Nicholas Elgin Vernam Foster was born in the wee hours of the morning, 34 years ago today. The firstborn of his parents, he was much loved and doted upon. It wasn’t long before he was eager to drive a tractor. When he was about two he got his first Tonka, a dump truck in the late 1970s series modeled, with artistic license, on that era’s Dodge truck. The dump truck was soon joined by others, which he was proud to demonstrate to his mother. He had a certain fascination with Jill’s Triumph Herald, often eager to help me work on it.
When he was five, after a good breakfast he went off to school, returning full of knowledge and enthusiasm.
By the time he got to high school he was a self-assured student, which stood him well in higher education. Although Nick and his sister Harriet accompanied us to many car shows, he never inherited my infatuation with automobiles, instead focusing on computers (to which I owe the existence of the CarPort), biology and music. With regard to the latter two, you can find him as Dr. Nick, a post-doctoral research neuroscientist by day, and Professor Groove, a world-class funk music DJ at night. Both of these personae make his parents very proud. You can hear his show each Friday at midnight on radio station CKUT in Montreal, or catch up to it at wefunkradio.com. If you’re going to be in Austin, Texas, in two weeks, you can check him out at South by Southwest.
