10,20,30 Years Past

My daughter Rachel tagged me so here goes - hope "senior moment" don't kick in too much :o)

1997 - John and I were living in Fort Myers, he was working as an architect and I was one of several secretaries at the church we attended, First Assembly of God. The owner of another architectural firm hired John for much less than he was making for the other firm with promises that John would receive BIG bonuses periodically during the year. Those promises were not fulfilled so while visiting my mother in Tallahassee John went to the Department of Health to meet with officials over the design and construction of medical clinics, he was the architect on a medical clinic in our area. While visiting with these men he found out that there was an opening for an architect. He filled out an application and started working for the department in October. As a result we moved to Tallahassee, which was our 2nd time to live in this wonderful city. John's responsibility as an architect was overseeing the design and construction of new or remodeling old health clinics throughout the state. I teased him and said now he can jerk people's chains instead of getting his chain jerked!! hee hee hee I was hired by the Department of Insurance as a secretary in the bureau of Agent and Agency Licensing and later worked for the Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigations as an Administrative Assistant, which I really loved. At the insistence of my mother we moved in with her for a year which turned into 7. In 2004 we bought a house across the street from her house, the 2nd home we had ever owned. We renewed some old friendships at our former church but in 2001 we joined another church where John became an elder and active on the Missions Committee until his passing June 3 2005.

20 Years ago - 1987 - NOW I have really to start thinking. . . . Danny and Joel were living out on their own in Tallahassee, Rachel was living in Palm Bay so that left John and I, and Peter-John and Rebekah still at home. John was working for an architectural firm, Clemmons & Rutherford and I was working in the House of Representative as a secretary. We had built our first own home in 1984 and enjoying it very much. Old friends in Indiana started talking to us about moving there so John could help build a small Bible College so in September of 1988 we sold our home and moved to Indiana. We moved into an 80 year old Sears and Roebuck Fabricated Farm House heated by a wood burning stove. There were "3" bedrooms upstairs none of which was very big but one was really small. We designated it to be Peter-John's room - he said "that's a closet!!" We were living on the church property which was 52 acres partly planted in corn and the property was bordered by state forest. We enjoyed living in the country and was some of the happiest years of my life but ended in a great heart break. I'm happy to say though I still have friends from that community.

NOW 30 YEARS AGO, oh my, memory don't fail me now 1977!!.
Background Information - in November 1974 we had moved from Lexington KY to Miami, actually Naranja, FL to be part of a church ministry. Now that was a real cultural shock - Christmas lights on Palm Trees???? Our pastor moved to Tallahassee to pasor a church there so in July 1976 we moved there too.

Now to 1977 - we had all 5 kids in a Christian school so I had to go to work for the first time in 14 years. I was excited and scared at the same time. I was secretary to Eloise Harbeson, Director of the Tallahassee Community College Library. We rented a house at 801 Laurel Street (thanks Beka for remembering the address). I don't know if this happened exactly in 1977 but Rachel and Danny worked at a McDonalds not far from our house. By the way this is back in the day when they were timed and had to get your meal to you QUICKLY!! Any way, they were walking home one night from work and as they passed a fenced in yard a dog started barking and Danny started running saying " FEET DON'T FAIL ME NOW!!" He says he really wasn't afraid though. John was an elder at the church and working for an architectural firm called Barrett, Daffin and Figg. I think this was the same year that a friend from Naranja, Al Donaldson came up and stayed with us for a few months while he got a mechanic business going and before moving his family up. We used to go to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream treat and one of my favorite flavors was Pralenes and Cream. Al liked it too so he bought half of one of those big containers and brought it home for us to enjoy. I believe this was the same year that Danny and Rachel were the first "graduates" from Covenant Christian School.
We had a German Shepherd puppy during the time we lived here. I had made a batch of yeast rolls and had the bowl sitting on the floor register to hurry the rising process. WELL the puppy must have decided that they smelled good uncooked so he ate the dough - we had a MESS as a result!!

That is all I can think of right now but this exercise will probably bring many other memories to mind. I can think of lots of things that don't fall into this time period so I'll have to try to write them later.