I was born nine months and two weeks after my parents were married. At that time my Mother had just graduated as a registered nurse (don't know the UK equivalent) and my father had just been drafted and chose the Marine Corps. My Mom moved in with my Dad's parents on the farm they had. Moving from a large city to a small town was a considerable culture shock her. Sometime late in my Mother's pregnancy my Dad was to come home on leave. Mom rushed to her mother-in-law and told her how wonderful it would be if the baby was born while he was home. My Grandmother had to inform her that this would likely lead people to talk. My Mom was brilliant but quite naive all here life. I just lost her last December.
On the farm I had no other children as friends except my two younger brothers. All my associations were with adults in the family and the farm hands. School was quite a shock to me. No social skills, no athletic skills, no fighting skills and no friends. I am a of a minority faith and was frequently beat up on the bus as a result. The next door neighbor girl, who was a senior at the time, had me sit with her on the bus. My first crush and I was only in first grade.
My family moved out of my grandparents house into a house on another farm they owned about two miles away when I was in third grade. This required changing schools. When I left the first school we had just started the multiplication tables. When I arrived at the new school they had already finished. This future mathematician got some poor grades at first. The new house had the advantage of having a boy my age living close by. We are friends to this day.
The principal in the new school was aggressively anti my faith. When I would miss school because of a religious holiday he would always give me grief before he would sign my readmission slip. On one occasion when two close holidays both fell on school days he gave me the normal dose of grief on the first. On the second, a little over a week later, he began yelling at me in front of everyone about how he didn't believe me because he knew of no such closely spaced holidays. I stood there cowed and he eventually signed my readmission slip.
I was very interested in science and math and would read the issues of Scientific American during study hall. The monthly column on mathematics was my favorite. There were no copy machines in those days so I would hand copy the articles I liked. I learned that the process of passing concepts through my brain and out my hand was wonderful way to learn.
I developed severely ingrown toenails and had constant infections. They treated me the first time by removing the toenail. The problem returned and I was scheduled for surgery to remove the toenail root so that it would not grow back. Then came the snow storm. I was in considerable pain and did not like the idea of permanently removing the root. So I performed some surgery on myself. I cut away the proudflesh, dug out the embedded shards of the ingrown nail, disinfected the area and packed it to help it heal. The toe healed nicely. I never had the problem again as I would preemptively cut out the shards before infections got out of control.
My Mother hated it on the farm. I was not too thrilled with farm life either. I was never as strong, never ate as much, was never as thin and was never as bored at anything in my entire live. My Dad did not like working for his Dad. My Granddad was old school and made all the farming decisions even though my Dad had attended agricultural school on the GI bill. My Dad eventually took a job with Greyhound in the city 50 miles away. This did not satisfy my Mom so we moved to the city in the middle of my junior hear (11 out of 12). When my Mom was house shopping she thought she recognized the name of the owner of the house they bought. It turned out to be the doctor who had removed my toenail and was going to remove the root. It's a small world.
I still had few social skills and did not attend any school social activities. I was embarrassed when I had to turn down offers of a date from a couple of girls because I did not know how to dance. My aunt suspected my sexuality. More on this in the future. I joined the math club. Go figure.
My family could not easily pay for college so I applied to the technical school near where I lived, Case Institute of Technology. It was a big rival of MIT. I was accepted for early admission, and registered by draining my savings account. My Dad had just lost his job, so no financial help came from them other than letting me live at home.
