Environmental AlternativesToll-free: 1.877.713.7858petrich@whidbey.com |
||
| Site Home Page enviroalternatives.com House HuckleberryHill Newspaper Articles Articles on Dean Photos of Dean Businesses Businesses Contact Dean Petrich 2131 Middle Drive Freeland, WA 98249-9516 Fax: (240) 250-5895 Cell: (206) 324-5055 Home: (360) 730-7992 petrich@whidbey.com |
So many people have asked me about my past that I finally sat down and wrote a brief synopsis of some of the more significant acitivites in my life that have led to where I am now. This description is simply a list of things that I have done, and does not really say who I am, how I think, or what my life is like now. It is simply a brief background; each sentence has an entire story behind it, and much has been left out. If you really want to get to know me, meet me in person. Elementary
School I was born
September 15, 1950 in Seattle.
when I was five I started taking piano lessons. Every week for the
next
six years my sister Dawn and I took swimming lessons. My second
grade
teacher taught square dancing. In third grade I won a
crossword-puzzle-making
contest and began cutting out articles from the newspapers on pollution
and transportation issues. By fourth grade Iwas in cub
scouts,
began playing the violin, taught myself how to type, and wrote,
directed
and starred in my first play. Starting from a library book,
I performed
my first of many magic shows. By fifth grade I was first
violin
in the orchestra and had learned to play the violin on my head, behind
my back, under my leg and in my mouth; I sang soprano in the choir;
wrote and produced another play; had developed a keen interest in the
weather
and had developed the knack of correctly predicting it; and was
performing
magic
professionally. In sixth grade I wrote yet another play,
did more
magic, continued with both piano and violin, completed all my cub
scout
achievements, and began downhill snow skiing. By now I could type over
80 words a minuteon an old-fashioned typewriter. I also was a loyal member of the traffic
safety
patrol, was a dishwasher in the lunch room, and ran for student body
president.
From the age of eight to sixteen I spent my summers at Hendersons'
Camps on Lopez Island,
where I learned archery, riflery, horseback riding, swimming,
woodworking,
camp crafts, folk dancing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, theatrics,
story-telling,
baking, Indian lore, pottery, and the skills of comradeship.
During
the summer between sixth and seventh grade I worked at a musical
summer
camp. My job was to tune 78 violins during each recess, to assist the
school director with set-up, and occasionally I got to conduct the
orchestra.
At the end of the camp I performed in front of everyone there by
playing
my violin in various positions.
. . As a freshman, I took a double load of courses. For the first day physical fitness test I did 32 consecutive pull-ups. I continued with French, played a comedy violin routine in front of the entire student body, and joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity. At Willamette at that time, Kappa Sigma was a group of intellectuals -- the key school leaders in politics, publications, drama, art, music, and high grades. Throughout my four years there, I sang tenor twice a day in two different choirs, a madrigal group, and my own barbershop quartet. I performed in every play, musical and opera from 1968 through 1972. My freshman year I was Stage Manager. During my sophomore year I excelled in astronomy and public speaking -- two of my most favorite classes. In dance class I choreographed and performed several modern dance pieces. For languages I continued with French, plus took two year's worth of German in one year. As the Yearbook Editor, I not only personally shot and developed almost every photograph in the book (and got almost every professor to smile), typed the majority of the text and layout (no computers back then!) and designed the format, but I also compiled one of the most complete archives of the year's events, including groups who were normally never considered for inclusion in the yearbook. That summer the Willamette Choir toured Europe for five weeks, and I could speak the language of every country we visited. After the band and choir went home, I stayed and hitch-hiked around Europe on my own for another month, ending up in Sweden where I revisited my host family. During my junior year I was the Darkroom Manager, in charge of all film, camera equipment, darkroom supplies, and developing hundreds of photographs. Between my junior and senior years I attended summer school at the University of Washington, where I took 25 hours of classes on elementary education, psychology, 19th century English literature, Shakespeare, and teaching elementary science. During this summer of total immersion into academics I began a prolific journal of my thoughts and comments on life, which now is the first of many volumes of writings. As a senior, I took a year's worth of Russian, graduated a half year early, and spent the second semester preparing and teaching five separate and totally unique classes of high school English at McNary High in Salem, Oregon. Also during these four years, I always had a camera around my neck, knew every person on campus by name, and was very