Don Lotter
californiaboomer.com
Quick Introduction to California Boomer - 4 minutes. The first 30 seconds are most important.
YouTube channel for California Boomer: An Unpolished Memoir and Life.
Ukraine: Why Americans need to support them in their war - 4-min video
Previews: "Elsa" (2 min) "Migrations: closing a 350,000 year loop of human evolution" (6 min) "Personal Environmental Impact Software, 1992 - how I created it" (9 min)
: "The Ancestors and My California Culture" Chapter 0. Below are sub-chapter links. Click on the time to go to that part of the YouTube video.
00:00 My morning prayer, agnostic, thanking the ancestors
00:23 The power of the human mind
Ted Lasso TV clip "Believe in belief"
01:20 Boomers: the freest most prosperous generation in the history of humanity
01:52 Grandma's photo album starts here
02:31 My California culture
We welcome immigrants, a couple of anecdotes
04:51 Pre-Christian religion and my ancestry
05:12 My ancestry via DNA analysis
05:44 The names in my ancestry tell the story of my heritage
06:33 My 3rd great-grandfather - Tom Bradley - California early pioneer
07:44 West in 1843 by covered wagon & horseback
At Fort Hall wagons with women and children go with Joe Walker
Bradley on horseback with Joseph Chiles party
08:44 To Sutter's Fort then Tulare Valley
Christmas dinner with Yokuts Indians near Tulare Lake
Peace pipe smoked. The Yokuts people
12:54 Bradley in the Bear Flag Rebellion Rebecca Allen, my 3rd great-grandmother, comes with the Donner Party, but splits off
15:11 Rebecca Allen, 17, meets T. W. Bradley at Sutter's Fort
Bradley was working for George Yount, Napa valley
Tom & Rebecca married on Chiles Ranch, Christmas 1846
16:09 Bradley witnesses the Stars & Stripes replacing the Bear Flag
17:41 Tom and Rebecca start a farm in Martinez, CA
18:30 San Francisco's criminals sent off in "Sydney Coveys"
20:48 Tom & Rebecca start farm in San Joaquin Valley
21:10 British book featuring Bradley
23:12 Sophronia Bradley, my 2nd GtGrMother
23:30 Lela Eachus & W. Pike, my great grandparents
24:19 4 of my 6 grandparents went to Cal
25:27 Grandpa Baker and the Manhattan Project
I review why I and many others have revised our views on the U.S. use of the atom bombs
27:28 Grandpa was head of purchasing on the Los Alamos Project
Interview of my Uncle Bill about Grandpa on the Project
30:56 Oppie
34:00 My Finnish ancestry
35:56 Katarina Ylitalo, my biological GtGrMother
37:54 Dad's side: Vernon, Thompson, Doerner, Lotter
38:04 Gladys: the pillar
38:38 I confront slavery in my direct heritage
39:17 Trevor Noah on Germany's transparency about facing their past
45:01 The California culture can embrace transparency
45:14 I reject the enslavement culture of my ancestors
45:45 But I don't reject that line: Vernons in the Revolutionary War
48:36 Grandma Thompson's signature album starts here
52:00 California culture embraces the inclusiveness of Jesus without religion
53:17 The genes for migrating and the California ethos
56:15 Buddhism and California culture
57:32 Grandma's photo album #2
1:01:39 The inclusiveness of California culture
1:01:58 Reparations and slavery's multigenerational effects
1:03:35 I'm proud of California's embracing of inclusiveness
1:04:45 Future generations part of inclusiveness via environmental protection
1:06:53 Social migrations away from religion
1:09:40 Video clip: Coco the dog and Berry the cat
1:10:44 The Vernons leave Texas for Oregon
1:11:57 The culture of intolerance in eastern Oregon
1:16:57 California: Culture over genes
1:19:55 Grandma Gladys Vernon Lotter
1:22:27 A.P. Vernon my 2nd great grandfather with the Confederacy
1:24:05 Confederate Army papers for A.P. Vernon
1:24:54 A.P. marries late wife's sister Dolly Leathers
1:26:40 My 3rd great grandfather Miles Vernon in the War of 1812
1:27:24 4th Gt grandfather Tom Vernon in the Revolutionary War
1:28:05 At Valley Forge, Monmouth and Stony Point
1:28:40 Evidence of slave "ownership"
1:29:16 Grandma Gladys's Vermont ancestry, Thompson
1:29:41 Lena Thompson, Gladys's mother
1:30:18 Vermont was the staunchest anti-slavery state
1:31:03 Dad inherits that ethos, 1946 anti-racist letter
1:31:14 Jonas Thompson and Rosalba Robinson, great grandparents
1:31:25 The five Thompson sisters - photos
1:31:53 Familial irony - Elliott and Lena, Reb & abolitionist
1:32:26 Grandma Gladys growing up
1:33:30 I interview Uncle Herb, Dad's brother
1:33:46 Aunt Lucy and LGTBQ but unspoken back then
1:35:18 The Lotter - Doerner German ancestry
1:37:06 George Lotter emigrates to America
1:37:26 The genes for migration, exploring, and risk-taking
1:40:11 Margaretha Doerner
1:44:51 Dad alienated for life by Margaretha's religious pressure
1:45:10 Uncle Herb's anecdotes on grandma Margaretha
1:46:42 Dad and Mom's social justice work with the Christian community
"Growing Up in Sunset Court California" Chapter 1. Below are sub-chapter links. Click on the time to go to that part of the YouTube video. "
00:00 The sounds of growing up in Davis
01:04 Mom's miscarriages, I was a DES baby
02:04 The Englehart Ranch and Betty Behr
03:05 Dad flew Wildcat & Hellcat fighter planes
03:31 LA Times: "The Fumble" 1949 Rose Bowl
03:51 Mom and Dad move to Davis
04:11 Oeste Manor: one of the first tract house developments
05:46 My first memories: Tuolumne, Yosemite
08:50 My insomnia, The Rocking Chair, and The Wall of Dad's back
09:22 We move to Berkeley, Grove Street
09:47 Our first friends & Washington School
13:31 My nervous fidgeting puts me on crutches
14:17 Visiting the UCD animals with Mom
15:35 An Air Force fighter jet lands at UCD airport
17:43 Coach Lotter: his players' memories
24:11 Little League baseball and tennis
25:22 Dave Matta's grand slam in the last inning wins it
27:37 Sunset Ct.: The parents of The Greatest Generation, WWII Veterans
36:12 Elmwood gives two Ironman champions 36:48 The atom smasher 37:31 West Davis Elementary
39:00 The fastest runners: Jeff F. & Carolyn J.
