It’s been quite a journey. Born Richard Bruce Baron on January 1, 1955 at 12:22 AM delivered by a doctor who came from a New Years Eve party. Now it’s time and important for me, to let others like yourselves, hear about my life from the source. Who else can say they’re approaching 70 years old with a new chapter yet to unfold in their life, governed by a threatening disease like Parkinson’s and all that it has to offer? Yup, I pulled the Big P, the winning ticket, somewhere somehow. But I am not here today looking for answers why or pity but much more. I want to provide inspiration and strength to others either fighting Parkinson or any other detrimental health disorder. How can I help others on their journey facing disease and the challenges it brings? Let’s try to find out together.

In fourth grade I got kind of used to the bullying and I wasn’t real happy (See next blog). I had a girlfriend, Janice Treano (who sadly has since passed) and I kissed her on my front porch. She was great. One day my dad brought home a bunch of boxes for the family to use to pack for our summer trip to Onset, MA (more on Onset later!). Somehow I began banging on the boxes. The Beatles had just appeared on Ed Sullivan and “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” tunes were monopolizing the radio waves. I played on these boxes like I was Ringo’s first cousin. One night I was playing with the upstairs window open and the tough kids were walking up my street. They heard me playing, stopped and went nuts! They yelled and applauded me. Soon after the bullying stopped.
My parents got me drum lessons and found me a great teacher. What gave me a lot of confidence was his comments. He asked me to try and play “Wipe Out” and I knocked it off for him. He said someday I would be a great drummer like Buddy Rich. That stuck with me ever since. I have been playing for 61 years.

 I was kind of a rock star in first and second grade in Taunton, MA. My dad’s furniture store lent my school, Maxim Elementary, a few B&W TVs to watch the “Special Report” of astronauts blasting off live from Cape Canaveral to new horizons in space. During those days I was proud to have a connection to it all. I had a crush on my second grade teacher, Mrs. Baker, so it was a perfect scenario. I had a lot of crushes back then…a little ahead of my time I guess. I also loved playing with rockets (and planes, cars, and plastic monster models) at home. That led me eventually to discover magazines like Famous Monsters, Mad Magazine and drag racing periodicals (remember “Rat Fink”?). I really enjoyed reading. It was kind of like food. My mom even got me a subscription to Newsweek (and later Time). She also signed me up for the Columbia Record Club where I received a new record a month! She bought me a lot of things. Friday nights my dad worked until 9 pm and my mother and I would meet him at “the store” Baron Brothers, run by my dad and his brother Bob. One night she bought me an Adam’s trick “Sneezing Powder”. I blew the powder in my uncle’s face when he wasn’t looking. He wasn’t real happy about that.

There was a certain mystery to rockets and space for me. How was it possible to fly into the heavens? What if the rocket bumped into God along the way? What would the conversation be? “Hey God, we’re having a blast up here, tee hee“.

Around that time I can still remember the announcement at school that President Kennedy was shot. In my eyes, I felt like we weren’t in “Kansas anymore” but some darker chapter unfolding for all to see. They let us go home early that day. It was traumatic for many. But like any other kid, it was an “Oh well” and life went on.

My closest sibling was my sister Marsha. She baby sat for me when needed and was always up for watching a scary episode of The Twilight Zone with me. Once she got to high school and later college, I didn’t see much of her but we could alsways catch up on the phone.

I had my share of bullying like most of us I guess. It doesn’t surprise me now as we were the only Jewish family living comfortably in the neighborhood. “Project housing” was, located nearby and I remember how tough some of the kids were. To help settle the bullying situation, my mom planned a birthday party at the local bowling alley and invited some of the project kids. I wasn’t very good at it so my mom pressed the pins reset button when the tough kids were winning. That didn’t help. The name calling got a little worse. But I stumbled on a solution: Drums!

