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

"Becoming a Scientist, Part 2" Chapter 9 Click on the time to go to that part of the video. 

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-chaptersClick 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)