I have always considered writing my best  unused talent, but never used it creatively until retirement from academia. Composition skills were developed during childhood in my family's printing shop, which I managed during WWII.

My early childhood was spent in Birmingham, Alabama during the 1930's when economic and social conditions were difficult and complicated. My family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in the 1940's where a different set of values and conditions informed my development during early and late teen years.