Undercover Bookworm

Jory's first set of wheels.

Jory was always running, jumping, and zipping from one activity to another.  As a toddler, he was curious and adventurous, constantly in motion, yet easy to track down because singing aloud betrayed his hiding places.  His energy level never seemed to decrease as he pushed cars and trucks along the floor, built towers with wooden blocks, and explored how things worked by taking them apart and putting them together again.  

Along the wall in the family room, was a makeshift, low to the ground, bricks and boards shelf where toys were supposed to be put away at night, along with books that were stacked for easy access.  Jory was easily frustrated, especially when that last block on top of his skyscraper teetered and fell, causing all the others to tumble down.  He’d stop singing, sputtered and grunted, as he scattered all the blocks around him.  With giant tears rolling down his cubby cheeks, he'd head for the toy shelf to bring me a book.  I'd scoop him up, kiss away his tears, and we'd cuddle up on the yellow rocking chair to read funny stories and fizzle away his vexation.  

Jory loved toys with lots of parts.

By the end of each day, he was exhausted, but equally so wound-up that he resisted going to sleep.  I always attempted a routine of putting away the toys and books on the shelves so that we could begin each new morning with a fresh start.  Often, I was equally exhausted and rationalized that all those scattered toys on the floor were really an excellent burglar alarm for anyone entering the house in the dark.  The robber would likely break his legs tripping over all the trucks, trains, balls, and various other toys strewn over every available floor space.  The burglar would choose to run away, limping as fast as he could out the door.

At bedtime, we all looked forward to the quiet calmness of reading books and stories.  One of Jory's favorites was Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World with the story of "Schtoompah and his Tuba."  Jory chose it as the theme for his third birthday party.  January 31st in Southern California is usually a mild and beautiful day, so friends and family gathered in our backyard for Jory's birthday celebration, which featured a tuba serenade provided by a local college student and a tuba cake that I made.  Sam read "Schtoompah and his Tuba" to the children.  Jory, wearing his favorite lederhosen, just like Schtoompah, was thrilled.  He even got to blow into the shiny tuba, jumping up and down as he heard the deep sounds that burst forth.

Jory's third birthday party featured a tuba story, a real tuba, and a tuba birthday cake.

Saturday morning cartoons on ABC

Saturday morning comics on CBS

Saturday mornings were supposed to be my catch-up-on-lost-sleep time.  I was never a morning person, but a few minutes of extended snoozing on Saturday mornings were priceless to me.  Before I went to bed, I would leave two apples on the breakfast table.  Darren, who was always up early, would get up and go into the family room to turn on the TV for Saturday morning cartoons.  With Jory’s acute hearing, he would soon awake and call for his big brother.  Darren would guide Jory over the crib bars to join him.  The two of them would munch on their apples and watch Saturday Morning Cartoons.  They watched Sylvester and Tweedy, Superheroes, Schoolhouse Rock, Mighty Mouse, Scooby Doo, and Fat Albert.  It seems to me that Jory's first love of cartoons was what attracted him to the animators at CalArts and later to video games, where he would integrate his love of music and sounds into a successful career of in animated films and video games.

"Drummer Hoff fired it off!"

Just like Speedy Gonzalez, Jory's days were filled with motion and I looked for outlets to expend his energy.  Every week, we attended the public library's tiny tot story hour, where he gleefully sang songs, clapped his hands in various rhythms, and loved exploring and listening to storybooks filled with vibrant colors, telling funny tales.  Systematically, he searched the low-to-the-ground shelves for book covers picturing tubas, drums, flutes, and other musical instruments.  We always checked out several books.  Quite often he included his favorite, Drummer Hoff, which he slid into his library bag and proudly hauled home until the next Wednesday. 

Photo credit Sesame Street

Each morning, I got an hour’s respite while Jory watched Sesame Street on our 11” Sony color TV.  He was mesmerized and absorbed everything he saw.  He learned that consonants had hard sounds and vowels had soft ones.  He knew that the letter K sounded like “k,k,k” and the letter S next to the letter H were partners and sounded like “shhhhh.”   Most importantly, C was for cookie.   Meanwhile, I could start the laundry, empty the dishwasher, read the morning newspaper while drinking my cup of coffee, and make a grocery list.  It was the only quiet time I had unless Jory was napping. 

Dr. Seuss Learn-to-Read Books

As he grew older, we continued our weekly trips to the library.  I began to notice that Jory was pointing out words in books and reading along.  His taste and interests expanded and soon Dr. Seuss became his favorite author, along with P.D. Eastman, who wrote the “I Can Read” series of beginner reading books for children, and Shel Silverstein.  Before he entered Kindergarten, Jory was already reading somewhat independently, but we still kept our bedtime ritual of reading storybooks to him to instill a love of reading, learning, and adventure.

First grade began and all the children were evaluated for reading skills.  His teacher, Mrs. Unland, called me in for a teacher conference.

“Jory is reading at a third grade level and we feel that he would be better suited in a second grade classroom,” she explained.

I was thrilled to hear that he was so advanced, but fearful that skipping a grade was the wrong thing for him.  His small motor abilities were behind grade level, so he couldn't cut well with a scissors and he still had trouble holding a pencil or crayon correctly.  Writing was a challenge for him, and an even bigger challenge was trying to decipher anything he tried to write, including his name.  At the same time, like many boys his age, he was immature, crying when he got frustrated or disappointed.  Of course, following directions was not one of his proficient skills, either.

Sam and I talked it over and decided that keeping Jory in first grade with his peers was most important for his social and maturation development.  We suggested that the school allow him to go into the second grade class for language arts and then return to first grade for the rest of the day.  

