Allen Eugene Gordon
Brotherly
humor: Left Back - youngest, Leroy (LAHS-62); Left front - Oldest,
Donald (LHS-48); Mom at 92; Allen (LAHS-56) (Present in spirit only
is Larry (LHS-50) in Ariz, 2nd oldest)
Ella
and Allen on our wedding day 7/27/1996
Taken
in 1982
Front: Niece Lisa, aptly named Snoopy, Son Tim, Nephew
Michael
Back: Mom at 80, Allen, Sis-in-law Susie, Son Doug, My
Wife Vickie
Hi classmates: I am Allen Eugene Gordon – “Boston Blackie’s” erstwhile, yet scrawny, wrestler & Mitchell’s infamous saxophonist. Pictured with me are Sasha, one’s best friend & 1983 PIC’s of my 2 sons, Tim & Doug. Confucius said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”. I hope you find my journey and humor enjoyable.
To go to Penn State (PSU) after LAHS, I did jobs cashiering at Penn Fruit Co & as a Pullman Co Car Supplier at 30th Street. Car Suppliers audit Pullman cars’ supplies, collect used stuff, & replace it. At lunch others played pinochle, with colorful jargon & a fist pounding the table to play each card, resulting in some 500 poundings per game & fun trying to read my newspaper.
I had enjoyed Boy Scouts so I began PSU in Forestry, then Accounting, but left after 2 ½ years of many good times. While there, I tried the wrestling team. After I moved up 3 of 16 spots in the depth chart, likely due to attrition, brother Donald advised intramural wrestling which he had won the prior year. I made 2nd place my 1st year but was over weight the 2nd year. I lost at intramural boxing while my opponent broke his hand hitting my head with 16oz gloves. After PSU, I trained as a store manager at Woolworth in Darby, 69th St, & Lawrence Park, went to Widener & Ursinus night schools, & passed PA Life & Health Ins. & USPS Civil Service exams.
I joined Army Reserves for 6 years, with 6 months active duty infantry training. From 2 prior years of PSU ROTC, I began as a PFC, & after 4 active reserve years, I transferred to inactive as Staff Sergeant (E-6). Active duty was at Ft. Knox, on hills named “Agony” & “Misery” (reminding me of some dates then), & at sandy Ft. Dix, where ice cream trucks were at our bivouacs. The reserves trained at the condemned Keystone school in Upper Darby. As Paymaster there the last year I managed a 16,000 man summer camp payroll of $750,000 on typewriters.
In 1965, I married Victoria Fredd (Vickie) of Springfield & Aldan Union Church (AUC). We met when working at State Farm Ins and have two champion wrestler sons—Doug & Tim. Doug works at Merck & is an avid golfer with a single digit handicap. He also builds computers. Tim desired West Point but died in 1983 at 14 when hit by a car. He was a courageous youngster who won many wrestling tournaments against big odds, and always decimated his Father at chess.
Vickie is an accomplished pianist & was AUC’s teen-aged pianist. She is charming, intelligent, & often precocious. Due to difficult early family times, she was abandoned at 2 & was adopted. We divorced in 1992 on my birthday, which she denies any complicity with. She has moved on.
In 1996, I married an equally charming Russian pianist, Ella Victoria, providing savings in cries of passion & monogrammed towels. We exchanged romantic poems & letters & she composed music, which she played & sang by phone from Russia, often in up to 6 languages. I proposed to her by faxing a 9 line poem to Voronezh, Russia in both English & French. She thought I was nuts but congratulated me for only 11 mistakes in the French version. In 6 months we met in Moscow, and I proposed in person. Cultural differences prevailed by 1999 & we divorced. We remain friends & she lives in Horsham where she is a computer professional. Sasha was her gift.
