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Well, after graduating in 1973, I began to focus on college, but the money ran out soon before I could start my freshman year. I did work a summer intern at a public TV station in Boston (zoom, zooma zoom!) and began work at Save-Rite, a catalog showroom in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I was hired to work in the camera department, and did we have fun!
Paul
Vezina, at
left, was the man who hired me, and gave me a big chance at my "first"
career in retail. Soon after, I became the manager, then the buyer. 
I worked with some great people, including a friend who has remained so all these years. That was Jim Ouimette, shown at the right, an intelligent guy with an infectious sense of humor. Check out those devilish eyes!
When we weren't waiting on customers, we were talking to the other folks that worked there, made movies (I'll post one of those here someday) and generally had fun. What a crew.
Here
I am waiting for customers in the camera department. The times that were
taxing was, of course, the Christmas season, and being the manager, I worked
sixteen hour days making everything right for the next day.
It was at this time that I started smoking a pipe, too.
I loved the way it smelled in the car and around me. I had the pipe for a
long time, until I realized the dangers of throat or tongue cancer. I miss
the smell of the tobacco still.
During my Save-Rite days, my grandfather died and left me his camera equipment and some slides. It was the first time I had experienced the death of a relative at an age I could understand. I ran back to work after the funeral and stayed until closing.
I began to put that expensive camera equipment to work, and developed a portfolio with my girlfriend Felicity. She was a model and had showed an agency in Boston some of my pictures. I got a call that same night, and began taking pictures for Simplicity in New York the following Monday. After that I got many assignments, and was used for both fashion as well as editorial photos (those that illustrate a story). I was so blessed!
I began to travel more and more, with my manager Paul's blessing, as he said
he'd rather let me go for a week than for the rest of my life. I was
published in many advertisements and magazines, with pictures such as the one at
the left made for the Navy of the Blue Angels. Plus I made
more money in that week than I did in a year there, but I digress...
My friend Paul worked with a Digital computer system, and soon I learned how
to program in Basic. I knew Fortran and a bit of Cobol already, from high
school part time work. This would help me out later.
I began to work for a little
theatre group in Milford, Mass, where I 
did stage lighting design and worked
on some fabulous plays. The first was "Your A Good Man, Charlie
Brown." Got some good press, too as you see to the left. I eventually joined the union and worked some infrequent
productions in Boston.
In 1978, the worst blizzard to hit Rhode Island paralyzed the state for over a week. The Blizzard of 78 got me my next job, working on the radio! After coming home early as the storm was worsening, I worked a ham radio network to help the National Guard find people stuck in their cars on the interstate. I slept all the next day, and when I woke I turned on the local radio. The owner of the station was on, and here's what I heard: "Here's a record that seems to be popular around the country." (record starts, then the needle is torn off the record with a scratching noise) "That won't be heard on this station anymore!" I called and offered to volunteer for any help they might want.
I started out the next day to an awesome sight: snow five feet deep!
All over, not in the drifts. It took me an hour to make a 10 minute walk
to the station. I began by answering the phone, primarily people who were
elderly and couldn't get food or heating oil deliveries. By 
the end of the
week, I was announcing, and thereafter, for over a year,
I did a Sunday
afternoon program and filled in ("board-opped") at other times.
It was a minimum wage job and I loved it!
At the left is Alan Michael Rowey, who worked the morning shift and left shortly afterward for Phoenix.
At the right is my bedroom studio, where a live broadcast took place with radio WOON's Dave Richards. Radio was very good to me, as for the next twenty years or so I continued to voice radio commercials and produce radio programs for many stations around the Northeast. My voice was used on many filmed productions as narrator.
I also acted as a stringer for the Providence Journal and had some
dramatic
pictures published of fires and accidents in the Northern Rhode Island area,
such as this one to the left.
The retail outfit I worked for bought a new system in 1979, and I became intertwined with Basic and a system called Pick. I became their computer manager, out of retail, but working almost as many hours. I managed to rewrite most of the system to fit the Save-Rite bookkeeping model and introduce many new features. I ended up staying with Save-Rite until 1983.
But in 1980, something happened that changed my life:
I had been sensitive to the working of God in my life since high school, and though I had several casual relationships, I prayed that the right woman would come into my life and I would know it. And one day, God spoke loud and clear.
I was working in another store that was associated with the Save-Rite stores,
installing the computer terminals that would bring them past the manual bookkeeping
and inventory. During the morning, I heard music coming from the stereo
department. Now, it was a common thing to bring in records from home to
play as demonstrations of the equipment there. But this music was
familiar, but not distinctly. More like deja vu. It was Stravinsky's
Firebird, played with electronic synthesizers. The style of the playing
and arrangement was familiar too, but it wasn't a record I owned. And if
it was the Japanese artist Tomita, whoever owned it would be the third person in
the western hemisphere to know about him.
I saw Joann in the stereo room, and I asked her if the record was hers, and she said yes. She had a pretty smile, no makeup except for a little lipstick, and had a beautiful smile. She really didn't know who I was, but I was determined to find out more about her. It wasn't until much later in the afternoon, and after I tagged along with her two friends, shown at the right (Joann on the left). But it took me another day to ask for her phone number. That was August 11, 1980.
I called and called, and didn't get a reply until the first week of September. I wondered what was up, and she told me she was really busy. So I asked her to go out for the day with me that Saturday. That became our first date, September 6, 1980.
The day dawned beautiful and crisp for September, a comfortable day for walking in the city. I picked Joann up at her home, an apartment in a Victorian house she shared with two roommates, Shelly and Gerri. The first thing I noticed was her smile and the way she looked at me. We talked and finally got to Boston.
The whole day and most of the night was spent in that wonderful city. We walked in the Public Gardens, ate at one of Boston's oldest restaurants, window shopped at the Fanueil Hall Market, and sat near the bay. As it got late, I asked Joann if she was tired and she said no, so we kept on going. Now this being the first time I took her out, I did not touch her the whole day, and I asked her for her hand to cross a busy street. She told me much later that when I took her hand, she wished she could hold onto me forever. At that time, I felt too, how good it was to be holding her hand, and felt a tinge of electricity as I thought about how smooth and warm her hand was. In fact, much more feeling was building up in each of us that day, and when we stood on her threshold back home and I asked to kiss her, she slowly closed her eyes and I lightly kissed her on the cheek but held there a bit and she moved closer. We parted as friends, for a lifetime.
Six
weeks later, after many nights of talking with her and sometimes her roommate, I
went away for a photo vacation into the Green Mountains of Vermont. It was
a glorious time to take pictures, the air was cool, the colors were brilliant
and I was so lonesome for Joann. I came home a day early, I just couldn't
wait, and I prayed that what I was about to do was in His will. I bought a
ring, and asked Joann to marry me that night in October. And very happily,
she said yes!
I took this picture a week after our first date in a park in Providence.
It was an exciting time for me, meeting family and friends, and constantly talking. I saw her at least twice, sometimes three times a week at the beginning. We began to plan our wedding in November, and decided on May, 1981. The date had to change, by a week, and ended up on her birthday! What a day that was, all like a blur to me. My friend Bill and I put together a tape of classical music for the ceremony and the reception, and we were supposed to get married at Roger Williams Park in Providence in the gardens. But rain forced us to the restaurant for the reception, and our ceremony was conducted in the round, with all of our guests around us.
Our honeymoon in Vermont followed, a week of bike riding through the hills and valleys, dining in some great restaurants, and antique shopping. We took the Champlain ferry across to Plattsburg and shopped there too. When we got home, our new apartment was waiting, and we began our life together. Ah, so much in love!