After graduation, I went to the University of Houston. I majored in Art & Interior Design with a minor in French. During my senior year in college, I worked for the architectural firm that had designed Andrews High School & the new hospital. That determined the direction my career would take. After 6 months back in Andrews, I decided to go to New Jersey to join my boyfriend whom I had met my junior year. He was from Jersey City and had been drafted into the Army. So while he was in basic in Ft. Dix, I lived with his parents & found a job in New York City as a commercial interior designer.

Our lives changed abruptly when he got his orders to go to Vietnam at the end of May, 1968. We got married in a pretty darn nice ceremony & party on July 8^th.  So it was kind of a “shot-gun” wedding…with Uncle Sam holding the shotgun! We went to Puerto Rico for our honeymoon using money I’d saved from babysitting.  He left for Vietnam on August 1^st. So the first year of our marriage I worked in downtown Manhattan while he worked in downtown Saigon!

We were able to meet half way through that year in Hawaii where we had a wonderful time. It is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. It was really hard to leave there and return to Jersey City.

After his return, in one piece, we started our life together. We both worked in Manhattan and I had gotten a better job working on Park Avenue. I got to work on some great projects such as the McGraw-Hill building in NYC. My best project was the Bank of Israel on 5^th Avenue. The bank won an award as one of the 10 best interiors of the year. I also had 2 projects in lower Manhattan & watched the Twin Towers being built.

A few years later, we moved to central New Jersey & I worked for a top notch architectural firm in Princeton, NJ. During that year I became pregnant with my son, Eric (born in 1973). He was joined in 1975 by our daughter, Heather.  Our children are the light of our lives. Eric has a degree in microbiology but works as a finance manager at an auto dealership and my daughter, who gifted us with two beautiful grandsons, Logan (11) & Maddox (8), studied drama and theater at Rutgers University. Eric lives nearby in Pennsylvania, Heather moved to Charlotte, NC 7 years ago.

Over the years we got to go to some neat places. In 1972, the year before Eric was born, we went to Venezuela and Mexico. We took the kids to Jamaica in 1980. Peter was co-owner of a video production company. He & his partner got a project where they worked in Monte Carlo & took a side trip to Paris. I never got to Paris, but the following summer, they got a second project which was shot in Monte Carlo again and this time the wives got to go. We took a day trip to San Remo, Italy which helped me with a wish I’d had since high school…go to Italy. What a beautiful part of the world!  Since then we’ve been to Mexico twice, once in Cancun & the second trip was to an area south of Cancun which is now called the Riviera Maya. It’s one of the hottest places I’ve ever been including Texas!

We went to Montreal the following August. What fun practicing speaking French (they won’t let on that they speak English!). The problem is that Canadian French is much different from the French spoken in France. Sort of how American English differs from British or Australian English. People can still communicate, but there are limitations.

We moved to Doylestown, PA in 1989. This is a historical town about 25 miles north of Philadelphia.  Actually, there’s history all around us here. We can see where the Declaration of Independence was signed & the Liberty Bell. When a building is over 100 years old here, it’s highly prized, not torn down.

This area is in Bucks County, PA which is renowned for its beauty. Its lush country side and stone farm houses are famous all over this area. So we love it here and hope to stay a few more years. We’ll probably move to North Carolina to be near the grandkids one of these days.

The past several years I have been working as a kitchen designer, although I’m not employed now. It was the most fun I’ve had in my career. Working closely with people to make their dreams a reality was both a challenge and a joy.

Life moves along at a steady pace. We lose our loved ones. My dad died in 1980 & my mom died in 1992. Both reside at the Andrews County Cemetery. I haven’t been back to Andrews since her funeral. My older brother Neill (class of 1948) died two years ago after a battle with cancer. He was my hero when I was growing up. His best friend growing up was Joe Weatherby who’s part of the reunion festivities.  It really hurt to lose him. I’ll always hear his beautiful voice in my mind.  

My younger brother, John (class of 66), lives in Franklin, TX near Bryan. He has 50 acres of land in the great big middle of nowhere! But he and his wife have a beautiful house on which they’ve lavished a lot of time & love.

50 years have passed since graduation, but I still remember those ole Andrews days. I remember being in the plays. My BFF, Patty (Leftwich) Madison was always the star of the productions. What a wonderful geisha she made when we did “Teahouse of the August Moon”.  That was my favorite play. Mr. John Hogue was a wonderful teacher. In speech class, he tried to get me to stop saying “git” and “eny”. I guess after 45 years in the Northeast, my West Texas twang has mellowed a bit. He’s the first person who said to me “You’ve got two ears and one mouth.  What does that tell you?” So sorry he’s gone.

I also remember the fun times in the Mighty Mustang Band. We had to start practice in August. That was as close to Hell as I want to get! I’ve had 2 hip replacements and I kinda think it was the type of marching that we did- high stepping – that is responsible for wearing out my hips!

At this time, I don’t plan to make the 2000 mile trip to Andrews, so unless something unforeseen happens, I won’t get to see you all. But I’ll be thinking of you.