James M. Fillman

Wow, much has happened since 1968 but the highlights include: after about 17 dreadful years in the world of accounting, went to grad school, earned a master's degree in counseling, did private practice for about 10 years and then moved on to higher ed and have been at BCCC ever since (Coordinator of Student Services and adjunct professor of sociology and humanities). Married in 1969, have two beautiful children (Shannon and Josh) and a very cool grandson (Mason). Came out of the closet as a gay man in 1985, divorced and partnered, moving to New Jersey. Currently still dance a lot, am engaged in social and political activism relative to gay rights, continuing to specialize professinally in and am published on LGBTQ issues and concerns. Love to travel, read, garden and write. Am currently single.

What I always enjoyed most in High School were the dances. Norristown was a great town for a dancer to grow up in. We still shake it around at the Maenner Chor on Haws Ave. on Friday nights. Old dancers die hard. For those of you who had Sal Rotundo for 8th grade history at Stewart Jr. High School, I found him on the dance floor about 20 years ago and we've been hanging out at the same events ever since. Sal still loves to jitterbug.

Academically, a class I took in Cultural Anthropology in those days had a lasting influence on my interests throughout the years, as did Russian Club.

I put the finishing touches on a collection of stories and poems I've been writing over these past 20 years. The stories focus mainly on the cast of characters that frequented my family-owned neighborhood luncheonette located at Haws and Lafayette, known as "Peg and Jim's." One of our main "delicacies" was the zep. We sold, probably, thousands of them over the years. The zep put me through college.