Wallace Jan Ecklof grew up in a one square mile honky-tonk community on the Jersey shore and graduated high school in 1965 during the height of the Viet Nam War. He started working as a Roller Derby skater, a lobsterman, and then a cowboy in South Dakota for two years on a horse and cattle ranch. He then attended college studying for a and work for Prudential Insurance Company, while his mother wanted him to pursue something scholarly in Art or Literature.