39:56 Drug culture before drugs: signs of the '60s in us
41:40 We built the first skateboards in town
43:45 The Ranch, Oregon
44:18 Mike & I ride steers in a rodeo
48:08 Sunset Court stories & Mom's dinners
49:12 Hydrox vs. Oreo cookies & our TV shows
51:52 Clod fights and Yolo Fine Sandy Loam soils
53:42 I start 7th grade at Davis Junior High
55:53 The books. I loved reading.
1:01:28 Memoirs of celebrities who were driven to be rich & famous
1:01:43 The Cabin 1947-2017 and onward
1:04:20 Dad's Aunt Grace influence: letting kids be themselves
1:06:10 This, in a nutshell, is who I am
"To Africa and the Sunset of the British Empire" Chapter 2. Below are sub-chapter links.
00:00 Social migrations: when there's no more West to go
01:24 The migrations started in Africa 300,000 years ago
01:48 Slowly settling west, they called it "Westering"
02:14 The genes for exploring
03:35 No more West to go? Join the Peace Corps!
04:12 Going to Africa opened new territory, social territory for Mom & Dad
04:26 This led to their lifelong work in social justice
05:09 M&D's commitment to social justice was from Jesus
05:25 From their Christian heritage, they embraced the inclusiveness of Jesus, but without the religion
05:55 The evolutionary significance of reading
07:15 Reading and the African cultures
08:10 To Washington DC and their winter
08:52 The "stewardesses" kept cigarettes on our trays, yay!
09:43 I explore the Smithsonian Institute every day
10:17 Sargent Shriver decides on Malawi for us, not Nepal
11:17 Sholl's Cafeteria & other DC places
11:59 Bob Poole's kids still in Africa - Joyce, elephant expert
13:15 London pub at 2 AM: unmistakably Americans
14:33 To Blantyre and the old plantation house
16:47 Our cook and the Yao tribe slaving history
18:11 Serendipitously getting to know the PCVs well
19:03 British school - difficult for a 12 year-old American
21:10 "PT" class from Scotsman Mr. Smith
22:55 My football experience and rugby
24:19 We become boarders: the boarder culture
25:30 The Prefects
28:29 Ann Reynolds and I sit with Cokes
29:05 Pounds, shillings, pence, Guineas, Tickies 30:57 Coca Cola brings the first fridge to Karonga
31:51 The sports "houses" Livingstone, Laws, Johnston
32:35 Mike & I the only bike riders to school
34:06 The few Americans at school were all missionary kids
34:49 The Lois Cox painting
37:29 The Sports Club, center of colonial life
37:52 The clay tennis courts were from anthills
41:17 US Rugby team
41:28 Fred Sangala
42:51 Cartoons of the Lotters by PCV Phil Durand
44:21 Cape McClear
47:26 Safari
48:47 Some history: British shut down Swahili slave trade
53:55 A now extinct experience: charged by a rhino
55:23 Olduvai Gorge
56:13 The breakdown and the safari camp
58:39 Arusha
1:01:35 Mike gets a papaya compress for a wound
1:02:49 Danny
1:05:52 Mike & I take the Ilala up the Lake
1:07:46 Northerners: No plantations, the Church of Scotland
1:12:12 The 2015 Ilala trip
1:17:04 With the Ngludi Mission orphans
1:19:30 The 1965 rebellion
1:21:24 Paul Theroux, author, Malawi PCV '65
"Back to ‘67 California and the Summer of Love" Chapter 3. Below are sub-chapter links.
00:00 I reflect on Mom's adventurousness, that I inherited
02:21 Mike & I swig an opiate and ride bikes around Kathmandu
03:04 Tired of "templing" Mike & I go to Bangkok
03:16 My lifelong love of travel starts in Bangkok
03:53 We meet Sky High Lee in Bombay
05:45 Almost dyed at the Holi festival
07:02 Delhi, back then called "New Delhi"
07:23 Dad takes us to see the streets of Calcutta at 5AM
08:31 We run into Willi Unsoeld, who climbed Mt. Everest
10:47 Sarawak to Singapore to Hong Kong
16:29 To Japan from Hong Kong
17:13 We find a 6-customer eatery with spaghetti
18:30 From Yokahama to SF on SS President Wilson
19:35 We dock in SF and I see my first hippie
19:55 The summer of '67, reverse culture shock
20:28 The music of the summer of '67, the greatest ever?
