MICHAEL'S BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

1951. I am born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on August 6th, exactly 6 years to the day after the first atomic bomb is dropped on human beings. Mother is from Plainville, Georgia and father from Buffalo, New York. I am a hybrid - yankell or rebee. They name me Michael Jerome Ellis and I will live in this Manhattan Project Atomic City for the next 18 years. But the radiation doesn't affect me, doesn't affect me, doesn't affect me, doesn't affect me, doesn't affect me...

1954. In March my little sister, Pam is born. During the summer I have my first car wreck in a nice 1952 red Ford. We are heading to Florida for a vacation. I break my leg. I don't remember.

1956. I begin Kindergarten at Glenwood Elementary. A small milk costs 2 cents. There is plenty of time for everything. Mrs. Pearson, Miss Arnot, Mrs. McGehee, Miss Sutherland, Mrs. Bruce, Mrs. Worthington. I remember all my teachers. Mr. Fourney is the Principal. I like school.

1957. Memory. On a rainy day my mother is ironing and dancing to Elvis Presley on the radio. The announcer says something about an Iron Curtain. I try to visualize this; my mother doesn't help much. I break Pam's arm while playing horsy. I claim it is an accident. For the next six weeks she hits me with her cast.

1958. My dad and I go fishing a lot together. My mom makes me an insect net. I catch pretty butterflies, kill them and pin them in a box. This is the beginning of my interest in nature.

1959. The air space restrictions are lifted over Oak Ridge. I remember seeing airplanes for the first time.

1960. Hullahoops invade on our neighborhood of Euclid Circle there are 50 kids in the Berry's yard all doing the hullahoop.

1961. I get a telescope for Christmas. I charge the neighborhood kids 5 cents to look at the moon. I realize that I can make money off nature, career path is fixed. My dad buys one of the very first Volkswagen bugs in Tennessee. I think we are real cool and I wave at other VW drivers (there are very few). My dad takes me on my first plane ride, a Piper Cub. We fly over Oak Ridge. I cannot recognize anything from the air.

1962. In the summer many kids catch fireflies, freeze them and sell them once a month to a guy who collects them for John Hopkins University for a professor doing research on bioluminescence. I make money again off nature.

1963. On Friday, November 23rd we are planning to have our very first sock hop at Jefferson Junior High School. There is a new music group called the Beatles we are very excited about. I am planning on asking Carole Johnson to dance. But then Oswald goes and shoots the President. The sock hop is cancelled. Adult stuff interferes. I have a paper route and mow yards for $$$$.

1964. On vacation in Florida I buy a Frisbee and bring it back home. No one has ever seen one but we are having a great time with it. In the fall my dad tells me that I have an older brother. I never knew that my father was married before my mom and he had a son named Jeff. Not only that but we are leaving the next day to go see him at the University of Florida where he's a student. I am amazed and delighted to suddenly have an older brother. I buy a Sting Ray bike, shoot a lot of pool and snooker at Barnes Pool Hall, smoke cigarettes in public and think I am very cool. I stop crying for next 8 years.

1965. Rock n Roll. Mustangs and GTOs. Girls, whose boobs are growing, are mysterious creatures that will perplex me forever.

1966. First drinking bout. High school angst. I don't really fit in any clique and am very small and young looking. First real job at Myers Camera Store.

1967. Hey Jude and drivers license. FREEDOM of sorts. Started taking photographs.

1968. Arrested by police with a bunch of others for an elaborate drinking/car wreck/ armory night. A very public trial. "That's not our Michael Ellis in the newspaper is it Ruby?" Mrs. Berry asked my mother. I work at McDonalds, where they did not hire blacks or females. No serious girlfriends.

1969. The very coolest year to graduate from High School. I go off to Auburn University in Alabama in June. Couldn't wait get out from under my parents. In July I go home with a friend and have a blind date with his little sister who is Miss Troy Alabama. We watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. There seems to be something happening in the world that is beckoning me. Woodstock, San Francisco, long hair, but I still don't quite get it. That fall the Rolling Stones play at our homecoming dance...now I am catching on. We gather around a radio at the dorm while some guy in Washington picks ping-pong balls with dates on them for the draft lottery. My number is 252, I am saved. Vietnam.

1970. A very big year. Virginity lost, Kent State, head shops, bell-bottoms, transfer to the University of Tennessee, long curly Afro-hair, orange sunshine, bad grades. That fall I decide with my friend Gary Rubin, to parachute out of a plane. I break my leg for the second time. Make some life long friends. I go to New York City for the first time. Golleeeee says Gomer.

