Miscellaneous ~ Views of My Life.

These links contain some of the items I collected during my travels and some major structures I have see.

Note:  Check out this link on a history of the club scenes and life in San Francisco during the 1960s through the 1980s as lived by me!  It makes great reading if I do say so myself!  (Of course these stories are only the tip of the iceberg so to speak!)

Note:  My sister also wrote her memoirs of our early years on the farm and beyond.  Stories about our adventures and mishaps and family get together.   Click on this link to review Yvonne's Memoirs of our early years!

Chuck's Dancing Exhibitions: You might enjoy reading about my dancing career and how I started out in Rockford Illinois at an Arthur Murray's Dance Studio!  And how through the years I danced away at the Black and White Ball in the City, taught at local bars and did West Coast Swing exhibitions with a dance group around San Francisco!

A New Photo found in 2008 - Life Magazine 1946: My friend Jeff did a Google search and found a photo from 1946 and thought it might be me!  It is, and I had never seen it before!  Check out the original cover photo on Life Magazine and the new photo that was taken some time during the several weeks photo shoot at the one room school I went to!

The 50th Anniversary of Polo High School on June 6th - A listing of the students and a photo of those attending!

The Veterans Hospital asked me if I wanted to volunteer for Research Projects. I agreed and started in 2008 to be tested for things such as dementia, plaque in the blood vessels, blood draws for the study of aging, Spinal Taps, Memory tests, Motor tests and so on.  So click on this link to view the many types of tests I have taken over the last few years!   Research Projects Chuck Buntjer is Participating in Over the Years!

Collecting Movie Memorabilia Though the Years:

The Only Photo of Me as a Baby with my Sister and Mother ~ 1940

I was born in northern Illinois in a small two room house on a farm near a town called Polo. Note: There is only one known picture of me as a baby. We soon moved about 50 miles away to a 500 acre farm near Pecatonica, Illinois. My childhood consisted of growing up on this farm with lots of woods, a river, an Indian mound, horses, dogs, cats, and the rest of the farm animals. My sister and I both went to a one room school house that had eight grades and an average of 10 students. Little did I know that by the age of six I would have my 15 minutes of fame.

I finally got my birth certificate in 1969 from Ogle County Illinois. I don't understand how it states one date, September 1963 and the end date of June 24, 1969.

Chuck on the Cover of Life Magazine and My One Room School ~ 1946!

Life Magazine decided that since World War II was just finished and many soldiers were still stationed around the world, they should do a story on the mid-west and a child's life like many in the service had before going to war. Life magazine sent a reporter and photographer to our school and I ended up being on the cover of Life Magazine and a local celebrity! I received over 5,000 pieces of mail and presents from around the world, England, Holland, Burma, Hawaii, and so on. I received a coconut from Hawaii and I don't believe anyone in Illinois had really seen a real coconut from a palm tree in their life. It had finger prints from everywhere it had been until it finally got to our farm house! How fleeting fame, a star and I didn't even appreciate the situation. 

Wagner One Room School Photo - I was in Second Grade ~ 1947!

This photo was taken when I was in second grade in 1947. This photo was taken when I was in second grade in 1947. I am on the left of the second row and I had lots of curly blond hair then. I had lots of curly blond hair then. I attended the one room school until 1951 when we moved back near a small village called Brookville where I finished my eight grade in another one room school!

In 2010 I got a message on Facebook from Sandi Lender who appears in this photo on the first row, second from the right. She was in first grade and I was in second grade. Sandi and I can only figure out five people in the photo!

Sandi said she used to sit in her desk and swoon over me. She said she thought I was the cutest thing but..... I ignored her, I only had eyes for Carol Nueberger!

We have been trading many stories about attending a one room school and she said she and several others from the school still had my Life cover and the photos inside!

Wagner One Room School Photo - Summer Picnic ~ 1950!

This photo was taken in 1950 at a summer picnic at our One Room School near Pecatonica. This was probably the last photo I had been included in before I moved to Polo Illinois, near where I was born.

I attended the Brookville One Room School and after the eighth grade went on to Polo High School and then to Rockford College, eventually the Army and ending up in San Francisco working with computers!

A Letter Found After 50 Years ~ Frans in the Netherlands - My Pen Pal in 1946!

Interesting:  After more than 50 years my sister found a letter I had written to a friend in Holland, Frans, and his family.  It was never mailed and now I wonder if he and his family still are located in Holland.  Read about the letter and see a copy of the letter, very interesting reading after 50 years!  I did find where Frans was after all those years and visited him in 2004 on a Uniworld Cruise all over the Netherlands.  You may read about the extraordinary way I found Frans and how I eventually met him along with photos of us as youngsters and now, as adults!

My Sister Saves Everything - A Good Thing!

But now I live in San Francisco, over 40 years, and do consulting on documenting software packages, (I am now semi-retired), a far cry from Illinois and the farm! You might want to read my experiences on how I was drafted and ended up in San Francisco, all at the expense of the military!

I also found my Army Discharge Papers and was surprised to see in 1969, they still had my address as RR 2 Polo Illinois! They indicated I had completed all my service requirements and was officially discharged. I don't know what they ment by fulfilling my requirments but someone told me perhaps I should have done some summer military exercises. Huh I said. Well what ever happened, I was happy living in San Francisco and working in the biggest computer center west of Chicago at Fireman's Fund Insurance!

Note: My sister keeps everything and when looking through some old cards and pictures I had sent her over the years, what do I find but a picture taken on March 7, 1964, when I was visiting my best friend in the army (we served together at the Presidio in San Francisco), John and his wife in Tustin.  His mother lived in Huntington Beach and this picture was taken at Sam's Sea Food restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway in Surfside California.  The picture includes John Leahy, Sue, his mother Millie and myself!  I have been trying to locate John for the last few years as at one point I heard he had divorced his wife and moved to San Francisco.  Perhaps, if he ever reads this, he will contact me!

You might be interested in this link as my sister found on the internet, that our family at the turn of the 19th century had a tent circus in the mid west!  It was photographed and put on post cards for sale!  This post card shows the tent, the horses and the Buntjer's along with the letter written on the back of the post card!  And now, on with an in-depth view of my life and times!

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  Charles Walter Buntjer




San Francisco California 		Created on: 2017.12.18  




Updated on: 2017.12.18