Where are they now??

[Doug Wallace =)]

Just thought i would try and start a new topic to see what everyone is
doing now that we have all hit the quarter century out of high school.

[Jerry Hall]

Midway in our life's journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood. How shall I say

what wood that was! I never saw so drear.
so rank, so arduous a wilderness!
Its very memory gives shape to fear.

Death could scarce be more bitter than that place!
But since it came to good, I will recount
all that I found revealed there by God's grace.

Dante Alighieri, THE DIVINE COMEDY

(translated by John Ciardi)



Good idea. Some of us have given a short...or long descriptions of
where they are in the road of life. It would be great to hear from
others as well. Just the broad outlines. I'd even love a clue as the
wise and beautiful guides who might have made the straight way plain.
No need to give us the descriptions of journeys through the
underworld. To bore you with another quote:

Such is the life of man. A few joys, quickly obliterated by
unforgettable sorrows.

There is no need to tell the children so.

Marcel Pagnol, MY MOTHER'S CASTLE

[Packard, Steven R.]

As enlightening as THAT was, I've been intending to request the same thing
that Doug did. I'm very interested to know as much about what's been going
on in each of your lives since high school, and what you're up to now -- as
much as each of you want to say. And that, of course, goes for people who
sign up to this group later and happen to stumble upon this message thread.

Doug, you didn't set an example and tell us about what YOU'RE doing. Don't
forget to do so.

My story about "where am I now" is likely to be a bit lengthy. The reason
for this is twofold: 1) It's my nature. Put a keyboard in my hands and
it's difficult to get me to shut up. 2) I really am interested to hear
what's going on with people. People might be afraid to write more than a
paragraph or two, for fear that the others won't be interested to hear more.
(Unless you're Jerry, in which case that thought will never occur to you.)
If there's a detailed response in the beginning, perhaps those who WANT to
say more will actually do so. Obviously, many people WON'T care to say more
than a few lines, and that's OK, too. Whatever you're comfortable with.

But please don't assume that if I (or anyone else) writes a lot about
themselves, that it's because I think think that you all are incredibly
interested to know every last detail in my life. Of course that's not true.
And if you're not interested to know what's been going on in my life --
don't read it. Go on to the next response to Doug's request for info.

Now where was I? Oh, right. That's exactly what we're talking about. (HA!
I'll be here all week. Try the veal.)

Right after graduation the band went on a very cool trip to Washington,
D.C., and immediately after that I loaded up my car (I loved that car...),
picked up Gary Horner and Jon Bowland, and we headed out West. That was
what is now known as The Trip. We had no itinerary, no time constraints. I
was moving to join my parents who had moved to California the year before,
and Gary and Jon were accompanying me on a post-graduation vacation. Our
basic rule was that if we saw something along the way that we wanted to see,
we'd stop and see it for as long as we wanted. If we felt like driving,
we'd drive. If we felt like sleeping, we'd get a hotel whereever we
happened to be.

That was a heck of a trip.

I went to Cal State Northridge and very slowly got a degree in Computer
Science. To my way of thinking, it was a HUGE school, with over 29,000
students, and of course I knew no one. It was a major culture shock for me,
and it took me a couple of years to adjust to the difference. One thing
that took very little time to adjust to was that the California college
girls tended to wear shorts and little else year round. You have to love
local traditions.

On a whim, I applied to Magic Mountain to earn a few dollars while in
college, and to provide a good excuse to not study as much as I should.
That's a GREAT place to work when you're young. Or at any age, for that
matter. The majority of employees were high school students (something to
think about the next time you get on a rollercoaster at an amusement park),
so I tended to be the old guy since I was in college.

