Lake Tahoe, Nevada/California

In 1973, aged 22 and freshly graduated from the University of Michigan, I was offered a job — my first full-time grownup employment! — as the head of the scriptwriting department of Dae-An Productions, a tiny multimedia house in Carson City, Nevada (at the time the only American state capital without its own television station!). I jumped at the opportunity, of course, and went west, young man, went west.

The company turned out to be disasterously mismanaged, and by the time I'd been there for three months, the whole enterprise went down the toilet. Those were three terrific months, though!

I lived in a pleasant townhouse in Reno and commuted 30 miles each way to Carson City, sometimes by highway and sometimes taking the scenic route up and down Mount Rose. And, sometimes, I'd shoot up to the magificent Lake Tahoe for the weekend. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Many years later, my brother Richard snagged the use of a lakeside condo for a couple of days while Becca and I were visiting California, and the six of us — Richard, Terry, Jacob, Allie, Becca and me — had a blissful time. One afternoon, Becca and I rented a jet ski and roared around the lake, Becca literally screaming with joy and excitement. To this day, she pulls out that memory when asked to identify the one best moment of her life. So it was pretty special for me, too....

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