Skiing has been a passion for me. It was once a sometime activity which I could indulge in as frequently as the proverbial blue moon appearing in the California sky. A series of events would forever alter my direction from street kid to mountain man.
I first saw the light of this mundane world in the middle of Sea Biscuit’s turf, the Tanforan race track near San Bruno, in 1942, courtesy of the first JA woman doctor, Dr. Kazue Togasaki. My birthplace was a temporary hospital in the infield, where the less moneyed citizens watched horses gallop by, and where my ojiichan, Shojiro Tatsuno,…