At the risk of ending all speculation and inviting the slings and arrows of a disenchanted public, it is time to tell the true tale of WordyDave. Guessing is a fun sport, and mystery the spice in the play, but it's time to educate those who haven't yet been told or figured out who in the world this guy really is. The Scottish Skinners left a not-so-jolly England in the early 1700's, setting foot on the land of New Jersey. They had enough money to buy property in south-central Pennsylvania and lived (and many still live) in Horse Valley just west of Chambersburg. By the mid-1800's they had moved to Cincinnati, then Des Moines and Davenport areas of Iowa.  For reasons now lost in history, my great-grandfather headed for Northern California, where he lived in Santa Clara while working for the Municipal Railway. And then for some strange reason (I'll posit the guess that he fell in love with the Templeton and Atascadero area and the chance to work for E.G. Lewis as a ranch foreman) he brought his family to Templeton. So Templeton is really the center of life for the bunch of Skinners who came from Iowa. They went to Templeton and Paso schools. Some married Templeton spouses and then moved on. My grandfather bought property on the Broad Street end of Lawrence Drive in San Luis Obispo. My dad was born there.

BACK TO THE PR-USA HOMEPAGE

Dad couldn't wait to get married and out of the house, even though he was only a few months from graduating from Cal Poly. He and my mom moved to Paso, trading one set of in-laws for another. You may remember Mom's folks, the Cockrell's, who lived on Beverly Drive, Jess and Grace.  My sister, Ginnie, was a few years old then. My brother, Marty and I were born while the family was enjoying Oak Park right after the War. We fought our own war in Oak Park, of course. A great place to learn all that Kindergarten stuff about how to get along with others. Right! We and our friends were Paso's first gangs, minus the graffiti, knives, guns and tattoos. Our parents would have killed us. Swear words and black eyes were the trademarks of delinquency then. So this is the WordyDave who went through all the schools in Paso at the time, enjoyed the greatest teachers and friends, stayed out of trouble most of the time, graduated from high school Magna Cum Nothing in 1964, went on to two colleges, migrated back to Paso, worked for Ennis Business Forms, moved to Stockton CA in 1972, traded atheism for Christ the next year, still likes going to work at K/P Corporation, will be retiring in 2022, is so grateful for a wonderful wife, daughter and granddaughter, and who now looks like he needs to color his hair. Now you know the rest of this little story as the real Dave Skinner stands up.