The irony is that much of time cleaning up those old logging operations, I picked up and stacked rounds others had cut.” Somehow, instead of firing me they said they needed someone like me on a crew. “When I first started, I made it clear I wouldn’t cut a tree down unless I was on a fire. “When we were not on a fire, we cleaned up old logging operations that left a lot of fuel on the forest floor,” recalled Schwartz. His curiosity about this configuration led to his first book, "The Circle of Stones," a nonfiction archeological mystery. It was during this time that he came across an ancient 65-foot stone circle. Forest Service to fight fires in the Sierra. He also played in a Berkeley Latin jazz sextet and taught drums in an after-school program. He moved to Berkeley, California, in 1973 and formed the New World Trio, an acoustical jazz trio with Eric Vaughan (Godson of Sarah Vaughan) on piano, Samahdi Aheshma (played with Miles Davis at 16 years old) on bass, and himself on drums. I became good friends with the kid up the block after we brawled one too many times.”įor two years while at Temple, Schwartz worked on a Pennsylvania Dutch farm 11 hours a day, three days a week. Sometimes the kids who went to public schools and the kids who went to Catholic schools would brawl. And then there were snowball fights and snow forts in the winter. I was thinking the other day after speaking with a 12-year-old friend how I also lived on Mad Magazine and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and couldn’t wait until the next edition came out. “I mowed lawns for $2 each and used the money to buy plastic model ships and planes and comic books at the pharmacy. Played stickball and half-ball at McCloskey School and rode my bike, putting baseball cards fastened with one of my mom’s wooden clothespins so the cards would make a buzzing noise as I rode. I raised guinea pigs and hamsters and tropical fish, though now I think back and would not keep an animal in a cage or tank. He was the only dog allowed in the pharmacy and library. Airy,” he told us last week, “my dog Chico and I went everywhere together. But alas, I only have this newspaper article, so I will have to summarize it.
Schwartz graduated from Temple University in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in English literature and proceeded to live such a storied life that it would take a lengthy biography to encompass it all. In 1968 at Central High School he won the varsity football's "Team Award" and was the undefeated Pennsylvania State Fencing Champion in the weapon epee in the 1969 competition. Airy native Richard Schwartz has been a firefighter, farm worker, general contractor, drummer for a popular West Coast band and the author of several very well-reviewed books.
0 kommentar(er)