I worked there for about 3 1/2 years and loved it. I worked in Merchandise.
I had a lot of great experiences there, but the best of them was meeting my
future wife. (Same old story -- we were from opposite sides of the park, but
met during inventory when we were pricing merchandise in the warehouse....)
Actually, we've lost count of the different couples we know of who met at
Magic Mountain and later got married. I tell you, if you're looking for
someone to share your life with, get a job at Magic Mountain. Perhaps the
same can be said of any amusement park, but I haven't tested that theory
out.

I briefly had a second job as a messenger for a local company that delivered
anything you wanted in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties. It
was then that I remembered that I don't LIKE driving in traffic jams when
I'm just trying to get from Point A to Point B. To actually have a job
where that's most of what you're SUPPOSED to do is kind of stupid.

In 1985 I also took a temporary, 90-day data entry job for a County hospital
that was just opening up in Sylmar. After pointing out how they could use
their brand new IBM XT computer (one of two computers that the hospital
owned)to automate a lot of the reports that they'd always done by hand, I
found myself with a full time position with the hospital.

That was fine. I would have a steady job with Los Angeles County while I
looked for my REAL job. Now, 20 years later, I'm starting to think that
maybe this IS my real job.

August 3, 1985 Mary and I were married. I'd be completely lost without her.
I've been blessed in so many ways in life (not the least of which was being
able to go to school start to finish in the Oak Hill district -- you
wouldn't BELIEVE what the LA School Systems produce), but meeting Mary and
actually being able to marry her is the biggest jackpot I'll ever win.

On October 14, 1987, Alex was born. He's our only child. He's a really
good kid, but he had the audacity to grow up way too fast. It seems that he
should be around 5 years old now, but already he's 17 and about to wind up
his final year of high school.

We've lived in Palmdale, California for the past dozen years or so. It's
kind of an odd place in that Palmdale, Lancaster, and Quartz Hill are the
primary towns in the Antelope Valley, and they merge together to make one
pretty large city by Indiana standards. Yet until about 15 years ago they
were individual small towns that had been around since the Old West days.
As such, the whole area has a small town feel to it. In many ways it makes
me feel like I've got a sense of community like I did in Indiana, which is
UNLIKE the other places I've lived in Southern California.

Palmdale is in the High Desert. We live in town, but we don't have to go
very far to see large stretches of dirt, sand, tumbleweeds, Joshua Trees
(which are much more like large cactus than "trees"), coyotes, etc. I'm not
doing it justice, because I DO like living here. One of the things I love
about being in California is that in pretty much any direction you look, you
can see mountains on the horizon.

And one thing that always amazes me on my few trips back to Indiana is how
GREEN everything is there. I had forgotten how green it is, and how brown
California tends to be. In fact, one time when Gary and his family were
visiting us, Mary and I were happy because they were coming right after our
rainy season (rain is different here, too, but I'll just let it go at that),
and all the mountainsides were green with grasses that perked up after the
rain, and there were wildflowers blooming, etc. So we knew that they'd see
our countryside at its best.

One of the first thing Jane, Gary's wife, said was, "I can't believe how
BROWN everything looks." It was after that that I got to see Indiana after
being gone a very long time, and then I realized how it must have looked to
her, because I was blown away by all the greens in Indiana. And Mary and
Alex, who were born and raised in California, were even more stunned than I
was.

Back to work stuff. At the hospital, I did many odd jobs for Admin. Since
we only had 2 computers, I couldn't spend ALL my time on it, or the others
wouldn't be able to use them. One of the oddest, but neatest, tasks I had
was being Film Liason for the hospital. Our opening was delayed for a few
years, so we had this modern hospital building, complete with furniture and
medical equipment, that was dormant. That's a goldmine for the film
industry.

I'd meet with location managers and directors of movies and TV shows and
documentaries. They'd tell me what kind of place they were looking for, and
then I'd show them an area of the hospital or its grounds that might look
like that. So not only were we shown as different areas of a hospital in
various shows, but we were also things like an airport lobby, business
offices, a forest, decrepit spooky houses (the hospital site used to be a TB
ward in the 30's so we had some weird old buildings, too), etc. It was a
lot of fun.

