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Dan Dootson
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Last Updated: |
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July 26, 2010 |
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Residing In: |
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Edmonds, WA USA |
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Occupation: |
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Admin. & Instructor @ Edmonds Community College |
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Children: |
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No Children.
We do spend a lot of time with our two nephews that are rabid hockey players focused on playing in the NHL. They also make up part of the crew when I'm racing our sailboat "Wild Rose" around the Puget Sound. |
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Comments: |
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So many great stories on the profile pages. Like Bob Beede wrote on Donna Kelly's profile page, it was the "Best of Times" in the 60's in Burlingame, after Mills the world became a little crueler and colder. The best of times started with nailing someone's sister's roller skate on the bottom of a 2X8X12. Then from the Burlingame hardware store I purchased a commercially made skateboard with steel wheels - if you hit a rock you flew on to the pavement - no pads, no helmet just broken bones and big scars, "ya and we liked it". Then finally some type of softer composite wheels and anti-skid decks - we boarded down all the hills into Burlingame or to the plaza and beyond. Like Bob said everyone cruised those hills without any fear as kids- what a different world today - a sixth grader in Portland was abducted after a science fair last week in Portland- different times now-
Gave up the skateboard when I got a driver's license, my parents told me if you want to drive, buy a car, pay for insurance and gas (30 cents a gallon). So I got a job at Mary's Help hospital in Daly City.
So my later years at Mills if I wasn't running around Coach Parker's track or working on a play production - I was working at the hospital - cured me of any desire to work in the medical field.
I was able to take a few weekends off to go up skiing with a wild bunch of partiers from OLA - changed my outlook senior year- cut back on work and put more effort into having fun - started dating one of those Mercy girls. Got involved doing light shows at the OLA dances, was having the summer of my life till one night…
My father said I've been transferred to Rochester, N.Y. you can come or stay. Rochester where?
So the end of August 1970, I left Burlingame and headed right into total culture shock- a total different mind set it took quite a while to make close friends and they did not think like west coast people, nor did the like anything they'd heard about the west coast- another outlook change, snow on the ground from Nov. - May, a season pass at the local ski hill, snow emergencies(4 foot "lake effect" snows) 30 foot snow drifts outside the dorm windows – drift jumping from third story windows – not too smart but what do you expect from freshmen in their first year of college?
Had a quality higher education experience at private catholic college with a BFA program in performing arts. A 1500 seat performance hall with a cutting edge computer lighting system, a computer what?, three 100 seat theaters, 3 directors 6 productions during the school year, 4 productions during summer stock, traveling acts coming through all the time and work, work, work. Took photography classes at The Rochester Institute of Technology - great place to be when Eastman Kodak ruled the world of photographic imagery giving the college a whole lot of money and support.
These people were too serious, two years was enough, too much work, too many parties, too many bars the drinking age was 18 at the time and I got it the party hardy period of life over with. Time for a major change and another outlook change.
Ok, what career would I not have to work a full day, get a vacation every three months and have the summer off? Higher Education, yes it was right in front of my eyes. I came out to Olympia, Washington. An "alternative college" was being built - The Evergreen State College- coordinated studies, small group contracts and individual contracts- no prerequisites, no required classes (like no struggling with math anymore) no grades - self-evaluations and written faculty evaluations. In the early days more faculty applied to work there than students wanting to study there. As students we also participated in running the place, hiring and firing, no faculty tenure 1 & 3 year contracts and a lot of student input. It was a great place with people who wanted to be there because of common goals.
Graduated in 75 with BA in Communications - I told the admins - dudes we need a grad school - they told me come back in a few years and I did. MA in Education specializing in multimedia curriculum design and development.
In 75 I started working for the Learning Resources division at Edmonds Community College (I was able to keep my job and complete my MA while working, not to mention free tuition for state employees, those were the days.)
There were two buildings at EDCC when I started, today there are 15 ( worked on the design of everyone of them) including a new black box theater with multiple configurations and that is also used for a film/television studio my ultimate new play toy.
So 36 years later I'm still here and loving it. Tough times during this recession as record number students come through the door and million dollar budget cuts, but somehow we survive.
23 years ago met a wonderful woman and a few years later got married. We’ve been having fun ever since, sailing around the Puget Sound and San Juan islands on our sailboat “The Wild Rose”, visiting friends in every harbor. We’ve hiked and camped just about everywhere in the state so we started exploring the southwest on foot quite a few years ago and look forward to those weeks that we can dry out in the painted desert each year – I’ve got a few photos below. Then when winter comes we hit the hills- if we get snow. It’s a crap shoot in the mountains around here, sometimes cold , sometimes warm and sometimes a drought like this past year, some dumps in Nov. then nothing till the last week of March when the cold ocean current La Nina moved back in. All kinds of cool weather and mountain snow- the freezing level has been down all spring, as low as it was all winter- can’t complain as they’re dying of heat in Texas – nature supplies the air conditioning for free here in the great northwest.
Shoot me a message if you’re ever in town |
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School Story: |
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One of the speakers at graduation said,(right after Bob McPhee from under the risers tossed a beer at my feet, which I promptly cracked open, it was a hot night on stage) "Look at your classmates around you, as you might not ever see them again", in my case he was right. A couple of months later I was on a plane to upstate New York. |
Can you identify four starters from the Mills varsity basketball team?
And check out that front row what a great class.
I don't remember learning much that year but we spent a lot of time making the huge clay figure mural.
It was still there 20 years ago, is it still there today? If you lost your 6th grade class photo send me an email(snowdann@yahoo.com) and I'll send you a jpg.
Sue & I on the old city wall of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Before I left Burlingame at the end of the summer of 1970 a couple of friends gave me a piece of the old cruising grounds to keep with me. It stands in my backyard today slowly rusting away.
Living in the Northwest requires spending at least three weeks a year in the southwest, one week in Sept. in the world’s largest swimming pool – Lake Powell, nothing like driving your houseboat right up and on to a sandy beach, in a quiet cove. Another couple in Oct. & Nov. hiking the Anasazi ruins, slot canyons, hanging around the arches in Moab or any of the other great parks in that part of the country when temp, is reasonable and the lighting is just perfect for photography . A week or two in Cabo or Cancun is also a must to begin our summer.
I too love to ski, so I get a few of weeks in each year, a few hours up the road at Whistler or down the road on a dormant volcano outside of Bend, Oregon. The tree skiing on the northwest side of Mt Bachelor is the best, but the vent holes and tree wells are deadly. Whistler- Blackcomb is a great place even when you can’t see beyond your ski tips but on a clear day, unbelievable.
Glory days – how many miles did I run counterclock-wise around Coach Parker's track in four years? – at least a couple hundred. One year at the Martinez relays in the distance medley Jim Finch kicked out a huge lead in the two-mile, Wayne Smith pushed it out even farther then I’m out 200 yards in front of the pack for the 400 hundred with no competition to pace myself (Coach Parker never really convinced me that the 400 was a ”sprint”) so by the time I got around and handed off to Kelly McCormick he started lapping some of the other teams. We (or mostly my teammates) broke the old track record that day by 13 seconds.
Another great day in track was when Castlemont High came to Mills, they didn’t expect an average white boy to beat their best guys in the 100 & 200- Coach Parker got a big chuckle out of that one (he rarely laughed), knowing it would be a long bus ride home with their coach and the rest of the team giving those poor guys crap every mile of the way
8th grade Alzheimer's Bingo
Who can you identify?
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