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Today's Featured Biography

 
Michael Brodey

After graduating L.A. , I worked as a lifeguard then city pool manager. I held these positions through college at UCLA and lived in Venice Beach . However I did spend one academic year at University of Oregon . I finally graduated from UCLA in 1968 after a lot of Draft dodging and poor grades. Also, prior to graduation, I was accepted into the Peace Corp., received another student deferral and permission from my Draft board to study in France . So I took the money I had saved and went to Europe . It never occurred to me that I needed to “know a little French” to even register at a university, so I did not go to school there. I traveled extensively in Europe for six months and eventually wound up in Tangiers with a group of Americans waiting to be deported. While hanging out in Tangiers, I had a vision of my future, which involved “going back to the land “. I proceeded to hitchhike to Germany , bought a VW van and took it back to Houston on a freighter. So that was 1967 and I had not yet graduated from UCLA. With the help of my friend, Vivian Hyman , I finally got that degree. I worked at my old pool in Watts that summer and then, with three hillbilly Santa Barbara friends, we headed to Oregon . We collectively bought a beautiful 262 acre mountain top, fifteen miles east of Ashland , Oregon and called it Stoney Mountain . Each of us built separate cabins and we lived off the grid. We all worked in the woods, planting trees, logging or doing whatever job came our way. When we were snowed out, we had unemployment insurance and food stamps. Life was good.
One day in 1973, when I was snowed out and had a job of tearing down an old barn, I stopped at the local tavern. At the pool table, two girls were shooting pool. I put my quarter up to play and one gal, Pam, bought me a beer. Well, we were” hitting it off “and as my next tree planting job was in Idaho , I casually asked “Hey babe, want to go to Idaho ?” Flower Child Pam and I have been together since that day! Pam had all her possessions with her; a backpack, guitar and one crazy dog.
In 1981, Harold and Vivian Hyman had a retail gift shop in Eugene , Oregon and they so graciously asked Pam and me if we would like to be partners with them in a pipe& cigar store located in the same mall as their store. Woods work was getting pretty cut throat and we were ready for a change. So we bought the store with the Hymans. After a few years, we became sole owners. We lived in the city of Eugene until 1987 and then moved to the country about 20 miles west in Crow, Oregon . Our land is beautifully rural. We have 30 acres and a large pond and dock. Besides managing the property [more like it manages us] and working our organic garden, my pleasure includes sitting out on the dock with a fine cigar & moonshine, watching the wildlife and listening to the silence.
We have two wonderful daughters, who were present for our legal marriage in 1986. Our oldest daughter, Brigette, is 26, married to a great guy and is an Occupational Therapist in Salt Lake City . They just bought their first house and are sending us “care packages. “ Our younger daughter, Samantha, is 24 and just beginning grad school at the University of Washington . Both daughters took a year off after they received their undergraduate degrees to pursue their love of downhill skiing while working as ski instructors [ski bums]. We like to street dance, ski, play in Mexico ’s warm waters and take walks in the forest.

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