24:01 The Rec Pool every afternoon
24:41 After watching "The Fugitive" (clip)
25:22 Kelly picks me up in the '60 Chrysler
25:41 Kristen, Marci, Tina, Julie, Lauri, Ross, Jean, Brent
25:57 Elaine Kasimatis
26:59 TV shows
27:59 Fun in Reno with tennis families
28:23 Levitating Robin Hanson scares the heck out of us
31:18 High school
33:32 Lindy Peters relates climbing the water tower
34:27 Going to Hickey Gym for Aggie basketball
34:51 Lindy & I sing the Aggie fight song
35:11 Preview: my hobby of fragrances (colognes)
35:30 Summer of '68
39:48 Summer of '69, I drive LA for a week in a Mustang
42:43 Graveyard shift at a highway greasy spoon
44:07 Staff fired after caught having knife throwing contest
44:54 I become a fairly skilled fry-cook, waitress Flo
46:38 Brave Francesca asks me to go to The Prom
46:54 The "Anti-Establishment" mindset back then
48:33 Trips with Dad's UCD tennis team
49:10 My first kisses with Jane
49:57 Self-centered hippy & New Year's ski trip
50:11 The 1964 Oldsmobile Cutlass 88 "Tuna Boat", 110 mph
52:54 I reflect on the dark side of the '60s culture
55:04 I get busted, for "suspicion" of possession
58:11 Mike gets busted a year later, M&D relaxed about it
59:24 I buy my first car - a '60 Bug
1:00:00 Outward Bound journal starts here
1:01:20 I sell my Bug to pay for Outward Bound School
1:04:35 The Solo vs. brotherhood
1:05:31 I run the 26 mile trail marathon faster than expected
1:07:31 I hitch the wrong highway back home
1:07:59 Later I hitch Hwy 1 to legendary communes
1:10:52 The darker side of the 60's shows up again
1:11:32 I learn to scavenge discarded food , new back then
1:11:56 The graveyard shift in a grain elevator, as a Teamster
1:13:36 Occasionally I had to shovel grain all night
1:14:22 The manlift - probably now extinct
1:15:08 U.S. Secretary of Ag: "plant corn fencerow to fencerow"
1:18:30 Jimmy Hoffa & Frank & Richard Fitzsimmons, I'm a Teamsters' recruit
1:19:50 I take my first LSD trip at a Jimi Hendrix concert
1:22:03 The UC Davis Whole Earth Festival, camping, swigging wine
1:23:11 I go to American River College to play tennis
1:26:27 Vancouver Island, BC
1:27:36 I liked Suzanne W. and I think she liked me
1:29:15 Bivouacking on Mt. Garibaldi
1:31:02 I drive south with Al Stoltz & Peter Papadopoulos
1:31:31 Songs from those long nights in the grain elevator
1:31:43 Our first exposure to transgender in a Kinks song
"Vagabonding Europe to the Middle East" Chapter 4. Below are sub-chapter links.
00:00 I get my Vietnam draft lottery number
01:28 I decide to go travel, starting in Europe
03:13 The free speech soap box in Hyde Park
04:10 Sexual predators in the hostel, but not coercive
04:56 I hitchhike to Hanover to see Maluwa
05:35 History: bombing of Hanover & Phil Arnot, B-17 pilot
05:59 I naively order "speck" at restaurant
06:46 Maluwa's story & the AIDS epidemic in E. & S. Africa
07:22 Truck drivers along the Cape to Cairo road spread it
08:32 Africa: spread of HIV from women to men
09:14 Initial denial by governments in E & S Africa
11:00 In my 1988 visit I saw scientists dying
12:31 Maluwa's story is the only one in which I cried
13:14 Hitchhiked south to Munich
15:00 Innsbruck, rent a room from old couple
16:46 Lost on a winter night in an Austrian village
17:41 Swss Alps: I knock on doors to find work
18:23 Work mate: Romansch culture & language
19:18 Worked in Swiss town of Bever
20:24 To Zurich and 12 francs / hour for labor
20:57 Bambus, Zurich: where undocumented workers stayed
22:47 There were skilled thieves in the hostel
23:37 I buy a split window VW bus
24:09 Life lessons: thefts
25:11 Hashish was the preferred drug
25:55 Swiss woman Alice owned Bambus
26:24 Igor Medved teaches me he's Slovenian, not Yugoslav
28:07 The BSA 350 motorcycle
29:09 Roommates Richie, Loretta, Kenny, Marie
31:42 I start journey south on the BSA
32:45 Sick, Lilli takes care of me in Locarno
34:24 Picked up by Red Brigade woman in Italy
35:32 I drink my first espresso and trip out
36:19 Roberta Pussinni takes me to lunch with her family
37:59 To Yugoslavia with two Canadian sisters
38:34 I didn't know what a bidet was
41:50 Traveling on was more important than romance
42:52 To Israel in the year terrorism really started
44:21 Why do I remember (and sing for you) the Israeli news fanfare
45:08 To a Palestinian hotel in Jerusalem
46:00 The filming of "Jesus Christ Superstar"
46:51 Eilat, on the Red Sea
47:07 Michener and Jimmy Carter required reading on Israel
47:45 Set up by thieves, lose passport & money
48:20 I go find USC footballer and pilgrim Doyle, who helps me
49:08 I get work in the 115 F heat
50:57 The stunning sabra
52:17 The Six Day War vet who got to The Wall with Moshe Dayan
53:21 Back to Jerusalem to the Cairo Hotel
54:09 Arabic music: I ignored it back then but now love it
55:49 The Palestinian eatery where I learned to eat falafels and humus
56:14 Ze'ev: holocaust survivor I lived with on the Mount Olives
57:17 The "religious police" (Rabbis) come to Ze'ev's
58:45 Lots of Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem
59:07 Cornered by the Jews for Jesus proselytizers
59:41 Opiate addiction needs to be seen as enslavement
1:02:03 Prison is not the right intervention
1:02:30 I visit the Wailing Wall, the Church of H. Sepulcher
1:03:41 I was in Jerusalem when Munich massacre '72 Olympics happened
1:04:29 In an office: the tension between Israeli and Palestinian
1:05:30 Attacks prompted search of luggage so my passport was found
1:07:09 I become more introspective, use the I Ching
1:07:53 Ze'ev gives me a suitcase with bullet holes from 1948 war
"To the Gold Mines of South Africa" Chapter 5. Below are sub-chapter links.
