siblings and my parents and I would play them a lot, until we lost track of the pieces. As we got older there was less and less of that going on.
What was your family like?
Boisterous, flat broke for most of my youth. I had three siblings, I was the third of four.
I’m sorry to hear that, Ken. What did your parents do for a living?
My father was a factory worker who was born a dirt-poor sharecropper in the Jim Crow South. Worked for Ford Motor Company most of his life. My mother had various jobs when I was young. Her first job was as a stock clerk in department store. When I was in the 7th grade she went back to school to become a practical nurse. When I was in high school she went back to school again to become a registered nurse. She worked as an RN until she retired.
Religious household?
Deeply religious household. Though I am a fallen away atheist my parents and siblings are among the most religious people I know.
Philosophical?
No. I had no idea about philosophy until I went off to college at Notre Dame. And even then I had no thought of becoming a philosopher until my senior year in college.
Favorite games, cartoons, movies, that type of thing?
Favorite cartoons Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bugs Bunny. When I was little we went to the movies all the time. My mother used to take my sister and me. We loved musicals. For the longest time I thought that when you finally fell in love you would hear an orchestra playing in the sky and you would spontaneously break into song. I love the movie the Music Man…it was what first made me want to play Trombone.
What were you scared of?
Rats. I was always afraid of rats, from earlier on. Partly because we once had rats in our house and it scared the heck out of me. Once when I was about three or four years old, I was riding my tricycle at night down the street from our house, I saw what turned out to be my shadow but it
