New things since last post when my Mom passed away

Since then I have semi-retired, although I am a substitute teacher part-time and usually teach at just one school when called.  It is very few and far between.  However, since last post, I have started on-line Law School (one of my bucket list items) and also am pursuing a Criminal Justice and Political Science degree from LSU-A.  So far, I have a 4.0 in Criminal Justice and just added the Political Science part.  I have been given credit for some previous law school study (Western State University in San Diego, California in 1984-85) and some other legal schooling I have had.  I also have had legal courses at LSU-A.  I have had Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure (under Federal Courts) and others.  I should be finished with the Law School in about a year or so.  Normally, it takes about 3 years, but if go through Summers, it can be accomplished in 2 years.  That is what I plan to do.
Also, since last post, my son, Ian got married to Tori (Duarte) about 2 years ago and they both graduated from Louisiana Tech (Ruston, La) about a year or so ago.  Ian is an Electrical Engineer and Nano-systems Engineer and is working for the federal government in Utah.  Tori also will be shortly working for the State of Utah in her field which is associated with child protection.  I think she will be an advocate for the children as a state worker.
My daughter, Sarah also graduated a few years ago from Louisiana Tech in Ruston and then (after a few small jobs) went to work as a recruiter for Tech.  She worked there about 2.5 years.  Now, she is in Madrid, Spain where she is pursuing the learning of Spanish and hopes to teach English as a second language some day.  She is helping to pay for the school by working as an Au Paid for a family in Madrid.  Sarah also has a new boyfriend, Fran who also lives in Madrid.  More later and may go back some for explanations.

MY MOM

My wonderful Mother, Eloise Andries Vance, passed away at the age of 88 this past year (or so) on February 16, 2011.  Her heart just gave out and she passed quickly.  I know that she went to Heaven right away because I know what kind of person she was (is).  She raised my sister and me alone and worked hard to do it.  She had very little money but sent both of us to private schools!  She sang in the church choir for almost 50 years and went to singing choir practice every week, rain or shine.  As mentioned, she was a wonderful person and Mother!  I will post more about her at a later date.

It is now April 29, 2013 and time to go back somewhat.  It has been awhile since last post.  Sad to say that my Mom, Eloise Andries Vance, passed away at the age of 88 on October 16, 2011.  She was a terrific Mom and great lady.  She raised my sister (Linda Jarrell) and me by herself since my dad left us when I was 2 years old.  He met his "new" wife in a bar.  They both died several years ago.  He was also 88 when he died.  Anyway, my Mom had been having some sort of seizures and had maybe 3 or 4 before she died.  We thought they were over with but she passed away suddenly on that Sunday.  It was certainly appropriate for her that it was on a Sunday, since she loved her Catholic religion and loved church and singing in the choir.  She sang in St. Rita's choir for about 50 years, probably longer than any other member.  I will write more about her and her life later.

Other Friends

Some of my other friends at the time (when attending Menard and LSU-A were: Jack Lewis, who came to Menard I think in his Junior year. He remained my friend for a long time and maybe still is, don't know. Also, one of my friends at the time of high school is Randy Beasley. Randy is still with us as of this writing. He has Diabetes and other bad ailments, sicknesses and had to have part of a leg amputated. He now lives about 7 or 8 miles from me but I have not seen him for awhile. We occasionally talk on the phone or email. We "ran around" together as teens. We cut grass yards and picked up coke bottles in order to get money to go on dates with our favorite girls at the time. Later, we went out to favorite night spots together. Randy was also a "ladies man" and had no trouble at all "picking up" fly-by-night dates (if get drift). When I was in the military, Randy married another friend of mine, Anita Hebert and they had two children together. The kids were twins (boy and girl) and they raised them well, I think. Later, Randy and Anita got divorced when the kids were around 14 or so. Randy Jr. is now an Engineer living in the Dallas area and the daughter (don't remember her name) is a teacher in the local area. Anita went on to get her master's degree and became a teacher and later a higher level of education. I have not seen her for awhile. The last time I saw Anita was in a store when she told me she had just beaten cancer. I hope she is still well!
Another friend was and is David Devine. He knew Randy before I did because they had a mutual friend/cousin in Jonesville where Randy grew up. I visited Randy's old house where his Mom still lived many times in the past. She has since passed away. Randy and I went rabbit hunting numerous times and skinned the rabbits in his basement on the plantation house. Randys folks had a lot of land, including oil land. I'm sure it is worth a lot today.
Anyway, David was and is also a good friend. We hung around a lot, even though he went to Bolton High School and I was at Menard at the time. All three of us, Me, Randy and David went out together and did various things, like hunting, fishing, etc. David spent about 20 years in the Air Force, got married (his wife passed away many years ago), got married again and adopted a boy who is now grown. One of David's friends in high school was Nancy Lyons who became my girlfriend for awhile. I liked Nancy a lot but we were of different temperaments. She later got married to another one of my friends, Tom Kennedy and I think they are still married. The last time I saw Nancy was in a animal food store. I saw here, went over and hugged here, but she seemed very "cold" (not interested to see me), or maybe it just seemed that way, don't know. Nancy also had a friend, Charlene Ezernack who also hung out with us. I liked Charlene a lot and talked to her on the phone sometimes. I heard that she later got married, moved to Idaho or some such place, and had lot's of kids. I am very happy for her! More about friends and LSU, etc. on the next post.