My 2 trips to Moscow in 1996 were exciting for other reasons also. We attended the Bolshoi Ballet, the Moscow circus, the Moscow zoo, had a romantic ride on the dirty Moscow river, visited Red Square & its cobblestones, visited the Kremlin, shopped at the Gum shopping center, visited the Trechekov Art Gallery (about the size of the Philly Art Museum), & had some interesting events that were humorous. Once I saw a sign for burgers & bragged about American food, So I purchased 2 only to find they were pork roll sandwiches—Ah, advertising. On our first day, while walking to the Metro, I stepped on iced tram tracks & lost my footing, fell on my right side, & since she had held my left arm, she came crashing down on top of me. The local Ruskies enjoyed the scene as we picked ourselves up. We stayed with a gracious B&B host whose wife was from San Diego, & he was the excellent cook. While Ella was a great guide, we had 5 fights in those first 10 days. After the second trip we were married in the USA.
In 1960 I attended a Philly technical school, aced the entrance test, & was #1 in my class, from which began a progressive multi-decade computer (IT) career at several locations including tasks within a firm’s business centers or by consulting gigs. While my health is good at this age despite annoying pain in my lower back & left ankle, I still seek these gigs when they are obtainable. This career included operations, programming, requirement analysis, documentation, database management, people management, & project planning, management, & facilitation. My title is: Freelance Business Requirement Analyst/Technical Writer Consultant.
This all provided challenges at several companies, plus other consulting gigs. This typical IT nomadic-like process lent itself to opportunism & involuntary downsizing, often providing the “unemployed actor” image. As needed support, I worked part-time as a cashier and in retail, marketing, customer service, landlord, food service, office cleaning, USPS Carrier, tool & die, & others. I took acting lessons, & was on Unsolved Mysteries once, and also received a casting call to be a Porno movie clerk, which I refused – I still hear the laughter at a suggestion I be the lead.
A downside of this personal & career journey included a paid-off bankruptcy, downsizing of property, low wages, & a one-time step toward homelessness. While this work history is more volatile than the steady lifetime job, I learned much from this experience & look positively at myself and this history. Judge me not unless you have been in my footsteps, as I will for you.
I was re-elected as a president twice for both Certain-Teed’s bowling league & Souderton’s youth wrestling club, where for at least a decade, I was often chosen to be a tournament director for as many as some 400 wrestlers aged 4 to 15 at a time, & their demanding if not sometimes whining parents. Dealing with Souderton’s parents in this environment often made the old 70’s A’s & Yankee’s clubhouses seem like Sunday School picnics.
During this journey, I learned interesting facts about my genealogy. I am 1 of 47 in my generation (43 cousins, 3 brothers, & me). Mom lived to 95+ in 1997 and her Father to nearly 91 in 1948. He was born in 1858 -- before the Civil War, while his Father, was born in 1827 during Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, which is just short of 180 years for 4 generations, with the 4th still active with 26 of us left. Pop’s parents and grandparents were born up to a couple of decades later, also in the 19th century. My oldest cousin was born in 1907 and the youngest in the early 50’s. This history provided interesting knowledge and attitudes.
I am now full circle as a department store sales associate, & at PSU as a food service cashier, where the students adopted me by forming an “Allen appreciation fan club”, that includes “JoPa”. When processing their orders, I simply treat them as my equal by engaging them in personal conversation, encouraging them, learning about them, memorizing their names, joking with them, and wishing them to have a great day. I am recognized & greeted positively where ever I walk on this campus, providing nice feelings while I search for the next consulting gig. “People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave” (or possibly foolhardy).
For some who wonder why I don’t fully retire, being active & continuing to learn are about me, plus the choice is obvious. But if I can someday, I would like to follow some of my oldest brother’s footsteps. He set foot in every European country, plus some of North Africa and parts of Asia. He was a linguist, artist, professional student, & world traveler. Maybe someday! I would settle for a tour of the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, & at least Italy. Or maybe, Tahiti where I could write this story that needs to be told in an informative public way.
Have a fabulous day!
Allen
Allen Eugene Gordon
359 Toftrees Avenue, Apartment 301
State College, PA 16803
814-867-2656
allenegordon@statecollege.com