RonPrice's Journal

Jul 2012
4:49 AM AEST

A MINOR PLAYER WITH TOO MUCH TO READ

David Halberstam(1934-2007) arrived in Vietnam in the middle of 1962 to be a full-time Vietnam specialist for The New York Times. I was an 18 year old matriculation student in Ontario at the time and hoped to get into an arts degree program in 1963; I knew nothing of Halberstam. I also began my travelling-pioneering for the Canadian Bahai community in that year. I did not come to read Halberstam until I retired after a 50 year student-working life: 1949-1999. In the first decade of my retirement from FT work, 1999 to 2009, I began to read a host of essayists that I never had time to read in my working life as a teacher and tutor, lecturer and adult educator.

My reading-and-teaching load as well as my responsibilities as a member of the Bahai community, as a parent of three children, as a volunteer for various associations from the Lions Club to the Rec Cross, to say nothing of the inevitable social responsibilities that come from family and community activity also kept me far away from the major and famous essayists in the last half of the 20th century. Halberstam was always about a dozen years ahead of me, having graduated as he did in 1955 with an arts degree from Harvard University. I graduated in 1967 with a similar degree and so began my 60+ hour weeks involved as I indicated above until my retirement.

I wont tell you about Halberstams working life, nor mine other than to say: his literary life was highly distinguished. He wrote many books and received: (i) the Norman Mailer Prize in 2009 for Distinguished Journalism, and (ii) the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for International Reporting.-Ron Price, Wikipedia, 7 July 2012. I read what I had to all through my primary, secondary, & post- secondary education: 1949-1967.

My interests began to fly at uni, but there were always so many books that had to get read if one wanted to pass & go to the next stage: & that was the way it was until I became a permanent flier in my role as a college teacher in several schools and universities in the continent of Australia: 1974-99. But I was & never will be in the race with people like Halberstam. I found my niche in the years: 1974 to 2012, but it was always a niche tangentially connected with so many other things in life that I will remain a minor poet, a minor player in the publishing game. On the internet ones writing gets lost among 380 million sites, and 2 billion players: time found in nanoseconds!!! Ron Price 7 July 2012

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Username: RonPrice

Gender / Age: Male, 79

Location: Canada

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About Me: EMPLOYMENT-SOCIAL-ROLE POSITIONS: 1943-2012 2010-2012-Retired and on a pension in George Town, Tasmania 1999-2009-Writer & Author, Poet & Publisher, Editor & Researcher. Retired Teacher & Lecturer, Tutor & Adult Educator, Taxi-Driver & Ice-Cream Salesman, George Town Tasmania Australia 2002-2005-Program Presenter City Park Radio Launceston 1999-2004-Tutor &/or President George Town School for Seniors Inc 1988-1999 -Lecturer in General Studies & Human Services West Australian Department of Training 1986-1987 -Acting Lecturer in Management Studies & Co-ordinator of Further Education Unit at Hedland College in South Hedland WA 1982-1985 -Adult Educator Open College of Tafe Katherine NT 1981 -Maintenance Scheduler Renison Bell Zeehan Tasmania 1980-Unemployed due to illness and recovery 1979-Editor External Studies Unit Tasmanian CAE; Youth Worker Resource Centre Association; Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour Tasmanian CAE; Radio Journalist ABC---all in Launceston Tasmania 1976-1978 -Lecturer in Social Sciences & Humanities Ballarat CAE Ballarat, Victoria 1975 - Lecturer in Behavioural Studies Whitehorse Technical College, Box Hill Victoria 1974 -Senior Tutor in Education Studies Tasmanian CAE Launceston, Tasmania 1972-1973 -High School Teacher South Australian Education Department 1971-Primary School Teacher Whyalla South Australia ----------ABOVE THIS LINE AUSTRALIA AND BELOW THIS LINE CANADA-------------------------------------------------------------------- 1969-1971 Primary School Teacher Prince Edward County Board of Education Picton Ontario Canada 1969-Systems Analyst Bad Boy Co Ltd Toronto Ontario 1967-68 -Community Teacher Department of Indian Affairs & Northern Development Frobisher Bay NWT Canada 1959-67 -Summer jobs-1 to 4 months each- from grade 10 to end of university 1949-1967 - Attended 2 primary schools, 2 high schools and 2 universities in Canada: McMaster Uni-1963-1966, Windsor Teachers’ College-1966/7 1944-1963 -Childhood(1944-57) and adolescence(1957-63) in and around Hamilton Ontario 1943 to 1944-Conception in October 1943 to birth in July 1944 in Hamilton Ontario --------------------------BELOW THIS LINE-----------------------BIO-DATA----------------------- 2. SOME SOCIO-BIO-DATA TO 2011 I have been married twice for a total of 44 years. My second wife is a Tasmanian, aged 65. We’ve had one child: age 34. I have two step-children: ages: 46 and 41, three step-grandchildren, ages 18, 15 and 1, as well as one grandchild aged 3 months. All of the above applies in December 2011. I am 67, am a Canadian who moved to Australia in 1971 and have written several books--all available on the internet. I retired from full-time teaching in 1999, part-time teaching in 2003 and volunteer teaching/work in 2005 after 35 years in classrooms. In addition, I have been a member of the Baha’i Faith for 52 years. Bio-data: 6ft, 230 lbs, eyes-brown/hair-grey, Caucasian. My website is found at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/ You can also go to any search engine and type: Ron Price followed by any one of a number of words in addition to: poetry, forums, religion, literature, history, bipolar disorder, psychology, sociology, Baha’i, inter alia, to access my writing________________________

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