10 - 20 - 30 years ago

Grace tagged me with the 10-20-30 meme. I'm supposed to remember what I was doing 10, 20, and 30 years ago. That will be a chore for an old head like me, but here goes...

1997
I was living in Findlay, Ohio attending Winebrenner Theological Seminary. Jane was cleaning houses to support us, and I worked a little delivering office furniture. We had moved from a fairly large house in Illinois with two garages into an apartment complex. It wasn't so bad though, as the kids seemed to enjoy their time in Findlay. Carrie went through 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and Isaac did 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Interestingly enough, now that Carrie has graduated college, she moved back to Findlay and is presently working at Winebrenner. :) It was the first place any of us had lived outside of our original hometown.

1987
Um, let's see.... I believe this is when I changed careers from being a gas station attendant, restaurant cashier, and videographer's gopher to working in the local chimney factory as a sheet metal worker. I still remember my first paycheck at the factory - I had more taken out in taxes than my whole checks had been at the other jobs. Carrie was 2 years old and Jane had just found out she was pregnant with Isaac. We had also lost a child in between. This was probably the longest that my hair had ever been. We lived in a teeny two-bedroom, one-bath house in the southwest corner of Buda, IL (population: 500). I had always dreamed of living in this house. We had an acre of pasture, several out-buildings, and no neighbors on two sides. It was a great place with an awesome view of the countryside, but just not a real big house. I was not a Christian at the time and spent Sunday mornings likely sleeping late and watching Grizzly Adams with a hangover. These were not some of the better years of our marriage.

1977
Foggier. I was a freshman in high school. And my dad was the high school principal. Life for me was ....difficult.... at this time. I went to a really small school. I think there were 62 in my class this year, but only 43 of us graduated (or something like that). I went out for football, basketball, and track; and was fairly well liked I guess. But I was pretty shy to begin with, and it was just no fun. I felt like people were either out to get me, wanted to use me, or felt sorry for me; so it was at this time that I began some rather destructive habits in an attempt to deal with life. My sister had just graduated and moved to college, so I had the choice of rooms in the upstairs. I think I remember listening to Kiss, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Santana, and the like - as loud as I possibly could. I don't remember too much else.

Whew, I'm glad that's over. Traveling through time can be a draining experience. As is my custom with these things, I now tag.... YOU (or anybody that wants to be 'it').