1971. At Easter I travel to Miami where I sleep on the couch of a friend's friends house for three months. I hook up with a man named Rip Winkle who I drive all the way from south Florida to Cedar Rapids Iowa to join up with a Carnival called Century 21 Shows. Rip who eats Seconals to go to sleep and Black Widows to perk up, teaches me everything he has learned in 60 yrs of doing Carny work. In two weeks he gets sick and leaves the show, I end up running the CRAZY BALL joint for the rest of the summer, going all over the Midwest and making lotsa money. I meet the strangest people of my entire life that summer. I return to college. I buy my first car from my Uncle Dynk (a used car salesman from north Georgia who will later run for county sheriff, he jumps on one of my girlfriends when I leave the room for a moment and gets arrested for counterfeiting $20 bills) - a Volkswagen bus, of course.

1972. I discover Botany at UT and have a great time learning and making good grades again. Fall madly in love for the first time. I head to Washington, DC for the big anti-Vietnam protests. The best part was the Smithsonian. My father coughs up blood, lung cancer, has a lung removed stays in intensive care for 50 days and dies on July 29. He is 59 years old and I am about to turn 21. He was killed by Camels, too much vodka and stress at his job. I move in with my mother in the fall to keep her company. Sister Pam goes to College. I am forced to grow up by my father's death. I listen to a lot of Bob Dylan.

1973. On January 1st I stop eating all meat, take Transcendental Meditation, and quit all drugs and alcohol. I backslide on everything but the diet and haven't eaten red meat since. I decide to take a break from college and head to northern Africa to join my friend, David Jarvis who is getting out of the US Navy in Morocco. We plan on going to East Africa. I go from Knoxville to Fez, Morocco and experience extreme culture shock. Duhhh. In October Arab-Israeli war breaks out, there is a gas shortage in the US, the world seems dangerous and we head to the Canary Islands instead. I pierce my ear but don't like it so it grows back. Christmas in a different country.

1974. We cross the Sahara Desert through Mauritania into Black Africa. Drumbeats of Senegal and Gambia. I decide to return to the US and finish college. David goes on and doesn't return to the US for another 5 years. In the summer on my way to work as a janitor (working for the guy who will later marry my sister) I pick up Billy Manolis. He is a California bird watcher hitchhiking through the South and East to increase his bird list. I bring him home with me and he uses our house as a base to explore the area. We become friends and keep in touch. I graduate with a BA in Botany. My mother is now dating the superintendent of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant or K-25. He offers me a job as an environmentalist for Union Carbide. Even though the job sounds like an oxymoron; I take it anyway. My friends can not understand why I would work there. The FBI conducts a security clearance on me. I barely pass.

1975. I am not happy and change living situations 5 times in this year and girlfriends about as often. I am saving every single bit of money I can. Two weeks vacation per year is driving me nuts. I buy my third motorcycle.

1976. I live in an old run down house out in the country that costs me $40 per month. I have an outhouse and a large garden. I dream of escape. East Tennessee is not big enough for me. Mom, Pam and I go to my mother's family reunion in Georgia and meet my Uncle Frank. I didn't know my mother had a living brother. He is gay with a pink Cadillac and a bunch of poodles to boot. He had just gotten in trouble with the law and had gone back home to Georgia to lay low. My sister and I thought it was way cool that we had a gay uncle. My mother told us she never mentioned him to us because she never liked him. "He cut the heads off my paper dolls when we were little." I feel like I am in a Faulkner novel.

1977. Another big year. I witness the birth of my godson, Forrest Galloway. I am a lousy godfather. I quit Union Carbide and head to South America on my motorcycle in June. Traveling very slowly across the country, more or less following the same path as Robert Persig in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Across Wyoming, Montana (Elvis dies when I here) and into Canada, then down the West Coast to Marin county to visit my friend the hitchhiker, Billy, who is living at Slide Ranch, an environmental education center on 100 acres of coastal land just north of Muir Beach. I don't leave for four years! During my first week Billy and I head to San Francisco for an environmental gathering on San Bruno Mt. When we leave, the first rains in 2 1/2 years descend on us as we are riding my motorcycle. We escape into a bar on California St in San Francisco - Major Pawns - until the rain stops. There is a woman shooting pool, her dog (named Horse) is under the table. I flirt with her. Laurie Fry from Saginaw, Michigan. She has come to San Francisco to act at ACT. She is living nearby, above a bar with her large boyfriend named Snake. A year later we will reconnect and eventually live together, get married and have a son named Hunter. We will divorce in 1997.

1978. I live at Slide Ranch and learn how to teach others about nature and find I have a talent and love for it. I go to the Farallons Islands and live there for 2 weeks in the winter helping to study elephant seals. Total solar eclipse in Washington State. I travel to the California deserts for the first time and will return every spring from then on. This skinny boy begins to gain weight for the first time in his life (that won't stop).

1979. My motorcycle rusts away in the coastal fog and I still haven't gotten to South America. I buy some undeveloped land in Mendocino with some friends at the height of the inflationary cycle. I lose money. I help Audubon Canyon Ranch study the herons and egrets. I hate doing research, gives me a headache. I would rather just walk around and look at Nature.

