After finishing high school I went off to Allegheny College in Meadville, PA and finished up 4 years later with a bachelor’s degree in math. And in the meantime (1972), the family pulled up stakes in Ridgewood and moved to Pittsburgh – the same town I’m living in now. My dad worked for US Steel and he finally got transferred to the corporate office.
After college I spent a year and a half in the Navy, and after that moved out to the SF bay area to find a job. I ended up working as a programmer, first on IBM machines, and then on Tandem systems. In 1988 I finally figured out women enough to marry one, and in 1990 we left CA and came back to Pittsburgh in order to start a family. And roughly at about this time I also converted from an employee to self-employed programming consultant. For the next 20 years, roughly, we lived in Pittsburgh while I traveled from city to city working as a contract programmer. We ended up having 2 boys, Tom-17 and Mike-14. Actually, they are both about to turn 18 and 15 respectively. Both are now in high school. Unfortunately, after 20 years my wife decided she needed to move on and filed for divorce. So consequently, I am now living in the former marital residence with my two boys. And of course, that implies that I’m now home fulltime, working in Pittsburgh. The money is not as good as it used to be, but being with my boys fulltime during their teenage years is definitely a joy that at one point I never thought I’d have. It’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder if there was a higher purpose behind all this upheaval after all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first starting emailing each other we got into some interesting conversations - including some strange revelations about growing up, encountering the opposite sex, etc. Click on the link below to see a summary of these emails.
ReplyDeletehttp://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7naAhV3m7smMWJkZjA0ZWItYjFiYi00ZmI4LWIzMTYtMmI2NDMwY2NmNWY4&hl=en
Ever wonder what happened to Peter Carlisle? Well, wonder no more. See the link below to discover what became of him. You might be surprised.
ReplyDeletehttp://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7naAhV3m7smM2MxY2NlOTMtZjNhYS00MzAwLTk3MmEtMDJiYWU4OWYxYTRh&hl=en
And finally, at one point conversation was winding down so to keep things going I posed the question: What are some things that have happened to you that tell you that maybe you aren't 25 anymore? We got some pretty good responses.
ReplyDeletehttp://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7naAhV3m7smMDcwOWI3ZjktZDQ1OC00ZTU3LTg4ZjQtMTVjYzVlMGZmOWQz&hl=en
Bob recalls: My first grade teacher was Mrs. Hay. I don’t remember the other 1st grade teachers. In second grade I had Miss Behrens. Third grade Miss Howerton, 4th – Miss Getman, 5th – Mr. Filaci, and 6th – Mr. Slicker. I remember Irene in 5th grade being just a little too smart for the rest of us. At one point he had us all read passages from some book just to see how good were. When it was Irene’s turn, he stopped her after the first sentence. She had everything right – the expression, intonation, etc. Irene, I don’t know if you remember that, but for some reason that has always stuck with me.
ReplyDelete12/19/09: Poor Bobby Elgin; at the last reunion I made it to (I think 20th)Bobby had to endure my memory story of "having" to kiss him when my mom made me go to Carol Scholl's (next door) boy/girl party and my "spin the bottle" pointed to Bobby.
ReplyDeleteBob replies: First things first. Judy, I want you to know that I have no recollection of that incident. And in retrospect maybe that’s too bad because it sounds like it might have been the high point of my romantic career. I do remember running away from Cindy Bird though. She had some thing where if you first saw 100 volkswagens and then looked at some guy, that guy would become your boyfriend. I remember John Millar telling me to watch out because her count was getting into the 90s, etc. John was clearly enjoying this, watching me squirm.
ReplyDeleteSorry I don’t have more to contribute re the dancing classes. I participated in 7th grade, but my parents opted me out of 9th grade, figuring the money could be better spent elsewhere. However, that didn’t stop us from getting these notices telling parents to please control their kids, no more rolling pennies, etc. After getting these notices I began to feel like I was missing out on something.
The stuff about Mr. Slicker is fascinating. I had him in 6th grade, and he was a great guy. And I remember him walking around with a badge that said “It’s a girl” on his shirt. That would be great if he was still alive. He was probably no more than 30 when he left Willard, so who knows. I’ll definitely have to check out the link. Funny, but my kids are now in high school and when I go to the parents night events I’m always struck by how the teachers look like kids too. But I guess that’s how it is, right? We don’t get older, the universe just gets younger.
John Millar says to Bob: Glad to hear you have two sons and are being a good father. In my experience any time of upheaval or personal difficulty that is the time when you really experience," the higher power." I bet that all of the group can confirm that.
ReplyDeleteThere is not one day that goes by when i'm in a work conversation with someone that i don't say siliently to my self...
" Hail Mary full of grace please help me save this place!"
My wife Pat and i have been very fortunate. Our parents past on those good traits that you have too Bob. Common sense, a good work ethic and a belief that if we keep working at what ever we want and need to do something positive will happen.
Also Bob... Thank you for your service in the USN. My brother was also a seaman 2nd class and sang his way through his stint with the Men's enlisted Blue Jacket Choir.
Bob responds: Thanks John, I appreciate your sentiments. I suppose one can find good in anything if they look hard enough. And I don’t mean that as a trite comment. Sometimes you do have to work at it. A spiritual discipline thing, as it were. At any rate, we are managing and will get by.
ReplyDelete