Philip

Hi!

My name is Philip Sigurd Lodström. Sigurd was my dads fathers middle name too. It was also the name of his mothers fathers brother. Don't ask me how he came to think of it! I don't even think we looked alike..

I like to build things with LEGO. My parents say there is LEGO all over the house, and it is often so. I also build paper airplanes. My dad has a program on the computer where it shows how to make them.

I take piano lessons, although not just now, and have learned to play with both hands.

We have an old Commodore 64 computer with a math program called "The Playful Professor." I like it. When I do a problem right, I get to go into a castle and get to take the key for the gate from a ghost. I have already learned long division, and we do not have that in school yet. I have to learn the multiplication table better. I also like to draw pictures. I will put some of them here.

I will begin the fourth grade in Saticoy School this fall. I like reading, especially Calvin and Hobbes, and not so much composition.

Dad helped me to write this, but soon I will do it all myself.

I believe an important part in my development to a nice and well rounded young man was the personal contact I had with my parents from early on. Here I am at the ripe age of 1 week! They fed me and took good care of me most of the time. Well, when Dad had the watch the diapers got a little heavy sometimes.

Two years ago I won an amateur radio at the Santa Maria Hamfest! It is a Kenwood 220 MHz mobile radio. I cannot use it until I get a ham radio license. Dad have had me going to classes in Morse code. In the beginning he and mom sat in there, and they learned it much better than I. Dad got an Advanced class license and mom quit when we got a Morse code program for the computer. Otherwise she would have got an Extra in no time at all. She picked it up really fast. I kind of know it by now, but the test is so boring so I have problems concentrating all the time. I will get my Novice ticket soon, though. Dad has promised me a shortwave radio of my own when I get my ticket. Then I can talk to people all over the world. In Morse code!

I had an early start in the ham radio business. Mom, dad and me with a radio..

When I was not even a year old, dad's friend Leif "Smokerings" Andersson stopped by on a visit. We had a good discussion about jazz now and then, and the development of Ellington's saxophone section in particular.

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 Today, November 17, 1999, Leif Andersson died in Sweden after a brief illness. He lived to be 74 years young. To us lovers of jazz music in Sweden his program "Smokerings" was the only source for decades. One hour a week for 1786 weeks made it the longest running program in Swedish radio. I was fortunate enough to count Leif as a friend. When I left Sweden for a new life in America, he was the one who gave me a ride from Malmö

to the Kastrup airport outside Copenhagen. As we parted he handed me a generous sum of money as well. On the few visits to Sweden thereafter I always made sure to enter and leave Sweden via Copenhagen - Malmö. Leifs precious wife Britt cooked the most wonderful dinners. On a visit in 1992 for all four of us, Alicia, me and the kids. A 'farewell line' Leif often used at the end of his programs now applies to himself: "Keep Swinging!" I am sure he will, and so will all of us whose lives he enriched by opening the window and letting in the wonderful sounds of civilized jazz music, recorded a long time ago. Leif had a few CD's with selections of his. I have two, and there are supposedly a few more. To hear Leifs hoarse voice once again, or maybe for the first time, and the music he selected for these CD's, contact Ancha, POB 70443, S-10725 Stockholm, Sweden. I have the records ANC 9093-2 and ANC 9096-3 from 1991 and 1993 respective.

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Here mom has me all dressed up..

Something tells me I was approximately 3 years old here...

When I was 4 the family went on a trip to Sweden. I got my own passport.

Here, in the bathtub with a LEGO construction! And with a piano lesson!

I actually started my piano studies long time ago, on my own hand.

Here I am playing an ode to Rabbit on the note stand.

Getting ready for the 10.0 - dive...

Today dad saw a little bird falling out of its nest in a tree. Some of my schoolmates and I climbed up with the bird in a paper bag and put it back in the nest! It felt good to have helped it. In a few weeks it will be able to fly by itself, and I hope it will know who I am and tell me what it sees from up there.

The bird rescue team: Lindsay and her brother Dennis, me and Richard. Lindsay climbed almost all the way up the tree with the bird but could not find the nest. Then Dennis and I took over and found it about half ways up! Girls! But I must admit that she is a good tree climber.

When Dad was in Sweden for his brother Jan's funeral, he bought this nice steam roller for me.

It has a real double acting steam engine that can start in either direction.

Here, Richard to the left, and I check it out.

Just like my little brother Richard, I like to go fishing too.

Here we are out on the pier in Ventura.

It is now September 26, 1997 and the school has started.

I am the tallest in my class!

A "White Christmas" takes on another meaning in Southern California! Here I am enjoying the Pacific Ocean waves on December 23, 1997!

Here is me and the cat Gromit!

"Things go better with Coca-Cola" they say. How about with a chain saw?

Sometimes I get just a little sand in my shoes…

My e-mail address is: