Following my graduation from high school, I attended Hartwick College,a strictly-structured small school with a Lutheran heritage, where I majored in Music Education. Freshman year was stringent dress codes and dormitory rules it was not much different from high school. When we returned in September for our sophomore year, each and everything was 180 degrees different - no rules, no regulations, no structure, no curfew, no signing out, no requirement to attend class. It was like stepping out into thin air over a cliff. The 60's hit everyone pretty hard, I guess - I don't really remember! I got a lot of education but not always from my classes. As a Voice minor, I auditioned for the famed Hartwick College Choir, made it my first year, and toured the east coast that spring. In my sophomore year, we toured five European countries in two weeks, performing nearly every evening. I did find out teaching was not for me so I returned to Wayland, painted my old bedroom colors that were far different from what my parents found attractive, got a real full-time job and watched Laugh-In. To this day I truly miss performing in a highly-ranked choir. Strangely, while attending a party thrown by Priscilla Nation (Batten) and her husband, I realized that her brother "Moose" was no longer the doofus I thought he was in high school, and we started dating, eventually marrying on Litha, or the date of the Summer Solstice. We have two daughters. We're still together 37 years later. had two children, a fabulous dog who lived for 14 years, a deaf ferret who died when he was 5, and so we now have only two cats living with us - we call them The Cat and The Anti-Cat, as the miserable little b***** Anti-Cat uses every opportunity to attack the nice quiet little kitty, who defends himself pretty well considering he's a decade old. There's a battle between good and evil going on in my house daily.
Both of our daughters live in Connecticut; Laine (36 years old) on the east side and Andrea (28 years old) on the west. They were both born on January 7, eight years apart. We have four wonderful grandchildren. Each of our daughters has an older girl, born a year apart (they are now 8 and 7) and a younger boy, born a year apart (they are now 3 and 2). Our youngest daughter has the oldest girl and boy and our oldest daughter has the youngest girl and boy. (And I was born on the Ides of March, sharing my birthday with my now sister-in-law, Priscilla). There must be some meaning entwined within these dates, but I haven't found it yet.
After staying at home taking care of the kids while Richard (aka Moose) did the hunting and gathering, I began working in 1987 as the Department Secretary in the Foreign Language office at Wayland High School. Frank Smith was still the department head and, if any of you remember Jeanne Kightlinger, she (now Frank's wife) was still teaching French. There were still a lot of teachers there,including my old and dear friend Dick Conti, which was wierd! I still found myself getting anxious when I had to go to the principal's office. After four years of that, I moved on to the Central Office to work as the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Special Education. I did that fun job until January of 1994, when I started my current position as Assistant to the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Personnel. I do the personnel part, so if anyone is looking for a job....... And we need substitute teachers! All of the 1968 teachers have moved on now.
My parents are both still alive and spend their winters in Sebring,
Florida. We all continue to enjoy our Sebago Lake, Maine island paradise.
