This document is for my sons so that they might get a better understanding of my life's journey
and perhaps in some indirect way better understand their own.

Memories are like snapshots or short film clips which we recall in no particular order. So, it is with this work in progress as I skip around filling in the blanks... All of this is first draft stuff so typos, awkward sentences, etc. are everywhere. 

Texas 1941-1946

I was born in a tent in San Saba on September 25, 1941. A woman named Lizzie Slaughter was to be the midwife, but at the last moment  Dr. Ira Stone arrived on the scene and out of gratitude, Mom named me after the kind doctor. 

My folks were migrant workers, but around my second year my mom met a Warrant Officer in the Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.  Owen Kennedy was in a bar where my Grandma Rosa was working.   When he saw Mom standing outside he asked Grandma who she was and Grandma said, "That's Lucille, my daughter."
     "Mind if I ask her for a date?"
     "That'd be up to her, I reckon."
     Mom was barefoot at the time (and she really doesn't like me telling this part of the story) so Dad asked her out, she agreed, and the next thing she knew he took her downtown San Antonio and bought her a new pair of shoes and a pretty new dress and took her to the officers club. Not long after they were married.
      I didn't realize until years later that the marriage was a boon for me as my new Dad brought cases of canned milk from Fort Sam Houston so I was properly fed.

A few months after my birth, John Green Kelly, my great grandfather and husband of Sarah Jane Kelly, a full-blood Texas Cherokee, was on his death-bed.  He called for me, I was placed in his arms, and then while holding me he drew his last breath and died. I can't explain why, but I've always believed that something passed between us at that moment. As I came to understand in a dream-poem years later, "We are the longing of our ancestors, we are their dream. Through us they dream themselves awake.."
     When the war ended, Owen brought his two children by a previous marriage (Kay and Rusty), to Bastrop, Texas.  We became instant family, and thus began a remarkable adventure.
      And this was a difficult journey as well.  As a part of this new "family" I felt like the odd man out.  Here is how I saw the relationships: Rusty and Kay had Dad, Mom had Dad and me, yet I had only Mom to turn to, confide in and depend on.  Her attentions were, quite rightfully divided between her husband and three children.  Kay and Rusty were resentful of me and perhaps Mom.   Naturally I have a vivid memory of an incident which occurred after hearing Rusty make a comment about Mom.  Being an inquisitive child I innocently asked, at the dinner table, "What does despise mean?"
       "Why do you ask that?" Dad asked.
       "Well, Rusty said he despised Mom,"
       That was the first of several incidents where my innocence, honesty and inquisitive nature got me into trouble with my siblings.
     My earliest memory is from age 2-3 when I decided to add my touch to the decal of little bears with balloons on the inside frame of my baby bed.  Within reach was mom"s brilliant red fingernail polish.  Would you believe, I added my finishing touches to the picture without getting the "paint" all over the place?

On August 29, 1943 I received my first haircut.  Dad didn't care much for my long curly hair which hadn't been cut since birth.  Needless to say I wasn't very happy over the occassion and the photo taken that day [left] attests to the claim.
On the right: Evidently happiness is not a warm gun.

Japan 1946-1948

Going to Japan was like being picked up in a space ship and taken to a very distant planet.  And my memories of that time and place are vivid to this day.  My first impression of Japan was Hiroshima. Our train passed the edge of the burnt landscape that was once the city.  It appeared much like the results of a forest fire with black, charred sticks reaching up out of the ground.
     When we arrived at Kokura (with Nagasaki and Hiroshama 100 miles in either direction) no military housing was built so we lived in  an exotic two-story Japanese home with a rock wall surrounding the compound and a Japanese guard at the gate.

Mom had anywhere from four to six maids, depending upon her needs -- there was one for every task: cooking, sewing, washing, and the main maid we called Toni. [photo right] She was much like a nanny to me and we spent many hours together. She taught me Japanese and I taught her English. Toni entertained me with instructions in origami, and we looked through Japanese books. She would point to something in a picture, name it in Japanese, then I in english. To this day, I frequently pick up a magazine and start from back to front, like Toni showed me.

I remember one evening watching Toni cleaning up the after-dinner mess a family with three children and a house full of maids is apt to leave behind. With astounding deliberation and and patient attention to detail she scraped every pot and pan so thoroughly as she put things away it seemed they hardly needed washing after that.

