Okinawa

Okinawa Okinawa Okinawa

Memories

It's a world away and seems like a lifetime ago. I still consider it to be the place I grew up. I find myself thinking of it from time to time, when I'm craving a bowl of Yakisoba or dying for Tonkatsu (do you know how difficult it is to find a good Japanese restaurant in Dallas?). When I walk past the Sanrio Surprise store at the mall, I can't help but chuckle. (You remember all the cheap little Hello Kitty toys we used to buy at the local-national groceries? This place sells that stuff at a premium price.) I miss Gate Two street and Moromi Street. I miss the sunsets and staying up for the sunrise. I miss rainy season and typhoon season (ever play Condition 1 Football?). I had the bus schedules memorized and the how to dodge the crazy taxi drivers down to a science. I remember being up all night in the rain at the very first Pantherun (pacing Lesley Halsey) and having to drop out of the second one due to exhaustion. I loved to spend July days at the Kadena Karnival and lay out in the field while 4th of July fireworks went off overhead. But most of all, I miss my friends from Kadena High School. While I didn't actually graduate from KHS, I spent my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years there, and they were the first three years of that school's existence. What fun it was establishing traditions then... I wonder how many of them still survive?

My Brief Biography Since Leaving Oki

When I left Okinawa in '84, I moved to the Dallas / Fort Worth area and have been here ever since. I graduated from Arlington High School in '85 in a class of 536 (a far cry from the 130 or so Juniors at KHS) and then spent 5 years getting a 4 year degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. I got married in August of '89 to a woman I met on a computer chat system in '87. Alissa and I have two wonderful kids, Alexander (17) and Meagan (12), and a house full of cats and dogs. We attended my 10 year reunion for Arlington High School, but it just wasn't the same as seeing those from Okinawa in Vegas. What do I do now for a living? It will probably be no surprise to anyone who knew me then that I became a computer programmer. My wife and I even went as far as to start our own consulting company in '96. Lately, that's become a photography business, but hey.. that's no surprise either.

Me Then

Me Now