Chapter 5

The 70’s brought a lot of changes in my life. This timeframe spanned from 5th grade at Vinland elementary to my first year in college at Fresno State University. It was also a time right before I started my first footwear job. The first decade of my life was a lot of ideals that molded me, the second decade was adaptability and how you handle change. It was also a time in the country dealing with the same type of issues. A President resigning and the end of a decades long war. Roe vs Wade legalized abortion and was the law of the land up until recently.

I graduated high school and started college which was a huge adjustment. And finally, an event that would change my life forever but you will have to read on to see what that was.

Key Moments in Time – 70’s
1972: Watergate scandal begins
1973: Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizes abortion
1973: U.S. involvement in Vietnam War ends
1974: President Richard Nixon resigns
1977: Launch of the first successful home video game system (Atari 2600)
1978: I graduated High School

Growing Up in the 70s

Growing up in the 70s saw a lot of change in my education and myself. 1970 started off with 5th grade, Mrs. Maddux, My first crush was over Mary Hunt (I was very awkward back then) she had the cutest smile. I met two friends I’d eventually be roommates with later in life Harold Kroger and Bryon Moore.

Finally went to 6th grade with Mr. Terrell as my main teacher. It was a format much like how Jr high was structured. Having a home room teacher and other teachers for a few classes. It was a prep for Jr. High. My friend Byron and I bonded here and often got in trouble with Mr. Terrell having to pick up pieces of paper after class or write with a “stubby” for tapping our pencils. Mr. Terrell was a good man I just wish I appreciated him more, back in those days.

Finally moving to Jr High (Sierra Jr High) in which I had to take a school bus every day. My second crush happened here with Erin Donahue. Neither crush materialized for me, but I sure thought they were cute lol. I was a good A-B student here and one semester almost got all A’s. I grew to love filmmaking here. It was a neat class, and I learned a lot about early films. We practiced editing with super 8 format.

I was friends with one of the biggest guys in the neighborhood, Rick Larson. When I went to Jr High the 7th graders would get “trash canned”. They would pick you up and stick your butt in the can, so it was hard to get out. My friend Rick came up to me the first day and said” I’m going to “Trash Can” you for your initiation and from here on out no one else will touch you, and he kept his word. He was fun to hang out with, always had a good sense of humor. His sister was fun to hang out with too, we were close to the same age. We’d listen to Carpenter albums pretty much daily, along with other groups that were popular back then. Her brother Tim was younger, and he was friends with my younger brothers.

Got Teased a lot

I was teased a lot for being so skinny. “Legs”, “Bones”, “Herman Munster”, you name it. It was bullying at it’s finest. I remember this guy named Richard Sischo, good looking guy, muscular. He came up to me one day in May when it was hot out and remarked “How can you even go outside in that tank top?” It was so mean; I only hope he is a better person now than he was back then. Ok I hope he’s fat and bald to be honest. All an all though I was always a good athlete and held my own in sports. I fell in love with filmmaking around this time. I loved the romance of it all, making films to make people feel a certain way. If I have any regrets, it would be I didn’t pursue this passion. I did take several classes and even won a “Best Director” award in one of them.

I went to two High Schools, because we moved and it put me in different districts. McLane In 10th Grade and Hoover in 11th & 12th grade. My favorite teacher of all time was my Spanish teacher Mrs. Dunbar. I just felt a strong connection with her and wished she did other classes, as Spanish wasn’t my strength. Throughout Elementary school to High School, I was a good student high B’s and A’s.
I fell in love with Tennis while I was in Jr high school. It was great playing with my dad and others. I won a few tournaments, but I never went out for the school team. 2nd regret. Finally in 12th grade I tried out, but we had moved to Hoover at the time and they were a top tennis school. Since I was a senior, I had to make the varsity team. I was the last one cut. Still played outside of school though. I had a powerful mean serve but it was the mechanics I lacked. I should have taken lessons but wasn’t in the cards for me. I had fun regardless.

Diversity growing up

Growing up in Fresno there wasn’t a lot of diversity, at least in the areas that I grew up in. In elementary school there was one black girl in our school. Jean Agnew. She was super nice and always was in good spirits. At Sierra Jr High It was a little more diverse due to bussing but still predominately white. I remember in both high schools I attended the black kids would sit in one area and the white kids in another area at lunchtime. It wasn’t forced just the way it rolled, I guess. One day at Hoover High, I went to the “black tables” to sit and have lunch with one of my lab partners. He looked at me like I was crazy. As a 12 grader I started to appreciate different cultures, races etc. but didn’t fully appreciate it until I traveled later in life.

