My family and I lived in Fayetteville for 10 years from age 4 to 14 so l have many memories of growing up there... in fact my best memories. In our neighborhood I especially remember Artie Johnson (smart and scholarly), Flip Benham (handsome and less scholarly!) and Judy Lapham (did everything correctly if I remember right). I believe they were all in the same 8th grade when we moved away. From 8th grade I especially remember many of the girls and boys including Maria Pulos, Barb Belton, you Debby, Sylvia Billings (8th grade girlfriend) and Gary Revercomb, Dick Shanahan (basketball) and many others... I'm stopping because I don't want to risk leaving out someone. For me it was a great time and I loved FM Jr high in the old Manlius school.
We moved to Bloomfield Hills north of Detroit, a very ritzy community and one of the weirdest places I've ever lived... a lot of spoiled rich kids. (Hope none of you live there now!) We only were there 18 months and then moved to East Lansing, MI and I graduated from East Lansing High in '66. It was great living there, normal but ultra competitive kids (offspring of Michigan State professors, etc.) and it was the time when MSU was number one in football playing Notre Dame to the infamous 10-10 tie.
If you're familiar with college rivalry you'll know that if you can get into Michigan State or The University of Michigan, you, of course, go to U of M in Ann Arbor... the better school. Fortunately I was a good student through High School and went to U of M where I did more partying than studying.
Met Margot the beginning of Jr., instantly fell in love and 2 1/2 years later we were married and still are after 37 1/2 years.
First company I worked for was Standard Register selling business forms and doing their management training program. Lived for 8 years in York, PA and then Medford Lakes, NJ for about 5 years where I changed jobs to a more entrepreneurial/progressive company - Herman Miller an office furniture company based in Holland, MI. My parents were always in love with modern design including furniture and passed that love onto me so when I was researching companies I knew Herman Miller from living in MI and from their iconic designs, e.g. Eames Lounge Chair, Aeron chair, etc.To make a long story shorter I worked for Herman Miller for about 25 years starting in Medford Lakes, NJ (actual office location was 58th and Madison in NYC), then Holland, MI for short while (headquarters) then in Dayton, NJ (exit 8a on NJ Turnpike) then back to Holland, MI where we have lived ever since (19 years). It was a wonderful experience and a wonderful ride. I was fortunate to be able to retire at age 53 about one month before the "dot-com" implosion which diminished my former employer from $2.3 billion running rate to $1.3 in a little over a year. Talk about getting out of Dodge at the right time.
Along the way and more importantly Margot and I had two children a boy Todd and a girl Mary who are 30 and 27, teacher and Physicians Assistant respectively. Todd got married while in college and he and wife Kathryn now have 5 children and live 2.1 miles from our house. The g-kids are 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1. And they are really good kids although their energy levels are off the chart.
Margot and I spend about 4 months in Bonita Springs, FL from Jan 1 to May 1 and love it more and more, but it is hard to be away from the g-kids especially while they are this young and we are so close to them physically and emotionally.I've had a wonderful life so far and, if anything, it seems to be getting better as I increasingly mellow from the type A competitive guy to the laid back "hoppa" (what all the g-kids call me).
As I've gotten older it's more and more fun to hear what's happened to old friends and classmates especially at FM.
Bix
