School Story:
First school memories: Oneonta Elementary - Mr. Gruelich and having to stand at the flagpole in disgrace with Susie Hall (I was defending her against Sylvia Sosa) - how embarrassing! Mrs. Evans in 4th grade - loved her - babysat her children when I was in high school - had a crush on Neal Priest from 4th - 6th grade - became the Spelling Bee Queen because of him - he was Spelling Bee King - thank you, Neal. It has helped me to this day. I remember the nicknames of 5th and 6th grade classmates - Buddha, Iron Man, Pizza Man, etc. I was the founder of the Whiskeys (ok, very innocuous - it was a horse club - shout out to Cheri Yuen and Valerie Wass among others.) Learned how to sing, how to play violin ("the three C's" - don't criticize, condemn or complain - Mr. Noble, the Oneonta Elementary School Orchestra director)- loved everyone and didn't understand the "Soc'ies" in High School untill I hung out with them. Third generation South Pasadena'n. Okay, I'm babbling again. One thing before this is done - I work in a high-powered corporate company downtown L.A. Bunker Hill (for 26 years) - new VP was talking to me at one of our annual events and complimented me on being VERY well educated - I told him about my upbringing in So Pas and he knew about the calibre of our education. He was impressed! He had grown up in PACOIMA and stated that it was well known about South Pasadena's educational system. I think that we should not underestimate our lives and education in the So Pas system. BTW, I did NOT choose that pic of me - that is not the one I "chose" for the yearboook - yuck - don't know what happened there! Over and out.
