"When I was not yet one year old and still nursing, my parents, with my older brother Fred and me, left our home, family and friends to move to another state.

"My father had recently graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and after applying for work, received his first full time job in the northern panhandle of the state located directly west of Louisiana. He packed up his family of four to begin the journey west to the small town of Borger, Texas.

"I don′t remember anything about our first home in Borger, in fact, my memories do not begin until the time in our next home after my dad′s company offered him a better position if he would take the opening at the Pasadena, Texas refinery. My memories of life in that second home on Garner Street are few, as I was still very young. Instead, it was after we moved again, this time to Roper Street when I began going to a colloquial school, where I have much recollection." —Tommy Michel

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His parents come from French ancestry and have been living within eyesight of the Mississippi River for as far back as the late 1700′s. Originally both family ancestry are from France, likely the western coastal regions near Nantes and/or La Rochelle, France.

After the Great Expulsion of the Acadians between 1755 and 1764 by the British, his mothers ancestral family were among the first to be deported in 1755 southward to the British colonies, where they received only contempt and disdain from the English speaking colonists, but were eventually able to make their way to Spanish held Louisiana.

The same Great Expulsion resulting in his father ancestral family being deported back to France in 1758, where he waited until he could obtain passage on a ship bound for Louisiana.

He does well in drafting classes in high school, receiving top awards at regional and state competition in architecture and decides to pursue architecture. After graduating from Deer Park High School in 1968, he studies Architecture at the university. However, after the first year, he is so done with being in school that he leaves the university and finds work in construction and begins to learn the trade of, as he calls it, throwing a hammer.

Some time after that, he meets Becky Rose who becomes the focus of his life and later, they do marry. However, this was a time of national unrest with the war that was raging in southeast Asia.

Too, the nation began drafting its combatants from citizens born from 1944 to 1950 and since Tommy was born in 1950, he was included in those that could be drafted.

To continue reading this Story, please click on the First Journeys Link.

He begins his preparations for this journey, starting about a year before his proposed departure date and begins to compose an entry in his journal delineating all that he must needs do in order to be able to walk away from his home here in Texas and take on this new life journey, one that he would begin afoot exploring this land so as to learn more about its geography, the people and to possibly find the path has been reading about in the Bible.

To read more of Tommy Michel′s story, his search for meaning in life, please download the book The Wayfarers Journal, Journey to Katahdin, now available Free, only on this website at: The Wayfarers Store.