David E. Greenberg

I grew to adulthood in Bensonhurst Brooklyn New York in the 1950's, and enjoyed all the street games indigenous only to kids who navigated the neighborhood sidewalks - Skelley - home made crate-scooters - It was a fun time for us and batteries were never needed.

My teen summers were spent in the Catskill Mountains, first at a summer camp for inner city lower income kids but then later on in the heart of the Borscht Belt circuit of hotels. Those were amazing carefree times, where comedy was often in Yiddish and hard work was followed by reveling in the Social Hall dancing until I was ready to drop, It was the place where I found my first true love.

In the summer of 1966, in the heat and peak of the Vietnam War, I was drafted into the US Army and served 3 years - first in the infantry and then as a cryptographer (a MUCH better job). Some might conclude it was a horrible set of events, but while stationed at Fort Lewis Washington, I walked into the Jewish Chapel for a party and from thirty-five feet away I saw a young woman who took my breath away. I silently vowed I wouldn't let her out of my sight and three weeks later I asked her to marry and to my surprise she said, "yes." To my greater surprise, so did her dad!

Following my stint for Uncle Sam, I initially worked as a "Staff Page" for CBS. What fun! I worked on shows like Ed Sullivan, What's My Line, To Tell The Truth, The Merv Griffin Show and others. Hobnobbing with the stars and even meeting amazing folks like Walter Cronkite or Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) was great fun, but there I was - a married man - and fun had to give way to actually earning a buck. So I went to work for The Bank of New York on Wall Street to earn a passable income in their Mutual Funds department - well, it was enough to pay the rent.

But life often takes strange and sometimes terrible turns and that was interrupted by the terminal illness of my mother-in-law. Without hesitation, I knew we had to leave the Big Apple and head west to be near her and provide the comfort and care she needed. Once again, timing wasn't quite what it should be and living in the Seattle area after Boeing lost the contract for the Supersonic Transport meant living in a city in the depth of a depression. Breadlines for engineers weren't uncommon. In that environment I did everything I could to earn a dollar - from working the docks to selling Persian carpets off the back of a truck!

Finally, I landed a real job with Dun and Bradstreet as a commercial debt collector. That began a 45+ year career and into a particular niche of international commercial debt collection. My career took me all over the globe and I loved doing speaking engagements at various worldwide venues to talk about the challenges of credit extension and debt collection in the international sector.

During the journey of that career, I also found the time to return to service in the Air Force Reserve, participating through conflicts in Grenada, Libya and Desert Storm before finally calling it a day and hanging up my stripes as a Tech Sergeant. I also spent concurrent time as a pro-bono arbitrator for the The Council of Better Business Bureaus, helping consumers reach a just conclusion to disputes with auto manufacturers and dealerships. Since I loved "maximum busy" I also served on the panel for commercial arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association to render decisions in commercial disputes.

Dun and Bradstreet transferred us down to Southern California in 1976 and that's when I returned to school to get my degree in business administration. That was actually the 2nd time I moved to California - the first was in 1948 when I was 18 months old. Dad tried to move us to Los Angeles to help with my chronic asthma. But after six months of searching for a home in the midst of a terrible housing shortage after WW ll, we had to return to Brooklyn.

Still, this 2nd move to the Golden State proved to be a blessing. In 1981 Nadine and I were rewarded with our adopted son, Nathan, who has remained a central joy to us since then. The year before that, 1980, I began work for another employer - the last of my full time working career and they transferred us back to their Buffalo NY headquarters in 2004. But after a 10-year pleasant life there, we knew it was time to return home to California.

Third time is a charm and today Nadine and I live in Banning California in close proximity to our son and his family, including the apple of my eye - my grandson Noah. Life is good.