I knew I wanted to be an artist, and one memory that sticks out was when we had to do book reports. I barely remember any book I read, let alone what I said about them, but how I worked and worked on the book report covers! I would draw a scene from the story, being very careful to color within the lines. Sometimes, I would spend days drawing and coloring the cover, and I probably threw together the actual report in an hour. I wish I still had some of those covers – I was very proud of them.

Around Los Alamos, there were also all these canyons where Danny and I would play. Our home was near the Tech Area, the most top-secret facility at the site, and some of its waste water would come down through the canyons. I would lie on my stomach on a rock and gaze at that water for hours. It had the most fascinating iridescent colors floating on top of it, like swirling ribbons of rainbows that would flow (or ooze) down the soft current. Sometimes I would take a stick and draw figures through the shining kaleidoscope.

Thinking back, I shouldn't have gotten so close to those brilliant, metallic colors that reminded me of candy. I’m fairly sure they were toxic and perhaps radioactive, but as a kid...how I admired those colorful currents.