00:00 On tea
01:02 Mao feng green tea
02:24 The Hydro Hotel in Mombasa
02:44 A rare (for me) grifting of $10
03:28 First of many journal pages + comment
03:52 A German introduces me to Ry Cooder
05:23 Thorn Tree Cafe travelers message board, an Africa crossroads
05:44 I arrange my ride to Malawi
06:29 Nairobi, Tanga, Dar es Salaam
07:13 To Malawi, sleeping outside in those days
07:58 I revisit Karonga
08:33 About malaria, experience and some science
09:10 Malaria meds: the difficult interim between 1985 and 2005
09:42 The artemisinin-based meds came around 2005
10:16 My anti-malaria strategies 2009-16, from long-term expats
12:03 The Sunday chloroquine ritual and my brothers, '65-'67
12:47 Patrick's friend returns from the South African gold mines
15:00 Down The Lake on the Ilala
15:39 The rest-house made from ship parts
16:19 Bwanali Maluwa 1948-1989, our good friend
17:35 To Blantyre, where I spent adolescence
17:46 Peter Keelan 1952-1972, St. Andrews schoolmate
18:13 I carried my tennis racket in my travels
18:46 I O.D. on the powerful Malawi weed
19:21 The incident that put me in prison
22:41 Our expat cellmates
23:53 Released because the President remembered me
24:34 Pres. Banda hadn't kicked all the British out, saving the economy
25:35 How we traveled when there were no guidebooks
26:13 Going to international outcast Southern Rhodesia
27:36 Danny
28:37 Train from Blantyre to Beira Mozambique
29:11 John Chin's story of his grandparents in Mozambique
31:02 Christmas 1972 near Beira with a Portuguese family
32:36 I connect with Carlos Bordalo's dad
33:28 I meet "Cape Coloureds" in Lourenço Marques
33:51 I hitch to Durban then Johberg
35:44 I reflect on the European colonization of South Africa vs. the Americas
36:06 My ancestors faced 10% of pre-contact populations of Native Americans
36:26 The white colonists in RSA faced 100%-150% of pre-contact populations
37:06 Immune systems of Africans were adapted due to millennia of Asia contact
37:26 This is not a justification of apartheid
38:20 Disease decimated the Native Americans
38:24 Their immune systems were completely naive
39:18 The Voortrekkers and the Zulus
40:14 Trading ships from Asia had come for millennia
41:26 Both whites and Bantu people overran the lands of non-Bantu people
41:54 The San (Bushmen)
42:35 Shaka and the mfecane
44:21 I find a men's hostel in Johberg
45:37 Hillbrough in Johberg and Trevor Noah
46:48 I look for work at gold mine headquarters in Pretoria
47:33 I get work with Goldfields Inc.
48:53 The Libanon mine on The Reef
49:49 I go to work in the mines as a sampler
54:38 Mine conditions: 100% humidity, 90 degrees F
55:58 Blasting
57:16 Alienation from the Afrikaner mine staff
58:45 I hitch northwest
58:57 To the Muller farm
1:00:05 The story of a long lost musical gem: Sixto Rodriquez
1:02:34 To Cape Town and a ship to Australia
1:04:38 My journal entries and letters: a comment
1:07:46 I arrive in Perth, meet some nice nurses
1:08:31 The boarding house
1:08:55 A job from the newspaper classifieds
1:10:16 The mean guys
1:10:52 To the Loony Bin I went
1:17:18 I go home after 2 years vagabonding
1:18:22 I once again reflect on proselytization, this time scientology
1:20:14 Arriving home: a Mom story
"College and Latin America" Chapter 6. Below are links to sub-chapters.
00:00 I start as a freshman at the University of California Davis
00:18 The mountains: where so much of my soul resides
01:36 The swing shift for UCD facilities department
02:10 Every building on over campus pulling light bulbs
03:00 Workmates: Manny, Rod, John, and angry Carlos
05:01 School in A.M., then a tumbler of wine and the swing shift
05:54 We got into every campus building except the legendary UCD wine cellar
06:50 Hammarskjold House dorm
08:03 I organized talks on Africa
08:48 Lako Tongun, one of the Sudan lost boys
09:31 Bowing to political correctness about tribalism in East Africa
10:43 I register my tribe as "Californian" in a TZ hotel that asked
10:58 I start a course in the Experimental College
11:18 I learn Transcendental Meditation TM
12:09 Don's 1-minute Elements of Meditation for Americans
14:08 '74 & '75: year round studies Fall, Winter, Spring, 2 summer sessions
14:19 The Svea 123 backpack stove
14:35 Soccer life
15:07 Gambling to go to see Pele play
15:37 Beer can collectors Jim & Scott
16:20 Davis soccer legend Carlos Daubt, Brazilian former pro
17:50 Carlos leads Davis Soccer Club to state cup final
19:01 The pioneers of women's soccer
20:12 A great tradition of American universities: incentives to explore
20:45 P.E. courses for credit, now eliminated by UCD
21:21 The original legendary UCD wine course
22:03 Students' fear of science: how I flipped that 2020-2022
22:55 Mike, the cowboys, and the women at a Yosemite high camp
23:51 Soccer society and friendships
24:07 Social soccer with Kip, Beth, Susie, Carrie et.al.
24:45 The Cottage: $35 per month rooms next to campus
27:10 The early sustainable agriculture movement at big ag UCD
28:02 The vindication of organic farming pioneers: a story
29:44 Photos of those pioneer organic farmers 50 years later
31:50 The Barsotti-Barnes boys inherit, grow, and conquer
33:43 The big ag profs could be arrogant: an example
34:58 My strategy for getting straight A's.
