Janice Carr Smith Follow

NEW STUFF IN AN OLD BOX

Janice Carr was raised by liberal parents in ’60s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a short hike from Harvard Square. As a kid, she liked to read, write, and act out her stories with her stuffed animals, and sometimes her brother, Charlie, while Dad’s Wurlitzer Organ buzzed the corners of the ceiling, rocking the house. Mom would be out marching for some left-wing cause or candidate.
All that ended when Janice was twelve. Cancer struck, first her mom, then her dad. By fourteen, she was orphaned and living in Florida with relatives who had a very different world view. When they decided to move farther into their rural world, Jan rebelled and returned home to finish high school, living with a dear family friend to whom her first book is lovingly dedicated.
Itching to be on her own, no longer a guest, she left campus-rich Boston for a Radio-TV-Film major at Northwestern University. The college Outing Club opened her city-born eyes to the natural world with hiking, rock-climbing and spelunking trips, and she switched to a Geology major.
After years of wandering, she married John Smith and became an Environmental Consultant, shepherding public works projects through California’s rigorous environmental compliance process, first at a private engineering firm and later for a rural county public works department in Northern California.
In 2017, Janice retired in the same county with the same husband. One day, in her garden, she started hearing voices. She looked up, and the Look’N Up was born.