Eons: JohnnyB56's profile

JohnnyB56

Eons member since

Sep 23, 2007

Age, Gender

52, Male

Location

Modesto, CA

Relationship

Single. Interested in meeting women for dating and meeting women for a serious relationship and meeting people for friendship and meeting people for networking

Hometown

Columbia, SC

Places I've been

Cape Fear, NC; Washington, DC; and all over Central California. Moved to Stockton, CA in 1965.

Education

CSU, Stanislaus, English - 1992 to 1995
Lincoln High School - 1970 to 1974

Military

USAF - 1976 to 1980
Division: 701 Radar Sq. Security Police, 20th Air Division,
Rank: Sgt. (E-4)

More about me

A not-that-fascinating saga of modern living

I was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in midsummer of 1956, the second of four sons of poor working people. My childhood was filled with the bliss of ignorance before I ever knew we were poor. The days were long and fascinating, the nights were cozy and mysterious, and my family was close. I was always loved and never abused; my parents are still married. I am one of the last of the people in this country to have enjoyed that paradigm of living before the age of divorce and instant gratification changed forever the fabric of American life.

I learned to read on my mother’s lap before I was five and nothing else in my life has ever been as wonderfully fulfilling as the things I’ve gained from books. When my turn came I read the poofy stories about Sally, Dick and Jane upside down from the books of the bewildered and struggling child readers on the other side of the circle from me while I daydreamed about outer space, and scuba diving and Zorro.

Many years have come and gone while I wasn’t counting, and now I’m on the down side of my big journey. My grandparents are all long gone now, my brothers have drifted away into separate lives in other places, and my aunts and uncles are getting close to their own ends. Soon enough and too soon altogether, I’ll be one of the old generation in my family-- some of my cousins are already declining. But there’s some part of everyone that never changes, never grows any older, never tires of the new and amazing, and that something in me is still living and reading as fast as I can go.

I’ve spent many years struggling through whatever jobs I could get to make a living and to live a life that always seemed to be a little out of my reach, as if being poor were a congenital defect rather than an unfortunate social circumstance. I’ve been a farm worker, a chicken-fryer, a paper deliverer, a short-order cook, a military policeman, an auto mechanic, a high school teacher, an industrial troubleshooter and a municipal water system mechanic. But none of these things ever defined who I am, and I’ve never been what people call successful, or more than a few weeks ahead of some looming disaster.

I was married once, and have raised a son. I have been truly in love too, but not when I was married. At this age I spend my time working and taking care of my home; going places and seeing things whenever I can; and I’m sincerely glad just to have survived this long. I hope that it will all last a while longer.

I’m an introverted but not anti-social man who tends to make a few close friends rather than a lot of casual ones. More than anything else, I’d like to be in love again.

That’s me.

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