Every summer around the end of July, my parents planned a trip to Onset, MA, not quite on Cape Cod but close. We would pack up dad’s huge furniture truck, usually with me in the back with our collie “Lassie”. It reminded my friends of the Clampetts. Every summer, they would have a hotdog eating contest where my brother Howard would gladly enter. I think he won once.
I can honestly say the Onset years were the best of my life, meeting Jon Roberts, still great friends to this day and his cousin Jack Freedman for the first time, playing pinball, setting up a”miniature golf” in the backyards, singing along to the Woodstock album, dating, drinking a little too much, etc. etc. There was a band shell in town and the township scheduled a talent night every week. I thought it would be cool for the three of us to perform the Beatles “You Can’t Do That”, using small oars as guitars. Jackie stepped in at the last minute, said we were nuts. Smart man.

My close friend Kevin Harpin from Taunton used to stay with us for a week or so in Onset. One time he brought down Don Rickle’s “Hello Dummy” album. I laughed so hard I chipped my tooth on the bed frame.

“At the end of 6th grade, my mom decided she wanted the family to move to Boston, West Roxbury specifically. It was a nice suburban house with a deck, basement bar and smelly cedar closet. Before we moved in, I stayed with my oldest sister, Arleen, who lived with her husband Bobby in Roslindale I think, a moderate distance to West Roxbury. My mom contracted a taxi to drive me back and forth to school. Problem was he also drove challenged kids in the same cab and the four of us sat in the backseat, getting food and sticky drinks splashed in our faces, combined with a slap or two on the head. No harm done except when I got out of the cab, I tried to hide my face like a perp criminal. Fellow students knew better.

Back at our new home, I met some kids in the neighborhood, nothing too dramatic but what stands out was my first 7th grade science project. I grew fruit flies in a large glass jar and was proud to carry it into school. Seems a neighbor’s kid didn’t feel as thrilled as I did and knocked it out of my hand, shattering the jar on the sidewalk. Bye bye fruit flies. The teacher was understanding though. Later that year, my brother Howard joined the Marines and was shipped off to Chu Lai in Vietnam. He was wounded in his leg by the Vietcong a short time after, laying on the battlefield close to 24 hours till a helicopter picked him up. He got a Purple Heart. He was sent to Boston’s Chelsea Naval Hospital to recuperate, and left with a limp and a brace to wear the rest of his life. He died a couple of years ago which we all think was Agent Orange related.

I continued to read a bit more, books like Death Be Not Proud and Black Like Me kept my  interest.

The middle school had its issues. A kind of urban prison “motif”, there were bars on most of the windows. Trouble makers could get “The Stick”, a large piece of wood with the inscription “Board of Education.” Kids fought alot and we use to watch some of the planned matches after school. I made some friends. Ilyan Kuory was a Lebanese friend who comes to mind. He called me “The Good Jew” as opposed to the other Jewish kid who wasn’t too popular.

Lassie came with us to West Roxbury but didn’t live too long. She was completely out of her element: yards were different, scents changed, dogs barked at her, plus she was getting old. I miss her still. It wasn’t till I got a family dog, Teddy, with my wife and son in Lafayette Hill that it felt the same. I used to confide in Lassie like she was my Mom.

At some point a new neighbor moved in, Steve Nordblom, who became one of my closest friends. His Dad ended his life years prior so it was just Steve, his Mom and sister. Steve got into Boston Latin but ended up at Brookline like me. Even more of a music fan than I was, he turned me on to classic blues musicians like Howlin Wolf, Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Sadly, Steve passed away from alcoholism over 20 years ago.

Mom signed me up to attend Brookline High School though we didn’t actually live in Brookline. I couldn’t get in to Boston Latin and Boston English was the next best thing. But it was a city school and mom probably thought it wasn’t safe (it was not). So they paid a modest tuition for me to go to Brookline. South Brookline was nearby and I could board the bus pretty easily. No more wild cab rides with the challenged crowd. I had lots of friends in high school though I didn’t attend area middle schools like Baker and others or new anyone prior except for Jon Roberts but I made it all work. We would hang out at a local pocket billiard place, Campus Cue. I didn’t play so hot but Jonny was a contender.

