Childhood



	I was born after the Second World War in Cleveland, Ohio as David Frackelton Gleason. My second given name, Eduardo, was bestowed upon my baptism. Cleveland looks a lot better today than it did when I was there. This was a traditional "rust-belt" city with shrinking opportunity and a significant helping of decay and contamination. I didn't like it! I left as soon as I was able.

	As I grew up, of course, I did not know that Cleveland was where I would not want to be.

	Cleveland's lovely weather, as evidenced in this view, was particularly unappealing. Guess who got to shovel the snow off the sidewalk and entrance?
	My father, Charles B. Gleason, was an investment banker. Following the loss of his bank in the Depression, he became the manager of Lakeview Cemetery, where President Garfield is buried. It is famous for its extensive botanical gardens, in no small part due to my father's interest in horticulture.

	Daffodil Hill was one of my father's inspirations... a long low hillside planted with many dozens of varieties of daffodil.

	Another view of Lakeview Cemetery's Daffodil Hill

	Daffodil Hill... again.

	Lakeview was "home" to President James Garfield... this is his final resting place.

	Entrance to Lakeview Cemetery.

	Family plot lies in this area in the Cemetery

	Here I am feeding the ducks at one of the lakes at Lakeview Cemetery.



	Views of the house and street where I lived till about age 13 when I began "wandering the world."

	View of main building at Hawken School in Lyndhurst, which I attended from grades 1 to 9, and a bit of 10th, too.

	In junior high school, I founded the school paper. This was because the school had no 10th to 12th grade and began "expanding" with my 9th grade group. I founded the paper "because I could."

	The paper at "rival" University School reported on the new Hawken newspaper.
	The name, "The Affirmative No," of course, was a comment on the ambiguous nature of bureaucratic institutions everywhere. The circulation was about 200, but the Alumni Association found it a marvelous fund raiser as long as we did not say anything particularly nasty.
	Below is the masthead from year two of the paper. Year one was done with a spirit duplicator, and no copies survived.

	My first ad sale... a cold call!

	This Coca-Cola ad, a full page at that, was the first advertising I ever sold. It would not be the last. I actually cold called the bottler, near downtown Cleveland, and walked out with a contract.


	A summer was spent at the college-level journalism seminars of Michigan State University, where students preparing to work at college newspapers from around the country took courses and produced a newspaper. I was an editorial writer for the paper, and earned my attractive certificate.


	I spent one semester at Cleveland Heights High School before moving to Ecuador in early 1964. Here is one view of "Heights High" which was conveniently located across the street from WJMO & WCUY where I had been working part-time since 1959.