About Me ...

I was born in Philadelphia, PA, home of the cheesesteak, soft pretzels, Italian water ice, the Phillies, and the Eagles. My Mom, Dad, and older sister were all born there too.  Lived there until I was 4, and then we moved to Riverdale NY. At the age of 5 my parents loaded up the 1955 Oldsmobile convertible and we hit the road. 3 weeks later we arrived in California.

We settled in Woodland Hills, a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. At that time the entire population of LA County was about 2.5 million people. It is now closing in on 10 million. My parents bought a 4 bedroom 2 bath house on a corner lot with a swimming pool for about $11,000. They sold it decades ago. Yes, it has been upgraded and remodeled quite a few times over the years, and in 2022 it sold for $1.2 million!

My sister and I went to the same elementary school, but would up going to different junior and senior highs. She was a few years ahead of me and new schools were built and opened by the time I was ready for junior and senior highs.

Mom had a few different office jobs in various industries, and Dad worked in a few different industries too, but mainly in the TV industry writing, creating, and producing. One show he produced was a soap opera called Never Too Young. It starred Tommy Rettig, who played Jeff Miller in the first 3 seasons of Lassie from 1954-1957. Some of Dad's highlights were writing and creating stunts for the Beat the Clock Show, working for Chuck Barris creating the Dating Game and the Newlywed Game, writing episodes of Petticoat Junction, the Dick VanDyke Show, and some made for TV Movies. He also spent time working for Kirk Douglas Productions, and when my Mom used to take his paychecks to the bank signed by Kirk, the tellers all swooned. Dad also wrote a syndicated newspaper column called Miller Light combined his wit, knowledge, and humor about life.

To be continued ...