Never really had a girlfriend throughout high School, although I did go to a lot of church dances with my friend Ted Ashcroft when I was at Hoover High, and we danced with a lot of different girls. Even went on a few double dates but again nothing really turned into anything serious. Ted was a good friend to have, we played basketball and tennis every single day. Only day we didn’t do much was on Sunday, His family were devout Mormons, and they practiced the day as a day of rest. We were inseparable. Sadly, Teds family moved to Texas after high school was done.

I had a few other good friends as well, Ed Winebrenner and Craig Thomas. We ‘d play sports together too and go to movies or go shop for albums at Tower Records. We went to the Rocky Horror Picture show on several occasions and snuck beers in our socks. I also hung out with Steve Perdue, we listened to ELO a lot and had fun making short films together.

On the weekends we would go to the country and race our cars, Ed had a GTO, Craig had a Camaro, and I had a Capri with a V6 stick shift which was super-fast. Later I got my 73 Grand Torino like Starsky & Hutches car, except mine was yellow. We would drink and race, probably not a good combo but no one ever got hurt. One time going home a car flashed his lights at me and my friends, so I got in his lane and played chicken. Not my smartest move especially since it was a cop! He pulled us over and could tell we had been drinking. “You boys having some fun today” No sir. “Lucky for you I have another call, do yourself and me a favor and go straight home” Yes sir. Never did that again lol.

We all graduated in 1978, All I remember is my grandma Si with her video camera filming me and my friend Bryon Moore jumping off the stage after he got his diploma. He had a self-made character he like to draw called “The Fly”, guess he was in “Fly Mode lol.

Family Life in the 70’s

I feel fortunate I had an amazing childhood. We continued all the traditions as I spoke of in the 60’s but came to appreciate them more as I grew older. The big change in the 70’s was going to my aunt and uncles house for the holidays.

Aunt Linda

My aunt Linda was born May 7, 1942. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1960. She married my Uncle Joe Garvin September 21, 1962. She was an elementary teacher at John Wash. She taught mostly 2nd grade but also 5th grade there and 4th grade at a different school called Wilson. Both schools were in the Sanger Unified district.

She carries on the tradition of making amazing Armenian dishes she learned from my grandmother such as Pilaf and “Yalanchi Sarma” which is grape leaves stuffed with rice and assorted herbs which is served cold. She also does a great job with the hot version that has lamb and rice stuffed in the grape leaves. I loved to see them during the holidays working together to make amazing Armenian Dishes while the trio of my dad, grandpa and uncle Joe worked the grill. Later in Life they would travel all over the United States in their Motor Home. I think they just missed a few states. Even took it to Alaska.

My Aunt Linda is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is so kindhearted and still is today. Every conversation with her is thoughtful. She would always remember me as I grew into an adult with a note or small gift which I appreciated. When she smiled it lit up the room. Just an amazing person to be around. She definitely took on my grandmother’s personality in this regard.

Uncle Joe

My Uncle Joe was born May 2, 1940. He graduated from Sierra High School in 1958.Like I mentioned earlier he married Linda Normart Sept. 21, 1962, and they honeymooned at Huntington Lake which is where they met. He worked for PG&E from 1962 – 1995. A few years later he went to work for the Canus Corp. in Clovis and he oversaw the PG&E account. He did this for 7 more years and finally retired.

My uncle was a big man, not heavy just solid. He liked to sport a handlebar mustache and was a man’s man. Always had the biggest truck you could imagine. Loved to hunt and fish and have a good time. Plus, he had a great sense of humor.
He always had the best equipment too whatever it was. I remember seeing a very cool bass fishing boat that was fully equipped. Of course he towed it with an equally impressive truck. I want to say it was an internation truck. I just remember it being big and wasn’t a big rig but large none the less. He enjoyed Softball and played in the PG&E league which my aunt Linda also participated in.