Laguna Road School was already quite progressive and allowed upper grade students, like Jory's older brother Darren, to switch teachers and classes in order to learn at their appropriate levels for math and reading.  Jory was the first lower grade student to do the same and it worked out well for him and his teachers.  By third grade, Jory was in the identified GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program where children had transitioned from learning-to-read into reading-to-learn, so he remained all day with his classmates.

Choose Your Own Adventure Collection

Third grade also brought Jory into a new genre of fun reading adventures.  He discovered mysteries in the form of Choose Your Own Adventure books.  We already had a few books that had belonged to Darren, but Jory thirsted for more.  He would read them over and over again, choosing different options along the way, relishing the story’s multiple endings.  He valued each book and saved them until he had acquired the entire collection.  Thirty years later, he passed his entire pristine collection onto his nephew Dillon, who was just the right age to explore them himself.

Dillon reading Jory's book

Ironically, the format of Choose Your Own Adventures also became the predecessor to video games, where Jory created his special niche in the entertainment industry.  He thoroughly understood how the storyline varied with each choice that the reader made. Applying that knowledge, he created the unique sounds that ushered the video game player along the way.  In his lectures to university game development students, he taught them that sounds were important in making transitions and that those sounds needed to be varied, not redundant, and just as high quality and realistic as in major motion pictures.  He moved the game development industry in a new direction with genuine, quality sound.

About that same time, Jory began showing an interest in reading the morning newspaper.  His favorite part was the Calendar  Section of the LA Times, where the cartoon strips were printed.  Everyday, before school, he read Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Heathcliff.  The whole household could hear him giggling as he slurped his cereal and milk.  On Sunday mornings, he would confiscate the color comics section of the newspaper, taking it to his room until his brothers would complain.  He would then relinquish it until sometime later, when the section disappeared into his closet and never came back.

Part of Jory's Comic Books Collection

Jory's Heathcliff Collection

Jory loved the comic strips’ whimsical, simplified drawings that appealed to his wide sense of humor. The characters generated all necessary emotion through subtle facial expressions.  The setting and plot were easily conveyed in a few frames that combined illustrations, captions, and dialogue in bubbles.  Everything was condensed, highlighting only the most important elements of the topic.  What he liked most was that the reader had to fill in the rest to understand the whole meaning of the strip.  Jory liked to think and come to his own conclusions.  This led him into comic books, which he also collected, along with dozens of volumes of Heathcliff and Calvin and Hobbes paperback books.

Daniel Keys Moran books

In junior high and high school, Jory fell in love with science fiction mysteries.  His favorite author was Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote Emerald Eyes, The Long Run, and The Last Dancer.  These novels created imaginary realities where individual humans interacted with sophisticated, world-wide, computer-dominated information webs.  Jory was mesmerized.  

At home, we had Mac computers, and at school, he was enrolled in classes at Troy Tech, the local technology magnet high school.  Jory was thoroughly immersed in the world of technology.  His late evenings were spent in his room, writing music on his Mac with a midi interface and an electronic keyboard; covertly taking apart and rebuilding computers; exploring the newly opened web; and, in 1991, acquiring one of the first personal web addresses available.

Jory's Business Card at LucasArts

Jory submerged himself into technology books, learning several computer programming languages.  Without our full awareness, he became a formidable, worldwide, computer guru.  Paradoxically, following his graduation from CalArts with a double degree in music composition and film/video, it was his computer skills that were the most significant reason that he was hired by George Lucas at LucasArts.

COMMENTS:  

Click on Jorysmother@gmail.com to send comments.

Jory Prum    Fall, 2008

I read occasionally, but don't consider it a passion. I have to be in the right mood. My favorite books are: "The Long Run" by Daniel Keys Moran, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce, and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"/"Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll. I recently finished "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson and am still working through "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz.

Pat Ansel

Glad to get these.  Still missing Jory although we only saw him in Norway and maybe when he was just a young child, but can't really remember that.

Mike Rogers
Thanks so much for sharing that, Leslye. I learned a great deal about Jory. I already knew he was incredibly talented and very unique, but reading these details clarified a lot and reinforced a lot. And now I finally understand the name of the scholarship. 

Molly Presser
It's amazing how you found all the influences that different types of literature and TV programs had on Jory's talents and passion. I would have never thought of that, but it is so true. Love your descriptions. Thanks for keeping on writing about him. 

Linda Saslow
Thank you for another great installment. I was also very into choose your own adventure books. 

Gina Zdanowicz
I love reading these and getting to know all the wonderful details about Jory.

Paul Stevens
What a wonderful picture you paint of Jory growing up. Enjoyed every word. Took a note of author Daniel Keys Moran. I have been looking for suggestions for Science Fiction.

Dee Nevares

As a former librarian, I really enjoyed this issue. I could feel the love in your home. Thanks, Sam, for the Tuba story.

Louise Sussman

Thank you for sending us your blogs about Jory.  I feel like I know him.  He was very special in many ways.

Rita Blumstein

I am always enthralled by what you write, especially about Jory, and am amazed by how much you remember...a fascinating read.

Elaine Asa

I just had to stop and read about Jory. Your stories, photos and memories are amazing. Each blog keeps Jory’s memory alive as you share his life with us, the readers. I can tell by reading your blog what a special child he was from the very beginning. Though challenging,  he knew which parents to choose. Your insights and patience and deep love are what allowed Jory to grow into the exceptional young man he became. May his memory always serve for blessings as you continue to share his life with all of us.

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