Mass. 1948-1950

Two events stand out during this period.  Our landlady in Groton was Ms. Peabody. Upon laying eyes on me she said, "My but you're pretty. That's too bad. Pretty children grow up to be ugly."  She must have been a knockout in her youth.  It seemed that for a year or two after that I looked in the mirror for signs of ugly to show up as predicted.  That never really happened -- except maybe to Ms. Peabody.
     The other event occurred when Grandma Rosa came for a visit.  She pulled me aside and in a secretive tone whispered that I was part Indian. Cherokee.   I didn't understand why she wanted me to be so quiet about this remarkable fact until years later when I learned that her mother, Sarah Jane, a full-blood Texas Cherokee had to pass for white to stay in Texas.  Texans weren't very kind to Native Americans back in the late 1800s.

Virginia 1950-1951

The first year we lived on Kirby's farm. A combination tobacco and dairy farm.  It was here I learned with my older brother, Rusty, how to harvest tobacco, hand tobacco (more about that later), and maintain the heat in the tobacco barn while we stayed up all night long laying on the back of a flat-bed truck looking up at the stars, imagining all sorts of stories and keeping each other awake.  Grandma came to visit while we were there and before we knew what happened she had us out picking wild blackberries (thrashing the vines down near the bottom to scare off shakes) and harvesting wild blueberries as well.  The abundance was there all along but it took Grandma to help us find those little hidden secrets.
     The second year we moved into town right across from the school.   The house was a two-story wood frame structure heated by a wood stove that stood in the center of the house. Once Rusty talked me into participating in a little prank.   He had a cherry bomb (firecracker) and said we should throw it in the fireplace, run upstairs and deny any knowledge of what was about to happen.  Sounded like a plan until we actually executed the idiot idea. Naturally the thing exploded immediately and we were so stunned we hardly had time to inhale before Dad was in the room. (He had come as close to being killed by a mortar round as anyone can without actually being hurt during WWII. But the Lieutenant standing next to him wasn't so lucky.)  Needless to say his tolerance of loud explosions was pretty slim. And we received the first of two spankings he ever inflicted on us boys.

Staten Island  1951-1952

Scary.  It was a really big school and the kids all seemed tough and street-wise.  I always had a hard time fitting in and making friends in new schools, but this was the worst. Fortunately our stay there was short lived.

One winter day, with piles of snow everywere I made the short walk to school.  On the way several bit]g boys across the street began throwing snowballs in my direction.  I ignored them, rather than run, and the tactic worked because their aim was way off.   Otherwise I might have actually ran into one of their missels.

I remember vividly my last day of school.  We moved during the year on our way to Blanco where Grandma Rosa lived; after getting us moved in Dad went to the Korean War. 

Anyway, back to that last day.  The teacher, I can't remember her name but she was young and pretty and on my way out of the classroom she pulled me aside and asked me to stay for a moment.   She had me sit on her lap and after wishing me farewell she gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek. Embarrassed that maybe there would be some lipstick on my face I rubbed the spot. "Oh, no," she said, "you're rubbing it off."  I was a pretty clever little boy and without missing a beat I said, "No, Mam. I'm rubbing it in."

Blanco 1952-1953

Belton 1954-1956

Germany 1956-1958

       My junior year (57-58) I was president of my class, vice president of the student council, reported on the school newspaper, treasurer of the teen club, artist for the school annual and lettered in basketball, football, baseball and track. (It was a small school and the football team was six-man.)  For a time I dated Lori Graham (photo left). A cheerleader! She seemed, in subtle ways so much more mature than I. As a remember we broke up, got back together and broke up again. However, she and I have maintained contact to this day (January 2009) and for Army Brats that's quite an accomplishment. Lori recently returned to Baumholder for a visit and emailed me this:

"There is a computer graphics/video class now upstairs in a room at the top of the stairs and the kids interviewed me and
videotaped the interview. Clearly, I am the oldest alum to have re-visited the place. So, you were on my mind a lot during this trip.
When they asked me about what I remembered...specifically prom...I drew a blank and then later recalled that you and I attended my first winter formal together. I remember that well and with much fondness. They asked me about whether I remembered any boyfriends...and I told them that, yes, I do and we are still friends after 50 years. That absolutely blew them away....big deal to kids who have little permanency."