35:29 I initiate my own "junior year abroad"
35:55 I begin my lifelong love affair with Mexico
36:32 A guardian angel in the night streets of Tijuana
38:06 I push on despite deep loneliness in Mexicali
39:10 The now extinct train to Mexico City
40:47 At the 100 stops, tamales were my food
41:19 To Cuernavaca
42:15 Angeles and pulque, the ancient Aztec drink
45:51 To Cali, Colombia
47:15 Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical CIAT
48:22 With Bob Hudgens to Restrepo later FARC territory
49:44 The Caleñas
50:03 Gallinaziando la Sexta with Miguel
50:32 I make a name for myself at CIAT - on a mountain
54:09 The story of Todd
55:00 Prince Harry's book "Spare" prompted me
57:37 I reflect on returning from overseas to American teen culture
58:25 Elsa's story of entering middle school in Italy
1:00:02 A cross-cultural misunderstanding
1:00:54 I realize it 35 years later, 35 years!
1:01:52 Incident #2: the workers take me to a brothel
1:02:16 The Colombian slang word that I never understood
1:04:19 Back to Davis
1:04:47 I narrate as I ride my bike to the Putah Creek levee, photos there
1:05:28 At UCD: studying instead of partying
1:05:48 Video of Great Pyrenees dogs with goats on my ride
1:06:19 Swainson's hawks over alfalfa, the best wildlife crop
1:08:18 The Guatemalan Agricultural Project (GAP)
1:11:11 Photos of the Catus, my Mayan family, start here
1:15:12 The train from Mexicali with 4 GAP members, all gals
1:16:01 Loosie Goosie Rosie was all over the train, all day and night
1:16:22 Almost left behind in Guadalajara, false info from steward
1:19:51 El Huevón
1:20:40 We meet our Mayan families, I plan on 3 days with mine
1:22:27 Tomás, the civil war, God, his mother, and alcohol
1:24:31 Rosie's romantic adventures get the CIA involved
1:26:38 I get shaken down by the police
1:28:05 We learn the larger background of the civil war
1:29:56 An indigenous vegetable ignored by the West
1:31:10 Quilete shows up in Tanzania as an indigenous vegetable
1:32:03 The temazcal
1:34:00 Callouses on my knees clay floors of church
1:34:27 Mormons and evangelicals
1:36:40 Catholic liberation theology & death squads
1:37:57 Father Ron Burke, on top of list, escapes the death squads
1:40:15 The massacres of the Guatemalan army: Dad's work for justice
1:40:59 Mayan refugees in Davis who fled the massacres
"Cornell and Four Continents" Chapter 7. Below are links to sub-chapters.
00:00 The Green Tortoise: first hippie bus
00:21 Grandparents Berkeley hills and Alameda holidays
01:19 One look at this old former Greyhound bus and some bailed
03:19 Of 3 rules #1 was "No pot smoking while the bus is STOPPED"
03:55 A suicide and the empty dream of "The Hollywood Scene"
06:09 To a commune in NM with a huge hot spring
08:26 Through Texas to another commune in Kentucky
08:57 New York City to Ithaca and Cornell University
10:22 I meet fellow new grad student Jim Fadel, we house hunt
11:44 I learn what an ice storm is, with anecdote
17:07 Ride to Davis for summer: learning experience about certain people
18:39 Summer job in tomato fields
19:52 Fall in upstate NY
20:43 Don's food: my homegrown sprout bread
21:18 Maté
21:34 Adjusting to East Coast society's class distinctions
22:38 Chastised on religious distinctions and language
23:45 The Camel Breeders Club
24:50 The apple pie contest, my cardamom Northern Spy apple pie
26:09 And the winner is.....(Ouch! Cringe!)
26:45 A blizzard and New England Christmas hospitality
28:58 Blissfully alone in airport, I am shown on TV news
29:54 Guy drives sedan through deep snow to get me
32:45 I rent Ithaca room in the old 1930s tradition
34:53 The Cornell dining halls and famous chef dinners
37:09 I move to Santa Cruz to Slack
37:59 I abandon society's norms: the ugly car and image
38:20 Pruning orchards of the Cabernet of apricots
39:07 Cal DMV Director: "That's not a car, it's a smashed beer can"
39:40 In addition to image, I let go of time
41:33 My first snort of cocaine
42:54 Catalpa Street - Bucky, Gary, Flo, Ron
43:37 I turn down working in the early pot production
45:14 I turn down another lucrative business opportunity
46:47 I gravitate to my calling: teaching college
48:07 I teach "Small Farm Systems" at UC Santa Cruz
49:58 Zero tillage: my research 30 years later - at odds with organics
50:14 Isao Fujimoto's work on social aspects of agriculture
52:02 UCSC: outspoken students and narrative evaluations
52:36 Grades are unidimensional vs. narrative evaluations
53:21 I learn that teaching is my calling, professional ethics
53:59 I connect with UCD Kenya project
54:40 I decide to hike the John Muir Trail pending funding
55:39 The food
57:00 Building the Muir Trail: FDR's WPA & CCC of 1930s
57:52 Google Earth views of trail start here
1:00:14 Forester Pass 13K+ and a truly remarkable person
1:02:52 Surprise at top of the pass
1:04:16 Ice axe carried for use on 150 feet of trail
1:05:08 Encountering the Canada to Mexico PCT'ers
1:06:14 I had met the original PCT'er in 1970 Eric Ryback
1:07:12 Pennyroyal: my favorite Sierra herb
1:07:45 Eating roasted rattlesnake1:08:32 The phantom Snickers bar
1:09:20 Hanging food from the bears
1:11:59 Hot springs on the Muir Trail
1:12:55 Learning about hypothermia
1:14:10 Marmot Inc., the Gregory pack and Eric Reynolds
1:14:55 Eric in the New York Times for Rwanda work
