I was born on March 3, 1963 in San Francisco, California. I wasn't by myself in this world for very long, as I have a twin brother named Mitch.
I also have an older brother, Bernie and a younger brother, Kenny. Collectively, we are the sons of Jake & Marilyn Stoltz.
I was raised in a house at 215 Monterey Boulevard. It was the home in which my grandmother raised my mother. Right next door was the local neighborhood
grocery store, which just happened to be owned and operated by my grandma, Delsie Fanucci.
I remember that there was always alot of stuff to get into when I was a kid. We played our adventure and combat games at Glen Park , where we also attended Summer Camp.
And we had the best of football games at Balboa Park. I learned how to swim at Balboa Swimming Pool and I can still remember sneaking into the soccer stadium behind the pool
to watch the Club soccer games on the weekends. Right up the street from my house was Sunnyside Playgroundand the Sunset Conservatory . When we were kids we rode our bikes everywhere, so we got around the neighborhood pretty easily.
I started going to school at Glen Park Elementary but was moved to Sunnyside Elementary when I was in the second grade.
But that didn't last long. Someone decided that the two schools that I had already attended and that were walking distance from my house weren't good enough for me and Mitch. No way, not us brainiacs.
We got the distinct pleasure of riding a bus across town everyday to go to John McLaren Elementary School , a school in the Sunnydale Projects. Which is where I did go until I graduated sixth grade in 1974.
I was about nine or ten when my folks bought a summer home in the The Russian River Resort area.
More specifically, they got the world's greatest cabin in the quaint hamlet of Rio Nido.
I still love spending time there. It is where I learned how to fish and camp. I worked as a life guard at the community pool for two of the best summers of my life.
We used to have teen dances on friday nights that we all used to look forward to. And we still do the Chicken Dance every Memorial and Labor day at the Homeowner's Chicken B-B-Q.
Just down the road from Rio Nido is the town of Guerneville.
The Russian River is in the Wine Country near Napa and the Alexander Valley. If you like, you can take a Virtual Wine Tasting Tour.
It was at this time that my family moved to Burlingame. I went to Burlingame Intermediate School. I played football, track, and wrestling and had alot of fun.
I carried these sports interests with me to Mills High School. It was pretty easy going from being a Trojan to a Viking, except Mills had dropped it's wrestling program.
During my time in school I worked a few jobs, mostly to help pay for car expenses. I worked for my dad at the Goodyear store, but I also worked in an Italian restaurant, scooped ice cream, delivered flowers and pumped gas.
It was also during this time that I first meet the love of my life, Theresa Piazza. Lucky for me, Theresa and her clan lived four doors up the street from my family. But we never really dated, although there always
semed to be a mutual attraction.
After graduating from Mills in 1981, I wasn't really sure which direction to go. I went to the College of San Mateo for a while , but I really didn't like it much at all. That was when I enrolled at The Computer Learning Center, where I studied
Computer Operations.Shortly after graduation, I began working in Data Processing as a Computer Operator at
The Gap, Inc.. I worked there for almost five years and served in many positions including Production Control Anaylst and Telecommunications Analyst.
I was living in San Francisco on the edge of the Mission District.
It was at this time that I became involved with The Scott Brothers Band. A good friend introduced me to three of my favorite people,
Marcus, Martin & Reggie Scott . Soon after meeting these guys I started working as a manager for their band. They play the funkiest R&B this side of Motown.
The band enjoyed it's most popularity at the time, working such clubs as The Great American Music Hall and Slim's in The City as well as many other top venues in California and Nevada.
It was also at this time that Dave and I did bookings for Screamin' Jay Hawkins & the ChickenHawks , who were famous for the song, 'I put a spell on you' that was recently featured in Burger King Ads.
It was during this time, the breakup of my first marriage, that I really started to wander a bit, not sure what I should be doing with myself. For a time I was going to school at the National Education Center studying
Ophthalmic Technology. I was also working as a lab technician for LensCrafters , making glasses for folks to see better with. Why they have to rush the job and do it in an hour is beyond me, as it would seem to me that the
emphasis should be on a good pair of glasses, not a quickly made pair. But the public seems to like the idea, so what do I know.
During this time I lived in an apartment near Lake Merritt in Oakland. I really did enjoy living by the lake. I used to take long walks around the lake, it was always so nice.
Shortly thereafter, I moved to Burlingame and started working for Addison-Wesley, text book publishers. Of course, at the same time I was also working part-time for a neat company,
MacUser Magazine. I took full time employment at the magazine, were I spent the next four or so years working in the infamous MacUser Labs.
While all this was going on, my Dad got this crazy idea to open a comic book store with the assistance of Kenny and myself.
It was called Papa's Comics and Collectibles. A couple of years later I bought the store and to this day am still involved in the business. If you like you can visit My Trading Spot
and buy or trade cards.
Well, ya know so much has happened since. Theresa and I got married on November 28, 1992 in lovely Puamana, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. About 40 or so of our closest friends and family shared the event with us.
We have been back so many times I can't even count. We love it there and look forward to returning time and time again.
On November 30, 1993 we were blessed with the birth of our first child. A beautiful little girl that we named Ali Melissa.
She is the brightest little girl on the face of the earth and she amazes me almost every second of every day. Then we were again blessed on December 15, 1994 with the birth with our son Daniel Christopher Clifford.
He is the neatest little man on the planet and is his sister's bestest friend. Just this year Theresa and I bought our first home together, 4445 Esta Lane Soquel CA 95073. I include the address as we do like to make it
easier for folks to send in those christmas cards.
Early in 1998, Theresa and I were lucky enough to purchase a cabin near the Russian River area in a town called Rio Nido, just outside of Guerneville. It's the neatest little place and we intend to spend many wonderful years there.
During the year, I finally pulled the trigger and sold the Titanic, my bass fishing boat of many years, and purchased a '94 Champion 190DC. This is the best fishing boat I've ever been in and I'm having a ton of fun fishing with it. My buddy Zeek, Chris Anderson, and I are fishing The Hook tournaments out of it and having a blast. I also joined a new club, the Norcal Trophy Bass Hunters Club, based out of Folsom Lake. We get together regularly and talk about catching huge, monster sized bass, with a focus on Folsom Lake. We picked this lake becuase their is less pressure on this lake then any other it's size and we generally believe that a potetntial world record lives there and is just waiting to be caught!
Ali started kindergarten following the summer of 1998. She turned 5 this year and is growing up faster then my heart can stand. I say that only because if she's growing up so fast I must be aging just as fast along with her.
Danny is turning into the little man I always wanted. He is the sweetest boy I know and is learning tons of new things everyday. He brings a smile to my face faster then anything else I know of.
Theresa accepted and started a new job workingout of Orinda, CA. For the meantime, the kids and I are living in Santa Cruz, while she is living in San Mateo and commuting from there to work. Our home in Soquel is on the market for sale and we're thinking about looking somewhere in area around Walnut Creek/San Ramon to relocate.
As you can probably tell, I am one of the luckiest men on the face of any planet. It's great to be alive and even better to be ME, zooming into the 21st Century.
I'll update this bio when something new and significant happens. I'll also be making changes in links to this page as the rest of the world becomes more automated.
