I've been debating for the past couple of weeks whether to reply to this topic. First of all, I wasn't sure I could sum up the past 42 years in a few paragraphs. More importantly, though, like everyone else I've had a few triumphs and a few sorrows in my life. But in between those two extremes I've lived a pretty mundane existence. Put another way, I wasn't convinced most of you would find the summary all that interesting. Nonetheless.....
I graduated from Central Missouri State in 1969 with a degree in English and married a Sedalia girl a few months later. (We just celebrated our 38th anniversary a couple of weeks ago.) During that summer I applied for a teaching position in Liberty and was hired immediately by Boyce Smith, who remembered me from his teaching days at Center.After a year at Liberty, I resigned to enlist in the U.S. Air Force. Over the course of the next four years, I was stationed in Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam, and Las Vegas as a munitions specialist. When I left the Air Force at the end of the four years, I held the rank of Staff Sergeant (E5). Both of our daughters were born during my time in the Air Force, one in Taiwan and the other in Las Vegas.
In 1974 I returned to teaching in Liberty and spent all the rest of my professional career there. I completed my Master's in 1978 and worked on the Doctorate after that. Also, back in those early years of my career, I coached track and got to see Center coaches Bob Smith and Vic Bland and Blue Springs coach Wayne Hines (a Center 64 grad) every spring at the various relays and meets. For the last 15 years of my career, I taught Advanced Structural Grammar, American Literature, and Contemporary Literature. I chaired the Language Arts/Journalism Department for 10 years until my retirement in 1999.
My wife has a degree in bank administration and worked in that field for many years before moving on to other positions in the financial sector. The older of our daughters was her class' Valedictorian in '90. She is now a certified gemologist specializing in diamonds and is a diamond buyer for a large national jewelry chain. She and her husband have one daughter, Allie, who is 2-1/2 and the delight of my life! Our other daughter graduated with degrees in psychology and religion and worked for several years as a county juvenile officer in the Division of Abuse and Neglect before burnout got her. Now she is the full time youth director at a large Episcopal church. She's in her mid-30's and still single, although it looks like she and her boyfriend are finally starting to talk about marriage.
My wife and I both have a life-long love for the Lake of the Ozarks, and we've had a home there for many years. Now that we're both retired, we spend about half of each week at the Lake year-round. The other half of each week we're here in the city. We frequently babysit Allie while we're here, and every Wednesday I pick her up so she can play at Papa's all afternoon.
A few of you may recall my sister Vicki (Center 67). In May, 2000, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer. That following fall and winter I was her stem cell donor in two highly experimental procedures, last-ditch attempts really, to save her. They didn't work, and Vicki died in March, 2001.
This past April I was diagnosed with a very aggressive, rapidly growing melanoma on the back of my right arm. (For those who know about melanoma, the pathologist measured it as Breslow Thickness 3.6 mm and classified it as Clark's Level 4.) Subsequently, I had two surgeries on my arm and 5 lymph nodes removed from under my right arm. I was very, very lucky - we caught it in time. The cancer had not spread beyond my arm, and the wide-area surgeries got all of it. In July a metastatic squamous cell lesion was removed from my forehead before it could spread. Of course, for the next 5 years I'm on a 3-month recall with the skin cancer specialist and a 6-month recall with the oncologist to make sure there are no recurrences. I don't complain, though. I just consider the alternatives.
My primary hobby is building "finescale" railroad models (HO scale), and I'm the Administrator of a 3300+ member internet forum for craftsman/finescale model builders. I also have a personal website devoted to my modeling activities. If anyone is interested is seeing how the old fool wastes his time, here is the URL for the site:http://homepage.mac.com/michael21/CMShome/cmshome.html
Well, that's enough about me - and probably far more than anyone really cared to know. As I said at the top, all in all it's been a fairly mundane life. I raised two kids. I taught school and coached. I retired and spend my time puttering around the Lake or building models. That's about it. Oh, one other thing: those of you who remember me as a weird, immature kid... your memories are accurate. And I apologize for that. But somewhere between college graduation and retirement I did finally grow up.
Okay... enough of that.
A Curmudgeonly Thought for the Day....
The ups and downs of our economy are the result of having elected too many yo-yos to public office.
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