After several unlucky relationships I went crazy for Tammy Burger and we dated for a year.  After I returned to the states she and her folks were transferred to Abeline, Texas.  (lots more here esp. visiting East Berlin before the wall.)

That's me and my classic "ducktail" hairdo on the right watching an Elvis impersonator at the Baumholder Teen Club.

Belton    1958-1959

San Marcos 1959-1960

The Navy 1960-1964

I was a cryptographer at Lemoore Naval Air Station in 1964 when the Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred.  The U.S.S. Maddox and the Turner Joy were operating a covert mission, code name DeSoto, to gather electronic intelligence on The Democratic Republic of  Vietnam (North Vietnam). This was part of a covert U.S. program to apply continual overt pressures mounting in severity against North Vietnam.

The Maddox drew fire from North Vietnam on the 2^nd  of August and on the 4^th the Turner Joy was alleged to have been fired upon.  According to regular briefings in the Pacific Fleet Intelligence Summary [PACFLTINTSUM] –  a secret report which I read and remember well – both ships had been within eight miles, or less, of the shoreline.  Being radio spy ships, there was no advantage in approaching that close – given the nature of radio waves in the area, closer is not better.    

The LBJ tapes at the National Security Archive make it abundantly clear that on August 1 we attacked North Vietnam and set in motion the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.  Speaking to President Johnson, Defense Secretary McNamara said:

“…this Op Plan 34-A, these covert operations. There's no question but what that had bearing on. And on Friday night, as you probably know, we had four  PT boats from Vietnam manned by Vietnamese or other nationals, attack two islands. And we expended, oh, a thousand rounds of ammunition of one kind or another against them. We probably shot up a radar station and a few other miscellaneous buildings. And following twenty-four hours after that, with this destroyer in that same area, undoubtedly led them to connect the two events.”  

After the incident of August 2, a second attack by the North was expected if not desired by virtue of Op Plan 34-A which was to escalate pressure on the North. The Plan, initiated as far back as 1961, consisted of black ops insertions, aerial reconnaissance missions and naval sabotage operations.  

The following conversation is between Johnson and McNamara, on August 4 at 9:43 a.m. -- prior to the second alleged attack.  

Secretary McNamara: …There will be ample time for us, after a second attack, to bring this problem to your attention, and you can then decide how far you wish to pursue the attacker into his base area.
President Johnson: What objections do you have to pursuing it?
Secretary McNamara: With only the objection that if we give such authority, you have, in a sense, lost control of, of the degree of our uh response to the North Vietnamese. If you don't op, exactly what bases will be attacked, where they are in relation to population centers, how much force will be applied to attack them, when it will occur. I, I personally would recommend to you, after a second attack on our ships, that we do retaliate against the coast of North Vietnam some way or other. And we'll be prepared.
President Johnson: What I was thinking about when I was eating breakfast, but I couldn't talk it-I was thinking that it looks to me like the weakness of our position is that, uh, we respond only to an action and we don't have any of our own. But when they, when they move on us, and they shoot at us, I think we not only ought to shoot at them, but almost simultaneously, uh, uh, pull one of these things that you've, you've been doing. [emphasis mine]
Secretary McNamara: Right.
President Johnson: on one of their bridges or something.
Secretary McNamara: Exactly. I, I quite agree with you, Mr. President.  

From the perspective of North Vietnam the U.S. destroyers had been supporting the covert attacks against their land bases for some time and now the U.S. appeared to be escalating the covert action by employing overt offensive air attacks from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ticonderoga.  

On August 4 the confrontation was escalated when a second destroyer, the Turner Joy, was deployed to reinforce the Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. The ships were deliberately positioned 11 miles offshore to provoke an attack. The destroyers received radar and radio signals which they believed indicated another attack by the North Vietnamese. For approximately two hours the ships fired on radar targets and maneuvered vigorously amid electronic and visual reports of enemies. An hour later, at 1:27 p.m. Washington time, the U.S. task force commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick sent a cable in which he admitted that the attack may never have happened and that there may actually have been no Vietnamese naval craft in the area:  

"Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. No actual visual sightings by Maddox. Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken"  

The truth is the Turner Joy was not fired upon.  According to squadron commander and future Vice Admiral and Medal of Honor recipient James Stockdale, who was one of the pilots flying over the area during the alleged attack, there were no enemy ships anywhere in the area.  None of that mattered.  The plan was operational..  