1:15:36 I start on Kenya ag project
1:17:20 I move out to the bush
1:17:27 Mom and Dad letters
1:18:43 Masai friends take me to find a lion
1:19:05 Lions are terrified of Masai - an anecdote
1:19:33 Erwin Kinsey, his boys and wife
1:19:45 Kinsey boys - guides and safari company
1:20:48 Nairobi pickpocket anecdote
1:22:19 Money belt and anti-pickpocket strategies
1:22:59 The copied 4-pocket Ex Officio shirt
1:23:36 Lamu Island
1:24:24 Surprise #1: Lamu peacefulness and no drunks
1:25:27 Surprise #2: you'll just have to listen
1:27:17 Mt. Kenya climb
1:28:20 Back in Davis, the Blue Mango restaurant, a legend
1:28:53 A Blue Mango waitress girlfriend
1:29:10 We move to Santa Cruz in big El Niño year
1:29:47 I reflect on the hidden lives of two women in my life
1:30:31 I show Mom & Dad letters as I narrate
1:31:57 Another woman's story, unimaginably bizarre
1:34:11 My yearning to travel conflicts with romance
1:34:31 To SE Asia, to close another loop, started in Bangkok in
1:35:10 Boomers and the expansion of consciousness
1:35:51 The influence of Carl Jung
1:37:31 Altered states of consciousness
1:38:14 Music and the expansion of consciousness
1:38:58 A treasure trove of global music: Hearts of Space
1:39:32 International programs are about a quarter of HOS
1:40:48 The island where many culture scholars wrote
1:41:54 Gamelan music
1:43:34 The other influence: Bali rice culture
1:44:49 The durian: I loved it
1:46:26 I finish my tribute to HOS with Steven Hill
1:47:33 Batik, to its origins - Jogjakarta, Java
1:48:12 I had discovered batik art in Kenya
1:51:01 To Singapore, then Malaysia
1:51:32 To the Senoi and their culture of dreaming
1:54:03 Visit to Senoi was a pilgrimage to different worldview
1:54:31 To the world's oldest rainforest
1:54:42 To Thailand, with an intestinal parasite
1:57:01 To Bangkok to close the loop
1:58:05 I get a Dear John letter
1:59:13 "The Blues Brothers" on the all night bus
"Becoming a Scientist and Losing My Shirt" Chapter 8. Below are links to sub-chapters.
00:00 Back from Asia, I wanted to study agroforestry
00:35 I start a Ph.D. at Cal (University of California Berkeley)
00:54 My candidate for agroforestry's Holy Grail tree
01:16 I start summer field program in forestry
02:41 Fall semester at Cal living in the International House (I House)
03:15 Joey & Perry, pranksters of I-House
03:52 International students & the American tradition of pranksterism
05:10 I go down, 6 weeks in hospital, in traction, the old tradition
06:17 The laminectomy back surgery
06:44 The Alta Bates nurses and young guy patients
07:27 Spinal tap doesn't work - I get heavy duty anesthesia
08:22 My first and only injected opioid - morphine
09:22 Back gets worse - drop out of Cal go to Davis
10:38 Finally diagnosed with hookworm
12:31 Recovery: weight room, pool, eat, sleep - the daily cycle
12:50 Sierra backpack trip beyond the Muir Trail
13:32 The phantom trail on a USGS map
16:23 My songbook. I sang at night and on the trail
16:39 A friend died after an accident hiking off trail
17:50 I restart at UC Davis in the Graduate Group in Ecology (GGE)
18:01 UC Davis: top-ranked university in both agriculture and ecology
18:54 Student interest generates addition of Agroecology to GGE
20:13 The 1982 research field that set me off into agroforestry
22:14 The central concept of agroforestry
22:39 Hoagland Annex desk in biometeorology program
23:45 Agroforestry's Holy Grail tree
26:41 California agroforestry potential
29:57 Preview: agroforestry & coffee in Mexico
31:04 Agroecology: UCD vs. UCSC: it's a slam dunk for UCD
31:43 Sustainable Agriculture at UCD: the problem
32:18 Science's huge blind spot: Gen 1 of genetic engineering of food
33:01 The younger generation of scientists will reexamine it
33:49 My papers detail the huge flaws in Gen 1 food G.E., not other sectors
34:29 Preview: How the US can compete with China in Africa
34:40 AT LEAST half of science research funding should be federal/public
35:27 Students from China in my lab and independent thinking
37:35 I'm weak from poorly prescribed medications
39:00 Anecdote: Lost at night on a DC bus line
42:47 I become a backpacking guide for a UCD program
44:34 Death Valley trips: stories follow
45:47 Kenji and the 3oz packet of beef stew
48:00 Kenji plays baseball on his watch: Shinji la lanai !
49:16 An unidentified kleptomaniac in group
51:01 The freak mid-September blizzard
53:45 Schizophrenia after having left medication behind
55:26 I get the annual Broken Ski Award
58:51 Night in a hotel room in LV: you'll laugh at this one
1:03:40 I took a professional approach, but....
1:04:25 Manzanar Internment Camp: education on US history
1:06:27 Grandma Lotter and the Alameda Japanese-Americans
1:09:26 Grandma and Mary Yee (Matsuko Koga)
1:10:15 I develop "History of Consciousness" course
1:11:56 "Quantum consciousness" and The New Physics
1:12:31 The visual analogy of modern consciousness
1:15:43 The concept of resonance vs. the analogical
1:16:21 Michelangelo's art as a visual of the analogy
1:17:15 Photo of me in the Sanctuary, meditating
1:18:37 Videos of Slatter's Court, where I lived
1:20:30 I join a US Forest Service fire crew
1:21:09 My introduction to fire boss Chuck Sheely
1:22:01 My introduction to Sunil Ramalingam
1:26:15 Now a judge, what does Sunil do with that humor in court?
