My Life, 5 Year Snapshots (1975 thru 1979)
1975 began with little fanfare and gave no hint about what a momentous year it would turn out to be. As with every January, five days in, I celebrated (or didn’t) another birthday. That year, I turned 16 years old, which for most, is one of those milepost birthdays because you are now old enough to obtain a driver’s license. Living in small town Iowa, that added opportunity for increased mobility was huge! Sometime in January 1975, I began the final semester of my sophomore year in high school. Little did I know that it would be my final semester in the Madrid, Iowa school system. I was playing on the JV basketball team and looking forward to the high school baseball season coming up that summer. I was a pitcher and a shortstop, and I wasn’t half bad. Baseball was always my favorite sport, and I was confident that I could significantly contribute to the 1975 version of the Madrid Tiger varsity baseball team. But then it happened. The series of events that pushed me over the edge and pu...