Meet the Author of “Baja Diaries-Chronicles of a Paradise Lost”

This is not the first book to be written by George Puckett but it is his first attempt at Creative Non-Fiction at age sixty two. He is the father of three. He has two sons and both are paralyzed. The younger son, Edward, is paraplegic and the older son, Everett, is quadriplegic.

Some of the proceeds from this and other books will fund Everett's visit to Project Walk in an attempt to get him on his feet and walking again. Proceeds will also be used to help with Edward’s graduate school expenses. George also has a beautiful daughter, Alysia Marie, who is a teacher.

In 1962 he graduated from Mitchell High School in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time, this was an all Black school. His teachers were really concerned about the welfare and the future of all the students.

George attended undergraduate school at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in the turbulent 60’s where he was active in the Civil Rights Movement while there. He participated in numerous Civil Rights demonstrations including picketing Lester Maddox’s “Pickrick” restaurant. Mr. Maddox would go on to become  a one term Governor of the state of Georgia. At one point the Klan was on one side of the street and the Civil Rights protestors were on the other.

In the summer of 1964 George was in Atlantic City for the Democratic National Convention where Lyndon Johnson was nominated for President. This was after he had taken over for the assasinated John F. Kennedy. He found himself on a pickett line outside the convention hall demonstrating to have the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Delegates seated. One night he found himsel arm-in-arm with famed Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin, singing "We Shall Ovecome."

He was also privileged to have had breakfast and conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King, along with a dozen other students. The location of these breakfasts was a student center named the Canterbury House and was sponsored by the Episcopalian Church.

After an Honorable Discharge from military service, George attended San Jose State University and became a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

Following his graduation from San Jose State, he attended graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley working towards a degree in Political Science.

He and his wife Tina spent seven years in Baja California Norte, near the town of Ensenada. This book is about those times, good and bad, which they experienced while there.

George Puckett
Author: Baja Diaries-Chronicles of a Paradise Lost

by Kevin Byrd