1:27:40 The "Morning Poll", started by who else
1:30:32 The Morning Poll spreads to other fire crews 1:31:47 Finally a good fire crew movie: I show clips
1:33:18 The crew kids and their amazing ability to recite lyrics & movies
1:33:29 My fire trip kit, labeled
1:34:37 Being entertained while in long chow lines of fire camp
1:35:22 The woman who broke up a crew
1:38:55 The difference between Davis & Chico crews
1:40:19 Entry's from Ben's fire trip journal
1:40:37 Davis Fire Crew reputation: a class act
1:41:23 I can't resist my favorite subject: human evolution
1:42:52 Breathing wood smoke: a million years of it
1:43:09 I become "Mr. Hydrate"
1:45:12 The smoke of Red Fir bark: the mesquite of the Sierra
1:46:31 The hotshot crews: iron men
1:47:55 Cutting line all night: the phantom closed loop
1:49:15 Nadine's Black Hand policy
1:49:51 How fires survive and ignite a week later
1:50:43 Stretches at 3:45 AM + headstand
1:51:19 John Leyva shocked by boots in his face
1:52:24 Casio watch alarm inside headband of knit cap
1:53:27 The "Shots dig to the center of the Earth
I finish my Ph.D. on organically managed vineyards, talk about wine, develop environmental impact software, go to Vancouver, float down 1000 km of the Fraser River, and trim the BC Cannabis crop.
00:00 I continued teaching History of Consciousness
00:22 Conception of EarthAware software
00:30 Reviews in SF Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer
01:04 Airline carbon: as if each passenger driving a sedan
02:59 Early Cloud computing: CompuServe in the '80s
03:27 The pre-Internet bulletin boards
04:29 Graphics of how EarthAware worked
05:17 Downloadable, but was done in Win 3.1
05:51 1992 Macintosh version downloadable
06:21 Original was written in DOS Basic
06:45 Video of me in lab, 1991
07:43 Putting EarthAware out there
08:00 EarthAware's Personal CO2 budget 1992
09:28 EarthAware recognized by the French
10:35 The Lotters all return to Malawi in 1988
10:49 Malawians positive about '60s US Peace Corps
11:23 Videos from the trip
14:11 Kunga cake from midges
14:21 Larry: salvager, repurposer, collecter
16:56 Working at the video store
18:23 Jeff Hefner and The Godfather
20:10 The qualifying exam
21:02 Hot springs trips to Sierra east side
24:37 Harbin Hot Springs
26:12 I reflect on Latino tradition of salsa dance
27:55 Harbin burns up in the California wildfires
28:05 The science behind unseasonal winds: ocean warming
30:00 Elsa
32:38 The 1976 Paris tasting and California wine
33:14 The final Ph.D. effort: organic vineyards
33:42 Grape phylloxera and the AXR#1 rootstock
35:03 The French try to charge for their vines
39:43 Chileans and own-rooted wine grapevines
40:35 Why vines decline from phylloxera: fungi invade wounds
43:26 Why organic vineyards do better: soil microbiome
46:02 Another legendary wine tasting: Biodynamic wines
47:00 Biodynamics
47:39 The Biodynamic preparations
49:01 Soil microbiome: foundation of organics
50:00 Vine systemic resistance to disease & wine quality
51:07 When good ole boys have to go Biodynamic: LOL
55:20 Biodynamic certification by Demeter
55:41 War, explosives, and the origins of organic farming
56:48 Fixation of nitrogen by legume plants
56:48 Fixation of nitrogen by legume plants
58:17 Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers invented: from explosives
59:23 Organics pioneers see a problem
1:00:23 Carbon: the foundation of organics
1:00:34 Chemical warfare poisons become insecticides
1:01:23 Preview: my journalistic travels
1:02:22 Organic certification
1:02:42 USDA tries to insert GMOs into organics
1:03:43 Early organic farmers vindicated: a story
1:04:41 Ag professors ridicule organic farming
1:04:55 Organics as "voodoo agriculture"
1:05:16 25 years later: systemic resistance shown in organic crops
1:06:43 Organic wine vs wine from organic grapes
1:08:12 Vancouver!
1:08:43 The Grouse Grind ritual hike
1:10:49 I write using new web research resources
1:11:43 I dabble in website development
1:12:47 I may have met an early Wikipedia person
1:13:55 Writing at the cafes of Vancouver
1:14:39 Elsa ranks "Eco Titan" in EarthAware
1:15:38 I go to the BC forests to learn timber industry
1:16:10 BC timber industry's destructive practices
1:16:24 How rivers can be ruined: degraded watersheds
1:16:46 I camp with protesters
1:17:21 The Spirit of Salmon Fraser River expedition
1:17:58 Fraser River Google Earth view
1:19:11 6 species of salmon migrate up the Fraser
1:19:40 Met with First Nations native Americans
1:20:08 The sociopath gets booted
1:20:43 "Canadian Bacon" the movie, and Canadians
1:21:46 Grand Forks and the BC pot industry
1:22:43 The Dean family
1:26:12 The signs of movies filmed in BC
1:26:53 Work trimming pot buds
1:28:55 The pot Ph.D. makes finger hash
1:30:02 Losing it all at the border: $150 K gone
1:32:59 My first northern lights
1:33:35 Back to Vancouver & plan post-doc
1:34:17 Highrise living - environmental benefits
1:35:58 Energy inefficiency in order to have control: an anecdote
1:37:10 My Op-Ed on the benefits of high-rises
1:37:24 The creative life: my first love
"PA, Travel Journalism, Teaching, Pulled Back to Africa" Chapter 10. Below: Links to sub-chapters. Click on the time to go to that part of the video.