Staying within LA County, job-wise, I transferred to LA Superior Court for 2
years doing computer work, and then almost 15 years ago I transferred to the
Sheriff's Department, working in various jail facilities and occasionally at
Custody Admin. I administer the computer networks, maintaining the
equipment and helping the people who use it. I'm a Civilian, not a Sworn
employee such as a Deputy. So I'm not packing heat, which is a mutually
agreeable situation for everyone.

In 2000 Mary gave me a wonderful 15th anniversary present, which was airline
tickets to attend Oak Hill's 20th Reunion. It was amazing! I LOVED seeing
so many of you that August. She and Gary had cooked this surprise up, and
it blew me away. And I also was able to show Mary and Alex the places I
grew up, and to see family and friends that I hadn't seen in so long. I
hadn't realized that I had been gone so long without going back to Indiana.
Time flies by me much too quickly.

THEN Mary and Gary did it again. For Christmas of 2003, Mary gave me
tickets to Indiana again, along with an itinerary that Gary had made, chock
full of things to see and do. (By the way, my parents had moved back to
Indiana (to Sims) a few years ago, so this trip also let me see my parents
again.) I think I was on a plane less than 48 hours after receiving my
Christmas gift. It was such a blast, and everyone was so thoughtful about
the kinds of things I'd want to see and do.

I went to the Indianapolis Speedway (watching the Indy 500 is the ONLY
sporting event that Mary, Alex, and I watch each year without fail) and saw
the museum and took the bus tour on the track. (I'd never done that before
-- I loved it.) And besides seeing all our friends and family, we went to a
tenderloin dinner at Oak Hill. You might not believe this, but they don't
have tenderloins in California. At all. I LOVE tenderloins. I had many
that trip.

But on top of all that, at the tenderloin dinner, Mr. Weaver came over and
sat with me. I know you either tend to like him a lot ... or you don't.
But I enjoyed his classes a lot and thought he was hilarious. And I learned
a lot from him. So it was a lot of fun to see him. I think Gary arranged
the meeting, but I'm not clear on that part. But what was extra cool is
that Mr. Weaver asked if I wanted to see the school. He took out his keys,
and gave a personal tour of the whole school for my family, my parents, Gary
and Jane ... and I forget if others were there or not.

Roughly half of what he showed me I remembered. Half was trying to ring
bells, but not quite. One thing that really surprised me, though, was that
I would NOT have been able to find my way around without a guide. I mean,
it wasn't THAT big, but almost 25 years had a way of blurring my
recollection of exactly where my classes were. That was a great evening,
though. He pulled out 1979 yearbook (I think 1980 was missing or
something), and we flipped through the pages commenting on this or that. He
saw a picture of himself with his interesting hairstyle, and seemed
embarassed and said, "That's when I was in denial." (He's now bald with a
fringe of grey hair.)

He told me that he'd take me to where they have a plaque with my name on it,
the one that has the winners of the Oak Hill High English Award to one
deserving Senior each year. I reminded him that he chose to give it to
Jerry Hall that year, not me. He looked surprised and said, "Really?" So
he and I decided not to bother to locate that plaque.

And for New Year's Eve, Gary and Jane, Jon Bowland and my cousin Julie, and
Mary and I went to hear a FANTASTIC blues band play. Gary had introduced me
to them via CD a bit earlier, and that was a GREAT treat. Scott Taylor, the
harmonica player, even dedicated their song "Long Night in the County Jail"
to me. Way cool. If you ever (EVER) get a chance to see "Shoot the Driver"
perform, do it! Tell them I sent you....

Speaking of that song, the lyrics reminded me of another odd highlight that
happened a couple of years ago. I was called for jury duty. This was for
Federal Court, the closest one being in downtown LA, which is over 80 miles
away. They were going through people to be on the final panel, and
dismissing them for one reason or another. Finally, my name was called. No
problem. We were told that if we weren't assigned a trial that day, we'd be
released from jury duty, and I would only have to make that drive for one
day, instead of the 2 weeks I had been assigned.