1980. I find over 35 species of nudibranchs (sea slugs) at Slide Ranch. Marine biology rules for me! I become the Executive Director of Slide Ranch. Still making no money but contributing greatly to the world around me. Visit Mexico at Christmas for the first time.

1981. I leave Slide Ranch thinking that the whole organization will fall apart without me. It does just fine. I begin Graduate School at San Francisco State University. Frog in a pond.

1982. Laurie and I live downstairs in Sam Keen's house in Muir Beach. I make some good friends at SFSU. I run for exercise. El Nino year. I begin to teach classes for Pt. Reyes Seminars, Marin Adventures, Cal Academy and I lead many trips whale watching and to the Farallon Islands for the Oceanic Society.

1983. I get my Masters Degree in Marine Biology. I begin my own business - Footloose Forays. It grows very slowly and organically. We are in a 100', three-deck catamaran heading out the Golden Gate, when one of the largest waves I have ever seen towers over us. The boat rides the wave up at an angle and then the skipper turns boat along the crest and we ride it back down. Another huge wave follows but we get back safely to port. WOW! High pucker factor.

1984. Laurie and I get married on Mt. Tamalpais at the West Point Inn. Fun fun fun. My mother visits me in California for the last time. Living low on the economic food chain.

1985. Laurie and I get certified SCUBA. She gets pregnant on a backpacking trip in the Sierra where we get caught at 11,000' in an unseasonable snowstorm. I get nervous, she relaxes. I lead my first international trip (besides Baja) to Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. I buy my first computer - a used IBM.

1986. Hunter is born in June in a very intense and dangerous childbirth - pregnancy toxemia, low birth weight. He recovers and by age 16 is 6' and 160 lbs. I sell my last motorcycle, too dangerous for a father. We move to Pt. Reyes Station - the perfect place to raise a little kid. I am known as Hunter's dad and it is fine by me. First trip to Costa Rica.

1987. I start writing a syndicated newspaper column," Naturalist Sightings" that is eventually carried by five weekly newspapers throughout Northern California. I invite some male friends to join me in forming a Men's Group (way before the drumming stuff); we continue to meet regularly to this day. It is an incredible group of honest, brave men. I reconnect with my half-brother Jeff after 15 years of no contact. First trip down the Snake River, Hells Canyon in Idaho.

1988. I begin recording a two-minute radio piece called "Where We Live" for San Francisco's NPR station, KQED. This continues to the present time as part of the Perspective Series. First trip to Brazil leading a group for the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. First trip down the Middle Fork of the SalmonRiver.

1989. I go to southeast Alaska with the Discovery Channel and am the host (writer and tripod carrier) for a program called "The Whales and Wildlife of Alaska". This is still shown on TV. I have black hair and a beard. Loma Prieta earthquake! My nephew Patrick is born.

1990. We are in a major electrical storm at 13,500' on Wheeler Peak in the Great Basin National Park. Three people get hit by lightening. No damage and one amazing story to tell! Paul Jones and I see a sperm whale west of the Farallons!

1991. I finally make it to South America leading my first trip to the Galapagos and the Amazon. My nephew William is born. The National Association of Interpreters declares me Field Naturalist of the Year. Total solar eclipse in Baja, over 7 minutes!

1992. We manage to buy 3 1/2 acres in Sebastopol and become homeowners for the first time. I make some Audio tapes to sell- the Reverend Mike, the Church of the Joy of Nature. Way too much work. First trip down the Rogue River in Oregon.

1993. First trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I like these river trips. I finally go back to Africa - Tanzania and the Serengeti. I am blown away by the Wildebeest migration and I will return to East Africa every February.

1994. First trip to Belize and Guatemala. I start rollerblading.

1995. Bought reading glasses for the first time. Getting old.

1996. Another big year. On my second trip to Tanzania is Carolyn Reed from Sante Fe. While it is not my habit to fall in love with my clients, I made an exception for her. It is love at first sight, which I never believed in. My life is totally shook up. I move into a one-bedroom apartment temporarily (I stay there three years!).

1997. I cut my beard after 23 years. The breeze feels good on my face. I begin a Dads/Sons group for the boys in my son's Waldorf School class. The idea was to collectively father each other's sons and develop a meaningful rite of passage that would recognize the movement in our sons from childhood into adulthood. It worked way beyond my expectations. Now I need distance glasses!

1998. I (and 4 others) fall out of a paddleboat in the middle of Crystal Falls in the Grand Canyon. Scary. I marry Carolyn in Chimayo, New Mexico. We have three honeymoons in the next six months - the Great Sand Dunes, Capetown in South Africa, and London. It will be a year before we actually live together. First trip to Botswana and Zimbabwe. My hair really turning gray.

