I was born in Manhattan in April of 1963 to Marvin and Bebe. Marvin grew up in Brooklyn and Bebe grew up in Coleport, PA. Both of my parents left their respective homes at a fairly young age; my dad to join the Navy, and my mom to start working in Washington, DC. My memories of Manhattan are sporadic and vague, but there are little snippets that remain vivid even now.

I remember walking with my parents through the city, eating at Greek, Italian and Chinese restaurants, going to pre-school in Central Park, watching my older brother, Philip, go off to school, falling into a lake at the age of two, admiring my brother's eye-patch when he was suffering from myopia, visiting grandparents in Coleport and Willingboro, going with my father to his work at NBC and seeing the machines that processed the 16mm film they used.

When I was almost 5, my dad got a job at Litton Industries in California, and we moved to Santa Monica. It was as different as night and day. I remember telling my mother, on a walk one day, not to talk to strangers when she said hello to a neighbor. Life in Manhattan had carved grooves into my consciousness that remain even today: Circle 7-6445, 305 W 52^nd St. I have no recollection of the address or phone number of our apartment in Santa Monica.

 We moved into an apartment directly across the street from the elementary school both my brother and I attended. There I began my first tentative explorations into playing musical instruments, I learned Morse code and got my FCC Novice Class Radio License (in the 3^rd grade), and developed my passion for reading. One day, a woman came to our school and interviewed all of the 1^st and 5^th graders. She selected a handful of each to appear on the Art Linkletter show. Ironically, she picked both my brother and I which, according to my mom, ruffled the feathers of some of the other parents. In this shot I'm supposed to be a safe cracker. Thus began my life of crime.

We attended a local conservative Jewish temple in Venice, and I enjoyed it very much. My teacher was the first female Cantor in the country and, I'm sure, helped me to develop my voice. My father, after finishing his Master's degree in Systems Engineering, got a job at the Harbor Boat Building Company in Long Beach. He headed up the conversion of the Queen Mary from a cruise ship of legend into a tourist attraction. I remember, during the summer, going with him and wandering the dark, labyrinthine, torn up walkways and really falling in love with the ship. When the City director of the Queen Mary project passed away, my father was appointed assistant director, and we moved to Long Beach.