Sophomore year I had a party while my parents were away for the weekend. It went “viral” back then in ’69 and the house was packed with tons of kids most I didn’t even know, smoking and drinking, you name it. Yaaah, but the party helped feed my dream to be popular. I had arrived (I thought). The day after the party, friends helped me clean up the mess but as you would expect, we didn’t catch everything. One kid hid pot in the basement heater. Butts were everywhere. A golf ball (used as a hockey puck!) ended up in the living room. If you knew my mom, this room was her pride and joy. I didn’t even sit in there. When they found the ball, my dad chucked it at me and almost took my head off.

Scholastically, my marks were so so. I still loved reading though, especially classic English lit like the writings of Poe, Boswell’s Life of Johnson and contemporary American writers like Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe and all of Kurt Vonnegut’s work. So it goes. Mad still had its place, so did R. Crumb and now Rolling Stone magazine. Dating, hanging at Putterham shopping center, and having fun were my priorities and I paid for it later with poor grades, low SATs and settling for a non competitive school like University of Hartford-more on that later.

It was senior year of high school and decision time: Am I going to college? If so, where? I got in to two schools: An unknown school Ricker College in Maine and University of Hartford in West Hartford CT., which I settled on and stayed for a two year stint. It was a school popular with the Long Island “five town” crowd because it was easy, had its share of big parties and a relatively short commute home. Those years were largely uneventful for me. I met a girl at the pool room in my freshman year a bit older and wise beyond her years. I was impressed I could date a junior. I delved deeper into my English studies, declaring English lit as a major. Sophomore year I joined a group of friends to “streak” thru campus one night. It was funny as we ran around with our wankers hanging out. But someone thought it would be funnier to lock the dorm entrance so we couldn’t get in. Reminded me of the fruit fly event back in grammar school!

I did get to see some great bands. A friend was the student head of events and he booked a little known band at the time, E Street Band led by Bruce Springsteen. They were amazing-I was right up front. Bruce wore a hat and reminded me in style and tone like Sinatra. I had a lot of time on my hands in those years because I wasn’t too into social things. So I took a Part Time job at the local record store and volunteered at a crisis hotline, Roots, where I met a lot of locals and helped some troubled souls by talking thru their drug issues. I had a good friend at the time at Hartford: Peter Heimlich, whose dad invented the Heimlich Maneuver. UofH did have a decent film department and I got to see some memorable movies like “Z” and The Seventh Seal. I transferred to Syracuse University with plans to start in August 1974. I thought a more recognized school name on my resume might help me in the job market. I found later I was correct. I returned home during holidays and gave a ride to a nice girl I met from Milton. She used to talk about her old boyfriend who stalked her back home. Years later I was working at a Kay-Bee toy store and picked up the Boston Globe newpaper. I read she was murdered by the guy.

 Syracuse felt more like a traditional college: huge student body, crazy sports followings for basketball and football, intensive curriculum.Food trucks would pull up to the dorms every night and served “Cheese Jaws.” Star basketball players Rudy Hackett and Jimmy Lee lived on my dorm floor. They were SU royalty. Senior year I moved into a small apartment in a development called SkyTop. I had four roommates, nice guys who came from in and around NJ and NY. As I was not much of a sports fan, there wasn’t a whole lot to discuss but I made it work. I also connected with a great guitarist, Ivan, who played a white Stratocaster like no other.Years back Manly Gym was a small gym not far from SkyTop. We would set up on the lawn in front of Manly, just the two of us, and rocked out on songs like the Outlaws’ Green Grass High Tide, Marshall Tucker Band’s Can’t You See, Allman Brothers-just about everything they wrote. Cars passing by would just stop and watch us. I loved playing drums with talented musicians. There was always a connection for me. Soon, frats were calling us to play at parties and we obliged! They paid us in beers.