active in the Big Brother program, having not one but two little brothers myself. As vice president of Omicron Delta Kappa, a very selective leadership fraternity, I conceived of and instigated the first recycling program the school had ever had. Every year I won the intramural cross-country race. I marched against the war on Viet Nam and joined Ralph Nader's ORSPIRG, The Nature Conservancy, and Greenpeace, and many other environmental organizations. Five of my summers were spent as a staff member at Camp Nor'wester on Lopez Island. I got all the way through college without ever having smoked a cigarette, without drinking any alcohol, without doing drugs, and without swearing. . The only reason I returned home was to prepare for my next adventure: a summer at Arcosanti. While at Arcosanti, I read, studied and led discussions on Paolo Soleri's writings and concepts. I stayed beyond my workshop date and became an active leader, tour guide, and construction worker. On my way home I pre-arranged to speak on Paolo's arcologies at a number of Universities, for pay. . The next call that came for a magician, I suggested that I come as a clown, not really knowing anything about what to do; I just knew that I had always been good at being silly and making children laugh. At the party they played jump rope, walk the tight rope, tie up the clown, I told "The Three Bears," helped with the cake and presents, and an hour and a half later the mother happily paid me the $5 I had asked for. It worked! Deano the Clown was born. Now I realized that I needed to learn more skills and to find more customers. Subsequently, I joined the New Games Foundation, the Seattle Story Tellers Guild, The American Unicycling Society, the Uniques (a local unicycling club), the Cascade Jugglers, the Puppeteers of Puget Sound, I took private tap dancing lessons, I practiced roller skating and ice skating, and I earned my "D" license in sky diving so I could jump into picnics and large events. I also took a class in doing voice-overs, and took private lessons from "Dave the Balloon Man", who at the time was by far the best balloon twister around. I attended several week-long games training sessions sponsored by the New Games Foundation; my four favorite sessions were in Vancouver, B.C.; Estes Park, Colorado; Carmel, CA; and Redmond, WA. Also during this time I passed my Associate Ski Instructor and my Freestyle status with PSIA,had a special ski clown suit made, and spent five seasons as a ski instructor at Mt. Pilchuck. Weekdays the instructors would attend special training clinics, which vastly improved my skills and style. I was in high demand for teaching children to ski every Saturday and Sunday. Living in the attic in Bellevue was getting a bit cramped, so I quit, got an apartment in Seattle, and worked in a portrait photography studio on Pier 70. Here my job was to take small photographs that were mailed in from all over the country and to blow them up into large 3'x5' posters by photographing, developing, printing and mailing them to the mail-order customers, as well as photographing walk-ins and printing up poster portraits for them while they waited. After a half year working for someone else, I decided to be 100% self-employed. I systematized my photography equipment and supported myself primarily as a freelance photographer, shooting mostly portraits, as well as weddings, daycare centers, and occasional models. I was unusually good with children and animals. To augment my skills, I took special classes from professional studios on the fine points of portrait photography. During these next couple years I was also a manager at the Capitol Hill Food Co-op on 12th in Seattle. The brakes went out on the car my grandfather had given me as a graduation present, and decided to go for an entire year without driving a car. I bought a second-hand bicycle and trailer, joined the PAC of the Cascade Bicycle Club, and successfully did all my travel for an entire year by bicycle. I initiated the "bicycles on buses" program, did several talk series on KRAB radio, and submitted numerous designs and had many meetings with METRO until the bike racks actually materialized on the buses. I was also active in the expansion of the Burke-Gilman Trail, Rails to Trails, and mapping bicycle routes. For years afterward I continued to do most of my travel by bicycle. The PI even did a write-up on me bicycling to a birthday party in my clown costume. . While living in a group house in Seattle, I became a member of the extreme "Zero Garbage Club," refusing to pay the mandatory garbage bill because my house produced no garbage. By gathering free wood from city dumpsters,our house was heated by burning wood in the old central coal furnace in the basement. We caught rain water, and grew vegetables and a giant Swiss chard plant in the back yard. I continued as a manager at the Capitol Hill Food Coop. The summer of 1977 I was the music director at Camp Nor'wester, and on my way home I stopped to visit two different friends on Whidbey Island. At the first friend's house I spent an afternoon sitting on the porch with my journal, designing the ultimate bathroom and how it would fit into a totally environmental house. Little did I realize at the time that this design would become reality At the next friend's