Port Townsend, WA is where I live with my wife, Bonnie, who grew up in Iowa, and with whom I have been married for 24 years. We were both married before. My first wife already had four children, Duke, Byron, Charlene and Vernon, and we had two more, Aaron and Joselyn. Joselyn was killed in an auto accident in 1988 when she was 18. Aaron lives in San Diego, Charlene and her two children, Dan and Rene just moved from Sarasota, FL to Port Townsend and Duke, Byron and Vernon and his son, Joshua, still live in Ohio. My mother and my sister, Connie, also have moved to Port Townsend.

After finally graduating from Cornell, I got a masters degree in Political Science at Ohio State Univ. but didn't go on because it seemed more relevant to work for civil rights and to end the war in Vietnam. Besides, I had a wife and four kids all of a sudden. The political activity got me a little attention from the police and FBI so that it was difficult to get job after several of us were fired from a settlement house from which we were organizing. I ended up getting a job almost by default in the state juvenile corrections agency. It was okay for a while, I rose to a mid management administrative level and had a hand in closing the oldest and largest institution for boys in the world and helped to develop some effective community-based alternative programs. But then that seemed to run it's course.

Gradually, I drifted more and more toward my long time interest in construction and old house restoration and finally gave up my bureaucratic job in 1980 to become a mason contractor specializing in Rumford fireplaces and masonry chimneys. It was physically hard work at first but I got to be outside and on roof tops and eventually travel all over the country.

The move to Port Townsend was for many reasons, both personal and professional. I like being by the sea near the mountains and the Internet has allowed me to work less and make more money by being an "expert", which, as far as I can tell, only means that I'm older and can write pretty well for a mason or that I can lay bricks better than most people who know html programing.

Port Townsend is a Victorian seaport. We live in a house that was built in 1890 up the street from the Wooden Boat Foundation where I still row - one of the more valuable skills I learned at Cornell. Life is good, I enjoy my family and being 61 and now I'm beginning to get involved with the new peace movement. Deja vu all over again.

You can look at more pictures and fill in a lot of details, if you're interested, by looking at the websites I maintain:

Isao,

When I went back to Honduras, I think in 1964, I went with Bill Sanders and Charles Barter. I haven't kept in touch with either of them. Sanders, I learned at the Cornell reunion last June, is still in Texas, quite wealthy (no surprise) and, maybe as a result, pretty reclusive. Barter, who was from Chile, I've heard is back in Chile where he runs a salmon fish farm. Francis Oda, who was in architecture at Cornell, designed a coop building we built in Honduras. Francis is a well known Pacific Rim architect and I have the honor to have built the first building he ever designed. We got together once recently in Honolulu.

I have not been back to Honduras and have not kept up with the "Salgado Seven" I called them who were jailed for the murder of a government engineer shortly after we left Honduras and just after the John Deere tractor Sanders got the coop was sabotaged. Soon I was involved in Ohio with civil rights and opposing the Vietnam war. I sent Salgado a little money but generally didn't think contact with me probably helped him much and I felt that I was up against our own government which was already following me around.

As you know the revolution didn't happen and I got involved with family and local politics and then my business. Thought of myself as a "capitulist". Only recently, since 9/11 have I been re-awakened politically. We have a budding but vigorous peace movement right here in Port Townsend and my only worry now is that I'll get so involved that I won't be able to run my business or row.

Sounds as if you are still involved in real things that matter. I'd love to spend some time with you and get caught up. Interesting story about your father.

Warm regards,
Jim

Jim, I meant to ask you before when you said you were "appalled" when you went back to Guatemala: what did you mean, specifically? A.

We were only there for ten days - me and my 14 year-old, 6'4" tall grand nephew from Iowa. And we were sort of held hostage by a group of nice Canadians who were afraid to eat village food and seemed to want me to do dishes all the time.

But..There were hardly any young men in the villages. They are driven into the jungle or to Mexico or, as Isao says, Sacramento, by either having to serve in the murderous army or get gunned down by the murderous army. 600 Guatemalan villages were either relocated or obliterated with many of the young men shot in the last few years.

Less importantly but more visibly dramatic, the beautiful pristine countryside is littered with trash. There are no dumps - no infrastructure - and the plastic packaging, so prolific since I was there 40 years ago, lasts and lasts and lasts. The place looks like a landfill and the crystal clean water of Lake Atitlan I drank and swam in in 1961 is polluted.

Jim

Good idea, Isao. I can post these 40 year synopses, plus a few pictures, on a website so we don't have to mail around so much email and then do it again when we find Grace and Susie.

News Flash: My daughter, Charlene, and her two kids, Dan and Rene, are moving from Sarasota to Port Townsend. It's been a long arduous trip and Charlene has had it and is fearful of snow in the mountains. So, tomorrow, I'm flying to Phoenix, Charlene is flying to Port Townsend to sit by the fire with Bonnie and the kitties and I will be driving this 25 foot moving van with attached car, as I envision it, with Rene as hood ornament and Dan skateboarding behind. I plan to take my time driving through California and Oregon stopping at brick yards and boat yards.

Nancy? Can we meet for supper tomorrow in Phoenix? Isao? We should be blasting trough Davis about Sunday or Monday. Will you be there? Joe? I still don't know where you live.

Jim