Around 10p.m. on August 4 aircraft from carriers Ticonderoga and USS Constellation destroyed an oil storage facility in North Vietnam and damaged or sank about 30 enemy naval vessels in port or along the coast.  

The following day President Johnson addressed Congress:  

Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. This air action has now been carried out with substantial damage to the boats and facilities. Two U.S. aircraft were lost in the action.  

Based on a lie –  an attack on the Turner Joy –  Congress passed the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” on August 7, 1964 which gave President Johnson authorization to do what he had already done.

Johnson lied to the American people and in his address to Congress.   There were no “further deliberate attacks.” That didn’t matter.  No one in government or the media asked the hard questions.  The President received permission from Congress to “repel any armed attacks against U.S. forces”.  

If you want to start a war you need a reason.  If you don’t have one, make one up.   If there is no imminent danger provoke an attack.  If the attack doesn’t happen, lie about it, get permission, and go to war.     

We attacked them.  They attacked us.  We attacked them.  We claimed they attacked us again.  They didn’t...  In 1965, Lyndon Johnson commented: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."  Thus the tragedy of the War of Vietnam began.  

There you have it.  The incident which taught me to question the government.  Dad always said that we only fight defensive wars.  He believed that and so did I, up until then.  After my discharge I joined the anti-war movement in New York.   When Mom found out she wrote saying, “I thought we taught you better than that.”  And she didn’t write again for another year.   

All this has an important and honorable point.  I have been singled out more than once because of my political beliefs. In San Marcos I experienced vandalism, threats and underwent surveillance.  The administration of the university went around telling my teachers and others that I was recruited by the Weathermen to incite dissent and provoke violence. I later learned that the source of that information came from the head of campus security, a “former” FBI agent at President Johnson’s alma mater.   Also, the head of the Criminal Investigation Division in the San Marcos Police Department pulled me aside and warned me that the KKK had a contract out on me.  I didn't take that seriously until, driving home one evening, the steering on my car was unresponsive.  I discovered that four bolts which held the steering  column to the chassis had loosened themselves simeltaniously.

.

San Francisco 1964-1965

New York City 1965-1970

San Marcos 1970-1976

     My inlaws threatened that if I contested the case they would turn me in to the Veterans Administration.  You see, after Carolyn left I was supposed to report the divorce which would have cut my income by exactly the same amount that I was paying for day-care.  Both my parents and my inlaws recommended that I keep the divorce a secret.  I refused to be blackmailed.  They reported me and I lost the GI Bill. My attorney combined my writ of habeus corpus with Carolyn's appeal (and there is more here).

     I don't know if anyone who has never experienced the death of a child and the kidnapping of another can understand, but I never carried or kept photos of either of them in plain view. They were reminders too painful to see every day.

     As of this writing Dave Kennedy is a staff photographer for the San Francisco Examiner with more than a dozen awards to his credit. His work has appeared in People Magazine, The New York Post, and USA Today, just to mention a few.

     After I returned from winning the court case (with nothing to show for it but bills) I learned I was persona non grata in the Art Department at SWTSU. My liberal politics and co-editorship for The Weather Report, an off-campus newspaper finally exacted its price. Also that semester I helped organize the Student Campaign Committee and ran for City Council. I knew there was no chance of winning; we registered students to vote as our intent was to count student votes to use as political leverage the coming year. We captured thirty percent of the vote.

The following year I ran a second time. That was more than the conservative chairman of the Art Department could tolerate. I was "replaced" by another student. It was during that campaign a student who resembled me had been hired to distribute me campaign materials in moderate neighborhoods, insult people, etc. Two years later I learned from my "replacement" that he was the one hired to distribute the materials. I lost that election by fewer than 130 votes.

With little money to live on and no GI Bill, I quit college and began working for a variety of newspapers including The Austin-American Statesman where I served as a courtroom artist for two trials in San Marcos. Among the other publications I served as founder and editor of an entertainment tabloid "Rumors (Gossip, Lies & Dreams)", writer and artist for TV Scene and a writer for Other News, another off-campus, off-beat tabloid.