After my SU graduation in ’76, I faced the hard reality of figuring out what I was going to do with my life. I wasn’t ready with an answer. I figured: why not join a rock band to kill time? I did just that, joining first a Syracuse rock band playing mostly KISS covers and later a disco band. I liked disco back in the day. I had the whole look: a silk Huckapoo shirt, platform shoes but no neck chain! Was this a life I wanted for myself, a creative English lit major? Not really. As disco faded after the “Disco Sucks” riot, I was ready to start something new. The band life was OK but the money stunk and I had enough of the leaking ceilings, no food money touring circuit. So I moved home to West Roxbury with my parents, living in the basement till I found a place. An interesting side story: The day I returned home, my parents were travelling. As I was unloading, the Boston police paid a visit, surprising me by sticking a gun in my back as I was carrying in my stereo. Seems a nosy neighbor didn’t recognize my car and thought I was moving furniture out not in! It got sorted out when I proved I knew my parent’s names (on the envelopes near the front door). Good thing they weren’t trigger happy.

At the time I worked on the retail floor at a bunch of retailers by day while haunting the Boston discos by night. Many of the clubs repositioned their messages from rock to disco. I adjusted accordingly. I heard about a management trainee program at Jamesway Discount Stores, a now-long gone 65-store chain with HQ in Secaucus, NJ. I interviewed and got the position. A ton of hours yet it was doable and paid pretty well. Traditional discount retailing was hot at the time and we were doing great. I worked at stores all over the East coast: Watertown, NY, Hightstown, NJ, New Hope, PA, Culpepper, VA and more.

But other than designing merchandise displays, preparing for circulars, chasing birds out of the store in the middle of the night, calming customers when an advertised item was out of stock, management work wasn’t too creative or challenging. So I tried something new-Each day we were directed to play prerecorded audio cassettes over the PA system. I had an idea: How about I create a fictionalized store detective who was “searching” for the best store deals. Every day I’d promote a new deal. Customer’s loved it. A Jamesway exec heard about it and eventually helped me get a new position at corporate as the Sales Promotion Coordinator. I loved it! I was involved with all chain-wide events! Presenting on live TV, having “Hands Across America” participants connect through a store parking lot, staging huge grand openings with fireworks, hosting celebrities like Miss America and lots more. To me as I look back, the experience was heaven! What was great about Jamesway was the philanthropy aspect (See “Charities” below in the blog). We supported tons of causes and community outreach as well. I was right there in the middle of it all. One event was called “Call Santa.” Kids of all ages would leave a voice message for Santa and it was all coordinated by me manually. We got 100’s of responses. This was the pre-digital age!

It was a Friday night and I was still working in the Jamesway stores, this one was in New Hope, PA, when a good friend, Duff Orleaman, asked if I wanted to go with him to the Fort Washington Holiday Inn. “Lots of chicks” I remember him saying. It was September, 1981. So, yea why not? Tons of girls, indoor pool, great live music, it was perfect. As I was carefully scouting the floor, I saw an attractive girl near the dance floor. I imagined she was looking for someone to dance with, maybe.The lead singer had this cartoon-like afro and it gave me a good opening line: “See that singer up there? That’s my father,” I said. Ha ha, she and I laughed and danced. “Celebration” was the song. She asked me back or I followed her back to her table, met her sister Joy and friend Sherry. Real nice girls. It was getting late and Duff had to leave, so I took a chance and asked for her phone . But I didn’t have a pen! I kept repeating the phone number on the way back to the car. Luckily, Duff found a golf pencil and golf scoring card to write on. That was how I met Lisa Linton over 43 years ago!

My parents did the best they could with me and I thank them for it. I wasn’t a deliquent but I had my share of craziness: huge parties, trips to NYC with friends in the middle of the night, Combat Zone visits, riding in car trunks, hitting my dad’s basement bar, etc. etc. If they only knew! My Mom and I were pretty close-I was the last of four. She was always pushing me to read more and play more drums. She made me a special dinner when Dad was at work: cold roast beef with gravy! She got me a subscription to Columbia Record Club and I would get an album a month. Wow! She also got me into the police marching band in Taunton. She always looked on the bright side of life. But as she aged (like my Dad) I took advantage of the situation in high school.