Whenever he got into anything it was all in. I remember several of his adventures like beekeeping, reloading his own shotgun shells, building golf clubs and what everyone loved the most, his grilling skills. It was quite elaborate, but he made the best tri-tip, brisket, you name it. My pivotable moment with him was he kept tapping the meat as he cooked it. He had this contraption that looked like a curly pig’s tail. And that’s exactly what it was called. He taught me the fine art of basically the finger test where you tap the meat, and it would be like pressing on your palm. The more it goes down the rarer it is. It took practice but I got it down now and even have a pig’s tail to boot.

Funny story. My dad and him had the same taste for alcohol. They loved gin, vodka, beer and wine. So, I went over to his house one time when my dad was visiting from Idaho. Of course, this was when I was an adult and not the time frame, we are in now but it’s funny. I brought a nice bottle of wine, probably around $60. He looked at me and said, “There’s no way you can convince me that your wine is better than my two-buck chuck”. My dad piped in right away “Oh yes he can, try it”. My uncle took a sip, looked at me and said, “Yep this is pretty good Michael”.

My aunt and uncle lived outside of Fresno in Clovis and had a ranch style home in the countryside. It was always fun to hang out with my cousins Kathy and Joann. They had horses, cows, sheep, pigs and more. It was always more fun at my aunt & uncles house during Easter because there was more room to hide the eggs. The saddest part was when I got to the age that I didn’t participate. I guess we all grow up at some point. It was still fun to watch my brothers and cousin’s scurry about getting eggs for their baskets.

I did get to participate in the clay pigeons contest which was awesome. They had a large field so the clay pigeons would go high into the air, and we would shoot them with our shotguns. I just had a single shot, so I had to make the first shot count. I got pretty good at it. Afterwards we would ride horses, it was comical to see my mom on the horse because you could tell she wasn’t sure about the whole thing. She was a good sport though.

I felt some stress as being the older brother I had to set a good example for my two younger brothers. My middle brother was the mischievous one always getting into some trouble or mishap. Nothing serious but he kept my mom & dad busy.

On one occasion my brother was in the backyard throwing rocks over the house trying to hit us in the front yard. Meanwhile I was messing around with an old flyswatter. You know the type, plastic on one end and a wire handle on the other. I was swishing it around when suddenly the handle flew off and went right through the window. I stood there stunned. I certainly was going to get spanked for this. Not proud of my next move, but I went to the backyard where my brother was still throwing rocks and said, “Doug you aren’t going to believe what you just did”. We went to the front, and he saw the broken window. I informed him that a rock hit the tree and bounced into the window. “Oh no, are you going to tell dad”, “No I think you should tell him”, I said. I felt bad every spanking he got, but didn’t spill the beans until 1979. What a rotten brother I was in that moment. I always stuck up for him with neighborhood bullies though.

Our dog Muttley was such a good doggy, we got her from my aunt Linda and Uncle Joe. She was rescued by them when the previous owner threw her in a lake and left. We adopted her gladly. Her original name was “Queenie” but we wanted to name her after the cartoon dog “Muttley”, so we did. She was a lot of fun running around with the “Zooms” and then stopping with her butt in air and tail wagging. “Chase me”, so we did. One time she broke into our crayon box and ate our crayons, for the next week or so, I picked up rainbow colored dog poop. She loved eating carrots like a bone. Her favorite place was under our sofa as it had tall legs. Guess it made her feel safe. My mom took to her very affectionately and they were inseparable. She loved that dog…

As I started going to Jr High and High School the homework intensified so I wasn’t “playing” in the yard as much except for the weekends. I had a friend named Howard Biddlecombe I spent most of my time with him and every now and then I’d hang out with my friend Byron Moore. Howard and I played GI Joes when we were younger and as we grew older it turned into model making. He was an amazing painter for these models, looked professional. There were some other neighborhood kids we hung out with too. Sometimes we’d sneak out at night and “cause trouble” it wasn’t anything serious usually just throwing gourds on people’s roofs to scare them.
At this stage I was taller than my dad. I was 6’ 4” tall. My dad kept joking that if I got any taller, he was going to start hitting me on top of the head so I would stop growing. I remember standing up to him once as a teenager, taller than him at 5’10”. He didn’t say a word but punched me in the chest really hard. Once I got my wind back after it left my chest cavity, I turned around and went into my room and shut the door. That never ever happened again lol.

