Thanksgiving, November 26, 1943. It was a difficult time during those dark days of World War II, rations were short and film for the Kodak was virtually impossible to get. Therefore my remarkable early childhood went almost undocumented by photos. However, judging from the few that have survived, I am grateful there are not many pictures in existence. I had very short legs, my parents thought I might be a dwarf, plus one leg was bowed as if I had been a bow-legged cowboy in a previous life.

A good regimen of Cod Liver Oil, that wonderful cure all that ranked up there with Castor Oil in both taste and use, straightened my leg and I eventually grew to a normal height albeit the low end of normal.

Being the smallest of three children, I pretty much took advantage of my position as baby of the family and quickly grew into a mama’s boy. Dad was a little harder to fool, so I tried to stay on his good side and most of the time I did succeed. Of course, there were times, like when we took all the little measuring glasses out of the first aid kits on the school buses he maintained. Then there was the time I almost drove a school bus down through the woods behind his shop. I blamed that one on his helper because he let me do it, believing me when I said I could drive the bus. Of course, he should have known you couldn’t believe a five year old.

Life was good in rural Mississippi, especially if your dad was not a farmer. Though we did grow hay and corn for the few farm livestock we had, dad eventually realized he could make more money in his mechanics trade than with cattle and corn and eventually sold off his few cattle and dedicated his time to his shop. It was a day of celebration that we would no longer have to feed the cows, slop the hogs, or chase whatever had gotten out of the pasture and repair the fences.

School was also pretty unremarkable. I basically floated in what we call average, which is the top of the bottom or the bottom of the top. I did the usual routine of being involved in sports, school plays, newspaper and the like. At graduation, we were the class that was born in ’43 and we had 43 to graduate, which means I graduated in the top 50 of my graduating class! We also graduated in the last “upside-down” year till the year 6009. That means you can write 1961 and then turn it upside down and it is still 1961.

College was a shocker. In high school I could make average to better grades with very little study, but my college was pretty strict academically and I almost made the dean’s other list (the one he keeps in his bottom drawer) my first year. Took the next three years to dig my way out to a graduating grade point average. But I did it and swore off education or at least formal education. Then two years later found myself in a master’s program, which was forced on my by my employer. Again, completing the degree, I went back on the wagon, swearing never again to darken those hallowed ivy-covered halls again. However, about four years later I found myself again in a master’s program of my own choosing and before leaving that institution, I had bagged a second Masters and was well over halfway to a third one. This time as I left school I said, “I hope I’m finished with formal degrees.” The incantation obviously worked for I haven’t returned yet for another degree. I have been in lots of short-term trainings, but never for another degree.

I now hold degrees in Art, Secondary Education, Counseling, and Religious Education and along the way have worked at a variety of jobs. I have taught school, built bridges (the real kind that cars drive over, though I won’t say where so as not to alarm the public), worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, a pastor to deaf churches, an interpreter, a publisher, owned an internet distribution business, and now am looking forward to retirement in the near future.

My wife of 37 years and I have two daughters who live in Las Vegas and Mississippi. We have lived in Mississippi, New Orleans, Portland, Oregon, Lafayette, LA., and presently in central Mississippi near Jackson.

My wife is an educational interpreter and operates a mail order/internet business selling sign language related books, videos and jewelry. I work in state government and do consulting work in the area of deaf ministry for churches in Mississippi.

Writing began for me in high school when I wrote my first poem and story. I began to write more while in college and have continued through the years. Of course, at times with the pressure of work, my fiction writing often became much less as I had to write papers, articles and books related to my work. Now that I no longer have to write technical materials I have enjoyed turning back to writing stories and poetry. I enjoy most writing humor, but am learning to write other genres.