Introduction: THE GLOBAL JOURNEY
Ron McFarlandは、いすゞ自動車やユニカで海外営業として世界中で営業活動を行うとともに、
営業教育など海外営業拠点の強化にも貢献してきました。
日本に興味を持ち上智大学に留学、日本人女性と結婚し、日本に30年以上も住んでいます。
1948年生まれのRon-sanがその70年の人生を振り返っています。
では、その生い立ちから。
*******************************************************************************************************
In this book, I would like to take you through a global journey, my journey over the past four decades. It is a journey not only of travel, but human interaction and understanding. If we can better understand each other, we can learn ways we can be helpful to each other. If we help each other of issues that are greatly needed a great deal can be achieved. If we try to be helpful in areas where there is no need, nothing will be achieved. In some cases, it could even be counter-productive.
Therefore, I dedicate this book, any my life for that matter, to this going of expanding global interaction and understanding.
Chapter #1: THE EARLY YEARS
ロンさんの幼少期と家族
Starting life like any other child, I was born in San Francisco on March 1, 1948. I was there the tune of six months, as the family then moved to Grass Valley, California. My father worked for Bank of America at that time, and he was transferred to a bank branch there.
Elementary School Picture
That is really where life started for me. We had a nice house, big yard and bigger German Sheppard dog, Skipper. We were in Grass Valley only about four years, but some memories always come back of my time there. One was my strong desire to wonder in the woods behind our house. I would be playing in the back yard and for no reason at all would wander out the back gate and toward the woods.
There was a large pond up an unpaved street in the back of our house, and I loved going up there and watch the ducks and birds play around in the pond. After going up there repeatedly, I gradually learned the terrain quite well. After a certain period of time had passed, Skipper and I would widen our domain a little further into the woods.
As time passed, I had a good feeling of all the nice little hid-outs and play areas in the hills around our home. It would scare my Mother to death when she would loose track of me. Many times, with Poison Oak all over my arms and legs, I would wander home after exploring the area.
I was no more than four years old at the time, and that desire to explore is something that has stayed with me all of my life. For me, those adventures were more valuable than materials things. The desire to explore has led to me travel the world over from the US to Europe, to Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. As of the current count, I have been to over 80 countries worldwide, many repeatedly.
At the age of about 3-4 years old, my father’s Air Force Reserves unit was activated, and he went off to Japan during the Korean War. Interestingly, he went to Misawa Air Base in the northern part of Japan. I visited that exact area over three decades later.
When he came back, things were never the same. My parents divorced, and my Mother, sister and I moved from Grass Valley to Sacramento, California. My father was transferred to Sacramento and my mother wanted us to be close to our father. To make ends meet, my Mother took a secretarial job at the State of California right in Sacramento.
After a very short time in Sacramento, my father was transferred to the Bank of America Head Office in San Francisco. So, the closeness to our father did not stick. I was 4-5 years old at the time, and would only see my father occasionally when he was able to get up to Sacramento.
As I look, back now at my parents, I always wonder why they were ever together. My father comes from a broken family in the Mid-west. He did not grow up in a happy family, and when he went away to do military service during World War II, he never returned for any time to his home town and direct family. To my understanding, all communication stopped with his family, or more precisely faded out in the preceding years. By the time I came along, there was simply no family contact on my father’s side at all.
My mother grew up on the poorer side and a very well to do extended Jewish family in Miami Beach, Florida. My grandfather traveled a lot, so, my grandmother was pretty much responsible for raising their four children on her own. My mother was the second oldest of the four children. She didn’t like the competition, the pressures of the religion applied by my grandmother and all the financial concerns. So, when my father came along during World War II, she was happy to make an exit from Miami. So, with the divorce of my parents, even my father himself was 90% gone on his side of the family, and there was only a weak, distant link on my mother’s side of the family.
So, here I was with my mother, sister and a very distant family on my mother’s side in the East Coast of the United States.
