Mitchell Block

I'm living in Humboldt County with my wife and three year old daughter. We have an old funky farm house on a couple acres. We love it up here.

I wandered around for much of my early adult life. Dropped out of Pierce College, and moved to Silverlake where I got a job working for an Art Director. Also played guitar in the house band at a pretty happening drag bar in West Hollywood called The Limbo Lounge in the mid 80s. I seemed to have knack for flirting with drag queens. Eventually the band broke up, and I took off with a band called the New Marines as their guitar tech and toured the country for about a year on a 1948 Trailways bus. None of us knew how to drive (or repair it) when we got started. It was a great adventure. Came back to L.A. Felt trapped and depressed. Hopped in the back of a friend's pick up and headed to Alaska where I ended up spending a bunch of summers building, fishing, and partying.

Finally went back to school at Humboldt State and after 11 combined years of undergrad at Pierce, LACC and HSU (One of my Dad's favorite stories is when his friends asked him what I'd be when I graduated, he'd say senile...yuck, yuck) got a degree in Botany. Worked as a botanist in summers, and moved down to Wrightwood to teach outdoor ed for L.A. County Office of Ed. Teaching kids outdoors let me see how all kids can thrive in an educational setting, so I went back to HSU to get a Masters and a Pupil Personnel Services credential and now work as a school psychologist.

I remember sitting next to Paul Dzilvelis in Mr. Logan's 7th grade science class bored out of my skull, and saying to him, "I will never be a teacher, and I will never be a scientist." I think about that moment every time I say never.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you all in Sept. My gratitude goes out to those of you who have put your energy into making this happen. I find myself checking this site daily to see who has checked in. I'm riveted. Later!

Snapping jock straps for lineup in Vinyard's class, running the mile, staring at myself in the mirror the night my grandma sewed my junior patch on my P.E. shorts. Riding the beach bus all summer, boogie boarding, Dog Town and Vals Go Home, riding bikes till late at night down Ventura Blvd, being grounded, smelling weed for the first time seeping out the vent of the dark room in Marquez' class, Ms. Madsen's thick make-up, Mr. Argue's drafting class, "I'm the only ruler around here", the electric shop teacher "Mr. Resistor" with insanely thick fingers, playing warball and getting beat to a pulp on the way to the wall, my favorite T-shirts in seventh grade...One said "Express Thyself" and had a granny giving the finger, another said, "Making Bacon" with a drawing of two pigs having sweaty and pretty graphic relations. Oh, and being panic stricken when a girl I liked liked me. Ahhh, the good ole days. Can't wait to relive em!