LSU

I started at LSU-Alexandria shortly after High School graduation in 1965. In those days you had to either be sneaky or be caught when you were an entering freshman because upper-classmen hunted you down to cut your hair. Unfortuneately, I was not sneaky enouugh. I had a brand new crew cut when I left for home the first day. You had to have good humor in those days! The hair grew out again! Anyway, I signed up for courses thinking that I was going to enjoy Journalism right away and newspapers and magazines would be knocking down my door to get me to write articles for them. Didn't work out that way!
I met many new friends at LSU-A, one of them was Richie Laird. He was very interesting to me because he graduated from a high school in Okinawa. His dad was in the Air Force, a member of the clergy, I think. Anyway, we became fast friends and started hanging out together. Richie was a great ladies man. He was tall and some would say good-looking, so the ladies loved him. He was a great guy to hang out with for that reason and many others. He was a nice guy and easy to get along with I think. More about Richie and other friends in the next post.

Soda Jerk

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I spent a few years (ok, maybe one year?) as a Soda Jerk at Gravel's Drug store, which was about 3 blocks from my house where I grew up. I used to go to Gravel's just about every day when I was a young boy (maybe between 8 and 14) just to get a soda (coke, Dr. Pepper, etc) and read all the comic books I wanted (for free)! I reallly enjoyed being there and met lots of terrific people. I probably got my first love of reading there too. Before I started reading comics, I was probably considered a slow reader...but caught up very fast, mostly because I was very interested in the content. Most of the content was based on adventure and science fiction which I still love (though SF not quite as much).
Well, eventually I grew up some and asked for the Soda Jerk job when someone else quit. I got it and began my work life (other than throwing newspapers). It was a part-time job (of course) but I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Of course "old man" Gravel was not easy to work for but I got through that ok. He had 2 sons working there and they were good to me. I still see Alfred (the oldest son) on occassion. The last time I saw him he told me that Mr. Gravel's youngest son (Paul) passed away of cancer. The best thing about the job, of course, was free milk shakes and I could basically read as much as I wanted when things were slow.
One thing I remember very well about my trips to and from the drug store was; one night I was headed home. I was about 14 or 15 and, for some reason I got a little scared of the dark. I started running and got home in seconds flat. What I remember most about that is that I was not winded at all. Must have been in terrific shape!

Menard High School

Well, I spent a great four years at Menard, which was also within walking distance to my house. Most of the time though, before I could drive that is, my Mom would just drop me off. After school, I would walk home, sometimes with my friend Pierre Gaucheax (not sure of spelling). He was a grade higher than me but lived in the neighborhood. He also had lots of brothers and sisters, some of whom I knew. He was a terrific guy and I enjoyed talking to him. Sometimes, I would walk home with William Basco, a friend from way back in Elementary school (at St. Rita). Bill was very tall and eventually played basketball at Menard. I went out for both football and basketball (was fairly tall and still am, of course) but just did not have the balance and athletic ability to make it on either team. I think I was closer to making basketball. There was lots of competition in those days due to "baby boomers" but I really was not that sad about not making the teams. I liked playing ball (all sorts) in my neighborhood with friends and that was very enjoyable to me. I had many friends at Menard and will talk about that next time.