The bartop and tables were another spark of innovation. Jeff and the construction manager had harvested huge tree trunk stumps to support the tables. But the tops were another problem. I knew the city sanitation manager (Romero Lugo?) and he informed me that they were hauling away large quantities of wooden pallets to the dump. I asked if we could have them. He agreed with the stipulation that they had to be off the sidewalk within ten minutes. With my promise, they were delivered until I yelled Uncle.

The pallets were disassembled, sawed into strips and with the fresh side up were assembled into the bartop and table tops, then laminated. Before long the place was really looking great.

I hung several of my paintings from my New York days on the wall (you may not know, but back in 67-69 I had two one man shows in NYC and participated in a group show, The Art of Money, in the Chelsea Gallery with such notable artists as Andy Warhol and Larry Rivers). Several of my pieces were stolen out of the Too Bitter so I had to take them down.

Anyway, Jeff was anxious to open, but I wanted to complete the project with a mural on the exterior — I had designed a mural back in my NYC days in the theatre district on the Upper East Side that was 40’x60’. (It no longer exists.) Jeff, being the boss and all, had his way and we opened on on Thursday, October 24, 1974.

Invitations were sent out to hundreds of folks in town and on opening night when the doors opened the music from 2001 filled the room. Very dramatic.

In the beginning we served lunch and everyone was so busy there was no time for work on the exterior. Before long, The Too Bitter was so successful that several problems began to worry me. One was the noise level. I couldn’t stand to be in the place for long so I stationed myself at the entrance checking ID cards to head off another of our major problems at the pass. Meantime, I was hearing complaints from the waitresses that the hanging lights above the tables were being turned off by the customers and it was difficult for the help to make change. I suggested cutting off the chains hanging from lights but Jeff insisted that the customer’s comfort came first.

The final straw came when Jeff held a staff meeting and said that three of us would have to compete for the honor of manager. The other two would have to go. I was relegated to working behind the bar. Needless to say I was none too happy with the situation. Apart from my instrumental efforts already mentioned, I designed the menu, flyers and ads for the place while attempting to insure we weren’t beyond capacity, and other tasks such as meeting with the Chief of Police to keep uniformed officers from their walk-throughs during the evening.

Within a few days I was pretty annoyed and Jeff walked past the bar, turned to me and said, “Smile”. Well that was the deal breaker. I walked around to the other side of the bar, ordered a pitcher of beer and sat down with friends. I quit.

Later, Jeff hired someone to paint a mural on the outside which I considered a disorganized mess with no relation to the interior. Jeff was a brilliant young businessman and a hard worker, but he simply didn’t understand the political and social implications of the image the Too Bitter projected from the outside.

Sometime after that Jeff leased the place and the new operator, Tony Bolieu (sp?) who hired me to design ads for the place. After a time I told Tony that he could publish a tabloid for less money than he was spending on advertising. To make a long story short, he hired me for $100 a week to edit the publication which I named “Rumors, Gossip, Lies and Dreams”. At the time I was working for Bob Barton as editor for TV Scene, a TV guide and entertainment publication. I couldn’t work for competing publications so I quit TV Scene. Eventually, I left Rumors to start my own business, Advertising Unlimited later incorporated as Advertising Diversified.

   P.S. Here is a short list of the bands that played at the Too Bitter: Marcia Ball, Blood, Sweat & Tears (with David Clayton Thomas), Joe King Carrasco, Steve Fromholtz, Greezy Wheels, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Augie Meyers, Michael Murphy, The Neville Brothers, The Police (yeah, as in Sting), Doug Sahm, St. Elmo's Fire, Van Wilkes, Wommack Brothers.  Oh I almost forgot the chick band, Lickety Split.

Marble Falls 1976-1978

New York City 1978-1980

A friend, Skip Bushby, and I teamed up and began working as a subcontractor for interior construction projects. We worked on Bette Midler’s loft although I never met her. One noonhour while all the other workers had gone out for lunch I sat in the loft alone eating lunch when I heard a voice say "Iry". When I turned around I realized I was still alone. Iry is what Mom, Grandma Rosa and other family members called me. When I returned to the apartment on Cleveland Place Suzanne told me she had received a call that Grandma Rosa had passed away earlier that day.