Huntington Lake

We made several trips up and down the mountain in this time frame and with every trip I became closer to my Grandma Si. She was just a wonderful human being. Between the amazing Armenian food, she’d make and our heartful conversations she became very special to me. I looked forward to seeing her up at Huntington Lake every summer and of course the holidays. I made it a point to take my bike and ride out to see her in Fresno too even though it was about an hour trip by bike.
On one trip in the mountains in 1978, my parents and brothers & I were fishing, we found this fallen tree on the beach and we carved our names on it. I told my dad to carve “Mom’s name” down and he wouldn’t do it, I knew something was up with them.

1979

The nightly fights were becoming more frequent. After I graduated from High School they got divorced. It was the toughest thing I ever experienced as a kid. From now on all the holidays would be split between not only my parents but grandparents too. Life had drastically changed in 1979. My parents had just bought a nice house in the Hoover High area, swimming pool and all. I remember the night my dad left; I told him I hated what he was doing but he’d always be my dad. We always had a close relationship from that day forward. They sold the house, and dad got an apartment in Clovis and Mom bought a new home in Clovis (further out. My brother Doug started getting into more serious trouble, so my Grandpa Bill Osterholtz took him to Texas for about 6 months. He made an agreement with the police, so my brother avoided a record that way.

I had a job at JC Penney’s during high school but got fired because I didn’t rat out some other employees that were stealing. I loved that job too, I was in the sheet department. I had a great manager named Don who also got fored because the big boss didn’t like him for some reason. I couldn’t for the life of me think who would not like him. He was great super friendly and ran a great department. I then got a job working at TGI Fridays as a dish washer then eventually a cook. I’d go in at 6 pm and get done around 3am. I also had a job at Der Wienerschnitzel and a job at a car wash. Three jobs at once, actually, 4 since I was also selling Rainbow vacuum cleaners on the side. Why so many jobs? I wanted to move in with my buddy Bryon Moore. Believe it or not I was still going to college too.

First Roommate

Homelife was unbearable as my mom was very bitter over the divorce, she couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t hate my dad for leaving us. My brother’s kind of went along with her on this front but they were 13 & 16 at the time. I was approaching 19. I decided to get a apartment with my friend Byron Moore. The three or four jobs gave me enough income to pay half the rent which was 170 a month and food and utilities.

I bought a 100-gallon aquarium and had exotic saltwater fish. It was beautiful. Something about it just calmed me. There were several other big aquariums I would have in my lifetime, but this one was the first and I went big. One family trait we all have is being obsessive about our hobbies. Byron’s dad made the stand for us. It was the highlight of the apartment. We had these black velvet sofas too. We liked to BBQ a lot and generally ate well. We enjoyed watching Johnny Carson Late Night together over a few beers. 

Even though I was able to pay rent, the multiple jobs and school It was tough to balance. Something had to give, it was getting too stressful. I left the fast-food place and decided selling door to door vacuums wasn’t for me. Rent was a little harder to get to now, so I asked my dad for some help. Can’t help you son, the divorce is tough for me to balance my funds too. I knew my mom couldn’t help so I went to her dad, an accomplished Veterinarian who would pay cash for new cars whenever ever he got tired of the old one. “Can’t help you, all my money is tied up in investments”. Last hope was Grandma Si. She gave me $500 dollars but said I had to pay her back which I made small payments every month. But I had to figure out something, she was nice enough to help me out of a jam but going forward it was going to be up to me to figure out. It taught me a valuable lesson I’ve carried all my life and that is “If it’s to be, It’s up to me”.

Maybe the 80’s would sort it all out for me.

Life Lessons and What We Learn

This is a condensed version of my second 10 years, what did I learn?

• Savor the moments: I didn’t realize that the wonderful life I lived so far could change so drastically, wish I knew then what I know now.
• If you want something it takes hard work: Later in life I’d realize to work smarter too, but having so many jobs at once and school was a valuable lesson for me.
• School is important: I wish I would have figured out a solution to my schooling, with so many jobs my grades dropped.
• Relationships take work too: MY parents stopped communicating with each other, they just fought all the time.
• People are people: I’m glad I realized this early, but didn’t understand the gravity of it all until I travelled to other cities and eventually countries and truly appreciated it. It was an evolution for me, wish more people would realize this.

This was a turning point in my life, most everything I knew and loved changed in 1979. I used my dad’s work ethic and worked hard to get ahead. I held this throughout my life. I learned early on that “If it was to be, it’s up to me”. From that point I kept my head down and focused on getting ahead in life.