Some Historical Bits
I was born in NJ (1961) and raised in a German speaking community in NY and NJ. My parents, German immigrants: mom fresh off the boat in 1960, dad having arrived as a child in the 1930's. As a child and young adult, I spent a number of my summers visiting Germany and my favorite, the beaches of northern Denmark. The summer of my 15th year, while I was visiting family and friends in Germany and Norway, my family moved from Monsey, NY to Washington State. Shortly after my return from vacation to the US, my Onkel Ansgar drove me to Grand Central Station. I boarded a 64 hour Greyhound trip across I-80 and I-90, from New York to Seattle.
I had never traveled west of the Delaware River. New York City and the NY and NJ suburbs west of the Hudson river were my America. I had never seen so many wide lumbering people in coveralls eating hash browns with ketchup. This "Leave the Driving to Us" tour was my indoctrination to a life in the west. Fortunately, in the fifth grade, I had written a report on the 1962 World's Fair, so I imagined the Space Needle and that maybe there was a Jestons-like life on the other side. I arrived to "Green Acres."
My dad had purchased thirty acres outside the small logging town of Eatonville, WA. Conscripted as architect (I had an aptitude for mechanical drawing), I designed my mom and dad's (still standing) home. During the school year, I worked at Pioneer Farm Museum mornings, milking a cow and goat and cleaning the barn. Summers I worked there full time, building log buildings with pioneer hand tools, driving the horse and buggy and leading tours. Ask me somtime to tell you the story about chopping off the tip of my thumb (it's better now) with a seven-pound railroad axe...
Following my friends to college, I piled my belongings and self into the back of my friend Jim's parents' pickup. sitting atop my bean bag chair and boxes of personal belongings - no seatbelt required - I happily began my 6 hour bath through the sun, wind, dust and bugs of eastern Washington. I was on my way to begin my studies as a physics major at Washington State University.