Where I Came From

I took the long way home.

It starts on the Berry family farm in Missouri, homesteaded in 1872 by my great-great-grandfather William Berry, freed by the Union Army, and his wife Caroline Boone. The farm cemetery is on the National Historic Register; the itch to see everything else is apparently hereditary.

1. MissouriThe family farm, est. 1872
2. MarylandSt. John’s College, Annapolis: three years of great books, and a college job driving a horse-drawn carriage
3. New MexicoSt. John’s College, Santa Fe, where I graduated
4. AntarcticaA year of carpentry at McMurdo Station: “It’s a harsh continent”
5. MississippiTeaching high-school biology and chemistry
6. CaliforniaFilm production, Los Angeles
7. AlabamaA nursing degree, then federal service near SeaTac
8. Vashon IslandHome. Prison nurse to tech worker to MBA to bakery owner to everything above.