Since you found the hidden link, I will tell you even more. Probably
more than you really wanted to know.
Here are some interesting things about me that most people don't know
(until now, that is).
My Family Background
My father was raised on a farm in Ohio. My mother is South African.
This unlikely pair met at the United Nations and got married. From my
father's side, I am an energetic, cynical, iconoclastic troublemaker. From
my mother's side, I am stubborn, fiercly independent, and singleminded to
an extent that most people cannot begin to understand. This combination of
often conflicting character traits is sometimes fascinating to other
people and sometimes aggravating. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other
way.
My Father's Family
- Around 1780, Israel Artz was married in Shenendoah Country Virgina.
His son was named John. That was John Artz the first. I am John Artz the
ninth.
- John married a girl from neighboring Rockingham Country named Sarah
Hanks they had two sons Jacob Artz and John Artz. Sarah had a sister named
Nancy who married Thomas Lincoln. They had a son named Abraham. That's
right. Abraham Lincoln. The one and only. Nancy's side of the family did a
little better in that generation than Sarah's.
- I have a son named Jacob. When I named him, I knew nothing about John
and Sarah's son Jacob. My son Jacob also has a brother named
John. He also has exactly the same birthday as the Jacob Artz from almost
two hundred years ago. Makes you think .....
- My great grandfather had four wives (not at the same time). Three
of them were sisters. Talk about brand loyalty !
- My father ran away from home when he was nineteen. He was a 'problem
child'. He went from Ohio to California where he joined the Navy. He
shipped out on the U.S.S. Pope which was subsequently sunk by a Japanese
destroyer. He spent a few days floating in the water before being picked
up by the Japanese and taken to a P.O.W. camp in the Phillipines. He spent
the next three years as a P.O.W. He never talked about it. The only thing
that I knew as a kid was that he would never take us swimming.
- He had a difficult life. He drank too much, and misbehaved a lot, but
that was just a cover for the things we didn't know about.
- He died in 1969 and was buried in Arlington Cemetary. It took me
twenty years before I could visit his grave. Now, I try to get over there
from time to time to pay my respects.
My Mother's Family
- Half a millenia ago, my mother's family left the Alsace-Lorraine
region of France/Germany and went to Holland for religious freedom. At
some point (my guess is the middle 1600's) they left Holland and settled
in South Africa. They were the Boers, the Afrikaaners.
- My grandfather (oupa in Afrikaans) grew up speaking Old Hi Dutch as
his first language. Afrikaans was second. And English was third.
He was a journalist by profession and worked for the Ambassador from
South Afica, which is how my mother landed up at the United Nations.
- My grandfather was also a personal friend of Noel Coward the
playwrite. Oupa was a dignified gentleman, and I admired him
greatly.
- During the Boer War, many of the Dutch families were rounded up and
placed in concentration camps. Measle epidemics wiped out many of my
relatives from that time. Later they began sympathizing with the British
which put them in Dutch (sorry) with the Afrikaaners. I do not agree with
the Afrikaaner's worldview, at all, but you can certainly see where I get
my stubborness from.
- There is a family story that one of my forefathers was sitting on the
porch of his farm house in the Transvaal. He saw smoke on the horizon from
another farm house, decided that it was getting too crowded, and moved
further into the wilderness. Independent and antisocial. I have overcome
my antisocialness, but it is hard not to be independent.
Things About Me
My Background
- I was born in Glen Ridge New Jersey on December 12, 1950. When I was
five years old, my father was stationed in Japan. I lived there for two
and a half years. Once I got lost in Kamakura. I spoke a bit of Japanese,
but not enough. It was frightening to be five years old and lost in a
place where nobody spoke English.
- I do have some good memories of Japan - fried frog legs, slap cards,
and watching Heckle and Jeckle in Japanese before school in the
morning.
- Fourth grade was a tough year for me. I had an overactive imagination.
I used to watch Science Fiction Theatre and then lay awake at night
worrying about being captured by aliens or being eaten alive by man eating
termites. These things weigh heavy on the mind of a fourth grader.
- In Seventh or Eighth grade I read one of those Stranger than Science
books about people being buried alive. That was all I needed to keep me
awake for another year. I was afraid to fall asleep because I thought
somebody might mistake me for being dead and bury me alive. Now, it is
great to have a very active imagination. Back then it was dredful.
- By my senior year of high school, I had almost completely lost
interest in school. Since I am only good at things that interest me, I
barely passed my senior year.
- Right after high school, I worked for the CIA. I was a courier for
the Office of Security. I died my hair bright green for St. Patrick's Day
one year. It made me realize that I really didn't fit there.
- When I got my first paycheck from the CIA, I celebrated a little to
much. I ran my
volkwagen into a telephone pole. It totaled the vw and knocked over the
pole. (It cost me $500 to replace it). I went through the windshield and
cut my neck badly on the broken glass. Some stranger came by and tied a
handkerchief around my neck to keep me from loosing too much blood until
the ambulance came. I still don't know who did that, must have been my
guardian angel.
- After two years as a courier for the CIA, I went back to school. I
managed to turn things around. I was the president of my dormitory council
in my junior year and a resident advisor in my senior year.
I was well on my way from underachiever to overachiever.
I graduated magna cum laude, and was
awarded outstanding senior in mathematics.
- I was pretty proud of myself to achieve magna cum laude with honors.
But it didn't occur to me to look for a job. So I went home, mowed lawns
and applied to graduate school instead.
Some Quick Facts
- I would like to be a writer someday
- I have a patent (#5,025,382)
- I used to run 15 to 20 miles per week
- I am a big fan of the Andrew Sisters
- My picture is on an Ocean City postcard
- I am abysmally bad at learning languages
- I studied mysticism with the Rosicrusions
- I don't believe in reincarnation, but in a previous life, I did
- I was once the vice president of a fraternity
- I worked for a year as a volunteer at a house for runaways
- I helped pour the concrete for the CIA's parking garage