Drove off to college with my brother, Joe, (WJ '65) to a small college in North Carolina. I wasn't too focused on studying so I did not graduate (but I did have fun). Returned home and worked for Univac for several years and moved to an apartment in Glover Park (upper Georgetown). That was fun also.

Then I met my husband at Nancy Jonucz Poole's wedding and we have been happily married for 35 years. We lived briefly in Falls Church, Rockville and Gaithersburg before moving to Plantation, FL 20 years ago. Plantation is a sleepy community just outside Ft. Lauderdale.

We have 2 beautiful daughters (yes, I am prejudiced), Karin (1973) and Katherine (1977). I was a stay at home Mom and loved every minute of it. Karin has been married for 2 years and lives in Plantation just 10 minutes from us - we love having her close. She works for a busy title company. Katherine graduated from Univ. of Central Florida in Marketing and is a Buyer for Macy's. She and her fiancé (they met at UCF) live in Atlanta and are going to be married October 14 - just a few short weeks away. The wedding is in Atlanta and Katherine is handling the last minute stress - she has done all the planning. I make periodic visits and write the checks! I'm making one last visit the end of September before we head up in October.

No grandchildren yet but we are (impatiently) waiting. We do have step-grandchildren and many grand-dogs and grand-cats. Plus, we just adopted a puppy who desperately needed a good home (we're suckers for that).

After my youngest reached 4th grade, I started back to work part-time so I could still be home after school and be the car-pool Mom. For about the last 10 years, I have been contracted to General Services Administration. We handle the leasing for Federal agencies in Florida (except the panhandle)- a small but very busy office.

 

 

1963-Kensington Junior High  (transferred from NJ) 1965-Summer school for English, made a deal with school admin that if I attended everyday for my senior year

 I would graduate. Hated to do it! 1966 Graduated- 1967-68 Enlisted in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk and then to DC for duty at the Navy Yard and supplying the Presidential Yacht  that was never used while I was there. I had it made but still hated the Navy but will always like Tricky Dick for downsizing  the military and giving us a early out. (Sounds a bit like VandeSande Bio)

1972 Tired of the DC life and took off to Manitoba with Bob Emch(WJ66) and we hunted and fished half way across Canada 1973 Met my first wife in 69 and married my first wife and still married to her and moved to WV

1975 Started working at a DOE coal conversion pilot plant, converting coal to clean liquid fuels. Government funding for  this project stopped in 1979.

1978 First child born (son) in Wheeling, WV  1979 Finally managed to get an Associates degree in Business  1980 Started a job with an Industrial Gas company in Dayton, OH and relocated there. Started international travel to much of  South America and Mexico.

1981 Second child (daughter) born in Dayton, OH  1991 Transferred to Canton, OH as a field service tech and traveled most  of the upper midwest.

2000 Tired of the travel and took a job with a leading Stainless steel producer making helicopter blades and jet engine parts  Still there and still living in Canton

2007 Both children now doing very well, My son works for a regional bank as an IT tech and my daughter works for well known food  producer as a financial analyst working in Toronto for a year.

 Life is good.

 

Seeing the bio from Marilyn (Taylor) Couture reminded me of the old joke that people in our home room at WJ liked to play on the five Taylors sitting alphabetically in a row. Once every few weeks someone in the back of the room would yell  "HEY Taylor !" And sure enough the whole row would turn around. Every time.  


After graduating from WJ in the bottom quarter in the height of Vietnam I suddenly realized I was prime candidate for the rice patties. To avoid this fate I bounced around to 4 different colleges before graduating from John Carroll University in Cleveland . Unfortunately the war was still going on and since I drew number one in the draft lottery I knew where I had won a trip to.  


Before leaving I married Dianne , who has stuck with me for 35 years. Our first son Chris was born in Cleveland while I was in Nam . Somewhere in Nam I realized that since my major in college was draft avoidance and that I did not have a clue as to what I wanted to be when I grew up. So I did what many of the children of the 60's did and went back to school (and let Dianne support me) to avoid the thinking process, earning a masters in International Business. From there we started a nomad life living in Phoenix , Kansas City , Wichita (our daughter Ashley was born), Denver (our son Jeff was born), Westfield , Massachusetts , and for the last 12 years in Henderson , Nevada which is a suburb of Las Vegas .  


I am currently an outside salesman for a Houston based company selling plastic that is used for waterproofing municipal landfills wastewater treatment plants and gold mines through out the Rocky Mountains and Western Canada . To me it is one of the most beautiful parts of the world and to get paid to travel the region is a great life. Dianne is the assistant director of a non-profit organizations that helps low income families and the elderly in Las Vegas . Low pay, but I am very proud that someone in our family is willing to give back for all we have received in life. Non profit is a different world. You work with people who wake up angry that the government does not give them more to the people who are desperately looking for the tools to improve their lives. And or course there are the impoverished elderly who just want to survive for as long as they can.  


Our oldest son, Chris, is in sales and lives in White Salmon, WA where he spends as much time as possible in the summer kite boarding on the Columbia River and kayaking or skiing on Mt. Hood in the winter. He is part of the generation that believes that the purpose of work is to have enough money to play hard.  Ashley is still single, works for an advertising agency in Santa Monica, CA and goes to San Diego almost every weekend to party. Our youngest, Jeff, is still at home going to school to become a certified Auto Mechanic. He wants to be a snowboard instructor after graduation. Regardless, in 8 months he graduates, receives the boot and after 36 years we will be free of kids for the first time! Hurrah! 2007 we moved to San Diego.

 

Fast forward to 2014.  After spending most of my working career in different cities we finally retired in San Diego.  While the best city we have ever lived in, it is way to expensive for us to live in without a job.  So we moved back to Las Vegas we own a home.  After 6 months we decided that this is not the city to spend the rest of our life, but where do we go?  We saw a news story on Cuenca Ecuador as one of the top retirement cities in the world. 

 

We made the decison to try Cuenca for a couple of years and then if we didn't like it maybe Costa Rica or Thailand.  A year into Cuenca we love it.  Lots of friends, nice climate and the locals actually like Americans. 

 

First time living under Socialisim.  It is a great system till the gevernment runs out of money.  Gas is fixed at $1.48 a gallon, and food and medicine are subsidized.  A public doctor is free and a private doctor costs $20.00 a visit. Furnished two bedroom apartments can be had for $350 a month.  (2 story penthouses  can be found for a $1000.)

 

Don't know how long we will be here but we are really enjoying it now.  But it is a big world that can only be appreciated by living it.  Not through tourisim.

 

looking forward to seeing everyone.