From East To West

We spent a little over a year in the state of New Hampshire. Douglas' company had a contract with a private company in Manchester. It was a great year !! We had rented a furnished duplex on an acreage out in the woods. Douglas cleared a path into the woods that led to a pond where he loved to sit and fish. He didn't care if he caught anything -- he just liked being out there. I doubt there is any place more beautiful in the fall of the year than this part of the United States. His parents visited us that autumn - a travel gift for their 50th wedding anniversary from the 3 children. A cousin and family also spent a few days with us. We had Maine lobster cookout parties often. Then, August of 1985, Douglas got transfer orders and we were off to Las Vegas, Nevada. We went from lush green countryside to the desert !!

Around the World We Went

Douglas had sand in his shoes -- always looking for a different job, a different place to be in his life !! He liked changes and it was a good thing I didn't mind, either. The job he retired from was with Beech Aerospace Services, a company that did government contract work. He trained in the Navy and at Spartan School of Aeronautics to be an aircraft mechanic which led him to a few different companies in his lifetime, two of those being McDonnell Douglas and American Airlines there in Tulsa. These pictures show him at work in Okinawa with Beechcraft. While he was attending Spartan School in Tulsa, he had a part time job riding for a motorcycle escort service. This was right up his alley, too, because he got to ride a Harley without buying one !! Always the adventurer !!

Along Came a Grand-daughter

Hilery was born in October of 1979 in Germany- another star in our lives !! I was able to make the trip to meet her, but, her Grandpa didn't meet her until Christmas of that year. She was like her Mom -- loved to play in the grown-ups shoes and clothes ! Douglas always watched Saturday morning cartoons with his daughter and continued the ritual with his grand-daughter anytime he had the chance !! Wiley Coyote was always their favorite. One picture shows Hilery playing a slot machine in her paternal grand-parents home. Little did she know she would grow up to live in Las Vegas and we never gave a thought to the fact that we would live and work in that fun city. We had our one daughter who blessed us with one grand-daughter. "Grandparents -- so easy to operate, a child can do it". We were loving every minute of it !!