Following that job Skip and I were employed by Diane Keaton for several weeks. She was delightful and as dedicated a person as any I have known. Buy this time I was longing for Texas again and haunted by memories of camping trips at Enchanted Rock. I decided to return. While on the service elevator with Diane she asked me why I was returning to Texas. "That’s where my subject matter is." I replied and she understood. My friends thought I was just nuts. The next job was to be for Dustin Hoffman.

Austin 1980-1981

San Marcos 1981-1983

     After I was there about a week a woman who headed up the public information office for the university tried to get ICJS to fire me.  "You don't know who you hired," she was reported to have said, explaining that I was some wildeyed radical certain to bring disaster or at least controversy to the organization.   I wasn't fired but it was clear that even a decade later and I was still paying the price for advocating such radical notions as encouraging young folks to vote, trying to get transportation for the elderly, a leagal aid facility for the poor and other equally dangerous notions.

Marble Falls 1984-1987

     Highland Publications was another dead-end job.  Getting a raise was impossible. Being salaried meant no overtime (I was putting about 60 hours a week) and our young son Brian was being shuffled about by two working parents.  I quit after about six months and began free-lance writing and painting.  During that period I was published by Texas Highways and Texas Monthly. Soon our son Kevin was born and I became known as "Mr. Mom" because I worked at home, took care of the house and the children.

     I don't think anything ever irritated me more than being called "Mr. Mom" while Suzanne was "Super Mom". Forget that I was being published in major magazines, winning national awards in journalism, being interviewed by TV and radio stations about Enchanted Rock and selling paintings for $1,200 to $1,600 each.  And taking care of baby Kevin.  Because of Suzanne's position as editor of  The Highlander we attended numerous functions and the word was out. I was the care-giver of our children. I was Mr. Mom. That was that and it came up everywhere we went and it set the tone for the way I was treated socially, which is to say the men pitied me and the women envied Suzanne.

Austin 1988-1990

     I can remember so vividly how hectic it was when they were with me and how desolate when they were gone. One evening they left their toy cars and men on the floor poised in some kind of unfinished game. I stared at the arraignment for hours undecided as to whether I should put them away or leave everything as it was and pretend they were just in their bedroom sleeping.

     Knowing that my first child died and my oldest son David had been kidnapped by his mother and disappeared for a decade, Suzanne promised me she "would never take the boys away."  In 1989 she and David moved to Sacramento taking the boys with them. Although I was allowed visitation three or four times a year, sometimes for several weeks, it was agony.  It's been a decade of frequent tears and good-byes. It's more than a soul should bear. And we carry the scars that never have a chance to heal.

     Finally, I found work at The American Botanical Council where I was brought onboard to convert a newsletter into a magazine. Five years later the magazine HerbalGram was a full color quarterly publication with international distribution — from Australia to Zaire.

Enchanted Rock 1990-1995

     When I brought up the subject with my boss, Mark Blumenthal, he said, "Well it looks like you're going to need a fax machine and computer."   Everything fell into place.   I signed the lease and was preparing for the move when on the way home from work on Hwy 183 in North Austin I had a wrecked my car while trying to avoid a wreck.

     The police officer was very understanding but issued me a ticket anyway for an illegal lane change. The other car wasn't damaged at all but my year-old Geo was a mess.  The officer said I should go to traffic court  and get the ticket dismissed while informing me that he wouldn't be able to be there because he was going to Desert Storm.  Well that worked and as luck would have it the Chevrolet dealer in Austin agreed to let me trade the wreck in for another new car as long as I didn't make an insurance claim. ( I learned later that if there is no claim there is no wreck and the car could be repaired and sold as used to another unfortunate buyer.)

     I moved to the 680-acre XLN Ranch next to Enchanted Rock and was somewhere between the top of the world and heaven.  I had to attend meetings once a week in Austin but the rest of the time mine. I worked mostly in the evenings so I could explore the ranch while looking for arrowheads and taking pictures of The Rock and the surronding area.

     While living there I met Beverley [left] at party in Fredericksburg.  She was then living in Santa Fe, NM.  After a few months of phone calls and visits we married and she moved to the XLN.  The marrage was one of those which started out with greatest promise and ended within a year.

     After five years at the ABC there were no new challenges. I was bored again I resigned. But now with no job and no prospects I moved into a travel trailer and with some $75 to my name started Enchanted Rock Newsletter. Before the year was out it was Enchanted Rock Magazine and within five years it had distribution in 124 Texas counties and 26 states plus subscribers in Germany and Australia.

