The Confessions of My Youth

From being a dirt farmer in South America to the heights of California Society, from a promiscuous lifestyle to the peace of Christian life, this is the story of the first thirty-four years of my life. While some sought money, fame, or education, or some other goal, I sought the experience of life, and to the best of my ability, I was a seeker of the Supreme Power in that experience. This story is factual according to the perceptions I’ve encountered and remembered. In a phrase, my father, Howard Orville Caldwell, lived the Grapes of Wrath. He was born in Oklahoma, and during the Great Depression, when his father’s job at the local zinc smelter ended, the family moved to South California: Grandpa, Grandma and the three children. That was in the thirties. Dad grew up, went to school, and worked in South California when Los Angeles had only a few hundred thousand people. There was a definite division between rich and poor. Marlon Brando, then Bud Brando, was in the same public speaking class as my father in junior high school. Marlon was one of the rich, Dad was of the poor. This story begins there.