1944: Family moves to Bronxville, NY.
1947 or 1948: Family moves to Havertown, PA (west suburb of Philadelphia).
1951: Starts the violin.
1953: Becomes a radio amateur (W3CCP). Incipient nerdy characteristics evident.
1956: Family moves to Villanova, PA. Further out from the city. Whitebread. Violin drops by the wayside. Clarinet playing begins.
1960: Graduates from Radnor High School. Plays tenor sax in rock band on Jersey Shore. Enters Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. Thinks he's going to be a chemical engineer.
1961: Tours Europe in the summer with a band from Williams College.
1962: Ditto.
1963: After flirting with the English Department, becomes a French Major.
1964: Graduates from Bowdoin College, enters graduate program in French at The Johns Hopkins University. Meets Rachel Diamond.
1965: Summer in France (Bryn Mawr College institute in Avignon) and Italy.
1966: Goes to Paris for Johns Hopkins sponsored program at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.
1967: Returns in the fall to the States to take comprehensive exams at Hopkins. Marries Rachel Diamond.
1968: Becomes Instructor of French at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
1970: Son, Michael Louis, born. J.B. joins Jazz Workshop Band at the university.
1973: Completes dissertation on the fiction of Maurice Blanchot. Receives Ph.D. Promoted to Assistant Professor in May. Laid off in July. The family returns to the Baltimore area (Columbia). J.B. plays gigs, looks for work. Takes a job at an employment agency, Sanford Rose, in Baltimore.
1974: Takes a job as a reference librarian in the General Information Department at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Moves to a rowhouse in Baltmore's Charles Village.
1975: Son, Theodore Charles, born.
1977: Begins work towards a Master of Science in Library Science at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. Teaches French for graduate students at The Hopkins. Plays gigs with Baltimore traditional jazz bands.
1979: Completes M.S.L.S. Becomes Senior Administrative Assistant to the Director (Ernest Siegel) of the Pratt Library.
1981: The family moves to northwest Baltimore, a more suburban setting.
1982: Becomes Assistant Director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
1989: Becomes Director of the Glenview (IL) Public Library. Family moves to Northbrook, IL.
1992: Begins to play gigs with Chicago bands.
2000: Rachel dies of pancreatic cancer after an eight month struggle.
2002: J.B. retires from the Glenview Public Library. In July becomes the regular clarinetist in the Cubs Band.
2003: Meets Alice Wiethoff. Spends his first full season with the Cubs, who, incredibly, reach the playoffs.
2004: Marries Alice Wiethoff in March. Moves to Evanston, IL, in June. Spends his second full season with the Cubs.
2005: Another season with Cubs. Towards the end of the year, Blegen substitutes often for clarinetist Chuck Hedges.
2006: Trip to Barcelona in February. Another season with the Cubs, witnessing the worst baseball he has ever seen. Christmas in the Netherlands.
2007: A Final Season with the Cubs. After playing 65 games, Blegen gives his notice. He'll substitute in the future. A couple of other gigs this year deserve mention: the September 14 concert at the Lake Street Church with Frank Portolese, John Bany, and Charlie Braugham; the November 4 concert in Clinton, MO, for the Clinton Area Arts Council, with Dave Ivaz, Tom Hope, Jerry Coleman, and Eddie de Haas.