     After years of research on Enchanted Rock and fullfulling requests for educational talks on the place I not had a magazine and the opportunity to begin publishing the history I had begin in 1980.
     Then, almost overnight, most of the parks employees decided I was an advesary. It begain when I started getting letters complaining about the hostile or indifferent treatment visitors were receiving from the employees.  I called Sony Solis, a longtime friend and the supervisior, and told him what I was hearing.  He said that I should ask for a meeting with the staff and tell them directly.  I did. Big mistake.

     Now I was really on the outs and not long after the t-shirts I had been selling were discontinued and that revenue which helped finance the fledgling magazine was gone.

    I'll never understand what really happened.  I know the place was understaffed and overworked and my promotion of the place only exacerbated the issue. Strangely, my offer to recruit volunteers was soundly rejected.       Then came the Clyde Bellecourt controversy. (more)

Llano 1995-2000

     When I was a journalist back in the late 80s I covered city council and chamber of commerce meetings as well as court trials and local festivals in Burnet and Llano counties.  Back they I always said Llano was the last place I would ever live.  After moving there I decided, yes it would be the last place and I intended to become a very permanent resident.  But after five years that all came to an abrupt end.

     Sometime around 1997 I met Holly Scott and she moved in with me and hung in there for about five years.  She was very instrumental in getting me to get my work on the Internet and later set up my domain name registration and web hosting business.

     My computer which I had inherited from the American Botanical Council started to crash -- it had terminal alzhimers and there was  nothing to do but spring  for new equipment.  The internet had been getting my attention so I begain reading anything I could find on the topic.  In Llano that meant buying the extremely limited number of magazines on the topic. (Understand, you couldn't even buy a dictionary in town.)  Within a few months I had the computer but we were living two miles from the nearest telephone line on the second dirt road to the right.  Holly contacted the phone company and two months later she managed to badger them into dropping in a land line through miles of granite.

     Once everything was in place I designed my first site www.texfiles.com and I must tell you it was one of the biggest thrills of my life. And with that I began building a very extensive community web site.  I had a page for the local movie, museum, real estate, lodging, restaurants, history, etc.  A TV station out of Austin saw the quality of the site and traded TV advertising for a link to their site.  I was on top of the world.

     Now here comes the bad part.  After my site was up the local Economic Development Council hired Glocal Vantage a consulting firm out of Austin to promote tourism and the first and practically only thing they did was create a dumb and ugly web site and give away free sites (pages) to local businesses. I protested.   Talk about unfair competition.  I took out a half page ad in the Llano News explaining what I believed was happening. I was threatened with a law suit while being subjected to a petition to take off all the information about the controversy I had posted on the Internet; and there was even a letter writing campaign to Centeral Texas Electric Co-op, my Internet Service Provider to dump my site.  CTEC decided I was not worth fighting over.  While they didn't drop my site I lost all of the subcontracting work I was getting from them for web design. 

     Then the city manager invited me to a council workshop to discuss the issue.  When I arrived, with my young son Kevin ( I wanted him  to see democracy in action ) I was told there would be no comments from the audience. What transpired was nothing less than a kangaroo court. I became the topic of discussion among the City Concil, the Development Council, and Glocal Vantage. Misrepresentations, half truths and outright lies were being tossed around. I raised my hand slightly in a weak effort to defend myself. One of the development members who had already threatened to put me out of business if I spoke up against any issue he held near and dear turned abruptly around and shouted "Yes Ira." Someone sitting next to him placed their hand on his arm to calm the angry man down and the meeting resumed.  I  walked out with Kevin.  When we returned to the ranch I told Holly what happened and she said, "It's time to move."

     It only took me 24 hours to agree.  I understood I was an outsider and that would never change. A few months earlier I sold Enchanted Rock Magazine to a competitor. I was again persona non grata in a community and the years of groveling it would take to erase that was, as you probably understand by now, not in my nature. I integrated llanotexas.com into texfiles.com and in the process much of the community informaion was deleted. It took us until July 1 find a place and move move to San Marcos 

     I learned a really hard lesson in Llano.  Despite publishing the first magazine ever to come out of that community and promoting Llano at every turn with articles and ads; and then creating a community web site at my own initative I was still a marginal member of the community. No one stood up publicly in my defense. I didn't belong and figured never would.

