A Seasonal Man : Henry A. Gay, 51, Baldwin Park

In the restless spring of my 20s, I left my job as a General Electric copywriter in Cleveland to seek the thrills and excitement of police work in Monrovia, Calif. There I remained for seven years, advancing to the rank of sergeant, until I was injured in a fight with a car thief and had to take medical retirement. Having seen my share of bones being broken, I then went back to school to learn how to mend them. Thus, in the early fall of my life, I became a chiropractor.

This isn’t as radical a change as one might think. I’d always wanted a career in medicine but was too poor to pursue this ambition. Even more inhibiting, I was told that medicine was not a realistic dream for a black child to entertain. Unwilling to let go of my dream completely, I joined the Navy in my late teens, became a hospital corpsman and received my first training in physical therapy.

I’ve now been a practicing chiropractor for 13 years. It’s been challenging, it’s been rewarding, it’s been fun--building a business through all the bumps and bruises, meeting a weekly payroll, experiencing the joy and satisfaction of watching people come in with physical pain and then leave cured or feeling better because of my efforts.

At the same time, I’ve begun feeling the first whisper of winter chill and a growing desire to pass my knowledge and experience on to others. I therefore took and passed the California Basic Education Skills Test recently, and am now looking forward to teaching grade-school-level health classes and junior-college-level courses in anatomy and physiology.