Remember Spiro?

Hugh's bio.(Sorry this is so long; I started this before Blender came up with the bio format that everyone has used.)
Hey guys, wow, what have I done the last 30+ years? I've never written it down other than for work related bios but in those bios, I leave out the fun parts.
So after O.U., I knew I didn't want to get a regular job for a while. I was thinking of doing something concerning international travel or something different in the U.S. After I finished my summer naval reserve training (remember I was a weekend warrior?) I bought a jeep and headed out to Colorado with my tipi. I bought about 6 pair of cross country skiis, poles, boots and set up a small cross-county ski school in Aspen. It was very small time. I was the only instructor. I had buddies at one of the ski lodges who would get me clients. I would take small groups out for lessons and ski touring.
When I had business cards made for my ski school, Ski Nortic Ltd.,I decided to put Hugo Robinson instead of Hugh Robinson. I thought Hugo sounded like more of a cross-country ski instructor. So Hugo stuck as my name but I'm still Hugh to those who knew me prior to 1972.
I had my tipi in a tipi community in a valley above Aspen. There were about 5 or 6 tipis and a similar number of alternative huts. We had them hidden among trees and bolders as we were squatters on an investment property owned by a Texas oil company.
Dunn somehow found my tipi and visited me briefly. And Frishberg, Blender, and Bachner(?) tried to find my tipi in Aspen but no luck.
From a comparative arts class at O.U., where I read some Herman Hess, I developed an interest eastern philosophy. And a bunch of my friends in Aspen were into vegetarian cooking and yoga and meditation. I took a strong interest in this life style and have continued it ever since.
I did some downhill skiing that year but mainly cross country skiing. I took mainly day long trips. One time, I joined some buddies on a two day trip that crossed many mountain passes; we dug a cave in the snow instead of pitching a tent for the night.
We would also go cross county skiing at night when the moon was full. The full moon would reflect off the snow for wonderful skiing!
A couple of my Aspen buddies and I that spring (1973) took the jeep down Baja California. This was before there were any roads, just jeep trails. There weren't many gas stations so we took several extra large gas containers. I remember once buying gas from an Indian peasant. We had to strain the gas thru an old felt hat! We spent a month camping out on the local beaches.
I thought initially I would spend many years in Colorado. But I was longing for some international adventures and was considering applying to international business school at Thunderbird in Arizona.
I also thought being an airline flight attendant would be a good ticket to international travel. I interviewed at several big airlines. They turned me down. Guess my hair wasn't short enough or something. Think I had a beard too.
Thunderbird wanted me to take some graduate level classes to make sure I was serious so I moved to Charlottesville, VA were my sister was living. I took a few classes at U Va. I rented a room on a farm and erected my tipi on the back 40. I mainly slept in the farmhouse but would spend the weekends in the tipi. Did some volunteer work at farm for mentally retarded adults. And spent several weeks at a commune nearby and considered joining them.
Late summer of '73, I had a fun week or two adventure. Andy Smiles joined me in my topless jeep. We visited Ernie (and Jeannie?) in Ocean City, MD for a few days. Then headed up to Vermont and visited Gary and Paul who were building a cabin for a buddy on this idyllic lake in the middle of no where. (Gary and I went up there a few years later over New Years and cross-country skied and stuff.)
About six months later, I heard from Paul Dunn and Dennis Buford who were in southern Florida. (Gary came down, I guess about a year later; Gary and Dennis can tell you about their amazing adventures! Gary stayed for several years; Dennis has never left.) Dennis and some buddies of Dennis's had a communal house. Dennis was trying to line up a sail boat for cruising, etc. the Caribbean.
So I came down and lived with them for several months, guess this was spring of 1974. I guess if they had a boat, I would have joined them. But I wanted to travel the world so I went around to different marinas in south Florida to see if I could find a sail boat to crew on. I didn't find any so I went to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to check more marinas. I had no luck finding a boat that would take me cruising the world but spent 3-4 months in many of the Caribbean islands. Many fun adventures!
In the fall, I decided I wanted to live on a communal farm. So I visited 8-10 communes and decided to live on one outside State College, Pa. I lived there for 3 years and yes I had my tipi!
I joined the commune at the early stages. The group was six members who had just bought 150 acres of rugged mostly wooded mountainous terrain ½ hour from Penn State. Soon after I joined, a few more folks joined so I guess we were up to 10 members. We wanted to be a fairly self- sufficient community without relying on the outside if the economy crashed. This was the time of the hour long gas lines. Remember them? Most of us were vegetarians. We pooled our resources and incomes and cooked and ate together. We got into organic gardening.
There were no structures on the land so the first year, so a bunch of us lived in tipis, tents, & 2 trailers. We started building houses, etc on the land. I became a decent carpenter and worked as a carpenter around State College for several years. I guess I lifted too many cinder blocks and my chiropractor told me to look for something else to do. I lived at "Julian Woods Community" for about 3 years. It's still going strong, with about 25 folks living there today.

Back to 2005! It's about a month later and I haven't finished writing this. So I'm going to finish this using Blender's bio format.
Family: wonderful wife of 20 years, Susie. And my widowed 89 year old dad just got remarried in Spring, 2005!
Career: (In chronological order) Cross country ski guide/instructor, carpenter, vegetarian cook, yoga/meditation instructor, sales, accountant, web designer, and mortgage broker. (Sorry, Maryland, Virginia and DC loans only.)
Additional education: M.A in University Administration; MBA
Residences/locations since Athens:
Aspen, Colorado; Charlottesville, VA; Julian, PA; Leysin, Switzerland; Fairfield, Iowa; Silver Spring & Kensington, MD
Recreation/hobbies: hiking, camping, tandem biking, cross-country skiing; used to jog alot but got bone spurs recently on my heals so not running; ran a marathon; (Phil Roach would like that!) Painting/drawing, yoga/meditation. Susie and I have had a guru from India for almost 20 years. I visited him a few years ago in India for a month and going again to India in November; he comes to the U.S. a lot so we see him here several times a year.
Contact info:
11223 Mitscher St. Kensington, MD 20895
Tel: 301-942-4175; cell: 301-221-8357; email:hugorobins@aol.com