On Wednesday April 1st the Manor hosted a welcoming day for a large group of wait-listers for a prospective apartment. The objective was to share some of the activities and social benefits of living at Cascade Manor. An added sharing was a book reading by eight resident authors from the Manor–each author read a segment from one of their published books.
The authors who shared a reading were L-R front row: Lina White, Barbara Pope, and Janet Hardy. L-R back row: Sakre Edson, Bob Pierce, Ted Hewitt, Barbara Walker, and me.
I gave a brief back story of the origins of Two Faces and read a brief segment from Chapter Thirteen titled “Farewell Movie Disaster.”
Gordon is a Nisei, a second generation American of Japanese descent born in 1938 whose family owned a farm outside of Atwater, California in the San Joaquin Valley. His world was abruptly changed when on December 7, 1941 Japan’s Imperial Navy launched an early morning attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus began a chain of events that resulted in his family’s forced evacuation and internment in a “relocation center” in Colorado during the war.
After the war Gordon spent his teenage years in school and working on the family farm. He attended U.C. Berkeley and graduated in 1960 and went on to the Graduate School of Social Welfare at Berkeley earning a Masters in Social Welfare in 1963. He worked in a number of social service settings and last worked as a case manager for developmentally challenged clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin Counties until he retired in 2000.
When his wife Barbara retired in 2007 they moved to Eugene, Oregon following their children and grandchildren. Gordon lives with his wife of 55 years and close to the four grandchildren and life is just good.
Journeys of a Bent Mind 