Editor's preface

This is a narrative by and about my father, John Lewis (Jack) Everson. During the period 1942-1945 I was in the Naval Reserve and was away from Oakland for most of the time. During this time (1) he contracted cancer, from which he eventually died after unsuccessful surgery, and (2) perhaps acting on my suggestion, he started reviewing his life and writing it down as he remembered it. He was bedridden for the last year or more of his life, and the process of life-review at least helped to ameliorate the tedium of this period. He died in the summer of 1945; I was stationed in San Pedro at the time and was unable to attend his funeral. At some later date, I hurriedly typed up his manuscript, but not much was done with it at the time. Partly because it might be of historical interest to members of the Tribe and partly because of awareness that my own time is running out, I retyped the rough draft with more attention to the editorial process. For the most part, it is reproduced almost verbatim; editorial changes were pretty much limited to shortening long and unwieldy sentences and eliminating redundances.

To summarize very briefly: he ran away from home at an early age after a quarrel with his father. He hit the road and became a tramp, a lifestyle he describes here in considerable detail. Along the way he spent time in a reform school and a jail or tow, travelled widely, acquired a considerble variety of skills and vocations, was married three times, and finally settled for a reasonably successful conventional career as an automobile insurance agent.

As for his basic nature and character, you will have to decide for yourself. He certainly, and admittedly, fell a good awys short of moral perfection. Still, I must marvel at the variety of experience he managed to crowd into his 72 years. My personal recollections are of a highly intelligent and affectionate man who, despite his faults, was a kind and loving parent who taught me much and shared with me music, baseball games, mushroom hunts, fishing trips, and a considerable degree of intellectual comraderie. I'm willing to settle for that.

Editor
October, 1992