Date a soulmate from El Cerrito, United States. My Mom & Dad were from central Maine & Boston, beginning their marriage & family in the teeth of the great depression, so my 3 sisters & I were instilled with a stern moral grounding & the old New England addage "Use it up, wear it out, make do, do without." Onerous as it seemed at times, it gave us a really strong foundation.
Fortunately, fun was not ruled out & we were truly "free range kids" prowling barefoot through the neighborhood from right after breakfast until the fireflies came out. Roller skates came next, increasing our range by a few blocks and when we moved up to bicycles we ranged from one end to the other of our small Ohio town & a bit into the countryside. This boyhood experience left me with an outgoing & pragmatic nature.
A move to the big-time city of Philadelphia coincided with High School and brought about an outward layer of toughness & sophistication. Don't know quite how, but we survived puberty: teen angst, fitting in or even being popular, passion & pimples--whew!
Along came college & my sisters thrived, while I did the Black Sheep thing, never finishing. I fumbled through my twenties, gravitating to the automotive industry with a brief stint at an oil company, two different auto dealerships & then, beginning in 1976, my own auto parts store. We went through early gowing pains but came on strong, adding a machine shop & earning a decent living. In 1997 my primary supplier made me a buyout offer I couldn't refuse & I became a Realtor, joining my wife's existing business.
Ah yes, my wife, Lela. On a Friday night in May of 1968 at a singles bar just outside of Princeton, N.J. there was one empty seat at the bar & it was next to me & she sat down. Thus the fire was lit & she kept the pot boiling as we dated through that summer, toting our toothbrushes back & forth from her place in Griggstown to mine in Skillman. On October 14th we got practical and merged operations into the Skillman venue, mainly because it was up on a hill with a nice view. She was recently divorced at the time & convinced that marriage was a terrible idea to be avoided at all costs. So we didn't get hitched until Jan 25, 1969. She felt an even worse idea would be for her to have a second child (I had become an instant father), so our son didn't arrive for a couple more years.
Although that fire still burned & the pot was still boiling, sometimes it would simply simmer, while at others it would flare up & boil over. We decided a change of scenery & a little adventure sounded good, so in 1970 we quit our jobs & headed for California, settling in the East Bay. As many couples do, we worked through many practical issues, including division of labor & now I am competent & reliable domestically, shouldering all of the budren in shopping, laundry, banking & bill pay, recycling & waste management, & major portions of cooking & cleaning. But alas, my beloved passed away suddenly & unexpectedly in August 2010, leaving a gaping hole in my heart. Of course it staggered me, but the worst of it is in the rearview & I am ready to start anew. Sorry for babbling on, but I figured you deserve to know who I am & how I got where I am today.
For the last two years I've been working towards installing solar panels & finally got it done in November. Then on the very last day of 2010 I took delivery of a brand new Chevy Volt (plug-in hybrid). Sorry, but I'm feeling a little smug as I tool around town gasoline free, powered by the sun. Zzzzaaaappp!
Now I need someone to entertain, comfort, console, amuse, inform, adore & hug while she does much the same for me.
Meet someone special from El Cerrito, United States. well i would have to have some one who also like's the same thing i do. a person who has an open mind. and enjoy's the simple things in life.i also love to travel when i can. the past couple of yrs i went to NY. i had a wonderful time there i went with my grandaughter. we did all the site's there time square central park etc, etc. oh of course we went to three yankee games.