To make matters even better, it was a civil rights case where the plaintiff
was accusing the San Bernardino Sheriff's Dept of beating him up, and then
when he was transferred to a year in the LA County Jail, he felt he had poor
medical care, and so was suing the Lee Baca, the Sheriff of LA County (my
boss), for not allocating funds properly to the medical staff of LASD,
resulting in his receiving inadequate care.

When my name was called at the end of the day, I knew they'd dismiss me
quickly and that would be that. The judge asked me if I knew of anything
they'd want to know about me that would be pertinent to the case. I said,
"There's several things, but the primary one is that I work for LA County
Sheriff's Department, and the defendant is my boss." That drew a good
laugh. Then I was asked if there was anything else. I mentioned that I was
very familiar with about half of the locations that they said the trial
would be about, had worked at some of them. And that I knew about a dozen
of the people given on the witness list, and I suspected that I knew many
more by face, but not name.

There was a LONG sidebar then while all the lawyers and judge were
whispering to each other, looking at me from time to time. They went back
to their places, I gathered my things (a sweater and a biography of Grant,
of course) to leave, and the judge said, "OK, we have our jury." EVERY
juror's head whipped in my direction as if to say, "HE'S still here?"

So instead of one day of driving to LA for my jury duty, I was on the case,
which lasted for two and a half months. That was one long trial.

Amazingly, all of us on the jury instantly became friends, and none of us
was the guy you see on TV that the other jurors want to strangle. In fact,
most of us are still in touch with each other.

I've gone on longer than even I expected. I'm sorry about that and I'll try
to wrap up soon. But one of the things I'm interested to know about the
rest of you is what hobbies you have, so I want to mention mine briefly.

Many of you mentioned enjoying camping in earlier emails. Mary and I also
enjoy camping, as long as our tent has hot and cold running water,
preferably with bubble jets, room service, and if it provides a view from
about 15 stories up, that's even better. But laying on dirt and fixing our
own food is NOT our idea of a good time.

I've always enjoyed reading and watching movies, and those interests remain
with me.

Just a few months before graduation, John Fleck and Shaun Keenan (one and
two years behind us, respectively, and they were both in band) introduced me
to war games. I've always been a huge fan of games in general, and
boardgames specifically, but this was something different. You played out
battles using cardboard squares representing tanks and troops, moving them
along a map, following intricate rules. We only had time for us to get
together once to play before I moved to California, and I was hopelessly
lost. And hopelessly hooked.

I now have what I call a collection of games. It's not a formal collection
per se, but by calling it a collection I've got an excuse to fill up an
otherwise empty bedroom and a garage with a wide variety of games, many of
them of the kind that John and Shaun introduced me to. Gary might have a
less charitable term for the stacks that I call a collection.

I'm also very interested in the gaming miniatures hobby. It's the same
thing that we played with cardboard squares (kind of), but instead you play
with 3 dimensional models (typically an inch or inch and a half tall)
instead of cardboard squares. It's called a hobby, as opposed to "game"
because you have to first collect the models; and then put these tiny models
together, often converting them to your taste; then you paint them. You
also need to construct gaming tables to play on, modelling and painting the
terrain pieces. Additionally, there's 250+ page rule books and supplemental
material to read. THEN you get to actually PLAY games. I actually haven't
played that much, being so consumed with the other aspects of the hobby.
I'm a very slow painter. I enjoy a wide variety of this type of game, but
absolutely LOVE pretty much any game that Games Workshop makes.

Alex and I go to about 4 game conventions a year. We wind up playing in a
tournament or two each time. Last fall was very cool in that in our Robo
Rally tournament, I came in first, and he came in second. I thought that
was the best outcome, although he thought it could have turned out a LITTLE
better. Most times we don't fare as well, but we always have fun. And
since I don't have the ability to show him how to play sports, or how to
work on cars, it makes a great father/son activity for us.

