And then, we switched gears and went over to a sort of Catholic school wearing uniforms. The three of us, my youngest sister Cathy and my younger brother Brian and I, all went to Catholic school. That had its own host of stories which have been done ad infinitum in books and movies about how twisted Catholics are in educating with the fear of God and then they stopped it. So, that was an interesting time.

Then when it came time to go to high school, of course there were two Catholic high schools in town, Bellarmine which was for the rich, snooty, upper class and then Mitty which was sort of newly formed and a little bit looser, and so I don’t know quite how I ended up at Mitty. I guess that’s just what my parents elected. I think I was much, much happier there, and that’s, of course, where I met you! (the interviewer)

I enjoyed it from the day I got there. Even though it was all boys I think it was about halfway through our tenure there that it became sort of co-ed with Mother Butler and St. Lawrence. But, I never felt awkward or out of place at Mitty. I guess everybody was different at Mitty. I mean, everybody had stories of how horrible their high school years were but I just didn’t really experience…

I really enjoyed in high school getting involved in drama, even though I look back on it now and I wince it was probably so painfully horrible (Laughter), the things we attempted to do.

I remember we did productions in small playhouses. In one production we did a musical version of Twelfth Night which we did at the new community theater at Los Gatos Old Town. It used to be a school I believe. That was a big production!

I remember also that I was in track at the time at Mitty. I tried various different sports at Mitty and they were always very gracious in asking me to please not try anymore. [Get out! – Laughs]

They had not yet asked me to stop doing track and I fractured some sort of a bone in my lower leg so this was just before the production of this show called Something’s Happening was to go on and so I did the whole run of that show with an immobilized lower leg with a cast or something. It was the only time I have ever had a broken bone.

I remember also becoming very involved in the French program at Mitty. At the end of the freshman year – well, during the course of it – they announced that there was going to be a school sponsored trip to France during the summer with most of the French Club going.

So I decided I wanted to go on that and of course that would have to be done by earning money. I wouldn’t be given money to do that.

So, my dad, at the time, managed a shopping center. He had switched over to real estate – that’s another story. As part of his real estate ventures he managed a shopping center called Azul Crossing, which was down by the railroad tracks across Hwy 85 there, by the Saratoga Funeral Home.

He needed somebody to act as janitor for this little shopping center with offices. So somebody needed to go in and clean the common spaces and the restrooms and what not.

So, the agreement was made that I would be paid to do that as long as I did that every morning before school. So, I would get up before school at about 5 o’clock in the morning and ride my bike down there and clean for a couple of hours and then ride back home.

That is where I tried my first cigarette. When I was cleaning the bathrooms I found a pack of cigarettes that somebody had left there. I tried it and tried it and threw up and that was that. That was the limit of my cigarette smoking experience. I couldn’t understand how anybody would do it.

So, that’s how I earned my money to go to this trip to France. We flew into Paris, went up to Brittany, down to Bordeaux, and on to Madrid and we flew back from Madrid.

But, it was also in Bordeaux where one night – we were in small village – a couple of us went out and managed to procure a bottle of red wine. We both drank and it and we were horribly, horribly drunk and then horribly, horribly hung over the next morning.

We had to go on an excursion bus ride through these winding mountain roads. We were given a bag lunch with sandwiches and potato chips which I ate half of them before I hurled in the bus. So, it was a fun experience. I just remember that was the first experience of getting drunk and I decided that wasn’t too wonderful either.

(Laughter) I realized you just have to do it in moderation and plan out your recovery period, don’t do it with a group of people!

The principal, Brother DeLong, was along on that trip and he was aware of everything that had happened unbeknownst to me. So a report was given to my parents about that but I never heard about it until afterwards. It was just something they took under advisement.

I have a feeling that, again, by the time Cathy, Brian and I came along, the sixth, seventh, and eighth children, my parents had been through five and just realized you can’t stress about it too much.

Oh yeah. Another time, we had the famous debauchery evening over at your (the interviewer’s) house. Yeah, where we all went over and your parents were out of town and we had several friends over and some girls and bought beer. We were drunk over there and spent the night and then we had to clean it all up the next day when they were coming back. Then my dad found about it and let your parents know and that time we never heard more beyond that.

I remember we would go water skiing a lot and I remember one time I felt bad for you when you and another friend had gone out with the boat and it got swamped in Monterey and all your ski equipment gone.

I remember we took up a collection at school to get you new water ski. I look back fondly on all those times but I would only want to go back to them if I had all the knowledge and experience I have now.

For college, I was sort of directed away from going to Berkeley. My dad was not pleased about Berkeley.

So, I liked the system of Santa Cruz being modeled after the English college system so I went there and I’ll tell you, I look back on it now, and I just didn’t have a clue about what to do.

I thought I was directed and I was going to become premed and go into medical school. All I can say is that if people really listen to what is going on around them, you never go wrong. Thank God I didn’t get into any medical school!

I was wait-listed. I enjoyed my college years. I met a lot of great people and I had, again, drama there. I went to a school that was presided over by provost who was a very, very eccentric artist and she had decided that – you know, every school had it’s own particular sort of social theme that set it apart.

One of the colleges would have a science theme, and another school was very artistic, and our school was sort of arts and literature, and our social gatherings were planned around waltzes. When we had dances and they were waltzes.

I loved the setting of our school because it was in the Redwood Forest and grass plains in California.