User Profile

This bio updated 4/16/2007. I have profiles in Yahoo!, Reunion.com, and Classmates.com. Between all of these, you may be able to learn something about me! Visit my other blog at http://360.yahoo.com/askey.erskine and my web sites at http://mysite.verizon.net/erskine49/ and at http://www.geocities.com/john_d_askey.

I was born in Pottstown, PA, and was raised in the Boyertown area. This region is at the edge of the PA Dutch country (Lancaster) but in Berks County, with a strong Mennonite presence in the community. My family was part of a informal congregation that was informally connected with the Churches of Christ. The membership of this group included a number of ex-hippies in the late 70's when I was a youth.

In high school I was a "general" student, not college prep, and took classes ranging from extra arts and literature, to typing, office management, extra history, and TV production. I graduated from the Boyertown Area Senior High School in 1983, and took some time to figure out what I wanted to to with my life. I moved to Nashville, TN, but when plans didn't work out, in the fall of 1984 I enlisted in the United States Air Force. This didn't work out due to a medical problem, so I enrolled in Northeastern Christian Junior College, Villanova, PA. While there I started my low-power radio station and an underground newspaper, worked in the student bookstore, library, and dish room, and participated on the technical end of a number of theatrical productions. Although I was not a "preacher candidate" I took a number of extra religion (Bible) classes and even had a Ministry Scholarship! I earned an AA in May 1985.

After NCJC, I traveled south to Henderson, TN, midway between Nashville and Memphis, near the town of Jackson TN. Here I became involved in the college radio station and continued to run my underground station as well. I earned my BA in Mass Communications, broadcast emphasis, in December 1990.

Toward the end of my college program, I regained contact with a girl I had known in my home church, and ended up getting married in March, 1991. In March, 1993, our daughter was born, joining my step-son in our family. About 2000, my wife left me with our family, leaving me the big house and a constantly-shedding part-Husky dog. I had to return the dog, Cassie, to the shelter as I could not care for her. We had talked about a "therapeutic separation," but after five years she filed for divorce in February 2007, which was finalized in April. (She plans to remarry on May 5, 2007, just weeks after the divorce was finalized.)

I have worked for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Public Welfare, Office of Mental Retardation, White Haven Center, since 1994. I work overnight as a mental retardation aide, or Residential Services Aide (RSA), with the same group all these years. I may be able to retire in 2024!

Religion: As I described above, I grew up with the Church of Christ (see Wikipedia), and was a member of the White Haven Free Methodist Church (Mountainview Community Church) in the early '90s. About 1999 my family and I joined the now-closed Crusade Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, in Hazleton. I was a founding member of Hazleton Community Church, also a Southern Baptist congregation, since 2006. Much of 2007 I visited other area churches, leaving HCC for strictly personal reasons (coping with my divorce). I attended the Conyingham Valley Bible Church for much of that year. In 2008 I began worshiping with the Beaumont Free Methodist Church (near Blakeslee, PA) and Living Hope Community Church, (Nescopeck, PA), and joined the HOPE Center, a Free Methodist church plant (Hazleton, PA).


My personal web page at Yahoo! Geocities never got out of draft, and now Yahoo! is pulling the plug anyway. I have a Verizon account and plan to build a web page there, also. Time and content are always issues. I hope to blog about once a week, but I also blog in Yahoo! 360 at http://360.yahoo.com/askey.erskine. It's a challenge to keep two blogs current!

Computers: Mini computer (mainframe) exposure in high school computer lab, IBM-type PC (8088) at NCJC, Macintosh at FHU. I still run Windows 3.1 on several PCs including 386 & 486 (basic desktop publishing and writing/editing), a Dell Optiplex G1 running Win98 system, a Dell GX 150 running Linux, and a Dell Optiplex 260 running WinXP. (I've been slowly upgrading my systems, getting ready for audio and video editing and podcasting and perhaps my own Internet radio station.)

I love to read science fiction, fantasy, and westerns, action and thriller novels. I also read and study the Bible. My pet project is an multi-translation interlinear NT study with the cross references and Thompson Chain Reference numbers in-line with the main text. This concept could help teachers and serious students study w/o Bible software or having multiple books/translations open at the same time. I am working on a personal commentary, starting with the life of Jesus, to which I will add at least the cross references. I have completed Philemon and Jude in draft forms.

Genealogy: With existing family tree (Askey-Gross Family Tree by Sara Marie Askey-Hugar) and several siblings and relatives I am working on proving and clarifying our family tree, its branches, and hope to trace our ancestry through Scotland, County Fife, Earl of Mar. "Erskine" name given about 1030 AD. I have created a Wetpaint site that provides some of my written family history, at www.askey.wetpaint.com. A detailed genealogy is in MyFamily, the Scots-Irish ASKEY pages.

Radio: I played with tape editing and "mixup" in the 1980s, and bought my first mixer and turntables about 1982. In college I had a low-power radio station, and worked at WFHC-FM, 91.5 FM, Henderson TN. Since college I have not been on the air, but dream of my own station. (My equipment needs repair.) I have produced two Christian rock radio shows, "Glad Rags Christmas 2003" and "Glad Rags Summer 2004." In the future, I hope to launch a LPAM or LPFM (micro-station) with computer automation, and an Internet radio station. I also would like to produce a regular 1/2 hour radio program featuring Christian rock to syndicate to secular stations (providing music with Christian lyrics that can't be heard on Christian stations). I'm researching podcasting which will let me share some of my old DJ recordings on-line for friends, and to begin a radio show of some kind.

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