OK, one last thing. A major highlight in my life over the past quarter
century was that Gary and I planned for a year or two to take an 11-mile
hike. Twenty two miles round trip. It begins at the Portal (at 8,000 feet
above sea level) above Lone Pine, California. The hike ends at the peak of
Mt. Whitney. At over 14,000 feet (I forget the exact measurement, but it's
over 6,000 feet above where the trail starts 11 miles earlier), it's the
highest point in the Continental United States.

Many people camp along the route so that the elevation changes mess with you
as little as possible. But many people go up and down, Portal to Mt.
Whitney to Portal in one day. You know my views about sleeping in dirt, so
Gary and I planned for a one day hike.

You have to get a permit in February, and only 150 permits are allowed on
any given day. (And the trail is only open half the year, since the other
half it's hopelessly snowed in.) Our permit was for August 1, 2004. Gary
had a window of only a few days, so he had no time to get acclimated.

We took a practice hike on the trail the day before of only 2 or 3 miles
round trip. No problems. It was beautiful. But as we began our REAL hike
with full backpacks at 3:45am, with the full moon providing light, I really
struggled. I'm ashamed to say that even though we had done much planning, I
kind of psyched myself out. I didn't fight the mountain; my struggle was
with me. My muscles weren't rebelling, but I could not get a decent breath.

The good news is that I was keeping our pace so slow, Gary wasn't winded in
the least. At almost the 5 mile mark (and if I recall correctly, we were
over 11,000 feet up, and POSSIBLY 12,000 -- but more likely just over
11,000) I had to admit that I wasn't going to make the summit. At my pace,
we'd be way too high in elevation when the sun set, and it's only at the
lower elevations where the trail is easily seen in the dark. So I hung out
for an hour or so enjoying the GORGEOUS scenery and eating some snacks, and
then went back down. Gary, still fresh from our crawl up to that point,
continued up the mountain.

And for at least 5 or 10 minutes, Gary was THE highest person standing on
ground in the Lower 48. He's got some fantastic pictures to show.

I was highly displeased with myself, BUT the hike itself was beautiful.
Everytime I took a step there was an amazing vista. And even though I was
holding him back, it was indescribably great to be able to share the hike
with Gary.

I tell you ... if someone can't see God in the beauty that surrounds them,
they need to go on the Mount Whitney Trail. If they can't see God there ...
well, I don't know what kind of proof they're looking for.

I'll be back up there.

Future responders to Doug's email of "where are they now" should reply to
HIS post, so everyone's mailbox doesn't get clogged with THIS one as part of
each message.

OK. Now it's your turn.

Steve

[Jerry Hall]

"'Really?'" 1) I think I want a neutral witness 2) Are you sure Mr.
Weaver wasn't sporting that mischievous grin.

I am now, and possibly forever, not the windiest person here. Geesh,
are you satirizing Dickens? The day after high school....

I AM BORN

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my life, or whether that
station be held by someone else, these pages must show. To begin my
life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born ......"

Charles Dickens, DAVID COPPERFIELD

Very amusing except for the fiction about Mr. Weaver. That sounds
like a wonderful trip in every respect. Still, I kept thinking about
Thomas Mann's MAGIC MOUNTAIN (won a Nobel prize for literature), where
the mountain in question is a sanatorium where the protagonist ends up
spending all of his life. I guess that kind of sums up California for
a lot of folks. ;)

Jerry

On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:22:11 -0800, Doug Wallace =)
<dwsk...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>

[Doug Wallace =)]

Very nice, Steve. Lots of things in there I wish I would have done....
but here I am still in Indiana, but enjoying life. Now Jerry, I know
you are the supreme being of the list, but your answers were a bit
puzzling to me. :) Okay here goes, as requested, Steve.

