Let's make this perfectly clear

This is not a tricky Dick speech...

by Alex Hutchins

I have had an exceptionally wonder life that very few will ever experience.  So, if my writing seems to be creating a different impression, I apolgize, and it must be due to my sarcasm.  Elementary School was nothing much to speak about, except for Vic and I meeting on the playground one day because someone was beating the crap out of him, so I beat the crap out of the person who was beating the crap out of him.  We became best of friends and routinely got together to play chess on the weekends.

During those years, I studied the piano and percussion and before high school was told by my instructor that I was good enough to become a professional.  During the summers, my family took us all over the United States and I believe that we visited every single State, except for Alaska and Hawaii (which I later visited twice).  I was a member of the DeMolay, the Boy Scouts (receiving my God and Country, Order of the Arrow, and Eagle Scout awards).  I played football in high school at Groveton and on the freshman team was responsible for winning our first game - a touchback, I believe.  I played defensive linebacker.

After football season, my family moved to Cairo, Egypt where I attended high school for the next few years, graduating in 1966.  I was voted by my class as the graduate most likely not to succeed because I liked to party.  Since we could work in Egypt, we had not choice but to travel through Europe during our summers off.  I studied art at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC for a while and attended college in NC and after 3 years of having an absolutely wonder time, left college and joined the Navy where I stayed for a little less than 2 years.  There is a post coming about my days in the military and I assure you that those photographs are real.

I received an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree and have had a charmed life with the positions that I have accepted.  I have acquired 18 years of upper management experience and 18 years of middle management experience during a 42 year career which btw, includes the military.  I have been introduced to Mr. Security 3 times and escorted to my car all 3 times - security people are not as mean as one would think.  There was a 10 year period of time where I was unemployed more than I was employed but that experience taught me a valuable lesson in humility.  I absolutely love controversy and arguing just to see if someone is strong enough in their beliefs to change my mind.

Cancer and a heart condition have slowed me down physically but I still don't mind stirring the pot.  I don't kiss anyone's rearend and I don't mind asking for help if I am in the car.  I write poetry and the first thing that I will do in a fight is slap you in the face (so your eyes water) then kick you in the balls.  I can hold my own when it comes to drinking but it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night.  There are many women that I would kick out of bed because there is more room on the floor and one summer while working road construction while in college, I woke up with someone who had put their teeth in a class of water - I knew it was time for me to return to school.

Vic and I have been friends since the 3rd grade and my parents treated him like their son and I named my daughter after his sister.  I have had a charmed and blessed life...  I used to tell people who wanted sympathy to go look it up in the dictionary; it is somewhere between sh_t and suicide.

As I get older, I find myself getting a tab bit more conservative in my thinking and realize how important family is, and need to give back my experiences in the classroom.  Vic, please feel free to add to this if you would like...