I was born on March 15, 1957 in Hot Springs County Hospital in Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Technically I was born just outside the city limits of Thermopolis, Wyoming. But according to my birth certificate I was born in Thermopolis, Hot Springs County, Wyoming. My attending physician was Dr. Benjamin Gitlitz. He was Jewish, something unusual in Wyoming. I was born to Lorraine Mary Madeleine Mazet and John Herbst Jr. My father was born in a log cabin along the Wind River near Shoshoni, Fremont County, Wyoming on April 11, 1931. My mother was born in the Worland Hospital in Worland, Washakie County, Wyoming on the 5 July 1930, she died exactly 59 years later of Lymphnoma Cancer. My parents were married in Riverton, Fremont County, Wyoming on the 4 March 1956 in the Episcopalian Church. I have two siblings, Thomas Lee who was born on May 23, 1960 and Sharon Renee who was born on July 8, 1967.

I went to elementary school in Shoshoni, Wyoming. I had Mrs. Mamie Riggs for the First Grade, Miss Ruth McBeth for Second Grade, Mrs. Margaret Thomas for Third Grade, Mrs. Irene Roberchek for Fourth Grade, Mrs. Ina Clark for Fifth Grade and Mrs. Judy Carroll for Sixth Grade. I loved school, but was not that good of a student. I was pretty average in most respects as a student. I remember Mamie Riggs as a very kind and loving teacher. She was perfect for me in my early years. Ruth McBeth was also a very kind teacher, but much more a disciplinarian than Mamie. I really learned a lot from her. Margaret Thomas was a kindly person and had very little discipline in the class room. I don't think that I remember learning much in her class, but always remember her as a wonderful person, but maybe at that time had gotten to old to be a teacher. I always had a soft heart for Margaret. In Irene Robercheks class I learned so much. She was a strict disciplinarian and probably would have been arrested for child abuse in our day and age. I always had great respect for Irene. She taught each of us respect for country and state. She expected your best and generally got it from everyone in her class. She may have been the finest teacher I ever had in the many years of education. Ina Clark was also a wonderful person and dedicated teacher. She had many health problems and probably wasn't as effective as she could have been. She was a special person and a friend of our families. Judy Carroll was another top notch teacher. I learned a lot from her. She also demanded respect and obedience. Almost our whole class was paddled, me included, after we had nearly tortured our substitute teacher. We also had taken the clay we were to be using for a class project and dotted the ceiling with it. I'm sure the janitors were really impressed to. I wouldn't trade the wonderful years in the Shoshoni Elementary School. We learned more than just reading, writing and arithmetic, but we learned how to respect and treat others as ourselves. Something that is a thing of the past in our Public School System. My Hat's off to the Teacher's of Shoshoni Elementary while I was there.