| 1939 | Jack Saunders born. Grows up in Delray Beach, Florida. Father serves in Pacific as naval officer during WWII. |
| 1949 | Father first elected mayor of Delray Beach. |
| 1951 | Wins spelling bee, Delray School. Runner-up in county. 10th in state. |
| 1952 | Father enters seminary at Emory University. Family move to Druid Hills. |
| 1953 | Family live in parsonage in Culloden, Georgia. Saunders attends school at Yatesville. Father goes home to help Pop Cason run the family business, giving up on his dream of being a minister, after Pop has a nervous breakdown. |
| 1955 | Saunders attends 11th grade at Young Harris Junior College. Expelled. |
| 1956 | Drops out of high school to enlist in USAF. Stationed in band squadron in Waco, Texas. Reclassified. Works in B-25 Operations, in navigator training squadron, as a dispatcher. |
| 1959 | Stationed on Okinawa in F-86D fighter-interceptor squadron. Works as Form 5 clerk. |
| 1960 | Lives at home and attends Palm Beach Junior College in Lake Worth. |
| 1961 | Reenlists. Retrains. Electronics tech school at Biloxi, Mississippi. |
| 1962 | Stationed in GEEIA squadron in Japan. TDY to Korea, Hawaii. |
| 1964 | Stationed in communications squadron on SAC base, Albany, Georgia. |
| 1965 | Discharged. Works at RCA/EDP in Palm Beach Gardens and lives on Singer Island. |
| 1966 | Attends FSU in Tallahassee. Majors in anthropology. Digs at Panacea with Brenda Brown. |
| 1968 | Graduates magna cum laude. Marries Brenda. |
| 1969 | Graduate work in anthropology at FSU. Jack and Brenda dig at Tallulah, Louisiana, with George Percy. |
| 1970 | Graduate work in anthropology at Tulane. Jack and Brenda move to New Orleans. |
| 1971 | Steals last year of NDEA fellowship to write. Writes 2½ books. Digs at Shadows-on-the-Teche. |
| 1972 | Jack and Brenda move to Penland, NC, to live with Jack and Karol Neff. Saunders works as laborer in feldspar mine. |
| 1973 | Jack and Brenda move to Winston-Salem. Owen born. Saunders works construction. Writes Playing Hurt. |
| 1975 | Fired from janitor job in department store for stealing. Family move back to Florida. Live in back bedroom of Granny Brown's house in Parker. |
| 1976 | Family move to Fort Walton Beach. Saunders works as technical writer. Balder born. Publishes Raw Energy, Trailer Park Tramp, Whitespace. |
| 1977 | Family move to Tallahassee. Saunders runs U-Haul truck into rail of bridge across Apalachicola River. Let go by Department of Commerce. Files a grievance. Blackballed. Quits drinking. Brenda puts the kids in nursery school and goes to work in archeology lab. |
| 1978 | Saunders goes into field, at Andersonville. Digs at Old Capitol. Father dies. |
| 1979 | Family move to Delray Beach. Saunders works at bank father had been on the board of directors of. Brenda works at Mitel as a technical instructor. Owen and Balder attend school Saunders attended and both his parents attended. Family move to The Cottage, behind Grandma and Pop Cason. |
| 1980 | Saunders publishes the pamphlets that went on to become Screed. Nominated for Poet Laureate of the State of Florida. Screed published by Vagabond Press. Reads in Winter Park. John Bennett flies Saunders to Seattle for publication party of Black Messiah. Writes column for Delray Beach News-Journal. |