Memories of my dad always revolved around food. We would take trips into Boston to see the great  Boston Celtics, but first we would stop at legendary boiled hot dog stand Joe and Nemos, next the Union Oyster House Restaurant for dinner, see the game than back to Joe and Nemos for one more dog with relish. There was never enough food. My dad cared about others: Baron Brothers had a driver’s helper, Jimmy (an alcoholic) who my dad helped when he didn’t show up for work. My dad gave me something important: A charitable nature for those less fortunate, something that never left me.

A great part of my retail experience was the support of charities. At Jamesway alone it was the Muscular Dystrophy Association (above that’s me and my assistant presenting a $175,000 check to Tony Orlando and show host on live TV in New York during the MDA Telethon), March of Dimes, Hands Across America, Trevor Ferrel Homeless Support and many more. I’ve also done work for Special Olympics, Sertoma (world’s largest BBQ at the time!) and others. It always felt right and good. Today, I am a Rotarian and member of a group in King of Prussia, PA called RSVP who provide services like marketing and board creation to nonprofits. I also recently completed training to become a Parkinson’s “Ambassador” for the Parkinson’s Foundation. That will be fun! I can setup tables at parades, downtown events, speak to groups like Rotary and more to spread the word about Parkinson’s.

With my new job at Jamesway headquarters in Secaucus NJ, I needed a house in an area with a reasonable commute (stiil an hour and a half!)Trenton fit the bill. Our first home was a row home like above and located directly across from the Junior High. It wasn’t unusual to hear a firecracker or cherry bomb go off in front of our house. Kids would gather on our porch like it was an airport lounge. We complained to the school but then the bombs started raining down again. This of course happened while I was at work and Lisa dealt with it. If items in the yard weren’t bolted down they would end up missing like our new B&D Trimmer was seen once and never heard from again. Our neighbors, Bunny and Nick, were nice though the husband said to us once: “Don’t be surprised if you see me in the second floor window with a rifle (just in case its needed)! No surprise there. He was our own personal Archie Bunker. But the greatest life changing event that happened by way of Trenton was the birth of our son Justin. The apple of our eyes, he has been truly a blessing to our lives. I’ll never forget  the day he was born and being in the operating room when he arrived! More  on Justin later!

 We moved to Lafayette Hill and later to Lancaster for family reasons and job opportunities-I continued down a retail marketing path working as the marketing head at the headquarters for SpectAthlete/Showcase, Avellinos, Ollies, Forman Mills. I never was too great at taking directions, especially from bosses, I thought, had less experience and know-how than myself. That got me far! But I also was seeing the writing on the wall that retail was on life support and “everyone will be on the web.” So I taught myself how to use computers especially for spreadsheets like Lotus and Excel with the help of Lisa’s friend David. I dug deep into computer how-to books at the Norristown Library. I also had the opportunity (via sister-in-law Joy) to use my first PC, a “Portable 486c” Compaq PC with 4 MBs of ram and 126 MBs of drive space. I loved it! This was around the year 2000 or 2001. I was also learning the ins and outs of web development.

In Lafayette Hill we found a great house a stones throw away from Lisa’s family home. We overpaid for it on purpose. It was perfect!

Later, we brought our new Samoyed “Teddy” home from the breeder (papers to attest to his breed). The dog loved to dig, chew on Justin’s toys and take off especially at night. It wasn’ uncommon to see Lisa or myself with hands full of cheese and salami slices trying to lure Teddy home. What I loved about Teddy was that he was like a friend to play with, especially hide and seek, Frisbee though he didn’t catch very well! We had lots of friends-Lisa grew up in town and new a ton of people. I used to call her “The Mayor.” It was nice having Lisa’s parents nearby-Lil and Jack were the sweetest people!

I got a Head of Marketing job with Ollies and we packed up and headed to Lancaster. What fun!

