User talk:Flydw

Although he grew up in New Jersey, D. Wayne Dworsky was born in Brooklyn, NY, December 1, 1944. During those early years, people were still nervous about the economy with the depression of the 1930's and World War II fresh in their minds. Consequently, life was hard, as he watched his parents struggle. For a short time, he lived in southwestern Pennsylvania near his grandmother. There, he learned about the works of coal mines and river barges while helping his grandmother attend her garden. Old coal miners related stories of tragedy and despair. In the early days, much of the Monongahela River was surrounded by wilderness. Fascinated, he began to write stories about his early adventures, which often reflected his fear of threatening situations both natural and man-made. He observed how anger and greed affect the way people behave and began to incorporate these themes into his developing yarns.

He recognized his love of nature at a very young age. He was also an avid gardener at nine. In his parents' house in New Jersey, he spent hours in the garden, each day. His childhood adventures were not limited to his property. Indeed, he enjoyed an equal love for exploring the woods. Although social troubles held him back, he prospered in his study of human behavior. You would never see him without his notebook. He kept daily journals all his life. He preferred to learn in the solitude of the woods, and during the summer months, he spent most of his time fishing in the Pequennock River.

He returned to New York in 1963 to seek his fortune and fame, but it would be a long time coming. Education remained a tug of war. In those fledgling years he discovered many occupations. None satisfied him more than self-employment. From 1970 to 1980 he maintained a small business in interior decorating. In 1980, he finally graduated from Herbert H. Lehman College with a Bachelor of Arts degree and launched his career in education in 1984 by teaching mathematics.

In 1977 he took a break from his business and school studies to discover Israel. He spent the entire summer and a large part of the fall in the land of sunshine. Although he traveled all through the holy land, he most loved the living style on the Kibbutz in Chanita, near the Lebanon border. There, he saw how the Ulpan teacher taught Hebrew and he learned about the "punctuation," which is a neat way of assigning symbols to Hebrew consonent characters to give them an accent, so that you can say Shalom and not Shilam! His favorite place was Nahariyya, a splendid little village near the Mediterranean Sea in Northern Israel, where a small river flows through the main street, essentially dividing it, with little pedestrian bridges connecting one side to the other.

On his way back to America, he cruised the Mediterranean, stopping in Rhodes and Cypress, then to Turkey and on to Athens before he landed in Venice where he absorbed the essence of the ancient architecture. Then he slowly worked his way further northwesterly through Europe, learning about potential places to which to return in the future. During the summer of 1980, he managed to spend a few months in Germany, where he purchased a German car and bummed around in camping grounds all over Europe, as far east as Austria, north to Holland and south to Italy.

Between 1983 and 1984 he achieved recognition in the Mohonk Preserve in the Shawangunks as a first-class rock climber. During his most productive climbing years, (1982-1985)he traveled west to Wyoming and Colorado, having climbed the dazzling cliffs of Boulder Canyon and hiked to the lofty summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs in 1983. After running into an invigorating August snowfall in Togwotee Pass in the Bridger-Teton Range in the Shoshone national Forest on the continental divide, at 9,658 feet. He challenged himself in the Tetons, reaching the top of Grand Teton at 13,770 feet. Later, he joined climbing teams in the Alps in Zermat, Switzerland and enjoyed the vistas of the many summits of Les Aiguilles in Chamonix, France. In 1985, he climbed the Matterhorn. (A summit photo can be found elsewhere on this site.)

Sensitive to the needs of physically challenged individuals, he found himself invited to participate in various organizations in an effort to lobby for improvements such as hydraulic lifts for vans and buses. His greatest contribution came in the form of writing. From 1978 to 1985 he served as editor of the newsletter put out by the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New York.

In 1987 he received his master's degree and continued to teach for twenty years. Along the way, he picked up a few additional trophies. In 1997 he received his pilot's license. Since then he takes to the skies. His aviation adventures are intimately woven into the plots of his stories. He is an active participant in FanStory.com and Writing.com. He conducts educational seminars to prepare young adults for State Examinations in mathematics and language arts.

In 2003, he designed this web site and formed his own publishing company, Concrete Jungle Press. In 2004 he retired from teaching and now writes full time. His travels had not ended in Europe. In July, 2005 he accompanied a Chinese family to Guangzhou, China. In a brief excursion to Beijing, he toured The Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, among other places of interest in China, including The Great Wall. The rich world of Chinese culture now occupies many of the settings in his stories. (See: "The Carpenter of Auguliere" and upcoming story adventures set in the Himalayas.)

In 2006 he returned to Europe to revisit such wonderful and romantic places as Paris, Chamonix, Luxembourg, Brussels, Berne and Venice. In Chamonix he once again hiked up to the famous Aiguille du Midi at 12,602. This summer, (2007) he embarked on a trip to the Philippines. During part of his stay he piloted a short flight in a single engine Cessna over the infamous Mount Pinatubo, which discharged millions of tons of ash in the 1991 eruption causing a huge mess from the resulting 1995 lahars that wiped-out an entire village, burying half of the Midievel San Guillermo Parish Church. See the picture collections in Adventures in the Philippines

A Jeepney in the Philippines During his stay in the Philippines, D. Wayne Dworsky saw many amazing things. Among which are the Jeepneys, as they are called. These take you all over the Philippines. They usually travel within cities and between cities next to each other. It is a cheap ride, but crowded. Think of them as a modified taxi. They are fabricated in the Philippines usually by small, private individuals by hand, and often with scrap parts. Philippinos are proud of these and many are quite ornate. Enjoy the ride!

As prodigious as his first adventure turned out, his tour to Corrigidor Island took him by surprise and captured his imagination like no other part of the Philippines, solidifying the timely political events in his mind forever. This place was the stronghold of the American and Philippines troops that fought side by side, defending against Japanese invasions during WWII. Finally, he visited the Banaan Samat Mountain Monument, giving his total experience a great sense of peace.

Later, little excursions to Montreal, The Citidelle in the Old City of Quebeque, Washington, DC., and Jacksonville added another dimension to his various travels, sprinkling his knowledge of French in Canada and absorbing scientific knowledge in the Smithsonian. A visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and finally, a stroll along the ancient streets of St. Augustine, the oldest settlement in the United States(1658), completes his summer activities.