Left Sweetser for Fort Wayne in the fall of 1980. Attended ITT and got
an Associates Degree in Tool Engineering Technology. Thats about all I
remember of those 2 years. Few too many parties and too many brain
cells lost. While still in school I got a part time job with a
Fiberglass (SMC) Molding Company in the materials lab. After
graduation, 1982, I got on full time in the Management Training program
at the same plant. I was a Quality Engineer for the first year. Lots
of traveling, drinking, etc on the road with my boss. It was a great
life for a 22 year old bachelor... on the road 3 weeks out of the
month, traveling to various automotive assembly plants from Windor,
Ontario to St. Louis, etc., getting my ass chewed from the big 3
management ( I always traveled for the Customer Complaints that we
got). From the Quality Department I went in to Tooling Engineering.
Was responsilbe for quite a few projects from the product design to
having the tools and fixtures built and then following it through
production. Again, a lot of travel which was good. Went from
engineering to a new plant that we opened in Huntington and started the
Quality Department as a Quality Supervisor. Ah Huntington, my first
real heartbreak since Anne Suever in the fall of 1980. I met a great
(I thought) gal.... hahaha get this.... she was 20, had two kids, a
nasty divorce with an ex-con ex husband.... totally disfunctional
family (she was adopted by a buch of Huntington Hillbillies). I was in
love!!! This lasted about a year, then one night she didnt come home
and when she did get home the windshield of my VW Rabbit was shattered,
she had blood on her shirt and "didnt remember anything". (Oh by the
way, we were engaged) Well that was almost the last I saw of her.

With a heavy heart and a meager existance, I said to hell with it, quit
my job, stored all my stuff, packed the VW and headed to Phoenix.
Drove out in the fall... beautiful traveling time of year til you
Texas. It rained, damn near, from Texas to Phoenix. Lived with Troy
Lindhorst and looked for a job. I couldn't find anything that I wanted
to do and did not want to be a laborer so I called my old boss at the
plant to see if i could get my job back. So, I packed up the VW, had
$2 in cash, a credit card and long hair. I drove route 66, since i
couldnt afford to hit the toll roads, ate at Truck Stops with my credit
card and slept in rest areas. What a GREAT trip.

Okay now I'm back, its 1984 (I think). I run into the ex girlfriend at
a Lingerie Show we talked for a bit, but didnt get back together (I was
starting to grow up a little). I went back to work for the same
company as a Tooling Engineer. This was my intorduction into the high
stress world. At one time I had 22 jobs that I was responsible for. I
got in touch with one of my old employees from Huntington and started
hanging out together. He told me that there was this girl that new me
and really liked me!!! Said she used to work with me at the Grabill
Plant (when I was in Quality).

Well time for a bit of a flash back... when I worked in Quality in
Grabill, there was this girl that worked 2nd shift production and she
had a huge crush on me. Well one problem... she was pregant. Oh well
at 21 or 22 you dont want kids! Okay now to continue. The girl that
my buddy new was her!! We went out and the rest is history. I married
her like she always said would happen. By the way, the baby she had is
my lovely daughter 21 last month. Well, that's not really all.... we
started dating the winter of '86 and got married in the fall of '86
(with, what we would find out later, our twin boys). We found out that
we were having twins 5 weeks before her due date and then she was 4
weeks early... that's right, we had a week to get ready. They are now
my 18 year old twins with one going to college right away, the other
working for his mom. Another 2 years later... yup one more boy, now
16. And yes we learned what caused it so she had her tubes tied!

In 1999 we seperated. We were seperated for 3 years and then finalized
the divorce. Still single, although I wouldn't mind finding a
significant other, working as a Program Manager for a small machine
builder. Basically second in charge, managing a 10 man shop, dealing
with customers (good and bad) being the company "prick" and whooping
boy for our customers. Ahhhhh, the sweet smell of stress.

Well there ya go....... NEXT!!!