Teddy Baron on the stoop of our front door during a storm. Neighbors would say “all is good” when they drove by and saw Ted peacefully sitting there. 

Lancaster was a great move for us. We found a new construction home in an up and coming neighborhood with everyone around the same age. Justin had close friends right across the street and others nearby. Lisa and I made close friends as well. The Hempfield school district was topnotch and Justin thrived in it. Lisa and I pushed to get Justin into top courses. Justin also joined a team for an organization called Odyssey of the Mind, an international creative competitition. They made it to Regionals and Justin won the “Omar Award”, a distinguished award for good sportsmanship (a judge overheard Justin helping a nervous competitor prepare). Lisa’s ad specialty business, InSight, was thriving with large accounts like Scott Paper, Snap-On Tools, etc. I was having fun at Ollies. A neighbor, Craig Arnold, invited me to join Sertoma, another service club well known in Lancaster for producing the “World’s Largest Chicken BBQ” (150,000 half chickens served!). We worked all night cooking the chickens-on the way home one year, I fell asleep at a traffic light, awakened in time by the blare of car horns. There were tons of neighborhood parties, holiday parties, chili parties during snow storms, Halloween Night Drinking Pit Stops, Luminaries for Xmas, golf outings. We loved Lancaster!

Forman Mills was quite an experience for me. Large media budgets,  Philadelphia Eagles sponsorship, long hours, and one of the smartest and toughest boss I ever had. I still remember my drive home and hearing the ranting and screaming about anything that was on his mind. I would have to pull over and sometimes it took an hour or more! The Rick Forman bootcamp (or PTSD-RF) I would call it. I learned alot! But it got to be too much so I pretty much took the first marketing head job I could get which was Work N Gear. We relocated to Hingham MA and this situation was eventually somewhat worse than Forman. The company was losing money from day one and there was little I could do except keep vendors at bay. It lasted about a year or so and we moved back to Skippack PA. It was around that time I started the business WhatsNet https://www.whatsnet.com
focused on digital and traditional marketing for small and medium size businesses and marketing agencies. Had some success over the years but
not a ton. Since Skippack, we moved to Ambler, PA and its been fun. Justin is in LA and is hugely successful with his book keeping business. His girlfriend Samantha is wonderful and we are seeing them both out here in early January.
All is not 100% rosy however. About two months ago Lisa and I were sitting at a redlight and then boom out of nowhere we got rear ended by an 18 wheeler. I had some aches and pains but Lisa is still recovering and being treated! Then prior to that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

According to the official definition “Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a brain disorder that causes movement problems and other symptoms.” Symptoms include:

• Shaking, especially in the hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face
• Stiffness in the arms, legs, and trunk
• Slowness of movement
• Poor balance and coordination
• Difficulty walking and talking
• Mental and behavioral changes
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Memory difficulties
• Fatigue

  Very fortunately, at this stage I am not seeing or feeling most of these symptoms. Sleeping has always been an issue in my life. Back when radio broadcasts were the primary media for boxing matches, my dad didn’t miss a show. But these broadcasts kept me awake often. For years I blamed my poor sleeping on so many outside sources. Maybe it was PD?  Most of us who have heard of PD think of Michael J. Fox and his symptoms. But he unfortunately was struck early in life. Right now I am keeping up with the meds, signed on for PT and ST (speech therapy) and waiting for a cure to come knocking. And it will!

This experience has been a bit lonely. I have a very loving wife and son that have been so supporting and continue to do so but ultimately you’re on your own. The worst is when insomnia sets in late at nght/early morning. Sometimes I take a walk at night near our house. Its so quiet except for a car or two but I recommend it cause you can listen (and act on) your thoughts a lot clearer. Plus the walk helps with some of the symptoms like stiffness and soreness.  But if anyone is wondering, in comparison to others I meet with the disease, I’m doing great!

Some days you have an ache in one leg and the next day its the other leg or arm. Insane randomness. Like Whack-A-Mole!