User:CaptSolo
Background
Third generation American citizen born February 1, 1946 in a small town in North Dakota. Father's parents were German speaking citizens of Russia. Their ancestors immigrated to the region around the Black Sea during the reign of Czarina Katherine the Great. Time and circumstance played a part in my paternal grandparents to immigrate to America. They arrived 1913 aboard the Rotterdam III at Quebec, Canada and made their way thence to North Dakota via the Canadian Pacific Railway. I knew these people very well and often pestered my grandfather with questions about his youth and experiences. He lived to the ripe old age of 93 and his mind was sharp till the day he died. I know less of my Mother's parents. Her mother died when she was just six years of age. She was of Polish heritage and grandfather was German. This makes me a European transplant to America as are all Caucasian people who live in the USA, some of whom still know their heritage and honor it.
Growing Up
My parents were farmers and from the age of eight me and my brother worked beside them. It was hard work but a good life on the whole. North Dakota in summer is very hot and the constant work in the sun and wind turned our skin brown. But it all seems so long ago now as I grew and received education and aspirations took me away from home. In my younger days I would still return there from time to time. There is nobody there now; just a few run down old buildings leaning and falling down, battered by storms and the ravages of time. My parents are gone too but as long as I live they continue in my memories.
Work
I trained and worked in the health care industry as a respiratory therapist. After graduation, I worked for awhile near San Bernardino, California. Then one morning I awoke from a dream in which I heard the wind rustling through prairie grasses and smelled the fragrant smells of grass and wild flowers. This experience is probably akin to an old sailor who misses the salty air of the sea. So I returned to my origins and have remained here to this day.
Computers & Elite
One day in the mid 1980's, while working in the Pulmonary Function Lab, our department head brought into the lab an Apple II computer. That was the beginning of my adventure with computers. In the lab it was supposed to be all business - a device to record patient test results. But I found myself staying long past clinic hours just to tinker with it. It had a primitive DOS via BASIC commands. I was hooked and began shopping around for my own personal computer and found it: The Commodore 64. This machine was more advanced at the time than the Apple II. In short order I taught myself BASIC and even dabbled in Assembly. I subscribed to a couple magazines geared to the C=64. Those were good times indeed, especially when I joined a local C= users group and exchanged ideas with its members. It was about this time I discovered a game called "Elite".
