Ms. Strangelove... or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Architecture... 1/

Part 1... yes, another, not-so-short, multi-part story. Buckle in, folks!

Like "Losing My Religion... partie deux", I think it's time to give many of you more insight into why Jeff is Jeff. This time, from the architecture chronicles... the formative years...

I started college at Iowa State University (ISU... GO CYCLONES!) in Ames, IA in the fall of 1987. I was the first person in my class at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, Rochester, MN to apply and get accepted to college.... late in my junior (3rd) year. It was a HUGE relief. No more religion classes, no more mandatory holiday/feast day observance masses.... no more dress code... no more... no more... no more... A new start, on my own (well, as much as any college freshman is away from home), a secular life, a new adventure!

But, I did NOT start out as an architecture, or pre-design, student. I actually declared Aerospace Engineering as my major. That is why I chose ISU. The home of the Ames Labs... one of the elite public universities connected to the US aerospace industry... and not too far from home... but just far enough.

What?

Let's step back a bit more...

Mom and Pops come from large North Dakota families, which was pretty common in the early- to mid-20th century. One of my Mom's sisters married a friend of my Pops and his big brother... that man, Uncle Dave, would go on to join the US Air Force and become a pilot... flying lots of different aircraft, including bombers, U-2 spy planes, and a variety of test aircraft that eventually became well know platforms in the USAF. From the USAF, he went on to work at Lockheed Martin, eventually settling into the famous Skunk Works division. He never talked to me in great detail about what he did, but I did get to hear some stories about the things he work on, after they became public knowledge.

As a kid, I was interested in swords, knights and kings, horses, fantasy literature, guns, knives, military vehicles and aircraft, war stories, Cold War spy stories and gadgets, sci-fi, space, space vehicles, NASA, race cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, dragsters, demo derbies, monster trucks, THE FUCKING SPACE SHUTTLE, sports (especially ice hockey), etc. I guess was a stereotypical Midwestern US, heterosexual, cis gender, nerdy boy. I was a Gen X child, born right before the moon landing, held in the arms of Mom as she watched the TV coverage of Neil Armstrong and crew, thinking about the possibilities my life might bring. Even in the midst of so much contemporary conflict and destruction, here was something so big, so grand, so beyond most people's knowledge, that it would transform everyone's lives in so many ways we would be conscious of... and completely oblivious to.

I was also the son of a carpenter (no, don't go there... no delusions of religious grandeur, my friends, we've already been through that 😁). I spent a significant chunk of my childhood in my Pop's workshop, located in our very large 2-car garage. I learned how to make things from a never ending supply of scrap wood. I made boxes of all shapes, sizes, and complications. I made swords, bows, arrows, crossbows, bolts, shields, armor, and the like... all out of wood scraps. I made my own downhill cart (similar, but not exactly, like this). I learned how to build cabinets for kitchens, furniture... and eventually, even houses. I thought, for a long time, I might follow in Pop's footsteps, be a carpenter, become a father-son partnership, build homes... but... but... there was the allure of the SR-71 Blackbird... the worlds's most sophisticated supersonic, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft... and Uncle Dave was part of the maintenance program in the early 80's. I was mesmerized, hooked on the prospect of working on such amazing feats of design and engineering. Sooooo FUCKING COOL, no?

Obviously, I was going to go to aerospace engineering school. I mean, c'mon... I had done well in my advanced/honors math and science classes in high school... I'd read everything I could about the Space Shuttle, the SR-71 Blackbird, and all kinds of other air/space craft.

Then reality hit me during my freshman year in the "pre-engineering" program. I was struggling with chemistry, and physics, and algebra... ok, failing algebra. I was in despair... I was gutted... I wasn't smart enough, no matter how hard I tried, to get past the basics, the "weed out" stage of the engineering program, designed to whittle down the thousands of blissfully ignorant students to a more manageable cadre of a few hundred battered souls.

So now what?

Part 2... the saga continues...