TW Williams was born in the middle of a thunderstorm on 12 July 1945 at approximately 4:00 PM in Nashville, Tennessee. Although small growing up, he arrived on earth 20 inches long weighing 10 pounds. His mother often reminded him he was a difficult child, but especially at birth. He lived two years in Tennessee before moving to Baltimore, MD. During the next nine years, he spent his time adjusting to the company of a brother and sister. One remarkable memory, of many, was that of falling in love with a beautiful camp counselor who worked at the summer camp he attended. He bought her a purse available from Kellogg's Corn Flakes in the hopes she would run away with him, or at least live at home, maybe the study. She thanked him for the black plastic purse and he never saw her again. He spent a majority of his free time roaming the forest around his family's stone house. When almost ten, his parents decided to go to Connecticut so that his father, a well-known psychiatrist, could teach at Yale University. They lived in an old Victorian house that creaked at night and let cold winter winds moan and whistle through the walls and windows so loudly no self-respecting ghost would have lived there. One benefit was that he lost his fear of the dark. He and his brother would often climb out of their bedroom window, climb to the roof's pinnacle, and stare at the trees, farms, and plowed fields of lettuce, peas, and tomatoes in the valley across from East Rock. They would sometimes climb off the roof, run to the turkey farm behind their backyard, and chase the poor fowl until the owner shooed them away. TW became a sharpshooter under the guidance of a rifle manufacturer. At the age of 13, his family moved to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma was a great place for kids. He underwent the common unpleasant experience of adolescence and stumbled through high school until he met the "Colonel" who taught him how to lasso and twirl a rope. The Colonel had retired from the last U.S. Army's cavalry unit and ran a dude ranch in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico. At that ranch, he and his brother found a lost paradise. They learned how to ride horses and do ranch hand chores. They rode to nearby valleys, Indian caves in the desert, and hiked up mountain cliffs, on trails to old abandoned mines, and to a "ghost" town with a population of one. Life was wonderful at the ranch and when every summer season ended, he could not wait until the next one began. Unfortunately, nothing is permanent, and the ranch folded. He was eighteen and had to go to college. In spite of thinking he knew everything, Washington College, on the eastern shore of Maryland the school expanded his consciousness and knowledge. He graduated with a degree in English Literature and joined the Peace Corps which gave him the best education ever. He spent four years in Ethiopia and taught English and Geography for three years. During his fourth year he worked as a Smallpox Eradication Officer assigned to the World Health Organization. That job changed his life and steered him to the field of Public Health. He returned to America with his wife and son. Soon, he had a second son, and graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a Master's in Public Health. He got a job as an industrial hygienist with the U.S. Army which sent him to all of the states, Europe, and a couple of atolls in the Pacific. He spent 32 years with them. Now, he is retired and writing poems, some of which have been published in literary magazines. He will publish his novel, Caden's Crime, soon.