1999. We buy a grand Victorian house on one of the oldest streets in Santa Rosa. Talking Heads - "How did I get here? Is this my beautiful wife?" First trip to Peru and Macchu Picchu. At Halloween we give out 800 pieces of candy! My website gets up.

2000. Magnificent first trip to the Antarctica and the Falkland Islands aboard a converted Russian research vessel. I become little Juliana's godfather, a child brought from 'Russia with Love' by Grace and Carolyn in May last year. We dads are initiated by the Men of Spirit - an amazing and powerful weekend. WHEW. Five months later our sons are initiated in a similar ceremony. It is a profound and genuine experience for all of us, a culmination of four years preparation.

2001. Carolyn wins a Metropolitan Home award for her remodel of our house in Sante Fe. I lead a trip to Lake Titicaca. Bolivia is now my favorite Latin American country. We have a big party for my 50th birthday. Hunter goes to Santa Rosa High, his first public school. I visit Brazil's Pantanal, the best wildlife show in South America - 5,000 caimans, ocelot, giant anteater and hyacinth macaws. I buy the first new car of my life.

2002. My mother breaks her neck and survives! Hunter turns sixteen! This year I get on planes for the Ecuador, Florida, Tanzania, Santa Barbara, Tennessee, Botswana, South Africa, Santa Fe, San Diego, Tennessee again, Washington DC and Santa Fe again. The Tuesday Sonoma hiking series begins. I start offering a dragonfly seminar. We give out 1000 pieces of candy at Halloween. Our neighborhood is the best place to trick or treat. Carolyn and I do extensive therapy (The Passionate Marriage by David Schnarch). It works extremely well. We are blessedly more in love than ever! I buy Carolyn a digital camera for Christmas which she never gets to use because I have it.

2003. Our family takes the Sear Point Raceway defensive driving class and I set a new course record (ta-da!). I learn to snowboard, OK for an old guy. Carolyn joins me on my first trip to Bhutan in May - rhododendrons 30‚ high. Hunter goes through several girlfriends. His band, the Coma Lilies, wins the Battle of the Bands in San Fran. Earthquake hits 1 mile from our house. There is the first footloose foray camping trip to Mt. Lassen. Killer whale seen in Monterey with a sea lion in her mouth! Carolyn‚s shawl business (Shih and Co.) takes us to Paris for a week, where we have the best meal of our life at Hiramatsu‚s on Isle de Cite. The "Dads" group bikes down the Flume Trail at Lake Tahoe, the most incredible bike ride any of us ever had. I am Elvis for Halloween and dye my hair black. 1100 pieces of candy this year! Albino black tail deer seen at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

2004. I have fun with my new digital Canon Rebel. We have a surprise 80th birthday party for my mother although she only admits to being 76. I take my little sister to Tanzania for her 50th birthday present. She likes it. On May 17th Hunter removes the pictures in his bedroom, moves in with his mother and has not spent a night at my house since. My heart is a little broken. My first trip to Turkey in May is full of great wildflowers, superb ruins, and tasty food. Major highlight is watching whirling dervishes in an ancient caravansary. In July the dad/son group has a private 13 day Colorado River trip down the Grand Canyon. We have a very good time. Near the end of the trip we come across a man performing CPR on his fellow kayaker. We stop to help and many of us (Hunter included) do CPR but to no avail. A powerful experience of death in that amazing place. Cultural highlight – the opera Black Rider with Tom Waits music. Remember my friend Billy Manolis that I picked up hitchhiking in 1974? Well he decided to become a she. Mono Lake in the Fall is a new perfect offering. Carolyn and I spend Thanksgiving at the spa, Rancho la Puerto. I get many treatments.

2005. I had two trips to the Serengeti in February and on the second one we encountered a huge concentrated herd of zebras and wildebeests, the best I have ever seen. The sounds were amazing. The spring wildflower display in California was off the chart glorious. The Carrizo Plain was especially incredible. First cultural highlight- in May Carolyn, Hunter and I go to NYC to see Spamalot. We got tickets early and avoided the scalpers. I found the first Sonoma County record for the Western Meadowhawk dragonfly. I organized a private 7 day trip down the San Juan River in Utah for family (nephew Patrick) and friends. Excellent pictographs. I started doing week long camping trips again in the Lakes Basin area after a hiatus of 13 years- good choice. Second cultural highlight was my first trip to Burning Man. I was invited to join the camp, Deep Heaven. Many burly men in dresses. This will be an annual event. I went back to the Pantanal in October and saw my first Brazilian tapir. We gave out 1400 pieces of candy at Halloween. The River Styx was the yard theme. In November I did my first trip to the game parks of southern Tanzania (Selous and Ruaha) and Zanzibar. Carolyn went with me. I bought a brand new 19’ Bambi Airstream trailer. I am not sure why.