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| Some interesting facts on PETA |
Howdy. My names Dave Russell, and
folks up here in the northwest, where I've been for the last decade or so, hung
the handle Griz on me. I was born and raised in the mountains of northeastern
California - Alturas, in Modoc County, to be exact. (Any of you other Modocers,
stop on by the Modocers Home Page, and
say "Howdy"!) I graduated from Modoc High School in Alturas.
Now, this is a long way from Los Angeles (though not far enough
for us!), so don't go gettin' the idea that I was raised a city boy. In fact, I
was probably 10 years old, before I was in a city bigger than Reno, Nevada, and
thirty some odd years ago Reno wasn't all that big as cities go. The Modoc
county economy is based on agriculture, mostly beef and hay (alfalfa and grass
when I was growin' up), so I spent a lot of my time around the ranches. Many I
mile I put behind me on a horse, either moving cattle, or riding the trails.
Never did learn to rope worth a hoot though. Being six feet six inches tall, and
weighing around 230 by the time I was 15, it seems that I always ended up on the
ground crew at branding time. Never could figure out why.
My family goes way back in good ol' Modoc, I'm pretty much related to everyone on both sides of the hill. (In case your wondering, "the hill" in this case is the Warner Mountain range, which reach up nigh on 10,000 feet.) My grandpa on my dad's side was a buckaroo. He was also a pretty darn good bronc rider on the local circuit in the 20's and 30's, until his foot hung in the chute one time. Anyway, I always had a soft spot for the saddle bronc competition. Put on a few exhibitions my self, but they were all of the unplanned variety.
The other side of my family hailed from the Willamette valley in Oregon, and pretty much ran to logging. They have been in the valley from the 1850's, so I come from a long line of westerners on both sides. If you know anything about westerners, this means that I come from a long line of ornery SOB's, that would stand by their family, or a good friend, come hell or high water.
Anyway, as I said, I've been up here in the Pacific Northwest for pretty near twenty years now, working in the computer game. Managed to get me a daughter since I been up here, so its been worth whatever I had to put up with. Met some pretty darn nice people up here, but it's too crowded and too wet for my tastes. One of these days soon, I'll light a shuck for someplace else, probably Wyoming (anybody out that way that needs a good computer jock, both hardware and software, give me a holler).
Anyway, thanks for stoppin' in...