00:04 Our evolutionary roots in forests resonate with us
01:07 Off to Pennsylvania (PA)
01:21 The Rodale Institute
01:29 My K-car and packing stuff
01:59 Rodale's origins
02:11 The cultural gap between me and locals
02:37 The Dutchies and Berks County PA
03:43 Move to Reading said to ba crime capital
04:36 The Reading Prong, radon gas, uranium
05:20 The countless crossroad towns of PA
06:19 An anecdote: my Calif culture & Javier
07:25 Myth-busting digression: Calif Latinos
08:13 Mennonites in Berks County
09:20 Lizzie and her barns full of "stuff"
10:02 PA's history of small rural farms
10:56 Dead steel mills of Bethlehem & Allentown
11:37 Backpacking escape mid-winter
13:08 Photos of water measurement Rodale FST
14:36 The Appalachian Trail
15:07 The Rodale Farming Systems Trial
16:07 Organic zero tillage - Rodale research
17:41 Steve Grof's Cedar Meadow farm no-till
19:02 The sacking of my boss as a result of my dinner party
19:45 Doing dinner parties: one of my favorite pastimes
20:44 Pics of old Kempton Hotel and Archie
21:44 My aborted plan for the Rodale program
22:50 Radio: the way to reach every farmer in
23:14 Rodale hires me to be a traveling journalist
23:27 The trans-Canada trip
23:49 Montreal & Quebec organic farm
24:41 Camping my way west in my Saab
25:11 Defeated by the Canadian mosquitoes
26:18 Hemp in Manitoba
27:17 Saskatchewan huge grain farms
27:57 Back to Vancouver to write articles
28:07 Digression: Canadian borrowing from the US
28:33 California pioneered anti-smoking laws
29:23 Cigarette pack labeling: Canada rocks!
29:56 Digression#2: Tobacco industry strategy
30:12 Climate deception dossiers of the industry
30:49 Public funding of research gutted
31:26 The sowing of doubt as bedrock strategy
31:53 Taking a lesson from the Dutch
32:05 Canada lets us do the decades of fightin
32:27 I visit farms down the Western states
32:46 Washington apples, cherries, then Oregon
33:14 The Palouse and loess soils
33:50 Eastern Oregon organic mega-farms
34:26 Down into California, Frey organic wines
35:00 Into Mexico with the Dolphin camper
35:14 How I got the Dolphin, for $800
36:02 Video tour of Dolphin gets 20,000 YouTube views
37:25 Photos of the trans-Baja drive start her
37:54 Sleeping under the stars, in the Dolphin
39:26 Early Internet: getting Wi-Fiin streets
40:14 The roadside shrines of Baja are special
41:34 The Baja wine country, good wines!
42:10 Jacobs Farm, organic produce, Los Cabos
42:39 The ferry to mainland
42:58 Tequila vs. mescal vs. agave spirits
43:27 Calif agave spirits and mescal now made
45:07 Up to central Mexico
45:28 The patio brunches on Sundays
45:53 Pulque: fermented sap of giant agave
46:16 I get typhoid
47:03 The tragedy of Roberto Garcia
48:35 Mexico City's terrifying police
49:35 The Diego Rivera murals
50:43 The audacity of Cortez
52:24 From Teotihuacan south to Oaxaca
52:57 GMO contamination of indigenous maize
53:54 The science community's bias on GMOs
55:09 I lament re-election of Bush
55:21 Zapotec weaving cochineal dyes
55:40 I keep a pic of me protesting in Feb '03
56:45 Forest coffee in Oaxaca
56:59 The VW Beetle in Mexico
57:52 Terroir and forest-grown coffee
58:04 From Oaxaca to Chiapas then Guatemala
58:21 To Xela then Panajachel
59:07 Catholic priest & coffee Santiago Atitlan
59:27 Coffee finca and production
59:42 Steps in the production of quality coffee
1:01:12 Civil war history Santiago Atitlan
1:01:42 Will and Jane Lotter's work
1:02:13 Will and Jane Lotter work with Families of the Disappeared
1:02:59 Forensic teams excavate bodies
1:03:36 I visit my Mayan family 25 years later
1:03:58 La violencia came to Comalapa in '82
1:04:42 The evangelicals make inroads
1:05:22 A little recognized Mayan food
1:05:42 Amaranth seed - nutritious, abandoned
1:07:03 Costa Rica
1:07:18 To Golfito in a DC-3
1:07:38 Palm trees
1:08:14 Fruit diversity of Costa Rica
1:08:36 Effective Microorganisms & Bokashi
1:09:03 Soccer exposes anti-American feelings
1:10:02 Haiti
1:11:46 Cuba
1:12:00 Cigar-making
1:13:17 The powerful neighborhood committees
1:16:32 The Imperial Valley College story: I challenge any higher ed faculty to watch
1:19:42 The Ag Club fights poor nutrition
1:19:59 Bags of baby carrots passed out at parade
1:20:25 Ag Club wins Club of the Year award
1:22:32 My backpacking trips in Anza Borrego
1:24:28 Debbie gets a Ph.D. at UCR
1:28:03 USDA Fellows program summer 2006
1:29:20 The Pest Control Advisor initiative
1:29:50 A PCA program at Shasta College
1:30:41 My YouTube video on PCA license 18K hits
1:32:50 The cross-border initiative
1:34:04 USDA fellowship in Washington DC
1:34:31 Grant proposals to the USDA
1:35:40 A new design for teaching - 2020
1:38:34 The case for equitability
1:38:58 The 2 quizzes per lecture method
1:40:29 Countering "A stunning level of disconnection
1:41:11 Read these student comments
1:41:57 Thumb piano preview
Chapter 11: Africa Redux: Tanzania 2009-16 (TBA Spring 2024)
Chapter 12: Final Thoughts and Parting Shots (TBA Spring 2024)
Below: sub-chapter links (TBA)
Appendix 1 video: Odds, Ends and Outtakes (TBA Spring 2024)
Did the Cambridge Five spies cause the creation and survival of North Korea?
The incredible Kurdish women who fought ISIS to a standstill in northern Syria. They are a model for what the Afghani women can do against the Taliban.
More Bonga Flava music from Tanzania
Appendix 2 video: The Making of California Boomer (TBA Spring 2024)
Pest Control Advisor exam flashcards MS Word file (I have many requests for this from my 2009 YouTube video)