Porch Talk with David Ullmann

When he was a kid, he thought his 102-year-old great-aunt’s scary basement rivaled Egypt, so he snuck in one day to video all the grandeur and instead found crates of canned beans and boxes of toilet paper. It was like a bomb shelter, he said, from a different generation. What he wouldn’t give to have recorded her stories.

David Ullmann grew up in a suburb of San Jose, CA in the 1960’s, his house just blocks from vast cherry and apricot orchards. Everybody played in the street and walked to school, and nobody, he assured me, ever got kidnapped that he could recall. His grandma lived nearby and she had a big 25-inch color Zenith console television. He and his little brother would wolf down scoops of ice cream and all kinds of candy, watching shows like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because that’s what most kids did back then.

Ah, the nostalgic things we remember…

You’ve probably seen David at the Bay Club, where he works at the front desk. When I asked him what he likes most about his job, he said it is the people, the ones he works with and the new ones he meets. He gets to introduce them to what’s available at the club and provide information when they ask. He’s all about solving problems so people are better off than they were before.

David clearly has a soft spot for helping others. He worked at Jefferson Hospital in Port Townsend for a while as a patient transporter, what used to be called an orderly. He’s got a pharmacy technician license, and another license for home healthcare. He’s worked on the Help Desks at various tech companies, talking with people all over the world. He even worked a summer at Disneyland.

David earned a Bachelor’s degree, with a concentration in English, from Biola University in Southern California. He won a Writer of the Year award at the university for a fictional story about a gardener at Disney World who crafts birdhouses and loses his identity to technology. He was inspired by Ray Bradbury and The Twilight Zone, that and the fact that his assignment required a story based on three randomly-drawn slips of paper. Somehow, he put together a really good story. I think he could write for the Voice.

He’s always had a creative streak. As a kid, he recorded vignettes on his dad’s reel-to-reel using different voices, like Jimmy Stewart or James Mason. He added music and props to create all kinds of crazy noises. It reminded me of the old radio shows with all the sound effects. David said you can find the old mysteries on YouTube now. He likes to listen to them in the evenings.

He said his Uncle Jack was a gaffer for Disney and Paramount, and used to tell him tales about the famous people he rubbed shoulders with. No wonder David wanted to work in the movies when he was growing up.

He prefers the black-and-whites, and a lot of those are on YouTube, too. He said his favorite movie is A Christmas Story, the one that’s circa 1940’s and features nine-year-old Ralphie, the boy who desperately wants a Red Ryder Carbine Action air rifle for Christmas and wants to make sure everyone knows it. Who hasn’t heard “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

David sings and plays piano too, though he said he’s a little rusty because he hasn’t used his keyboard for a while. He said there’s boxes of classical music books stowed away in the garage, probably getting eaten by mice and silverfish. Those boxes have come with him every time he’s moved to different places throughout the years. David’s lived in Port Ludlow for twelve years now, sharing a house with his mom. His brother and sister-in-law live on Whidbey Island. Still, some of David’s boxes haven’t been opened in years. He said they’re probably breeding in the garage and the closets when he’s not looking.

When I asked him what he’d do differently, if he could wave the magic wand of time, he said he would’ve explored more, maybe walked across the Golden Gate Bridge like all the tourists do. He misses California, his friends and the sun. He wants to take a road trip down Highway One when he has more time. He wants to learn how to cook exotic meals using recipes clipped from Sunset Magazine like his father used to do.

Maybe when he retires. Then he’ll drag out those boxes full of sheet music and get back into his piano. Until then, he wants to tell stories, maybe even do some standup comedy. His friends tell him he’s pretty funny. I know he had me laughing!

Interested in swapping stories? You can find these and other stories online at plvoice.org. Our little town is an eclectic mix of wonderful and interesting people. Every one of us has a great story, so let’s sit on the porch and have a conversation. We can share a cup of coffee, or tea, if preferred. Drop me a line at sports@plvoice.org. Looking forward to hearing from you!