First off, be warned that I am a writer, and have been one since the tender age of 12. Riding in the 'way back' of our family station wagon, I contemplated my future as I watched the lighted billboards of Aurora Avenue sail by the windows. I thought about what I wanted to do for a living, and what would involve the least actual work. I decided to be an artist. By simple deduction, since I have no inherent talent for drama, dance or drawing, I settled on writing.

The die cast and the decision made, I have practiced my craft, albeit in ways haphazard and slightly irreverent, for many years. Most of my most formative spent in the once dozing and down-trodden Center of the Universe. Raised in Fremont, I fully expect to die here, eventually.

When it comes to Fremont, I am full of it. I make up part of a new and growing social order - second-generation Fremonsters (as locals 'round these parts like to be called.) I can be seriously Fremo-centric (a belief that the world revolves around Fremont) but it is our credo here at the Fremont Chamber that I take most to heart - De Libertas Quirkas (The Freedom to Be Peculiar).

It may be no wonder after so many years here (a lifetime) I have
developed a near expertise in all things 'Fremont'. For one thing, since the beginning of the Fremont Chamber, in 1982, I have been regularly and frequently pressed into service. What began with stuffing, stamping and collating newsletters at an early age led, inexorably, to my answering their ad, in 1992, for an Executive Secretary. In true Fremont fashion, a year passed while the Chamber Board deliberated, dallied and did whatever it is they do, and in 1993 they succumbed and hired me.

It is in that time, Jim Daly, founding editor of the Chamber newsletter, The Bridge, christened any lectures I insisted on writing for him as Kirby's Korner. After serving five long but glamorous years, I gave up the job to younger, more self-sacrificing servants. It is a time I look back upon with much wonder and confusion…I did what?

Besides time spent with the Chamber, I have also served as Secretary/Fun Committee Chair/Archivist for the Fremont Arts Council and Secretary/Phone Answerer/Board Member for the Fremont Neighborhood Council. Neither ever provided as much adventure as the Chamber. Oh, except that one time at the FAC with the blue paint…

To sum up, since every good introduction must end and even this pathetic attempt will eventually, I hope you will find me and my little corner of the Chamber provides a unique point-of-view and a strange but fascinating curiosity. Just like Fremont