Ron McFarlandは、いすゞ自動車やユニカで海外営業として世界中で営業活動を行うとともに、
営業教育など海外営業拠点の強化にも貢献してきました。
日本に興味を持ち上智大学に留学、日本人女性と結婚し、日本に30年以上も住んでいます。
1948年生まれのRon-sanがその70年の人生を振り返っています。
では、その生い立ちから。
*******************************************************************************************************
In this book, I would like to take you through a global journey, my journey over the past four decades. It is a journey not only of travel, but human interaction and understanding. If we can better understand each other, we can learn ways we can be helpful to each other. If we help each other of issues that are greatly needed a great deal can be achieved. If we try to be helpful in areas where there is no need, nothing will be achieved. In some cases, it could even be counter-productive.
Therefore, I dedicate this book, any my life for that matter, to this going of expanding global interaction and understanding.
Chapter #1: THE EARLY YEARS
ロンさんの幼少期と家族
Starting life like any other child, I was born in San Francisco on March 1, 1948. I was there the tune of six months, as the family then moved to Grass Valley, California. My father worked for Bank of America at that time, and he was transferred to a bank branch there.
Elementary School Picture
That is really where life started for me. We had a nice house, big yard and bigger German Sheppard dog, Skipper. We were in Grass Valley only about four years, but some memories always come back of my time there. One was my strong desire to wonder in the woods behind our house. I would be playing in the back yard and for no reason at all would wander out the back gate and toward the woods.
There was a large pond up an unpaved street in the back of our house, and I loved going up there and watch the ducks and birds play around in the pond. After going up there repeatedly, I gradually learned the terrain quite well. After a certain period of time had passed, Skipper and I would widen our domain a little further into the woods.
As time passed, I had a good feeling of all the nice little hid-outs and play areas in the hills around our home. It would scare my Mother to death when she would loose track of me. Many times, with Poison Oak all over my arms and legs, I would wander home after exploring the area.
I was no more than four years old at the time, and that desire to explore is something that has stayed with me all of my life. For me, those adventures were more valuable than materials things. The desire to explore has led to me travel the world over from the US to Europe, to Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. As of the current count, I have been to over 80 countries worldwide, many repeatedly.
At the age of about 3-4 years old, my father’s Air Force Reserves unit was activated, and he went off to Japan during the Korean War. Interestingly, he went to Misawa Air Base in the northern part of Japan. I visited that exact area over three decades later.
When he came back, things were never the same. My parents divorced, and my Mother, sister and I moved from Grass Valley to Sacramento, California. My father was transferred to Sacramento and my mother wanted us to be close to our father. To make ends meet, my Mother took a secretarial job at the State of California right in Sacramento.
After a very short time in Sacramento, my father was transferred to the Bank of America Head Office in San Francisco. So, the closeness to our father did not stick. I was 4-5 years old at the time, and would only see my father occasionally when he was able to get up to Sacramento.
As I look, back now at my parents, I always wonder why they were ever together. My father comes from a broken family in the Mid-west. He did not grow up in a happy family, and when he went away to do military service during World War II, he never returned for any time to his home town and direct family. To my understanding, all communication stopped with his family, or more precisely faded out in the preceding years. By the time I came along, there was simply no family contact on my father’s side at all.
My mother grew up on the poorer side and a very well to do extended Jewish family in Miami Beach, Florida. My grandfather traveled a lot, so, my grandmother was pretty much responsible for raising their four children on her own. My mother was the second oldest of the four children. She didn’t like the competition, the pressures of the religion applied by my grandmother and all the financial concerns. So, when my father came along during World War II, she was happy to make an exit from Miami. So, with the divorce of my parents, even my father himself was 90% gone on his side of the family, and there was only a weak, distant link on my mother’s side of the family.
So, here I was with my mother, sister and a very distant family on my mother’s side in the East Coast of the United States.
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます