Hello Class of ’73
It is hard to believe that we have been out of school for over 40 years. I assume most of us are looking forward to retirement and sort of a second life.
First of all, thank you Dave for keeping this site alive for all these years and keeping us informed of important events. Secondly, congrats Don for your new choice of occupation. I did not now that Embry-Riddle had a west coast campus. One of my students, she was in my classes for 4 years, got a full ride to play softball for Embry-Riddle in Daytona. It was very exciting for her, as it was her dream school for education and then softball paid her way.
As for Julie and I, we just returned from our second European vacation. We did a Viking River Cruise down central Europe. We visited The Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland. A couple that we are close friends with us, joined us on the trip. The cruise line treats you like royalty. We visited many historical sights, with the cathedrals and a trip to Colmar, France being the highlights of the trip. After living in South Florida where everything looks alike, seeing these buildings and towns built hundreds of years ago, it is amazing. Going to The Netherlands where there are still working windmills, what can you say. We sampled many local wines, beers and food. For those that have never taken a cruise, there are only 190 passengers with 50 staff members. The cruise was great and for those that want a relaxing time without the wild parties, highly recommended.
With all the terrorists situations, there was a concern on our part, but we were advised if possible to avoid large crowds and gatherings. There were several times that the military was on duty making regular passes around a given area. We tended to stay away from them in the event some wacko decided that they would make targets.
The local people where ever we went were friendly and seemed to welcome us. Most people spoke English and communications were seldom a problem. A few times when were outside of the commercial areas people tended not have a great grip of the English language.
Retirement looms for me, I figure I will end my career in education in December of 2017. I am just old school and with all the testing, I just do not fit in. This will be my 30th year in a profession I expected to leave after a few years. I had a passion a really enjoyed what I was doing for many years, but the past few has just driven that passion from me. I still believe in giving grades for what you know and what you do. Testing in my opinion is only one part of the teaching/ learning process. Unfortunately, I am in the minority. I do not know what my next journey will be but I am considering a couple of things to keep me occupied and out of Julie’s hair.
This is Julie and myself in Kinderdinjk, The Netherlands. They have 19 operational windmills located there. You can see a couple of them in the background. This happened to be our first stop on our cruise. A very interesting place.