San Marcos 2001-2003

Llano 2003-Present

In January 2006 I met Kathy over the Internet.  After several weeks of phone calls we finally got together and since then we have been as inseperable as a four-hour drive between us permitted.  I had never left the country on vacation, ever.  Back in 1964 I was told by a palm reader that if I stayed "in the arts" I would live a long live and die in a forgien country. Kathy had been to Isla Mujeres, just off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, before and wanted to return -- with me.  What was I do to but take my chances?  It goes without saying I lived through the adventure and had the most incredible experience. The highlight of the trip was dinner on the beach -- literally. At my request a table was set up just a few feet from the water, tiki torches and candles, courteous wait staff in attendance... like in a movie.

Kathy and I were married in Santa Fe on September 25, 2008. After all these years I have finally found a vital and loving relationship. Kathy's sense of color, from flower gardens everywhere to remarkably creative decisions on how to paint the interior of our home was transformational. She moved in with me at Triple Creek and after we fixed the place up, painting all the rooms, installing a new kitchen floor, etc., L.C. announced that he was selling the place. Kathy insisted that we start looking for another place right away, which seemed a little overanxious. But, as usual, she was right. Through her work at Edward Jones we located another place in the country. Bigger & better without all the dirt roads. Naturally we painted every room, refinished the floors, laid a concrete paver patio in the back yard, on and on....

While I still work for others on their websites, after a decade of that I am pretty bored and moving onto other adventures. And though I promised myself I would never do anything professional in print again I am (as of November 2009) starting another magazine: Lone Star Quarterly. I reckon I have ink in my blood...

To be continued...

Postscript
About my children: Lisa was cremated and buried in the wind near Mount Vernon. David in a photojournalist in San Francisco. Brian is in the Air Force stationed at Seymore Johnson AFB; and Kevin is living in NYC with his mother.

     Lisa lives only in my memory along with the one and only brief smile she ever managed. David is on the brink of a remarkable career in photography. Brian is off on the adventure of manhood. Kevin and I now talk via phone most every day although our visits are becoming more and more infrequent.
     The greatest anquish of my life has been not to have known my biological father, learning to love my father, Owen, late in life, and the separation from my sons.  I had always promised myself that if I couldn't manage anything else I would at least be a good father.  The kind of father I always wanted.  As it's turned out I haven't been able to be much of a father at all.

     Setting aside all my losses, and all the injustices real or percieved. I have been blessed. Lisa's death made all  life precious. And my three sons are fixed in my heart as surely as Orion's Belt is fixed in the heavens.

     From my earliest memories art and poetry have served as my closest companions. As they serve me, I serve them. And from that I know this:  It is only through the Arts we reach our highest potential as humans.  And what greater honor can there be beyond service to that calling?

     And my sons remember, although this voice will not last forever, I live a longer life through each of you. Look in any mirror and I am there in many subtle ways. Look into your hearts, look deeper, into your souls and I am there as well, for you are of me. My poets. My sons.    I love you boys, with all my heart. Dad.

 -30-

Born in a tent near San Saba, Ira Kennedy is a fifth generation Texan of Cherokee-Irish descent. Growing up in numerous locations from Japan to Germany, his experiences are as diverse as his talents. Ira served as a cryptographer in the U.S. Navy, exhibited with Andy Warhol in New York, and received several writing and photojournalism awards in Texas.
     He also received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Texas Parks& Wildlife Department for providing numerous educational talks at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Feature articles by Ira  have been published by Texas Monthly, Texas Highways Magazine and Texas A&M Press. 
     Considered as the state's leading authority on Enchanted Rock, the  sacred mountain of Central Texas, Ira has assisted the authors of several published books. articles and the Thomas Evans mural in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.  Ira was also featured in the Austin Chronicle, The Highlander newspaper in Marble Falls, The San Marcos Record, and the German magazine Spotlight, as well as segments on KLRU-TV, KTBC-TV,  "The Sound of Texas," with Tumbleweed Smith, and the syndicated TV program Texas Country Reporter (video "Bob Phillips Tours Texas State Parks" available at their website).
      Formerly the publisher/editor of Enchanted Rock Magazine, Ira currently designs web sites for Hill Country businesses and organizations. For a free one hour consultation E-mail Ira and he will provide an estimate based on your individual needs.

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