house where I sat playing my fiddle around the fire with two other fiddlers, Paul and Linda. Paul was excited that he had just bought ten acres of forest, and mentioned that there was a 2.5 acre lot across from his new place that was for sale, for $200 down. I was so excited about the prospects of owning a piece of land that I could hardly sleep. The next day it took my entire summer earnings from working at the camp to make this down payment. All I had to do next was to buy a tipi and I was all set! Back in Seattle, I partnered with Len Dawson who was building composting toilets out of ferrous cement on Indian reservations. From this experience, I became quite interested in this concept, so I wrote Clivus Multrum and became a distributor. In 1977 I bought my own Clivus Multrum for the main waste system of my future house on Whidbey Island. . By now I was becoming quite well known both as a photographer -- taking portraits, shooting weddings, day care centers, filming models, and specializing in children and animals -- as a magician, and as a piano tuner. From 1972 through the mid 80's I taught classesat the University of Washington Experimental College every quarter. Some of my more popular topics were: "Improve Your Memory," "How To Improve Your Conversation," "Paolo Soleri's Arcologies," "Why We Laugh," "The Joys and Woes of Being Self-Employed," and "New Games." For three hours every Sunday night for eight consecutive years, when I returned home from skiing, I danced international line and circle dances at the UW HUB with a large active group of thirty to sixty dancers. To get around, my favorite mode of transportation was to drive my PPV (people-powered vehicle) which had adjustable bucket seats, stick gear shift, rear view mirrors, and pedals for both the driver and the passenger. There was space in the back for fuel -- a bag of groceries. Also during this period I spent a year seriously studying Swedish massage, which for a while seemed as if this would become my calling. In addition, I took an in-depth class in foot reflexology. Although I was qualified to take and pass the Washington State exam for a professional massage license, my clowning career was beginning to bloom and whisked me off in other directions. Because of my energy and talent and my interest in social, political and environmental issues, I became the host on a weekly KING TV quiz show called "The Great American Game," in which two teams were pitted against each other to answer questions on local issues. . For the next twenty consecutive years I envited everyone I knew (and that's a lot of people) to my memorable annual week-long birthday bash. These parties became quite famous. Each year something different was highlighted, such as swimming, musicians, jugglers, improvisational theater sports, marionettes, stunt fiddling, unusual inflatables, woods games, story telling, waking to live harp music, and even a pie fight. One year with some of his sky-diving friends Dean sky-dived into his own yard ten times in one day. . Then I returned to Sweden for my third time, where I visited the Clivus Multrum factory in Stockholm and met Mr. Lindstrom himself, the inventor of the Clivus Multrum, at his house on his 81st birthday. He gave me a personal tour of all his original inventions. He was quite excited to have any visitors at all, let alone an American who could speak Swedish and who knew about his toilets. From there I revisited my exchange family in Sweden, went sky diving and snow skiing in Sweden, and realized that the one thing I still hadn't done in my life was to marry and have children. . Llynya opened her own store, called Llynya's in Freeland. Her dream was to own her own store, and now she has it. She surrounds herself with all of her favorite things and attracts wonderful people into her life. Her store has become a focal point on south Whidbey for personal and spiritual growth. She has been trained to perform Aqua Chi, a unique type of foot therapy that removes toxins from the body. Llynya is extremely honest, dedicated, and is a phenomenal listener. She is dedicated and committed to helping others, and consequently she has gained much respect in the local community and receives countless compliments on herself and her store. She is so artistic that everything she touches becomes beautiful. Micah has put time into learning to skate board, to snowboard, to ride a unicycle, to play the piano and to play the guitar. During June of 2003 Dean and Micah traveled together to Sweden to visit the family Dean had lived with when he was 16. Micah attended the Langley Children's Center (preschool), Wellington Montessori School, Langley Intermediate School, Langley Middle School, Langley High School, and Bayview Alternative School. He attended Camp Nor'wester on Johns Island for three summers. Micah is thoughtful and perceptive, uniquely creative, easy-going and congenial, has excellent eye contact, is soft-spoken, has a strong sense of fairness, and shares a positive sense of humor. . Businesses
Mark Twain once said that the best investment a person can make is a friend. Please feel free to contact me and keep in touch. My email is petrich@whidbey.com, and my phone is (206) 324-5055. Click here to return to the TOP. Go to Piano Go to Huckleberry Hill Go to the HOME page. |
|